I threw the car into park, leaving it idling while I readied my weapons. If this was the same Fines that I first encountered in Charlestown, I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to kill it, given I’d already smashed it between a series of cars and stabbed it in the eye with a Bowie knife. Still not dead! I was banking everything on the hope that the car and its mysterious trunk weapons would tip the scales in my favor.

  At least if I died here, there wouldn’t be any collateral damage. It would just be me. Then again, on the matter of my own death, I was still a bit hazy. Could I die? The last time Jack Skellington and I met, I’d ended up with some nasty claw wounds, but had healed without any lasting scars or injury. That was encouraging. But what if the Fines popped off my head entirely? It could certainly do it, between its strength and the sharpness of its Freddy Krueger hands. Would my head grow back? It seemed like a stretch, and I realized I probably should have asked fourth_wall a lot more questions.

  As if she knew I was thinking about her, a new notification popped up.

  fourth_wall: Taking an impromptu vacation, Somerville?

  Max: I don’t have time for your bullshit right now. About to fight a Fines…

  fourth_wall: A what?

  Max: Are you fucking serious? I thought you were all-knowing or some shit.

  fourth_wall: Are you referring to the anomalies reported by Lanie and Axel?

  I didn’t respond, knowing I’d already taken my eyes off the dark sky for too long. My phone vibrated again, but I ignored it, as well as the notification buzzing in the corner of my mind. My eyes scanned the dark road in front of me.

  I had parked at the very base of the official parking lot for Echo Lake, which, as expected, had been completely deserted. The only sound was the car idling quietly in the pear-shaped turnaround. I’d parked at an angle so that I could easily watch out the driver's side window.

  The Bowie knife was tucked in my belt, and in one hand, I held the Ruger, in the other, the Colt Mustang. I was prepared for the difference in recoil, and expected my hours at the Academy’s gun range would help me to compensate without sacrificing accuracy.

  I had no idea what direction the dark creature would come from. Sure, I’d had to take the road to my left. But the Fines flew. It could just as easily appear from the woods to my right or show up directly above the car. For a second, I contemplated just opening the door and stepping out into the night. Sure, I would lose the protection of the car, but it hadn’t really done much to protect me from the creature in the past, and the added visibility might be worth it. Decisions, decisions.

  At a flurry of movement, I leveled both weapons to the right. There, creeping out of the forest, was the Fines. Shit. I’d forgotten how creepy it was, with its cracked grey skin and skull head. Its mouth was open, showing a mouthful of jagged teeth. The translucent gray wings were hidden behind its skeletal back. It floated at the edge of the treeline, the black pits of its eyes seeming to look right at me.

  Wait. Both wholly intact black eyes stared at me over the barrels of my guns. No missing eye. No scar from where the knife had punctured. Either the creature had accelerated healing, like me, or…

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  The driver’s side window exploded inward as claws shot through to stab into my chest and shoulders. I screamed, swiveling to point and fire both guns, unloading their contents into the creature. My ears rang and burned from the point-blank firing. The creature shrieked and dragged me through the broken window, dropping me onto the cold ground.

  Turning, I saw black blood oozing from several bullet holes on the thing's chest. Its eye was still severely damaged from where I had stabbed him before, but there were signs that it had begun to heal. It gurgled and stumbled back before snapping open its wings and launching itself into the sky.

  My head swam, already dizzy from blood loss, but I struggled to my feet, eyes searching the darkness for the second Fines. I spotted him a second too late, leveling my pistols after it had already launched itself at me. My guns fired helplessly into the space around the creature as he stabbed me over and over again with his claws.

  Gasping, I dropped the guns and scrambled to pull its hands out of my chest. They released with a wet sound, blood geysering behind them. That couldn’t be good. My chest burned, and I had the ominous feeling that my torso had been shredded open. With each beat of my heart, the blood shot out of me. I could feel myself weakening. I wrestled both of its wrists above me, desperately trying to prevent any further damage, but the weight of the creature knocked me over. It shrieked as it fell on top of me.

  It slipped out of my bloody grasp, drawing back for what I knew would be a killing blow if it landed. I reached for my belt, wrapping my hand around the handle of the Bowie knife and raising it just in time. The Fines' claws bit down, but instead of my flesh, they found the steel of the knife. The creature wailed, yanking its bleeding gray hand from the blade.

  I screamed, stabbing again and again at the clawed hand. I lurched, rolling the thing beneath me, its severed hand falling to the ground midway. The Fines' mouth was open unnaturally wide, its teeth bared in a guttural howl that echoed out and off the trees around us. The Bowie knife stabbed down once more, deep into the creature’s chest, and it fell completely limp.

  A notification appeared in my mental window. I ignored it, just as I had with the last Dispatch notification. Whatever it was, it would have to wait. The knife sat inert in my hands as I tried to assess the damage to my own body. I was woozy, and the ground seemed to be moving on its own, like I was spinning on a carnival ride.

  When I was slammed from behind to skid along the ground on my face, my basic combat arithmetic reminded me that I had only killed Fines number two. Though wounded, Jack had still been flying around and had apparently decided to seize the opportunity brought on by my current disorientation.

  Jack wrapped his clawed hands around my neck, squeezing like a vise. Hm. As it turned out, I might actually find out whether a Fines could decapitate me and whether I’d recover from it. I was guessing no.

  I thrashed, trying to turn myself over to face the Fines with no luck. My mind searched for weapons. Both pistols lay on the ground somewhere, and the Bowie knife was still lodged in the other creature's body. My vision was dimming, and I was unarmed, bleeding out, and running out of options.

  Except…the little two-shot Bond Arms Derringer in my pocket. I wouldn’t have usually carried a pistol loose in my pocket, but I hadn’t exactly had the time to do a full Commando suit-up montage.

  I let go of the claws, which continued to cut deep, as if digging for the arteries in my neck. I snaked my right arm into my pocket, rustling out the Derringer. Thrusting my arm under my body, I aimed from below my armpit and shot behind me again.

  The first shot loosened its grip on my neck, and I turned slightly. The bullet had caught Jack directly under the chin and appeared to have traveled northward into its skull. Jack teetered back and forth as I aimed and fired the second and final bullet into the same wound. Jack’s head exploded in a mess of gray gore before his body toppled beside me on the cold, wet ground.

  I breathed deeply, the world flashing in and out of my fading vision. I didn’t see any more Fines. Snow began to fall gently from the sky, creating a strange juxtaposition against the brutal, bloody landscape of black and red blood. Soon, I knew the snow would cover up the carnage of the dead Fines. Soon, it would cover my body, too. I felt strangely peaceful about it.

  Blackness crept together from my periphery. It was swallowing my senses, coupled with the silent ringing of my ears.

  A beam of light winked on, bathing me in a warm glow. Another beam joined the first, creating a light at the end of a seemingly endless black tunnel. I smiled, tasting blood in my mouth, as the light went out and I slipped entirely into darkness.

  - - -

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