The monster catches alight and the flesh begins to melt away in clumps, as if it was held on by wax. It flickers more and more as the flesh sloughs off, until only a flickering clouded something remains, watching without eyes, unrestrained and approaching rapidly.

Jim will have to run. As long as he runs at top speed the entire way back, he'll make it inside. The monster waits and shifts in and out of itself endlessly just outside, and until it wanders away in the morning their tablets only display static.