The West end of Section Three was lively that evening. The careless ruckus of children playing about created an atmosphere of joy and carelessness.
They were all happy and ignorant. Beautifully, blissfully ignorant.
"Sorry, Marky!" A boy with blonde hair shouted out over his shoulder as he ran, having plowed over his friend.
Running with the ball for a few more yards, the boy threw the ball down over a white chalk line and threw his arms up.
"Another point for us!"
A few other children ran up to him, exchanging high-fives and playful slaps on the back in celebration.
A young girl on the opposing side huffed in annoyance as the cocky youth gloated.
Her eyes flickered to the ball with curiosity as it unnaturally rolled towards the wall and around the alleyway.
She smirked, realizing her way to get back at the boy.
"Look, Liam! The ball rolled into the alleyway! Looks like you're the closest…"
The kids looked towards the boy who had scored with cautious looks on their face.
A boy spoke,
"Aren't we supposed to tell a grown-up if something goes in there?"
The wall was the single layer keeping the monsters out, just like the blanket they would hide beneath when the thing in the closet made noise.
With a gulp, Liam puffed his chest out and ignored the unease growing within his chest.
"What? You really think I'm scared of some stupid wall? Watch me!"
Slowly, their cautious looks turned into mischievous giggles.
Their friend would have to travel to where none of them wanted to go.
What was funnier than that?
With hesitant steps, the boy marched towards the darkness of the wall.
The snickers and murmurs of his friends slowly died down to silence as the distance between them grew.
Eventually, Liam turned the corner wearily and squinted to get a better view.
The faint silhouette of the ball rested on the floor about halfway down the unlit corridor.
With one last push of bravery, he broke through the veil of darkness and walked forward.
At any moment, Liam felt as though his pants would become significantly warmer, but the idea of impressing his friends triumphed over his instincts.
The small creaks within pipes and scurrying of rodents would cause him to momentarily halt every now and then. Ultimately, he carried forward.
Finally reaching the ball, he sighed as he got down on a knee to reach it.
"See? Wasn't that scary. Just a stupid alleyway," He muttered to himself in comfort.
As he stood up with the ball in hand, a small sound rang out from the wall.
The world had frozen.
The pipes ceased their whistles and the rats simply vanished.
A low, grotesque noise of flesh twitching and stones cracking.
He stopped dead in his tracks, unable to turn his head.
Spontaneous beads of sweat rolled down his face and made his hair feel heavy upon his head.
His breathing became heavy and labored, tears flooding his eyes.
Slowly and reluctantly turning his head, Liam silently cried.
An enormous breach of the wall gave way to a giant, cloudy eye staring down at him. Pure vile malice within its depths.
"Ma… ma…"
On the other side of Section Three, Caspian had stood up and studied Leo with confusion and urgency in his tone.
"Distracting us? Leo, what the hell do you mean distracting us?"
Leo grew still, his chest and shoulders coiling tight, his breath hitching as panic took root.
He stood up and slowly turned his head to the Western wall across Section Three.
A second passed.
A low rumble began to grow exponentially.
The glass upon buildings shattering grew closer and closer until the two were hit with an ear-splitting roar, as if thunder had been hurled at them.
Leo took a step back, his arm blocking his eyes from the wind.
Desmond curled as he covered his ears and rolled dangerously close to the edge of the wall.
After recovering, he stood up and looked out in pure horror.
"W-what was that?!" Desmond yelled a bit louder than necessary, his ears still ringing.
Leo stood there in silence, his mouth agape and immeasurable anguish within his eyes.
The high-pitched wail of sirens screeched through the air suddenly.
After a moment, he put a hand up to his mouth and silently muttered to himself,
"I… I thought…"
Desmond tugged on his sleeve roughly.
"Leo! We have to go! Now!"
Slowly releasing himself from the state of shock, he nodded and offered his arm for Desmond to grip.
The two jumped off the wall as Leo used his sword to slow the descent just enough to not take any damage.
Caspian had been waiting for them as they landed and walked from the wall.
Leo jogged up to him before slowing down.
"Caspian, I'm sorry! I didn't think–"
He was quickly cut off as Caspian stepped forward and struck him in the jaw with a fist.
"Shut the hell up and fix this! Ignore the transportation code! The glass is already broken! Just get there!"
After gathering himself, he quickly nodded and sprinted past Caspian.
Dust and shards of glass throughout the streets picked up behind him as he blurred past buildings.
Deafening wind howled in his ears as he flooded his leg muscles with Somnia.
As he ran, he witnessed a large portion of the West wall completely crumble apart.
` Almost there! Just a little faster! `
With a strong foot planted down, he blasted forward.
The sheer acceleration had caused the gas in front of him to ionize, forming a sheath of white plasma.
Rivaling the initial roar from earlier, a thunderclap was released behind Leo.
Desperately trying to bring himself to a stop, Leo let himself roll a few times roughly across the brick before catching himself and unsheathing his sword simultaneously.
His eyes widened as he gazed forward at the destruction before him.
In an expanding circular area of affect, corpses and buildings sprawled out in ruin.
A massive amount of rubble had shifted, causing Leo to shoot his eyes towards the source.
Standing tall above the ruin, the origin of the chaos had revealed itself.
Bristly, straw-like hairs coated a humanoid beast; like a Dire Wolf standing on its hind legs.
Its huge eyes and beady pupils locked on Leo as a wicked, intentional sneer grew on its jagged muzzle.
Opening its jaws wider, the wind picked up, causing Leo's hair to flair wildly.
Visible air sacs grew upon the beast's chest.
Leo flinched as he hurriedly ducked behind a slab of concrete and covered his ears tightly.
A secondary titanic roar of thunder bellowed out, clearing out even more structures and civilians.
Leo put a hand on the broken wall as he stood back up and returned his gaze to the wretched, wolf-like nightmare.
The classification of the Cryptid resurfaced in his mind as he got a clearer view.
` The strongest of the Rhan-ranks… `
Its smile widened uncannily.
"The Rougarou."