---

As Sawyer entered the church and the others followed him, he saw a mousy young lady standing ahead of the group and stopped. His first instinct was to raise his camera to take a photo, which he did; framed expertly against the backdrop of old, rotten pews, cold, moss-covered walls and the light rays streaming in from gaps in the ceiling of the abandoned church. A picture to remember. Then he chuckled as he grinned and rubbed the back of his head rather sheepishly, letting his camera fall back onto his chest. As the young lady explained that her name was Brianna, he blurted out his apology.

"Sorry. Force of habit. You're the one that called us here, eh?"

Sawyer took a back seat as the others asked questions and made idle banter; some not believing the situation they were in, others taking it with a grain of salt, generous in their belief but skeptical of her intentions. Then there was mention of a Witch. A mythical being, although grounded in reality the subject of many 90s young adult novels and fiction. Stuff he'd read about, growing up in such a religious town like Araminta, as the product of the devil's influence in the writers of today. Blasphemous. Sinful. And yet, standing in that abandoned church as a writer himself, Sawyer saw the irony in the situation. Not very deeply religious himself, but here he was, investigating something that railed against every religious bone in his body, of which there were few. Mostly overruled by those of curiosity and concern for the wellbeing of his fellow man. He was here to investigate and to follow this story to its logical, or even illogical conclusion.

So even as some of the group were inclined to disagree with Brianna being able to help them, Sawyer shook his head and chuckled, mostly to himself.

"I uh, I'm not sure what the game is here, but y'know me. I'm always hungry for a new story to write. Consider me-"

And then the noises came. A loud thumping on the closed church doors that rocked them in their hinges, dislodging dust and dirt from the frame as a loud growl issues from the other side, muffled by wood and stone. It startled David out of his mood, and he followed the noise as he backed away from the door, watching where that big something-or-other was thumping its way up the front of the church, up onto the roof. Then it came crashing down on top of them, lost within a flurry of dust and loose stones and ceiling tiles. David leaped out of the way, hugging his satchel and camera to his chest as he tumbled away from the chaos of the roof caving in. He was behind Amanda, the police officer, as she pulled her personal firearm from its holster and pointed it at the spreading cloud of thick dust, but only heard that same loud growling. The journalist couldn't resist the opportunity and raised his camera to take a picture, framing Amanda against the backdrop of dust, her gun pointed at the uncertainty of the monster within the cloud of dust.

But after that, he turned off his camera, held his things close to his chest and scrambled backwards, letting his survival instincts take over as he tried to put as much distance between himself and...whatever that thing was.

---

June looked at Brianna as the woman gave her a focused look in return. Another person, Jaden as he'd been named, called Brianna out in a way June agreed with: it really did seem like the woman had just expected people to believe and trust her for no real reason. Though to be honest, some people actually did. Well, those people could do whatever they wanted, but June didn't want any part of it. She didn't show up to play hero, so unless Brianna had something a little more tangible to show her, she was ready to head on out of there-

THUMP!

June flinched, then slowly turned around to face the noise that turned into a cacophony of banging and growling. Just as the noise rose up the other side of the wall, so too did she feel her heart rise up into her throat. The noise stopped, and she held her breath. One could have heard a pin drop in that moment.

It took just a second for the rest of the roof to suddenly collapse. Various people yelled out in shock, with one notably commanding everyone to move out of the way. June didn't need to be told twice, and after dashing away from the falling debris she found herself crouching down low behind a set of pews, near where Jaden had gone to hide for cover as well. June coughed as dust filled the air, a byproduct of the monster's destruction. Though even as she peered over the seats, she couldn't see the damn thing anywhere, though from what she could gather from the various shouts of everyone there, it was apparently invisible. All that could seen were the footprints the monster left behind.

'Shit, I should just run.'

Her eyes were drawn to the entrance they'd all walked through to enter the damned building in the first place. If she could just make it over there without drawing attention...hell, it looked like someone else had the same idea as well, as she could see the one pale woman who dressed in all black was trying to inch her way over along the walls. But, would that even matter? The monster couldn't be seen, could climb walls, and was apparently very fast. June doubted she'd ever be able to outrun or evade such a thing, and even if she managed to successfully escape there was no telling if it would just track her down later anyway. If Brianna was worth her merit and could be trusted, the safest place at the moment would have to be near her. Jaden was already yelling at her to do something, so hopefully she would, and soon.

"Fuck fuck fuck..." June muttered nervously as she saw the monster wasn't really wasting any time either. She couldn't help but cringe when the cop got rammed by the charging beast and was sent flying, even more so when the cop landed roughly. The officer had tried to fight back but even when armed with a gun it didn't seem like she could do anything; without something to aim at, what she could she even shoot? It wasn't like firing randomly in a room full of people was at all a good idea.

"Damn it, what do we do?" Her words hissed out through clenched teeth. It may have been directed at Brianna, but June truly felt like she was at a loss for what she could possibly do. Subconsciously, her fingers dug into the wood of the seat she was grasping, which a moment or so later caused her to hiss again, this time in pain as she'd accidentally got a splinter stuck in her finger. She shook her hand to wave off the minor pain, but then she stopped and took a closer look at the wood. It was rotting away slightly, and the seat itself wobbled a bit due to having loosened up over time. Maybe...

June gripped onto the seat with both hands, then attempted to yank it off with as much strength as she could muster. She grit her teeth and grunted as it wiggled and cracked, then used her foot as extra leverage to finally pull it free, nearly falling over in the process. She held the fractured board of wood tightly in her hands, with rusted nails sticking out of the other end of it. It wasn't much for an improvised weapon, but it was essentially a spiked club. Not a particularly good one, but it would have to do.

At this point, June was just waiting for an opening to strike. She needed to make it count. If she just charged in and swung randomly like an idiot, she'd probably just die. But if it tried to attack someone else (which it seemed like it was just about to do), she could try to hit it while it was distracted. Though, if it tried to attack her next...

Well. That would really fucking suck. At least she'd go out swinging, she supposed. But hey, she hasn't lost a game of chicken yet.