Ibrahim saw her through the rear-view mirror.

"You won't get away!" She yelled. Waving her hand, she cast a spell that made the tires burst. They blew out all at the same time.

The car shook. Hubcaps screamed across the paved driveway. Ibrahim took the terror it made him feel and used it to knit the tires back together and reinforce them against Letty's influence.

"Get back here!" She stomped her foot like a child, flailing her robe.

Ibrahim kept his eyes on her as the car backed out onto the street. The way was clear.

Letty lifted both her arms high with a wild shriek, hands bent downward like falling hawks. "Rise!" she yelled. "Rise!"

And the world obeyed her.

Warriors emerged from their surroundings; from the asphalt road, from the sidewalk, and the red-tiled roof. Wrought iron light fixtures stepped out from her mansion's walls, growing metal bodies and artful weapons. They were like suits of living armor.

"Stop them!" Letty commanded. "Stop them!"

The warriors chased. The armors in back threw flagstone axes and rooftop javelins. Ibrahim managed to deflect most of the projectiles off the car through the sheer force of his panic, but one of the throwing axes smashed into the middle of the windshield, sending fissures through the glass.

Ibrahim saw Jonan's eyes widen through the rear-view mirror.

"What the fuck!" Jonan screamed. He lifted his legs off the floor. "What the fuck?!"

Asphalt warriors rose up from the road in front of and behind the car as Ibrahim pulled out onto the street. He rear-ended one of them, damaging the Holden's bumper to knock the asphalt warrior backward onto the street with a leaden thud.

Time started running at high speed. Clouds slithered across the sky, chasing the Sun toward the horizon.

Ibrahim shifted the car into drive. "Hold on!"

He pressed his foot down on the accelerator.

Jonan braced his arms against the back seats and screamed.

Engine roaring, the car rocketed forward. Ibrahim swerved around sharply, evading the core of the group of asphalt warriors up ahead. The road jostled beneath the wheels as they drove forward, set off balance by the lumps protruding from the ground—more warriors, rising to action.

The car rocked and rolled, bouncing up and down, but it soon got ahead of the emerging asphalt warriors—literally.

Day turned to evening. The street lamps shone like torches. The lamps quickly bent and swelled, rising up from the sidewalk, kicking off the pavement with their slender limbs. Light glowed in the palms of their hands, and then—sticking out their arms—burst out in streams of fire.

Not fit to be outdone by mere light fixtures, the palm trees lining the streets grew arms uprooted themselves and crawled forward on their hundreds of short, slender roots. They made grenades out of their hard-shelled fruits, hurling them at the car, detonating them when they landed.

One of the blasts broke a passenger-side window and dented the door.

Larry stuck his head out of the broken window.

"Shit!" he yelled.

A howl cracked in the darkening sky.

Through the rear-view window, Ibrahim saw Letty fly over her army. Her robes had grown long, trailing her like a velour wind. She spread her arms wide, grasping at the air with fingers lengthened into vicious claws. Whipping her hands, she sprayed out massive shards of twining wrought iron that impaled the street, scattering flakes of asphalt and concrete. She pierced through her soldiers, indifferent to their presence.

Jonan ducked down, and then screamed as bolts of wrought iron speared through the car's roof.

Had he dodged a second later, he'd have lost his head.

The shards hit the road up ahead. They were taller than the car, and stuck out from the street like hollow obelisks.

Ibrahim turned the steering, slaloming around them. He drew from his anger, squeezing the steering wheel so hard he thought his fingers might pop. He yelled at the falling obstacles, shattering them to pieces.

"Out of the way! Get the fuck out of the way!"

One of the shards landed at the car's immediate left. The side-view mirror was smacked into the ornate metal and got ripped off.

"Shit!" Ibrahim yelled.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He turned at the intersection up ahead. City lights twinkled in the distance. Palm trees uprooted themselves on either side of the next block, forcing Ibrahim to make a sharp left. The car nearly tipped over as a group of asphalt warriors emerged beneath it.

"Damn it!" he screamed. "I can't attack, defend, and drive at the same time!"

And then, just like that, he and Larry had swapped places. Ibrahim looked around in shock.

"Wh—"

"—Fine by me," Larry said, as he took the wheel. "I'll drive, you focus on the other two."

Ibrahim stared at the janitor. The man was pale. He winced and groaned.

He seemed to be in terrible pain.

"Will you be alright?"

"Just go!" Larry said.

Nodding, Ibrahim channeled his anger; the outrage he felt toward the untold harm Letty had caused, harm that he and I and others like us would have to devote countless hours to undo.

The instant Ibrahim's anger overcame his panic, his teleportation turned into a weapon, blipping him from the passenger seat to the roof of the car. He kept some worries on the side to bind his feet to the roof, so that he could more easily "ride" as it zoomed on, bending his body and legs whenever it veered or turned.

A lamp-post knight blasted a flame at Ibrahim, but he managed to dodge it by bending low, only to look up at a shard of iron hurtling toward him.

Shit!

The metal impaled the side of his gut. Agony burned at his flank. In reflex, he reached for the wound.

"Larry!" Ibrahim yelled.

"You're a sitting duck!" Letty cackled.

No! Ibrahim glared at her.

He couldn't let her shape his emotions. His feelings were his to control, and no one else's. It was his foolproof two-step plan for dealing with bullies.

First, you steel yourself against their cruelty.

Then you beat the crap out of them.

Groaning, Ibrahim pulled the metal shaft out of his flank.

Angel, it hurt!

Panting in pain, he closed his eyes and focused.

It was the hardest meditation he'd ever attempted. But, in a strange way, the pain helped. The throbbing, crackling, pulse burning in his side pushed away all other thoughts. So, he meditated on the pain. He made it his focus as he devoted all his brainpower to a single, solitary concept. One word:

Safety.

He wanted to feel safe again. He wanted a world where everyone could be safe. Where a man on the street could drift to sleep on a park bench without a care in the world and suffer no ill consequence.

Safety.

Dr. Rathpalla made a mantra out of that word while he surfed the street on the car's roof amidst a sea of war and pain.

"Die!" Letty yelled.

Safety.

Even as he bled out, Ibrahim opened his eyes and stuck out his arms.

He conjured safety. Not just for himself, but for everyone; for all the souls Letty had imprisoned.

All the lampposts began to glow. It didn't matter if they were chasing after the car, blasting firebolts or flinging weapons, or if they were still moored in the sidewalk, waiting to be called to the fight. Ribbons of light wove out of the lamps and snaked through the air, answering Ibrahim's call.

Letty screamed "What are you doing!?". She launched a batch of wrought-iron javelins.

Dr. Rathpalla pulled the souls close, weaving them into a shield, even as they percolated out of Letty's mind and into his. The javelins bit into Ibrahim's shield like fangs. They turned into iron drills that spun and sparked. Gnash! Gnash! Gnash!

The souls kept coming, more and more, gathering in golden streams that swirled around Ibrahim.

With a roar—her features distorting into monstrosity—Letty flung herself at Ibrahim, but he dodged, teleporting back into the car. Without a second thought, he reached over and grabbed the steering wheel and turned it hard to the right.

The car veered out of the way; Letty missed her mark and crashed into the road.

Jonan crowed. "Yes!" He shook his fist in triumph.

But Ibrahim's blood ran cold. Letty's body started to change before his eyes. She grew larger, striped in black and jaguar. Her proportions shifted to a speed-built, four-legged stance. She subsumed her charging army, plating herself in asphalt, concrete, and iron, growing spikes, a clubbed tail, and horns of malice.

She roared.

Jonan stared into the rear-view mirror, dumfounded, but then glanced at Larry and yelled.

"What the fuck?! What's happening to him?"

Looking up, Ibrahim was horrified to see Larry quivering. His face had contorted with a lurid mix of emotions. And his body…

He was starting to liquefy.

Larry's body was losing cohesion. Rivulets ran down his arms and sides as he melted. The fluid flowed off from where Larry held the steering wheel and onto Ibrahim's hands and arms.

Larry screamed.

The fluid pooled at the bottom of the car, quickly turning black as Night. Then the car groaned and its bottom dissolved away.

The fluid ate through it.

The car spun out of control. Wheels screeched. The car ripped down the middle with a soft crunch. The two halves of the vehicle shot off in their separate ways, sending Ibrahim's world flying through the air, bouncing and tumbling and then spitting him and Jonan and Larry out onto the street.

He groaned and rose to his feet.

The Letty-monster slowed to a stop. She smacked a forepaw on the road. Her jaw drooped open, tongue lolling among her many, spit-slicked fangs.

"There's nowhere left to run, Dr. Rathpalla." Her voice shook the night.

The walking palm trees stood at attention beside her.

Off to the side, Larry moaned, still struggling to stand.

Letty watched him fumble, eyes gleaming with play.

He reached toward the wrecked car—toward Ibrahim. His features contorted in pain.

"Help…" he muttered. "Help me… Dr. Rath… palla. Dr. Rath…"

Letty sneered. "Like a wind-up doll's last steps."

Then Larry clutched his head and screamed.

The sound sent a shiver thunderbolting down Ibrahim's back.

Larry drooped and sagged. He was a melting scream, eyes blurring away, mouth dragged narrow and tall. He crawled across the road in desperation, shrieking in terror.

"Help me! Help me!"

His words stretched out, distorting and deepening. His melting body deposited its wet chunks behind him on the road as he crawled—feet and hands, then arms and legs.

Letty backpedaled, wide-eyed in shock.

Larry spread into a puddle, broad and dark. The puddle pressed down on the street with a terrible weight, spreading cracks through the asphalt. The road buckled and fell inward, deepening into a bottomless pit that hungered as it grew.

The monster Letty had become scrambled for purchase on the pit's ever-steepening sides, but failed and fell.

Ibrahim grabbed the light of the souls and pulled on it like a rope. Jonan tumbled down beside him. Dr. Rathpalla swung from the rope and stuck out an arm, hoping to reach him.

"Jonan!"

Ibrahim grabbed him by his coat. For a split second, Jonan looked up at him in terror, but then dissolved into golden light that snaked around Ibrahim, brilliant and bright.

The end of the chain of souls zipped down the side of the hole. It rushed into Ibrahim as the world around him became the falling wall of the endless dark. The sky was a rapidly shrinking hole drifting further and further away, up and up.

Then Ibrahim closed his eyes and willed himself back to life.

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