Throat growing tight, I pulled my gun from the holster hidden at my back, took it between two hands, and cocked it.
Drawn, I looked back at the house, a thirst so great to rush inside and see that they were whole and safe.
But I could feel evil crawl across my flesh from somewhere in the shadows. Wickedness that curled and snapped in the distance.
I had no other choice but to check it out.
I eased back down the steps and began to slink toward the line of trees where I felt it radiating from.
The moon filtered down, enough that the sky wasn’t completely darkened, but the second I stepped beneath the canopy of the trees, the light became a hazy vapor. It made it difficult to see more than ten feet ahead.
The forest was dense, and the bushes and vines that grew from the damp floor seemed to come alive at this time of night.
The thin trunks of what felt like a million pines and the heavy, thick trunks of the oaks blurring together to obscure my vision further.
Everything seemed to move. The forest becoming animated.
Heart thumping like a bass drum, I eased deeper into its dusky depths, my ear tuned to every noise and movement and creak of the forest.
Nothing seemed out of place, but there was still something that drew me further.
A claw that hooked into my chest and lured me forward.
The need to protect that little family was so intense I could hardly breathe.
Those breaths were shallow and jagged as I increased my pace. A severity took me over as I hunted through the maze. The intensity growing with each step.
Urging.
Pressing.
I began to run.
Branches scraped my arms and whipped against my face, pinpricks of pain biting into my skin.
I shoved them away, my eyes racing and rushing as I attempted to discern where the cruel energy was coming from.
A brutal volatility that swilled in the air and whisked through the trees and sent my feet clambering through the forest.
Faster and faster.
Blood sloshed through my veins, and I kept an arm up to protect my face as I barreled through the fog.
I swore I heard the echo of footsteps somewhere in the nothingness.
I pushed myself harder, the oxygen growing heavy as I forced it in and out of my lungs, a frenzy taking over as I fought to find the beast that I knew was there.
A sick sixth sense that promised there would be violence.
Boots thundering below me, I weaved along the tortuous path. I ducked around an ancient oak tree then propelled myself over a large boulder that stood in my way.
There was no time to prepare myself for what hit me next.
No time to prepare for the pain that splintered across my chest.
No time to discern if it was a low-hanging branch or a fist or a weapon.
Only thing I knew was that I was knocked off my feet.
