The rain fell in torrents, slicing the sky like glass shattering into chaos. Thunder growled across the heavens as Sophie clutched her mother's hand in the back seat, her heart pounding to the rhythm of her father's voice yelling over the storm.
"Hold on!" he shouted.
They never saw it coming.
A blur of shadows—a monstrous beast with eyes like burning coals—leapt out of the forest, crashing into the road. Screeching tires. A scream. Metal against tree. Then… silence.
When Sophie opened her eyes, everything was still. Her father's chest didn't rise. Her mother's face was streaked with blood, her eyes wide but empty. Sophie's own body trembled, trapped beneath shattered glass and fear. And just beyond the wreckage… a figure watched. A beast cloaked in night and moonlight, fur soaked in rain, its eyes locked with hers. Cold. Unforgiving.
That was the night Sophie lost everything.