“What about your drink?” he insisted.
I had already peeled myself from the table. “Yeah, thanks for the drink. I appreciate it. But I’m going to go.”
Halfway out the pub door, with cool night air rushing over my face, a hand on my arm stopped me. My nerves jolted, and I spun around.
Moth followed me and stood at my back. Too close. Far too close for someone I didn’t accept physical contact from yet.
“I’m sorry, Blondie. We didn’t mean to scare you off, I promise.” He ran his free hand over his face. “We genuinely like you and want you around, alright?”
“Alright.” I nodded slowly, moving on autopilot. I just wanted him to let go and leave me be.
His expression was sincere and drawn, as if genuinely hurt. But it couldn’t compare to the panic building in my chest, rational or not.
“Until next time?” he asked hopefully.
That part of me that wanted friends reared its head, bringing a tide of guilt with it. Shame clogged my throat at my behavior. Maybe I had been misreading social cues again, and they were only joking. I really wanted friends, and my mother was right that interactions were good for me on some level. Becoming the local hermit would only add to whatever rumors they teased about.
“Sure,” I agreed.
A beaming smile flashed across his face. Moth winked at me before releasing my arm. He turned back into the dark interior of the pub, and the door clicked shut in my face. I stood there staring at the pattern in the wood, sucking in large gulps of air.
People milled about the streets, many of them bar hopping around the square. Under the cover of night, no one paid me any mind as I drifted from the square to the parking lot around the block where I’d left my car earlier. Voices faded as I left the center of action, floating in a mindless daze to my vehicle. Darkness sailed higher as the downtown lights came less frequently, and I traveled further from the hive of activity.
Night unfurled across the sky, but I was still too close to downtown to see the stars. Nothing but darkness and outstretched shadows crawling across the pavement greeted me. Walking briskly toward the parking lot, my steps echoed rapidly against the eerie stillness converging on me.
Sparse trees lined the road, spilling out and erupting into a patch of woods around the parking lot. Long boughs stretched over the sidewalk, swaying in the breeze, creating a song of nature only the birds and bees understood. Leaves whispered secrets to one another as the wind picked up, whistling sharply and lifting the ends of my hair.
I reached up to brush the loose strands out of my face and angled toward the parking lot. A rustle in the foliage broke the silence.
I froze, and my pulse hammered at the base of my throat.
A dark barrier shielded the source of the noise. I took an unconscious step closer, peering into the shadows that expanded past the reach of the streetlights. My eyes strained but—there. A subtle shift in the wall of black.
Something watching. Two glowing orbs emerged, widening from slits to slanted, fixed animal eyes. Yellow and unblinking, glinting with an unnatural, hungry light.
Watching.
Watching.
A primal instinct sparked in my mind, screaming at me to run. For an agonizing, eternal moment, I merely stood trapped in a web of my own fear. It held me captive, rigid and unyielding as the rustling increased. Frozen as the eyes grew nearer, creeping closer and narrowing with a predatory gleam. It felt like watching the night convalesce and morph into a living creature before my very eyes.
Scriiitch.
It sounded like nails, or claws, dragging over concrete.
Run. Run. Run. Oh, God—run!
My paralysis shattered as swiftly as lightning striking glass, and my legs finally obeyed the urgent command to flee. Adrenaline ignited through my veins, as potent and scorching as a wildfire. Legs pumping and gritty concrete crunching under my hurried steps, I sprinted for the lot holding my car. A sea of vehicles blocked me from my goal, but as I caught the sound of a huffing animal snarling and claws scratching the ground in pursuit of prey, the compulsion to escape and survive controlled me.
Shooting around a truck, a veritable horror flashed in my periphery. I turned down another row of cars, racing past a sedan as I tried and failed to come to terms with the monstrous creature I might have just seen.
A terrifying amalgamation of feathers and contorted shadows. If I called it an upright bird-version of a werewolf, I wouldn’t be too far off. A bird-faced creature with bright eyes, hunched over as it prowled after me. I easily imagined it was massive at full height. I hadn’t gotten a clear view to tell if the beast had front arms or wings, but I had a chilling theory it was both.
A four-legged bird-monster with wings.
And stark red stains splattered across the chest feathers.
“What the fuck? What the fuck?Whatthefuck?!”
