Not A Moment Too Soon!

Serana and Anna were currently huddled together in the back of a clothing store.

When the gate break had occurred, both girls had almost reached the exit when a large crack appeared in the space right in front of the doors.

Before anyone could react, a bright blue portal opened up, and out from it poured a powerful blizzard and icy giants with bright blue skin.

They of course tried to run like everyone else, but Anna unfortunately tripped and sprained her ankle after a few minutes of running.

Unwilling to leave behind her new friend, Serana did her best to carry her to the exit but it proved a futile effort.

The giants were relentless, mowing down hordes of humans without a second thought as they single mindedly pursued the duo of young girls.

Anna's injury had caused the giants to see her as wounded prey and she very quickly became the most desirable.

Left with no choice, the two girls ran into the closest store they could find after some of the giants chasing them became distracted by slower humans.

Luckily, the power had gone out in all of the chaos so the girls now had a dark and somewhat safe space to hide in.

Both girls were shivering horribly from the cold as they hid behind a counter all the way in the back.

Anna was weeping silently, both from the pain of her ankle and the fear she felt from this hellish situation.

How does a gate just open up in the middle of nowhere like that?!

'And all of those people.... Oh god...'

As Anna spiraled from seeing a massacre right in front of her, Serana was busy taking out her phone and trying to contact Malachi.

It didn't take her very long to realize that she had absolutely no cell service and none of her calls or texts were making it through.

"Damn it..." She muttered.

Emotionally, she wasn't doing much better than Anna.

It was taking all of her power not to panic as well but she had faith that there was someone who could get them out of this situation.

Serana finally noticed that the beautiful goth girl opposite her had been crying for a while now and moved closer to provide warmth and comfort.

"It's okay." She whispered. "Malachi will come to save us in no time and we can leave all of this behind."

Anna seemed to have forgotten about her project partner who also happened to be the world's most famous blessed, and it didn't take her very long for that information to slow her heartbeat down just a bit.

But in the next moment, her heart was beating even faster than it was before.

Crash!

The sound of something breaking through a door was accompanied by slow and heavy footsteps.

Both Anna and Serana's eyes became as wide as saucers as they covered their mouths to stop the sound of their breathing from coming out.

Inside of the abandoned store were two ice giants, a male and a female.

The two were stumbling around, knocking over mannequins and flipping over displays as they tried to follow the smell of frightened food.

While their movements were unsteady at first, after a while they began to drift towards the back of the store where the two terrified girls were hiding.

With every booming step, the shaking of the two girls became worse and worse.

Before the girls knew it, the horrifying scene of two blue giants peering eerily over the counter played right in front of their eyes.

Serana was so afraid she fainted on the spot, and Anna found herself unable to move even a single inch as the giant's hand inched closer to her.

"Please... don't..." She pleaded.

Just before she was grabbed by the icy giant, a change finally occurred in the atmosphere.

Suddenly, the giants turned around towards the destroyed entrance and found a pair of burning orange eyes peering through the wintery storm.

"Chinpa?"

Shiing!

Faster than the eye could follow, ten bright silver flashes shot out from within the storm and found their way into the bodies of the giants.

As the monsters went down, Malachi finally leapt into the store and began ripping the two limb from limb.

Anna was still sitting behind the counter, scared out of her mind and unsure of what was happening, but by this point she was absolutely certain that she was going to die.

After a few more seconds, the sound of fighting died down and the only sound left was off the fierce wind outside and Anna's thudding heartbeat.

She contemplated whether or not it was safe to get up and was surprised when a large furry creature suddenly discovered their hiding spot.

Normally Anna would have been afraid, but as she looked into those bright orange eyes, she felt a strange sense of relief instead.

"I'm glad I found you girls... I was almost too late."

The beast's voice was deep and monstrous, but there was a softness inside that Anna had come to know very well.

"M-Mal...?"

"You know anyone else who can turn into a giant cat monster?"

Malachi's bad joke didn't seem to have an effect as Anna shook her head sheepishly.

Coming behind the counter, Mal reached out to take both of the pale and shaking girls into his arms. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Anna tried to move, but her legs had unfortunately been reduced to jelly and she had realized something horribly embarrassing.

In her immense fear earlier, she seemed to have lost control of her bladder and relieved herself all over the floor.

Now she was caught between a rock and a hard place, with no way to escape from this monumental embarrassment.

Luckily, Mal seemed to understand exactly what she was concerned about and immediately reassured her.

"It's alright, I'm sure that you were terrified out of your mind, huh? I'm not childish enough to be disgusted with you for this, especially when it was my fault for taking so long."

Mal gently reached out and placed his hands around Anna's waist.

He lifted her up with minimal effort, and shuffled all of her body weight onto one arm.

His forearm was placed just underneath her butt, allowing him to have a firm yet appropriate grip on her without causing any awkwardness.

With both of her arms wrapped around his neck, she looked a bit like a baby koala the way she was clinging to him.

After lifting up Serana and holding her the same way, Mal walked out of the store with both beauties in his arms.

Despite the embarrassment she felt, Anna could not help but feel at peace from being so close to Malachi like this, and a small part of her wished to never leave.

"Thank you for saving us, Mal." She whispered amongst the whistling winds of the snowstorm.

She wasn't certain if he could hear her, but she felt like a weight had been removed from her chest after she said it.

As she buried her face in the crook of his neck, she finally realized that she hadn't really felt cold ever since he picked her up.

'Seriously... how can someone be so warm...?'