Vayne stared at his palm.
The broken glass lay scattered around his feet in dull pieces. Not a single mark had been left behind.
Vayne kept a shard in his hand so he could use it to see the entity's movements.
It dragged one long hand across the pavement behind him.
SCRRRRK.
Lune's gaze dropped to the scattered glass shards, then rose to Vayne.
"Vayne?"
He slowly lifted his gaze to Lune.
Lune's eyes narrowed.
"What?"
Suddenly the entity shifted in the reflection of the café window. Its long body dragged itself farther out from the broken frame, one arm braced against the floor, the other scraping across the wall.
Vayne flexed his fingers once.
"The glass wasn't able to cut me."
Lune's expression changed slightly, hinting at confusion. Vayne looked toward the reflection in the shard.
I didn't bleed.
The entity lunged. Its body moved too fast for something that large.
Vayne's eyes sharpened.
He stepped back half a pace, then twisted low. Its hand swept past his face, close enough for the air to snap against his cheek. Before its fingers could close, he planted one hand on the ground and kicked himself sideways. His body slid across the pavement, then rolled back onto his feet in one smooth motion.
Lune's hand lifted.
The remaining water from the shots trembled. The thin strands pulled free again, wrapping around her fingers like unstable wire.
The entity turned toward Vayne. It attempted to reach for him again.
Vayne moved before the attack fully formed.
He jumped onto the café table, using the edge of it as a springboard. The metal legs buckled beneath him as he launched upward. His foot landed against the side of the café wall for half a second.
Then he pushed off. The entity's arm smashed through the table where he had been.
Vayne twisted midair and landed near the sidewalk, one knee bent, one hand touching the ground.
Lune fired.
SSSSHHH—
The compressed water struck the entity in the side of the head. Steam burst across its pale skin. Its body bent off course, arm slicing through empty air.
Vayne didn't let this opening go to waste. He moved to his side. The moment the entity attempted to adjust towards him, he cut left, and then stepped onto a raised curb, using the slight height to throw his body over its reaching hand.
Lune's eyes followed Vayne while she was getting another shot ready.
A bead of sweat slipped down the side of her face.
She was smiling faintly, like something was humorous despite everything.
He's fast. How can someone move like that and still look malnourished?
Vayne landed on the ground hard on his side, but he got up quickly.
The entity lunged again.
He ducked under its arm, slipped past its crooked elbow, and drove his foot against a short wall beside the café. He kicked off of it and tried to punch the creature.
His fist drove straight toward its stretched face. The impact landed. But it didn't feel like he punched something 'living'. It almost felt as if he punched soaked leather stretched over stone. The entity's head barely moved.
The entity's mouth opened wider.
So it noticed the contact. How does it know where we are without eyes?
He tried running fast and quietly but both yielded the same results.
It's clearly not only using sound.
The entity's arm snapped upward.
Vayne twisted away before the hand could close around him. He planted one foot against the creature's shoulder and kicked off, flipping backward.
He hit the road hard, back first, taking the brunt of the force. The screen of his watch cracked against the pavement.
He pushed himself up, but the entity was already too close. There wasn't enough time to dodge.
Lune fired.
SSSSHHH—
The water struck the entity's neck, forcing its head to jerk sideways.
Vayne took the opening and put distance between them.
I have to figure out how to get hurt. But how?
His mind raced through the possibilities, but every thought led back to the same problem: he couldn't get hurt.
The world wouldn't let him.
And if that was the rule, then breaking it might be the way out.
Lune's faint smile vanished. The water around her hand trembled, thinning into steam. There wasn't much left. Each shot had burned through more of it than she realized.
Vayne noticed it too.
The entity's head twitched. Its body lowered slightly, aimed toward Vayne.
He shifted his weight. It lunged at him.
Vayne moved to his left. But the entity didn't follow him.
Its torso folded sideways in the middle of the motion, bending wrong, changing direction without warning. Vayne's eyes widened slightly.
A feint.
The arm shot past him. Toward Lune.
She tried to step back. But she was too late. The entity's fingers wrapped around her throat and lifted her off the ground.
"Gh—!"
The remaining water around her hand broke apart, splashing uselessly against the pavement. Her hands grabbed at its wrist. Her legs kicked once, then again, but the entity held her out like she weighed nothing.
Vayne sprinted towards them. The entity's free arm swung at him.
He dropped low, one hand grazing the ground as he slid beneath the strike. He pushed off his palm, sprang upward, and stepped onto the entity's forearm.
Lune's strained eyes met his. Vayne reached for her arm.
The entity jerked its arm back. His fingers missed her sleeve by less than an inch.
He landed hard on his back, the impact knocking a groan out of him. The pain came sharp, then vanished just as quickly.
The mist around him shifted, pushed aside by something moving through it. Vayne heard it before he saw it.
THOOM.
He glanced at his shard for half a second, and that was all it took. A second pale hand shot out from the side.
He twisted his body avoiding contact.
Vayne landed on the street, rolled once, and came up facing the second entity.
Its body was lower than the first, moving on all fours with long, uneven limbs. Its mouth split across its face in the same empty smile.
Vayne's eyes widened, his breathing uneven from all the movement. Lune was still caught in the first one's grip. Her hands clawed weakly at its fingers.
The second entity rushed him on all fours.
Vayne stepped back once.
The creature's arm swept low. Vayne jumped over it.
Then it lunged upward.
Vayne was already moving out of the way.
His thoughts raced faster than his feet.
I can't cut myself.
I can't hurt them.
They aren't trying to kill us.
They're trying to restrain us.
His gaze darted towards Lune. Her kicks had slowed.
The first entity's fingers tightened around her throat. Her face had gone pale, her eyes half-open and unfocused.
Vayne's brows furrowed.
He was alone, with no help and no idea where he was. For a moment, he found himself wishing he could go back to the small shelter he'd built in the scrapyard.
It had been miserable there.
But at least he was able to survive.
The crawling entity lunged at him again.
Move.
Vayne's body was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.
MOVE!
He used the last of his strength to roll onto his side, slamming into the wall of a nearby building before dropping to the ground.
Vayne tried to push himself up, but his arms barely listened. His breathing came out uneven, shallow, useless. Across the street, Lune's body hung limp in the first entity's grasp.
The second entity was already above him. It reached down. Its long fingers wrapped around Vayne's throat and lifted him from the ground. His feet left the pavement.
Vayne's hands grabbed at its wrist, but it didn't move. His vision blurred at the edges as the pressure tightened around his neck.
Then—
A sharp pulse split through his skull, jolting him awake before he fully passed out.
The threads were still there, stretched through the air around him.
But this time, one had appeared right in front of his face.
Barely within reach.