For Nevermore Season 1

second and the bullet to hit her, but instead, he yelled, swiping his face.
    Noella hopped up and pushed herself into a sprint, despite the pain. She hobbled over a slight hill, then heard the gunshot behind her as thunder split the night’s silence.
    She dived into a thicket of shrubs as her leg erupted in pain. She wasn’t sure if she’d been shot in the leg, or if it was another cramp. But at least for the moment, she lost sight of Randy, and he’d lost sight of her.
    Randy fired another shot into the dark, and Noella heard the bullet thwap into a nearby tree.
    The forest went eerily silent as if the gunshot had severed the natural sounds of insects and nocturnal animals.
    Something was wrong. Noella could feel it before she heard a rising whistle in the distance, followed by dozens, if not hundreds, of whistling things approaching from the darkness behind Randy.
    What is that?
    Noella sat up to look, but instead saw Randy just a few feet in front of her. “There you are,” he said, oblivious of, or ignoring the high-pitched sound as it grew louder.
    He brought his gun down on her again. “Time for you to go home,” he said.
    Lights suddenly exploded through the trees behind him. It looked like there were at least 20 small circular lights bobbing up and down, flying toward them.
    “What the...” Randy turned as they whizzed by both of them. They looked like flying tennis balls, but dark with blue light inside them, somehow hovering in the air with an ear-splitting whistle.
    Randy turned his attention back to Noella and aimed the gun at her again, “Take me home,” he ordered. “Now!”
    The whistling grew louder, and Randy’s eyes went wide at whatever he saw. Noella didn’t have time to look, diving down as the whistling went shrill, and the balls sailed over her again. As they passed, they unleashed thin blue wires that hooked into Randy’s flesh.
    Randy screamed and his body convulsed as the balls stopped in mid-flight, then swung back, wrapping around him, like tether balls on a rope.
    Randy was the pole.
    He fell to the ground screaming, trying to free himself, but could only shake as if being electrocuted as the high-pitched whistle grew louder.
    Noella could do nothing but stare as the balls, of which there were about 20, began to glow a brighter blue, almost white, like the wires still wrapped around him.
    Something was about to happen.
    Noella knew she should stand and run, but she couldn’t move. Nor could she look away. She was hypnotized.
    The whistling was now at a scream, and Randy’s screams were now at a choking as he began to gag on something. Blood. Noella was horrified to watch him dying in front of her, but relieved to be free of his horror, finally.
    Noella had traded one monster, one she knew and might be able to reason with, for something else, alien and unknown. Two hands were suddenly behind Noella, grabbing her arms and wrapping around her chest, pulling her back into the forest.
    She didn’t resist. Whoever was pulling her back was saving her life. She and her mystery person stumbled backward as the balls exploded, blowing Randy to bloody chunks which splattered her and her savior as they rolled back, then down a hill into more brush.
    Noella’s ears were ringing, her leg was screaming in pain, and her head was throbbing. She rolled over to see who had saved her — Dante.
    “What? How? Where?”
    Noella’s mind was filled with a hundred questions, but his gloved hand closed tight around her mouth. He crawled halfway on top of her to keep her down, then said something she couldn't hear; an inaudible whisper over the whistling in her ears.
    “What?” Noella cried.
    Dante brought his other hand to his lips and shook his head, signaling Noella to “Shhhhh.”
    She shut her mouth as more lights whistled through the trees. The balls flew past Noella and Dante, then came back around, passed them again, and then stopped, hovering in the air at the spot just above Randy.
    Noella was transfixed as three pale figures appeared in the darkness.
    Her breath and heart stopped as she recognized them as the same pale creatures with the horrible mouths and sewn-shut eyes she’d seen when she crossed over from school . . . the monsters. They weren’t naked as she’d seen them before, however. They were dressed in white robes.
    Two of the creatures lifted their hands and the glowing balls flew to them. The monsters took the balls and placed them within the folds of their