text: We rushed through the wooden door and slammed it shut. The thing gave a loud thud against the door that shook the frames and made the hinges screech, but the door held. I quickly poured salt under the door's threshold. “I think this will hold it back for a time. We’re on the third floor so I'm hoping the thing won’t come leaping through the window,” I exclaimed with a sigh. Before I could catch my breath, I felt her lips and her breath filling my lungs and giving new vigor to a faint heart. “Thank you, I can’t believe you’d actually help me. I thought I was a goner,” she said with the shimmer of her tears in the pale moonlight. My heart had been racing from the chase, but now it was calm again. “I was wondering why you left without a word months ago, I figured you were ghosting me or something... didn’t think you were running for your life.” “You know me, lady of mystery!” she joked with a forced smile. “You don’t have to do this you know.” For a moment, the months on the run showed their strain on her face. The stress wrinkles around the brow of another wise young 28-year-old woman. She felt the weight of those months all at once and collapsed onto the leather chair by the bookshelf. “I know, but in all of those months, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. You’re here in front of me now, and I’m not losing you again. Come sickness come hell or whatever,” I declared. The hell began to snarl from the other side of a wall across from us. “What is that thing anyway? I can hear it, but I can’t see it.” “It’s not here for you... but I can see it,” she responded with a despondent voice that trailed off at the end as if she wanted to keep the last part a secret. “I made a... a deal with someone I shouldn’t have and now this thing has come to collect... the debt is my life,” she proclaimed hesitantly. I felt my heart do a back flip, realizing that the reason my love was going to die. “It seemed too good to be true... I should’ve known that stage 4 stomach cancer doesn’t just go away. Julie... what did you do?” I asked with dread. “I wasn’t going to let you die. The things you do for the people as police captain, I think you’re a hero. No one else can protect this city like you, I can’t let this city and my hope fade.” She was trying to make the exchange of her life for mine logical to justify it, but we both knew it was a desperate attempt not to lose someone she loved. Before I could respond, there was a crash in the adjacent room and the shattering of a ceramic toilet. We were back in the trying pan and it was time to move. “Third floor huh? Guess the window's not an option. Back the way we came. Hopefully that salt will act as a red line it can’t cross and buy us a minute.” She nodded in a agreement as she joined my side again. We bolted out of the door and down the steps, hoping to reach the ground floor and make a mad dash to our car. We heard the hellhound barking a loud piercing sound that resonated through the halls. It reverberated off the walls and sounded even more fierce. The feet scraped on the hardwood. The beast was overzealous and struggled for traction in its excitement. “We’re gonna make it,” I reassured her as I squeezed her hand. We were on the stairs to the ground floor when I saw a shadow pass over head. I looked up but there was nothing there to cast the shadow. An ear-piercing scream erupted from beside me and for a moment my trip slackened. The hand so precious from me was ripped away from my grasp. I looked beside me, and she was gone. Behind me, I saw the impossible, she was being dragged by her shoulder, bleeding profusely, screaming relentlessly as she was punching the invisible assailant with her free hand. The dog began to shake her, and the bleeding became worse and she went limp from shock. Even at my distance, I heard the snap of her shoulder bone as that beast dug deeper and deeper. She wasn’t struggling anymore, but the beast was still unsatisfied. Fear had paralyzed me, staring at the air as it rips into my love and puts her into this agony. Then rage overtook me. Rage at the cruel fate that would push us to months of being hunted just because she didn’t want me to die and rage at myself for taking this long to do what was necessary. I was done running. Maybe Julia as already dead, maybe she was still holding on, but I wanted to make this thing suffer for all the months of suffering it had given her. The beast again disappeared, and as I looked around, I could only hear the wild snarls of the beast circling around me. I could feel its presence around me, but I could not see it. My heart began to race uncontrollably from the bubbling rage and fear. I closed my eyes to calm myself and listened. It didn’t matter that he was invisible, I could hear the blood dripping from its jaws. I called out to it, “Come over here you God forsaken beast! I thought all dogs go to heaven, so what the hell are you? Cerberus, Barghest, or just some nameless mutt?” I drew my revolver from behind my back and readied the last bullet. There was no missing this time. I heard the bark come from the air ahead of me and saw the blood splatter. I aimed for the center of the blood and fired. A spray of blood exploded from where I shot, but the bullet disappeared into the nothingness. The beast gave a whimper and for a moment I felt sorry for it. I walked over to the pooling blood, knowing my felled prey was there. I walked forward hearing the steady drip of its blood and the rasping of its last breaths. The dripping stopped and so did the breathing. I was standing over the puddle of blood and gingerly pushed my foot forward, waiting to feel its body. My foot reached the puddle, but still nothing. I felt a cold sweat start and heard a low growl behind me. I tried to turn and face it but before I could, I felt its massive weight push me down. I fell face first into its putrid blood, spitting out the taste of iron with the smell of sulfur. Its claws were trying to pin down my elbows and I could sense it rearing back its head to bite. I rolled over with everything I had against its weight. I heard his body fall to my left. I clutched my empty gun like a hammer and started to furiously slam down the butt of the gun toward the ground. None of those swings reached the ground, they hit the soft stomach of the dog. It yelped and barked in pain. I followed the hammering up and felt the butt of the gun collide with the softer windpipe and then it was hard again. I found the face and I kept hammering until my gun and the floor was covered in blood and no more whimpers were heard. My arms and body were shaking from the strain when I finally stopped. I crawled over to Julia's body and listened to her chest for a heartbeat or a breath. I could feel her chest rising against my cheek. I scrambled to dial 911 and they came in time to save her from the blood loss. “We made it...” I whispered to her when she finally awoke the next day and I fell back to a tranquil sleep by her bedside in the hospital. “We made it to tomorrow... Thank you for never giving up on us,” she whispered as she kissed me back to sleep.