At the far end of the wide hallway, amidst falling tatters of clothing, a giant, black, snake-like monstrosity swayed back and forth. His head hovered just a few feet below the drop-tile ceiling. He had to be at least one hundred feet long, and thick as a large tree trunk. Spikes jutted out from his head and ran down his back. He hissed, showing fangs the size of fire-pokers, and spread his hood.


    Now that is definitely a demon, June thought.


    Dr. Chase slid closer like quicksilver. Claws out, June tensed, ready to pounce. But about thirty feet away, he paused and didn’t come within her striking range—he tilted his head back and an amber-tinged liquid shot from his mouth. He was quick, and without much room to dodge it, June held an arm in front of her face and her fur absorbed the spray. But where it reached June’s skin, she felt it burn and realized what it was: venom. Great.


    She didn’t have long to dwell on it as Dr. Chase fired another stream. June blocked it again, wincing as it burned parts of her arm a second time. With each spray, he moved slightly closer—with the next one, he would be within her reach. Dr. Chase closed the remaining distance in a blur. He struck toward her with his fangs now, but June slashed at his face, missing his eye by the breadth of a hair, keeping him at bay.


    He slid back with obvious frustration and struck again, but June leaned out of the way and lashed out. Her claws made contact with the snake’s hood, slicing through it. He hissed fiercely and jolted to the side, slamming into the glass wall of the lab, which remained unharmed—it really was tough. June used the chance to close the distance, aiming to stick her claws through his face.


    His tail—barbed with spikes—whipped around from behind his enormous coils and shot toward her. She ducked to the right and slashed, scraping through layers of scales. Dr. Chase hissed again, shot his head up, and sprayed the air. She leapt back, narrowly avoiding the liquid, which hit the wall. He slithered toward her, fangs bared. A quick snap of her jaws missed his throat but sent him scurrying back.


    June frantically looked for something—anything—to help her gain an advantage. Her slight edge in speed didn’t matter much in this confined space, and she couldn’t get close enough to rely on her strength. She eyed the drop-tile ceiling and doubted that jumping through it would serve much good, except as an escape route. But she couldn’t escape when three people she loved were locked inside the lab.


    Dr. Chase slithered backward and lifted his head. June knew what was coming—every time he sprayed, he had to tilt his head back. At least briefly, he would lose sight of her. She jumped back to her left, preparing to spring forward to attack. She deftly avoided the spray and lunged. They nearly collided, claws against fangs, but each pulled back in a microsecond to avoid the other. Dr. Chase retreated while spraying an amber mist—not a stream this time—into the air. Well, that confirmed he could use his venom in multiple ways. This just keeps getting better.


    As June studied the situation, Dr. Chase’s tail swung through the mist. In her attempt to avoid it, she crashed sideways into the glass of the lab (which still stood strong) and found herself staring at Aunt Violet’s door, slightly ajar. Dr. Chase slithered away with unbelievable quickness, never taking his eyes off her, probably to create distance to spray and strike again.


    And when he tilted his head back, June used the momentary lapse in his vision to leap across the hallway and rip Aunt Violet’s door off the hinges, clutching it firmly in front of her like a shield. By the time Dr. Chase snapped his head back down to strike, June was barreling toward him with the door like a battering ram.


    But he was clever, as most snakes are, and contorted his body upward to strike from above. June saw the way his snake body moved and realized what he planned. As she plowed into him, she lifted and angled the door to meet his rising motion. They collided right next to his office.


    The ceiling was shredded through as the giant snake’s head was pushed into it, and glass, metal, and drywall crumbled as the upper portion of his enormous body was raked across broken light fixtures, bolts, bars, and metal studs. He hissed in pain and frustration and finally heaved his front end over the door to fall behind June, his massive length zipping alongside her to follow him. She narrowly avoided a slash from the barbed tail.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Now June found herself on the opposite side of the hallway, far from the door to the lab, with Dr. Chase in between. He raised up and bared his fangs in threat, and while June watched in horror, bloody gashes in his face from the ceiling stopped bleeding and closed up. In just seconds, all his injuries from the ceiling were gone. But not where she had sliced his hood—that gash remained.


    He can’t heal from my claws, she thought. That means I’m not a demon…right?


    June still held cracked remnants of the door, and blood dripped down her right forearm. She couldn’t see an obvious wound, but one of his spikes must have cut her as he’d passed.


    “We’re not done yet, my dear,” Dr. Chase hissed, then slithered toward her.


    ***


    Inside the lab, Brendan watched the battle through the glass as if frozen. He could barely keep up with the movements. June appeared to narrowly avoid attack after attack by Dr. Chase. He was fast—maybe even as fast as June. And he was able to keep her off balance with his spraying antics, which Brendan assumed had to be a venom of some kind. What an orc.


    After seeing June in action on several occasions, Brendan had started to believe her to be invincible. Now that belief was being melted away by the poison shimmering in the air around her. Brendan had felt powerless several times that night, but not once had he ever felt—or dared fear—that June was powerless. But here he stood, watching the person who had been his life-raft so many times struggling to fend off death. Any concern for his own well-being evaporated. His throat and chest felt painfully tight, and he shut his mind to the encroaching thought that life without June might be a very real possibility. He had to help her.


    “Can’t you do something!” he yelled to Cordelia.


    “I’m not quick enough—I’ll only get in June’s way,” Cordelia said, visibly pained.


    “Maybe a chemical from the lab?” Violet offered.


    “No,” Cordelia said. “We’d never get close enough.”


    Brendan threw up his hands in frustration. As he continued to watch, June ripped a door off the wall and charged down the hallway, and then in a haze of destruction, she and the snake-idiot were gone from view. All Brendan could see now was a red fire extinguisher still clipped to a section of wall that remained, somehow, untouched. His mind flashed back to Mrs. Hatcher and one of her lectures on snakes; she had written on the board snakes + cold = bad news.


    Were fire extinguishers cold? He’d just have to find out. Without a word, and before Cordelia could stop him, he ran out of the door to the lab and into the hallway.


    ***


    June grimaced as venom hit her bloody forearm, expecting burning pain again. But to her surprise, there wasn’t pain—there was nothing. Her arm instead felt cold and numb. Surprise gave way to panic, which clutched her stomach tightly. She flexed her hand—it still worked, but it seemed ever-so-slightly slower to respond. She looked up, and Dr. Chase smiled at her with a snake grin that had to be straight from hell.


    “You’ve recognisssed it now,” Dr. Chase hissed. “My venom has multiple usssesss, and now it’sss beginning to affect you. Your arm isss slowing down, isssn’t it?” His grin, already wide, grew impossibly wider and took up nearly all of his enormous, midnight-black face. “It didn’t have to be thisss way, June, but alasss, here we are.”


    June felt a fear like quicksand, gripping and grabbing and thick. But a part of her, still fierce, forced a growl out of her mouth. The growl grew in strength and built upon itself until it became a roar. Dr. Chase hesitated for a moment at the volume.


    June crouched. She had to act fast while her arm was still useful. She rushed at him, zigging and zagging to prevent a direct spray of venom. She slashed with her claws but was met by his bared fangs and whipping tail. They both avoided contact with the other. She backed up as Dr. Chase struck at her—she just barely managed to keep him at bay with her claws. She retreated into the atrium, which provided far more space than the confines of the hallway.


    Dr. Chase followed her into the larger area and whipped his tail at her from several different directions, which she repeatedly blocked with her left arm, though she suffered several cuts. June tried to slash at his tail with her right arm, but those swipes were moving noticeably slower. Time was running out. She needed to figure out a plan, quickly. She glanced upward; only scant auxiliary lights were on, and moonlight streamed into the atrium from the glass high above. High…above...


    As Dr. Chase lifted his head to spray venom at her, June leaped high up onto the wall and sank her claws into the brick to gain leverage. She pivoted, suspended for the briefest of moments dozens of feet from the ground, and then propelled herself down at him. With any luck, by the time he finished spraying, he would be too late to notice that June was plummeting toward him from above like a comet.