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There was no way you were letting that thing near him.
A massive jolt forced its way through your body, forcing yourself to act, saulting you over the bush like you weighed nothing and immediately cupping your hands around Florian.
Your eyes never left the strange creature, the floating stump supported only by shadows never moving from your gaze, your hands scooping Florian back into your shirt pocket as... you...
...you....
...you couldn't take your eyes off it. Your entire body froze as you heard a loud <span class="mu-i">CREAK</span>.
You could feel the blood drain from your face as you kept watching. The stump continued to float, briefly prompting you to question its intentions. Maybe it was harmless! You were overreacting, clearly, and just needed some sleep. Maybe your head hadn't fully healed and you were seeing things. Maybe if you reached out...
<span class="mu-i">CREEAAK</span>
Your hand stopped dead in its tracks as the stump turned... to face you.
Flaming red eyes pierced through you like a spear, the creak of the creature's pivot echoing in your head as you kept looking at the eyes, the big red eyes, the flaming wispy eyes that wouldn't leave your mind and kept dancing around your head as if it were a show floor--
You scrambled onto your feet, never having realized that you'd fallen in the first place, turning tail and RUNNING like your life depended on it. For all you knew, it really did-- you couldn't breathe, after all, though you were trying, with your entire body possessed by an incurable need to RUN as the stump kept--
You threw your hands onto your ears as the stump began screaming. Its voice was harsh and shrill, not unlike a tantruming child's-- it was unbearable, the noise, it was all you could hear--
A loud THUNK shut the thing up.
"Buchanan, for God's sake!!"
Steele ran to your side, grabbing his top hat with both his hands like it was about to fly off. "What has gotten into you? I--"
He was cut off by another wail, his words overwritten with a loud WOOSH as the stump <span class="mu-i">flew</span> over both of your heads, somersaulting and landing in front of the two of you before SCREECHING yet again.
The next time the businessman spoke was with a very different tone. Less surprised and confused, more desperate and determined "--can't believe your luck!! Let's get to shelter, somewhere away from this abominable thing!!"
He didn't need to see you nodding to know your response. The two of you ran on either side around the ghost, so fast you nearly tripped multiple times (both over yourselves and over the debris still littering the ground), never looking back and never thinking of anything but THE NEED TO RUN.
Never-- you dodged a larger rock-- had you-- jumped over a bloodied hat-- run this fast-- lost stability, flailed with arms-- before...
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