“Why can’t you just tell me what you want instead of taunting me with these impossible riddles you amuse yourself with!” Javier says as he launches himself to his feet and defiantly stares the beast down. “What the HELL do you mean by me being Rudolph?”

It sniggers deeply as its already malformed face twists like a wound up rubber band then cracks open like an egg to reveal thousands of sharp teeth.

“Metaphors are what make us, what we are. But if you must understand, then I will share with you a moment so you can understand what it is you must do and how doing what I ask will make everything be complete.”

“You give me that day again, and you make it last forever I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“I swear it will so,” the beast growls as an image of a girl appears before them. “Her name is Sophie McAdams, she holds the key to how this all ends.”

“If she’s so important why don’t you just trap her like you have done with me?”

“Because she’s part to the current story, where you’re fodder, a leftover character given a glimpse of tomorrow but with no real role until now that is.”

Javier bites down on a cigarette as he ignites it, taking several strong drags on it before blowing a bellowing ball of smoke into the beast face, “So, you want me to kill her?”

The beast smiles, “No brother, I want you to save her, I want you to protect her. Towns has created her to find where he has hidden himself, his true self and then to slay me. But if we control the weapon, we control destiny,” the beast says as the darkness melts away and Javier finds himself standing in a hallway. As his eyes move around his new surroundings he spies a disfigured figure standing slouched at the opposite end of the hallway brandishing a baseball bat, a woman’s body laying at its feet.

The figure looks over to Javier and he sees its teeth glimmer in the darkness. Suddenly it stands upright and turns its head towards the girl then jerks forward, lunging towards her. She scrambles backwards, screaming in fear as the it grabs at her relentlessly, with little hesitation Javier raises his revolver and squeezes the trigger.