There is a hilarious story that everyone knows in France. It involves a llama and a bunch of drunk dudes.
The men were really drunk and were walking around the city when they saw a llama tied behind a circus tent. It was one of the animals that performed in the evening, however it was now the middle of the night. The drunk dudes thought they had found a friend and took the llama, bringing it inside the tramway, touring the city with it until they were caught by the police and the llama was given back to the circus.
This story and the pictures taken by locals were so funny that the llama became famous.
The moral of this story is : Don't question why there is a llama in the middle of a city. It could very well be.
Right now, Sandrine had encountered such a situation, standing face to face with a llama with a twisted spine, foaming at the mouth, with wide cloudy eyes, clearly affected by the black fog.
Another thing that the black fog does really well, is to make animals bigger.
"Does this game really want to kill me ?"
That thing seemed to be at least as tall as Paquerette, but looked even more disgusting than the night monsters. Sandrine wasn't a good fighter, her strength was weak, she wasn't even sure if she could pierce the thick fur with her machete.
In other words, there was no universe in which she could take that thing down. She probably couldn't even defend herself if she was attacked.
Then what now ? Should she run back to Paquerette ? No. Her mare was a tough cookie, but even her wouldn't be enough to be certain to kill that creature.
What were her other options ?
Sandrine's face split into a wide smile, her heart beating faster and faster.
"Tell me, beast, have you ever played tag ?"
Before the creature reacted, she turned around and climbed back on the debris, jumping from rumble to rumble. She heard a loud scream behind her, it sounded as if someone was ripped open, like juice flowing from broken bones. A nightmare of a sound.
Sandrine didn't lose her smile, making sure that Gribouille was tucked securely in her kangaroo pouch before jumping as high as she could, grabbing a window frame and pulling on her arms, scaling the wall to reach the roof. She used the cracks in the walls and the protruding stones as footing, and successfully stepped on the tiles.
Looking below, the creature was like a mountain goat, easily climbing on the rumble pile, however, thankfully its twisted spine and convulsing body prevented it from jumping too high. No matter how agile it was, it couldn't follow Sandrine on the roof.
At least that was what she thought, until she saw that thing heading for a higher pile of fallen walls. From there, it could reach the top of a nearby building, and then jump from roof to roof to reach Sandrine.
"It has a brain too ? That's really not fair !"
Despite her complaints, Sandrine didn't lose her smile. In fact, she couldn't prevent the corner of her lips from rising even more, and little spasm-like hiccups were regularly shaking her. It was the start of an unnerving laugh.
"Looks like it really knows how to play tag ! What do you think, baby ?"
Gribouille was looking worse than ever, shaking like a leaf, his little tail tucked between his legs, he had even peed himself when the creature appeared, and Sandrine's shirt was completely stained.
But she didn't mind the smell, she ran and slid along the tiles, jumping above the holes in the roofs, going from building to building, trying to shake off the creature. The monster behind her was slipping on the tiles, looking a bit awkward on the somewhat smooth surface. It had a bit of trouble jumping above the holes too, it fell a few times and climbed back on, sending tiles flying.
However, despite its struggles, it was fast. Terrifyingly fast.
While looking backwards, Sandrine almost missed a hole, stabilizing herself only thanks to Gribouille's little yelp. What she was doing was incredibly dangerous, she couldn't afford to be distracted.
She couldn't change the place of their pursuit either. If she stayed in the narrow streets, she would be easily cornered with nowhere to run to. Same thing if she went inside a building. The whole city was in ruins, if the doors and windows were blocked on the ground floor, a house was a big trap. If she fell into one, she was as good as dead.
This only left the roofs, but running on roofs supported by rotten beams was a life and death gamble.
As if to prove it, a whole part of a roof suddenly gave way under Sandrine's feet. She wanted to scream, but the thing that left her throat sounded like a terrifying laugh, as if a creaking door from a horror movie had met a dying goat. She didn't recognize that laugh. In fact, she recognized nothing about herself at this moment.
Why was she laughing ? Was her heart beating so fast truly because she was scared ? Why had she talked about playing tag when she was really running for her life ?
And why, when she felt herself falling, instead of trying to grab something in front of her like a normal person, her reflex was to throw herself backward ?
A lot of questions without any answers.
Anyway, she came to her senses just in time to grab a protruding beam on her left and keep herself from falling in the pit. She pulled on her arms to climb on it and frowned at the pain. She had already overused her strength yesterday and her arms were still painful. With today's activities, she might have actually ripped a muscle. The pain was indescribable.
Ignoring the throbbing ache, she got back on the roof and was ready to run when she heard this terrifying scream again.
The creature was only one building from her.
"A fast one, are you ?"
She laughed again, with less restraint this time, and jumped to reach the next roof. Now the chase was really intensifying.
In this part of the town, the buildings felt even less stable, but the space between them was slowly growing. They were reaching one of the historic arteries of the city. As a proof, in front of Sandrine she could discern pointy towers detaching themselves from the sky, exquisite architecture, bells, and stained glass motifs. It was a gigantic building full of authority and reverence. A cathedral.
Oftentimes, there was a plaza in front of such a building, so that the masses could gather easily. However, the back of the cathedral, facing them, hosted a cemetery, Sandrine could reach the building if she ran alongside the walls or jumped from mausoleum to tombstone.
"A fitting place for a grand finale, isn't it ?"
It seemed she had a flair for the dramatic. Another new thing she learned about herself.
She accelerated, almost running on all fours as she grabbed protruding beams and slid on the tiles, rushing to grab roof edges and jumping from building to building. She could almost smell the monster's breath behind her. It was so close that when its weight made the roof collapse, she was also affected and had to pull harder on her arms to prevent herself from falling in the pit.
At this point, her bicepses and wrists had a purple color and had doubled in volume. This couldn't be good, her body was falling apart way too fast. A slightly higher than normal constitution couldn't compensate for the abuse her body suffered every day.
Thankfully, she could block the pain out of her brain. But this too was weird for an office worker.
Anyway, the creature was following just behind her, and when she tripped on a protruding tile, it got so close that its teeth were about to close on her neck.
She would have died.
That was, if she hadn't already reached her destination.
"Your eyes are so cloudy, you should have it checked, bro !"
Laughing like a maniac, she threw herself forward and felt herself fall. This seemed to trigger some kind of trauma and once again she felt the need to throw herself backward. But she ignored this compulsion and leaned forward during her free fall, her eyes fixated on the spot she would land on.
It seemed like an eternity had passed, but this really took no less than a second. She grabbed the wall surrounding the cemetery to stop her fall, and climbed on it. As soon as her feet touched it, she felt the whole area shake. The creature had followed her in her fall, and landed right on a mausoleum, exploding it with its weight and momentum, stones and tiles flying around with steel pipes and chunks of dirt.
Sandrine protected her face from the debris while she was running. Thankfully, the wall was too thin for the monster to join her on it, but it wasn't high enough that she was completely safe. Even with its twisted spine, if the creature really tried it could reach her.
The llama monster seemed a bit stunned by the impact, but it quickly found its target again and rushed towards Sandrine. She ran with everything she had, ignoring the puppy who was shaking even harder against her torso. The poor thing seemed about to pass out.
She was blocking every signal, especially those coming from her body that was falling apart, and ran towards the cathedral. She could feel the ground vibrate everytime the monster was hitting it. Even on slippery tiles it had been very fast, on solid ground it was even worse. It didn't bother dodging the mausoleums and tombstones in his way, he just ran through them and destroyed them, sending dirt and debris flying around. This gave Sandrine a solid idea about where it was behind her.
Thankfully, this was a city cemetery, not a countryside one, it had limited space. It seemed to take forever but she was finally close to the building. However, the wall wasn't high enough to reach a good climbing spot, so she would have to get on one of the higher mausoleums close to the cathedral, those reserved for important figures.
The problem ? The monster was already upon her. She would have to jump over it to reach the mausoleum, and then climb fast enough so that it couldn't catch her.
Sandrine was laughing wildly now, all restraint completely gone with the wind. She reached the desired spot and stopped promptly, throwing off the monster that slammed into the cathedral wall thanks to the momentum.
She didn't wait and used this opportunity to jump, reaching one mausoleum and using it at footing to reach the highest one. But the chilling scream echoed behind her, the beast was rushing towards her again. The mausoleum she had been on a second before was smashed to bits, debris flying with such force that a piece of rumble hit her temple. But Sandrine didn't wait, she jumped towards the cathedral wall and grabbed a sculpted cornice, climbing as fast as she could. The moment her feet left the mausoleum, it exploded.
She was fast enough to reach the cathedral wall before her footing disappeared, but not fast enough to avoid the creature. Just as she thought she was saved, she felt a dulling pain in her ankle. Distorted black teeth had sunk into it.
Her laugh changed into a pained groan, and she quickly retracted her leg, shaking off the monster but abandoning a piece of flesh in the process. Her foot had lost all strength but she didn't care. If it wouldn't move, she would still use her bone to provide footing. It wasn't the time to be weak.
She scaled the wall quickly, using cornices, gargoyles, and the frames of stained glass windows to pull her tired body higher. Her arms were a mess, her legs too, her fingers were bloody, and she was missing a few nails. Even her head wasn't safe, a stream of blood was flowing from her temple. However, Gribouille was still perfectly clean and without any injuries. He was like her last streak of sanity, if something really happened to him, she would probably lose her mind for real.
The little guy seemed to sense it, shaking less and less, and raising his little head from inside the kangaroo pouch to look at its owner. Someone doing so much for him was a new feeling.
Sandrine slipped because of her injured foot, stabilizing herself thanks to the sculpted tower she had reached. As she climbed, she had left a tray of blood on the wall, and it seemed to excite the creature even more. At first, it had just stood there and paced around, but now it was starting to really look up and tried to climb. This thing was monstrously clever and tenacious, it was already starting to use the cracks in the wall and the cornices to try and climb. It wasn't hard to imagine that it would reach Sandrine at some point.
She had a bit of a headstart but this wouldn't last long. She slapped herself to try and focus. She needed to reach the roof.
She dragged her tired body higher and higher, ignoring the pain and the terrifying screams coming from behind her. She had no idea how much time it took, but finally she reached the slanted roof. There was no wind, not any ounce of weather that was different from the usual gray sky, but for Sandrine it seemed at this moment that she was blending into a thunderstorm, as if she could become one with the rain and the night. Her heart was beating in her head, her eyes seemed about to pop out. She breathed slowly. On the third inspiration, just as she was about to calm down, she heard a terrible grating sound and a terrifying cry, the scream of someone eating another. The creature was here.
It took the time to look at her, not rushing immediately. It was probably because it was the last corner, she couldn't run anywhere else. The slanted roof was surrounded by four high and pointy towers, difficult to scale, and nothing else. Everything would be decided now.
The thing had the form of a llama, but it wasn't exactly that. Its spine was bent, and its greasy thick fur seemed to almost move like tentacles. Or maybe Sandrine was having hallucinations because of the pain. Everything was possible at this point.
"The last stand off, huh ? Think you can beat me in a fight ?"
She was laughing again, but there was nothing she could do. She didn't have the strength to fight, and at this point she couldn't exactly run away either. She took out her machete and her pitchfork, and took the fighting stance that had become so familiar over the course of a few days. If this thing really wanted to, she could give an excellent final struggle, she had some talent for this.
As if understanding her signal, the monster rushed to her. In the fraction of a second, its black teeth closed where her neck had been. Sandrine's agility was just high enough to dodge, but she didn't have the strength to counter attack. She blocked a kick with her machete, deflected another bite with the staff of her pitchfork, tried to stab but ended up dodging another bite aiming for her shoulder…
The monster started growing impatient. It had suffered from the chase too, and was bleeding in a few places because of all the roofs it had fallen in, or from the tombstones and mausoleums it had smashed. It seemed really determined to kill Sandrine quickly.
So, it just rammed into her with its whole body. Once, Sandrine fell over, sliding along the slanted roof, head first toward the ground, but she blocked the charge with her weapons. Twice, her pitchfork staff broke and a shard of it entered the monster's chest, but Sandrine was in a worse position since she had slid again and her head was hanging above the void. Thrice, and…
There was a loud rumbling sound, and the roof shook. The city was in ruins, no one knew how many years it had been without someone to take care of the buildings. Even a huge cathedral was fated to crumble, even more with heavy repeated impacts.
Sandrine turned her back to the monster, holding on tightly to the edge of the roof, the part that was above the solid wall.
Because, in the middle of the roof, the highest point, the beams and the stones had fissured. Tiles were sliding and falling down a pit that was growing bigger and bigger, as if to swallow them whole. Because of the shaking of the building, the creature slid again on the tiles, having trouble finding footing for his fourth attack, not noticing the hungry void approaching it from behind. Sandrine looked behind her with wide eyes as black distorted teeth approached quickly, and then… Disappeared. The monster had been swallowed by the hole.