A Steampunk Guide to Hunting Monsters 15 | Page 15

smiled as he toppled behind the door he had pulled
open. Only then did I realize what door he had been
standing outside. An emaciated hand reached out of
the cell and I began to move away. I needed to get
away, but the moment its shoulder appeared, I was
moving forward.
I swear I could hear the screams of the entire
monster hunting party! I swear Brunhilde Bamfi eld
was calling out to me through the growing winds!
Th e prison was freezing.
Th e lady-like dew that had been misting the
inside of my clothing suddenly turned cold, and
I shivered so hard my teeth clacked together. An
unmistakable aura of doom settled in over us; I felt
an ancient power rise through the air, as implacable
and unavoidable as the many fl akes of snow that
fl oated in the torch lights. For a moment, I thought
Lu Yan felt it as well; he hesitated, the tip of the gun
dropped, and I saw an uncertainty almost flicker
across his face.
“Philomena…” the wind called to me, and the
Wendigo appeared!
Lu Yan fi red at it, but somehow, it turned to the
left and instantly disappeared.
Winchester only ran further up the spiraling
stairs with Lu Yan in hot pursuit and Percy and I
clinging close behind.
Winchester ran into the mechanical room of the
dead wife. Th e room that fi lled me with dread. Lu
Yan yelled, “No!”
We burst into the room to see Winchester
smashing switches, tearing down mechanics, and
just as he clambered on top of a machine and threw
a large electrical switch, he tipped his hat to me.
Th en he threw himself out the window.
Suddenly weird, unknown monsters began to tear
the walls apart from without. Percy explained after
this ordeal that these may have been the creatures
compelled by the Wendigo to do its bidding, but we
will never know for sure.
Lu Yan's wife was now more formed than when
I last saw her. Her jaw and sternum were replaced