I saw it first.
A dark little blur in my peripheral vision.
I froze. It froze.
We both knew—this was war.

It twitched.
I flinched.
It ran. I screamed.
Not a regular scream—
a high-pitched, full-volume,
"my soul just left my body" kind of scream.

I grabbed the closest weapon—
a shoe, too small to...