The room was too dark.
I twisted in the sheets, breath coming in short gasps, tangled in dreams that didn't feel like my own.
Something pressed against my chest like water, cold and heavy, pinning me to the mattress. I tried to call out, but no sound came. Just the beat of my heart, loud and frantic to my ears.
I was running… only not really. My feet moved like they were underwater. Fog closed in around me, thick as soup. Something was moving through it. Hands. Long, pale fingers that slipped between the trees, reaching for me.
I couldn't see the face they belonged to.
Didn't want to.
But I saw the eyes, shining like silver coins, glittering through the darkness.
The whispers came next. The words hovering on the edge of understanding, incessant and unending, curling in my ears like smoke. Warm and cold at the same time. Whispered promises, lies and secrets.
Hope of a home.
Of belonging.
Then there was blood.
I fell. My knees striking the forest floor, but there was no pain-only the sharp scent of moss and earth, and then something metallic. Familiar. Like pennies on my tongue.
Something breathed in the trees. Not wind. Something watching. Waiting.
Rain began to fall.
Red and thick, the stink of copper and iron filling my nostrils.
It was out there, reaching for me, wanting me. I could feel its hunger. Its need.
It terrified me.
I couldn't move, pinned to the forest floor like a butterfly on a lepidopterists table. It was coming closer. Hands grasping for me, reaching…
The moment stretched, and I opened my mouth to scream-
-and woke up gasping, the taste of metal lingering on my tongue.
My bedroom swam into focus. Moonlight pooled through the gap in the curtains, casting silver streaks across the floor. My quilt was twisted around my legs, damp with sweat. The ticking of the clock hanging on the wall the only sound.
For a moment, I lay there, afraid to move. Just lay, heart thudding in my chest, staring at the ceiling like the shadows might reach down and pull me back into that dream.
I wanted to cry, to scream, but I was wrung out, exhausted.
Something was wrong. Not just dream-wrong. Real.
I could feel it.
I sat up, pushing my hair back from my damp forehead. My throat was dry. The silence outside was too complete. No wind. No hoot of the owls as they hunted. No rustle of night-time wildlife. Just… nothing.
Then came the noise.
A soft scrape. Like claws on stone. Somewhere near the back door.
I froze. Every rational part of me told me to stay put, lock my bedroom door and wait for morning. It wasn't my problem. Let Maggie deal with it.
But then it came again, that sort scrape against the door like something was probing, testing, looking for a way in.
The dreams had me on edge, and some reckless part of me needed to know. To see that it was nothing, just a strange noise in an unfamiliar place out in the countryside. I was a city girl. It was easy to think I was imagining things.
Bare feet silent on the floorboards, I crept over to the window and looked out.
Movement. Just a flicker, down near the tables. Could've been a fox or a badger, but my skin prickled with the sense that whatever was out there didn't belong.
I told myself not to be stupid. Not to go outside alone, in the middle of the night, in the middle of bloody nowhere. But I needed to know, to see that it wasn't real, that it was just some animal and not a creature of my nightmares.
Pulling on a hoodie, I walked slowly down the stairs. I waited there, listening for the sound I had heard but all was silent. For a moment, I debated, wondering what the hell I was doing, then I grabbed a torch from behind the bar and unlocked the back door.
The night air hit me like a slap, cold and damp, filled with the earthy scent of fallen leaves from the forest that covered the hill behind the pub. I stepped outside, barefoot, wincing as an errant stone dug into my heel.
My breath puffed white in the moonlight. The torch flickered once before holding steady.
I swept the beam across the beer garden. Nothing.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
Then something moved at the edge of the trees.
A low growl curled from the darkness.
"Hello?" I called, instantly regretting it.
The growl came again, closer. Louder.
The thing that stepped into the light wasn't a fox, nor a badger. Not anything normal.
It looked like a dog… at first. Lean, ribs poking out from patchy fur. But its eyes were wrong. A sickly green glow emanated from them. Its lips were pulled back in a snarl; teeth slick with foam. A string of drool swung from its jaw.
It looked rabid. Or sick. Or worse.
A thick, long, tongue hung from its mouth, grey and slick. The bones visible along its ribcage seemed to shift and move in the light of the torch. Everything about it screamed wrong to me.
My pulse leapt. I took a step back.
"Nice dog," I said, voice trembling.
Idiot, idiot, idiot a voice whispered in my head as I took another step back.
It growled again, ears flattening, body low to the ground.
And then it lunged.
I screamed and stumbled, hitting the paving stones hard as the creature barrelled into me. I threw up my arms, the torch flying from my grip. Teeth snapped inches from my face, and I kicked out blindly.
Something connected. The beast yelped. It scrambled back, then came again.
I barely got my arms up in time. Teeth sank into the sleeve of my hoodie, tearing through the fabric. Something hot and sharp scored across my forearm and I cried out.
And then-
A blur. A rush of wind.
The dog was gone.
I lay there, stunned, chest heaving. Wondering what the hell had just happened.
A shadow moved over me. Someone crouched beside me, hands gentle but urgent as they checked my bleeding arm.
"Are you hurt?"
His voice was low, smooth, with an accent I couldn't place.
"I-I think I'm okay," I stammered, too dazed to resist as he helped me sit up.
The man from the bar.
The one in black.
Up close, he was even more striking. Pale skin, ice blue eyes, a face sculpted like something from a painting. He looked impossibly calm, given what had just happened.
"You're lucky," he said softly, fingers brushing my wrist as he examined the shallow bite. "It didn't go too deep."
There was a tension in his voice as his fingers probed the wound, a tightening of the skin around his eyes as he clamped his mouth firmly shut, turning his head away for a moment as though the sight of the blood alarmed him.
"I… what was that?"
He didn't answer right away, just looked past me, towards the trees.
"Sometimes animals lose themselves to instinct," he said at last. "Or something drives them mad."
Which didn't explain the glowing eyes.
Or why he was here, in the pub garden, long past closing.
"Did you follow it?" I asked, voice small.
He shook his head. "No. I was nearby. Heard your scream."
"Right. Of course." I winced as he touched the wound again. "Are you a doctor or something?"
"Or something," he said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
I shivered, not just from the cold.
There was something strange about him. Something… quiet. Not threatening, exactly. But powerful. Like the stillness at the heart of a hurricane.
"Ellie, wasn't it?" he asked, gently.
I nodded. "You remembered."
"Of course." He stood, offering a hand. "Come. You shouldn't be out here."
I hesitated, just for a moment, and then took it.
His skin was cool, but not unpleasant. His grip was strong, and he pulled me to my feet as though I weighed nothing at all.
I swayed. He steadied me.
"You should go inside," he said. "Clean the wound. Do you have a first aid kit?"
"Uh-yeah, I think so."
"I'll stay until you're safely inside."
I didn't argue.
It was a short walk back to the house, but I kept glancing back over my shoulder all the way as I cradled my arm. The dog was gone, though, the night quiet.
He waited as I fumbled with the door, and he didn't follow me inside.
Every part of me was screaming danger and all I wanted to do was ignore it. There was something about him, something compelling.
"I'll be fine now," I said, heart still pounding.
He inclined his head, that smile playing on his lips. "Good. Try and get some rest, Ellie."
Then he turned and walked into the dark without a sound.
I shut the door, locked it, leaned against it for a long time.
What the hell had just happened?
I pressed a towel to the bite on my arm, trying to calm down. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
It couldn't be a coincidence.
Something was happening in this town. And I had a feeling it was only just the beginning.