You pick up your pace, running shoulder to shoulder with Marco as you chase the stray into a park.
She cuts through a decorative hedge and across a stretch of mown grass. There is a playground at the other end, one of those bright modern ones with plastic slides and soft edges everywhere.
Somehow, in the dim flickering light of a distant streetlamp, it looks sinister as hell.
Packpackpack.
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The stray reaches the playground and skids to a stop, her eyes wide. She tries to turn, to run back the way she came, but it's too late.
Vicky and Ed emerge from the darkness, one from the left, another from the right. They move in perfect harmony as they pounce, bringing her to the ground in a shower of dirt.
She lashes out, but it's no use. You and Marco are there in a matter of seconds. She is outnumbered four to one... and you can see by the panic in her eyes that she knows it.
The second you're close enough, you help Vicky and Ed pin her to the ground, making sure she can't get her claws or teeth into either of them. Once she realises she's immobilised, she starts talking, voice high and terrified. "I'm sorry. Don't hurt me. Please."
"We're not going to hurt you," Ed says before turning to you. "Right?"
"What's going on?" Vicky asks. "Who is she? What happened?"
"You're bleeding," Ed says, eyes wide. He's looking at you.
You swipe at your brow again. "It's just a head wound."
"Yeah," Marco growls, eyes pinned on the stray. "The head. Nothing to worry about. It's not as if that's the most important part of your body or anything."
Ed looks at the three of you uncertainly. He's in his twenties, but in that moment he looks closer to twelve.
Vicky isn't as slow on the uptake. "A stray."
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