[When a small boy comes through the door, for a second what Blake sees is one of the white-skinned children he's been seeing out of the corners of his eye, in the shadows floating face-down.]
[For an instant, they wear the same look of horror.]
[But this kid is alive, and it's somebody he hasn't seen outside of a nightmare in a long time. Blake's expression changes to surprise.] You?
[And then he's screaming. It doesn't feel great to provoke instant terror from a child, but it proves he's real, at least.]
[Blake waves his hand in front of him.] Kid-- Shaun! Calm down! I'm not gonna hurt you--
[The shadows in the doorway are still moving. Beneath the sound of his scream, there's a thin, rhythmic wheeze.]
[The figure fills the door. It's a hulking, shapeless thing with a blackened, rotted shield shape on its shoulder, wrapped in a coat that drips rain.]
[Blake grabs Shaun by the arm and yanks him out of the way.]
[He charges at the thing and jams the pointy end of the rod into its stomach.]
[It falls back and momentum carries him with it until it hits the ground and he lands on top, knee sinking sickeningly into its gut. He wrenches his weapon free and stabs it viciously into the mass of the thing again and again. A flailing limb hits him across the face and there's a wave of heavy, lurching pain that Carter doesn't have time to let slow him down.]
[As the thing thrashes and bleeds muddy water, it gurgles his name.]
no subject
[For an instant, they wear the same look of horror.]
[But this kid is alive, and it's somebody he hasn't seen outside of a nightmare in a long time. Blake's expression changes to surprise.] You?
[And then he's screaming. It doesn't feel great to provoke instant terror from a child, but it proves he's real, at least.]
[Blake waves his hand in front of him.] Kid-- Shaun! Calm down! I'm not gonna hurt you--
[The shadows in the doorway are still moving. Beneath the sound of his scream, there's a thin, rhythmic wheeze.]
[The figure fills the door. It's a hulking, shapeless thing with a blackened, rotted shield shape on its shoulder, wrapped in a coat that drips rain.]
[Blake grabs Shaun by the arm and yanks him out of the way.]
[He charges at the thing and jams the pointy end of the rod into its stomach.]
[It falls back and momentum carries him with it until it hits the ground and he lands on top, knee sinking sickeningly into its gut. He wrenches his weapon free and stabs it viciously into the mass of the thing again and again. A flailing limb hits him across the face and there's a wave of heavy, lurching pain that Carter doesn't have time to let slow him down.]
[As the thing thrashes and bleeds muddy water, it gurgles his name.]