text: I remember the urgency that I and the rest of the boys felt. We needed this shipment out by the morning and each second that passed midnight was another drop of sweat on our brow. There was a tenseness whenever you’d have to deal with this much product. White powder stacked three kilos high laid out like bricks from each end of the table. One bump of it would mean my ass if the boss found out. I’d rather be out there on the streets with an automatic than have to suppress my urges like this. I set aside another kilo of the product from off the scale and picked up my radio. Holding it up to my ear I heard the faint mechanical static that disappeared when I signalled to the poor sap who was surveying the perimeter out in the cold. “Hey, slick? How we looking?” Static. I waited for any kind of response, but each moment just put me on edge. “Hey, you there?” There was nothing. He was new to the job, nearly scared stiff the last time I saw him, I wanted to give him a few extra moments, but we were all just hoping to be out of here as soon as possible. Though as those moments passed and my finger itched towards the radio once more, that’s when it all began. From across the warehouse, I heard the sounds of a scuffle. A pattering of feet that was inhumanly quick. My ears pricked as to better deduce what it could have been, but that only lulled me into being startled when I heard the hollow smash of a lightbulb against the concrete. That, and the ricocheting sound of machine gunfire. My chair scraped backwards as I rocketed to my feet, it clattered against the floor and my hand immediately went towards my hip. I revealed my iron and idly kept my shoulder cocked and the barrel pointed to the ceiling. “Hey! What the fuck are you guys doing?!” No answer. I reached for my radio and switched channels. I echoed my same anxious sentiment into it and was once again met with silence. Quickly nearing the west side of the warehouse, my feet crept up the metal staircase. I tried my best to get in contact with the others over the radio who were definitely in the same boat as me. I hoped they weren’t twitchy as to avoid catching a bullet on accident. “Get your head in the game,” I screamed into the speaker. “We got a live one.” A shaky voice finally replied. “W-w-we got the ground floor, cover us on the second.” “Copy that.” My feet shook and so did the steel causeway as a result of it. The sights of my pistol were drawn out by my shoulders and I was ready to fire away at anyone who crossed my path. Though I began by heading towards where the bulb had broken. I could tell by the huge patch of darkness that was at the other end. With each less meter that separated me from *it* was another escalation of my ever-increasing heart rate. To combat this, I attempted to get in contact with the others. “You still there?” “Ya we’re both still here, but I’m not seeing anyth--” His voice cut off and I whipped around to the sound of an air cutting scream from the bottom floor followed by the scattered shots of a sidearm. As a result, my gun went off on accident and a shot hit the ceiling and was met with the slow trickle of dust above me. I fumbled to see what had happened. “What the fuck is going on?” The other voice picked up where the other man had left off. “It’s him.” “What are you talking about?!” “The one that they’re all talking about. The one that hit Kaminski’s place just the other day. The one all over the news. He found us!” My blood froze. I knew who he was talking about because that’s all we ever had for the past few weeks. “You’re talking nonsense rookie!” I tried to rationalize with him but even I knew the kind of shit we’d fallen into. It was a myth, but we saw him plastered all over the headlines, so we expected some sort of truth. A phantom in the night that stalked us and all our criminality. He’d finally sniffed us out and was now picking us off one by one. My vision scattered along the walls as I walked back towards the bulb’s dark spot. I saw the automatic on the ground from where the first man had dropped it. God knows where he ended up now. Where that ghoul had taken him. My spine chilled and my gun brazenly aimed around the entirety of the warehouse’s interior, just hoping to catch a glimpse of him. “See anything?” I spoke. “No nothing, but he’s coming for us and I’m not ending up in a body bag. Screw the product, I’d rather be out of here with my life than stick my neck out for those shitbag higher-ups. Meet me at the front, you understand?” I wanted to say yes, but something kept me there on the second floor. I couldn’t quite explain what it was when I first felt the creeping feeling that washed over me. Why had I become so paralyzed, was it just my fear or was it something else? I found the answer to be the latter as I looked to the outside of my periphery. Two gloved hands coming around my neck. Warm breath washing over my shoulders. “Pal! Are you with me or not?” I dropped my gun. “Please don’t kill me,” I whimpered. He didn’t respond, only drawing closer to me. I could feel the terror wash over and how despicable it felt to know that it was what he wanted this whole time. He wanted us to scramble, to separate. It was apart of his tactics and we’d all fell right into them. “Don’t do anything stupid no--” The grip tightened and his forearm pounced around my chest. He forcefully pulled me at an alarming speed into the darkness. My radio fell and clattered against the ground. All that I heard before his hand swiftly struck my head was the sound of that rookie. “Hello! Are you there? Ah, to hell with you I’m outta here.