Parker and Dani were playing Scrabble on the floor of her bedroom. It was strange to be there, like he had wandered into Narnia or fallen down the rabbit hole after the white hare. Everything was foreign and yet familiar. He saw Dani in the pastiche of femininity and activity, in the arrangement of her clothes, in the photos that circled the wide arc of her mirror. One of the pictures was of the two of them from the photo booth. It was before they were dating, during the phase Parker had named their "pseudo-relationship" time. Dani had gripped his wrist and begged him to go in with her. Before he could say no, she had popped her money in, thrown him to the seat, and bent her knee on top of his leg. It was the closest they had ever been. It was also the moment in which Parker realized the depth of his feelings for her.

"Climber," Dani said, setting down her tiles. "C-L-I-M-B-E-R. And a double word score!"

He laughed. "Don't get cocky. It will make you overconfident." His fingers rattled over his own pieces. "Actually, scratch that. Get cocky. It will give me an edge." Not that he needed it. Dani was competitive and excelled at most everything, but Parker had the upper hand when it came to Scrabble. It was something he didn't let her forget. Sometimes, when she was having a bad day, it was even the kind of thing she might snap at him over.

That day was a good day, though. After Parker got off of work, they met up at his new apartment and had dinner in Chinatown. They took the subway back to her side of town, and Parker decided to stick around for a game of Scrabble. A game he was winning... by a lot. Dani pursed her lips and sighed dramatically. "Put your pieces on the board already," she said, hopping up to cross to her dresser behind Parker. She took a sip of the soda, tapping a nail against the side of the can.

Cerulean eyes poured over his tiles. He had plenty of words there, but he needed to play strategically. Most of the double word and double letter scores weren't reachable. Dani had a knack for keeping them from him, even if she wasn't as good at finding her own words. After a few moments, a wry smile crossed Parker's lips. "Quirks," he said, triumphant. "Q-U-I-R-K-S on a triple world score. I'm sorry, Dani, but I have just destroyed all of your hope." Fingers clicked the pieces to the board, and Parker reached backward blindly to give Dani's leg a squeeze.

His fingers wrapped around a boot.

Parker turned slowly and looked at his hand. He was clutching the ankle of a black stiletto boot. Dani's can of soda lay on its side beside his arm, draining out onto the pale cream of her carpet. "Sorry to interrupt your little game." The steely voice of Tanzanite was unmistakable, even if he didn't know her name. Parker raised his eyes inch by inch.

Towering over him, Lt. Tanzanite stood, one normal arm on her hip, the other monstrous appendage clutching Dani's throat. Dani's bright green eyes were wide with fear. Tanzanite grinned. Her teeth were pointed, cut in jagged lines like the lopsided grin of a jack-o-lantern. "See if you can find a way to spell 'goodbye' on that little board, would you?" The monstrous youma arm shook, and a gaping hole ripped wide in it, lined with sharp teeth. Dani screamed.

The arm clamped down on her throat to silence her, and she went slack, eyes rolling back and forth in their sockets. The youma arm unhinged its jaw like a rattlesnake and moved over her head. Bones crunched like gravel beneath boots as it worked. First her head, then her shoulders, then the ice blue of her hair. One hand twitched sporadically before it was engulfed too. The last thing Parker saw of Dani was her bare feet slipping into the gnashing jaws of the youma arm, as she was fully consumed.

Parker was paralyzed. His hand was still on Tanzanite's ankle.

A mass of purple hair fell over her shoulder as the tall Negaverse agent leaned forward. She brought her lips inches from Parker's ear so that he could feel the warmth of her breath. "This is the part," she said, voice rankled with joy, "where you try to run." A stiletto-clad leg kicked out, knocking him backwards.

Parker scrambled to his feet, racing for the door. His hand gripped the door handle, and he swung it open so hard that it collided with the wall. A red-haired man stood in the doorway. "Where do you think you're going?" Obsidian lifted the gleaming hilt of his sword. "Don't you understand that this is just getting started?" Parker turned to run the other way, but Tanzanite blocked his path. She was picking her teeth with a finger bone. Dani's finger bone.

"I call dibs," Obsidian said.

Tanzanite frowned. "No, he's mine."

Obsidian raised his sword, and the gaping hole in Tanzanite's arm swelled open. Both Negaverse agents swung for Parker, and he swore he could see Dani's face tear-stained and staring out from the monstrous arm as both weapons made contact.

Parker awoke in his bed panting. His sheets were twisted at his feet, and the book he'd been reading slumped to the floor. It was the middle of the afternoon in Hillworth. He had taken a nap instead of going to lunch. Swinging his legs over one side of the bed, Parker rested his head in his hands. It had felt so real, so real. Dream or not, the image of Dani being consumed by the youma arm would not leave Parker's head. He was afraid it never would.