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  Jared ran to his side to help, grabbing a kitchen knife on the way. He lifted the knife above his head and proceeded to thrust it down at the arm. After slicing through the paper-thin skin, a strange diluted blood, almost orange in color, began to flow. The hand released its grip on Blaine, and Jared helped him down off the sink.

  Meanwhile, Hal had been holding the door, and he was no longer strong enough to keep them out. He faltered, and the door swung open wide. Jared saw this and let go of his grip on Blaine to charge the door. I watched as Blaine lost his footing and his legs flew out from under him, sending him falling head first onto the corner of the kitchen table. He was instantly knocked unconscious as one Intruder threw Jared into a wall. As Jared struggled to breathe from having the wind knocked out of him, another Intruder had Hal by the shirt. It was lifting him up above its head. The Intruder opened its mouth as it let out the same screeching cry I had heard that night in the storage shed.

  I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do. Tears streamed down my face as I witnessed a battle between the people I cared about and the things that haunted my dreams. It was a living nightmare, and I had no way of stopping it. A feeling of helpless anger overwhelmed my senses, and I balled my fists as tight as I could. But I couldn’t get my fists to clench. Something was in the way.

  THE SHOTGUN!

  I was still holding the shotgun that Blaine gave me. He had cocked it for me, just before folding my hands around it, it was ready to go. All I had to do was point and pull the trigger. I stood, keeping my back to the walls in the corner, and took aim. The Intruders hadn’t noticed me yet. Good, I thought.

  Knowing I was not the best shot, I decided to take aim on the one that was holding Hal. I focused my target on the Intruder’s hip. I wanted to shoot to kill, but if I tried a shot at his head, I risked the chance of hitting Hal. Nestling the butt of the gun into my right shoulder, I pulled the trigger. The sound exploded in my ear.

  It was a clean shot, or at least a lucky one. The slug hit the Intruder square in the hip and it dropped Hal and collapsed to the floor, clutching its wound. The other Intruder, thinking Jared was the cause of the shot, charged in his direction. Still clinging to the kitchen knife from earlier, Jared plunged the knife into the Intruder’s stomach. A gush of its blood poured down his arm.

  I watched as Hal grabbed the handgun from under the table and fiddled with it for only a second before popping a shot into the head of the Intruder that I had shot, killing it. Hal then went to check on Blaine’s head injury.

  Jared pushed the Intruder off of him. I stood in the corner, watching as the Intruder was taking its last breaths. Slowly, I made my way to it, setting the shotgun on the bed beside me. I knelt next to Jared, who was cleaning the Intruder’s blood off his arm and shirt. I searched him to make sure he had no injuries. He assured me he was okay and gave a thumbs up. “Just some scratches.” I then turned my attention to the Intruder, still alive, lying on the floor beside me.

  It was strange. We had seen what they could do, destroying communities and killing people in their path. But at this moment, while dying, the Intruder seemed almost harmless. It was so vulnerable that I couldn’t imagine it hurting anyone. Just as this thought crossed my mind, the Intruder raised its hand, reaching for me. It was as though it was requesting that I comfort it as it died, one last touch before an eternity without breathing.

  I don’t know what compelled me to reach out toward its hand. Curiosity, maybe, as if I had stepped out of my body at that moment and was witnessing myself lifting a hand toward the Intruder.

  I looked away, toward Blaine on the floor across the room, still breathing, while Hal checked his pupils. Jared placed his hand on my back. “Kara, no. What are you doing?”

  “It’s okay. It can’t hurt me,” I said to him, my eyes locked on the Intruder. I could feel Jared’s grip on the back of my shirt, his attempt at keeping me from doing something dangerous. But I ignored it. I couldn’t hear anything, my vision fuzzy around the edges. My only focus was the Intruder. Why were they here? What did they want? How long had they existed? I knew of only one way to find out.

  Holding my breath, I clasped my fingers around the cold, moist skin of the Intruder. My heart was trying to escape my chest, adrenaline causing it to go wild against my sternum. Then it, no he, closed his fingers around mine, gripping tightly as the light surrounding me began to fade into darkness.

  END OF PART I

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  DEDICATIONS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  DEDICATIONS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39