I cut through a narrow gap between two cars, my heart almost dropping out of my stomach when I saw another flash of the grotesque creature in a side mirror. A frightened wheeze slipped through my lips and thinned into a whimper.
It had a beak, open and lined with serrated, flesh-ripping teeth. And it was chasing me, maw open and slavering for a fresh kill. A screeching hiss belted from the creature, and the sound chilled me to the bone.
It couldn’t be real. No, it couldn’t. After that strange conversation at the pub and the odd moments at the house, I didn’t want to believe it. The written history of the world—now that I believed. It was accounted for and notated, and heaps of proof existed. History could be explained.
This couldn’t.
Had I been alone too long? Was my already fragile mental health finally snapping under the pressure? There was no world in which I could accept being chased by a fucked up looking bird. Yet even as my logical mind argued with my current reality, I continued running, because real or not it meant life or death.
I shoved a shaking hand into my bag, clammy fingers fumbling around for my car keys. My lungs burned and my muscles ached as the flight instinct pushed me further than my athletic limit. A fresh wave of panic slammed into me as my keys slipped through my fingers. Out of my hand, and clattered on the uneven pavement.
A sharp gasp cut through my chest. I dropped to my knees, bones cracking on the ground, but the rippling pain went ignored as I scrambled under the car. A sinister brush of air curled over my neck, and I frantically scanned the shadow under my front tire.
Crack.
A shiver of alarm wracked my spine.
My hand finally closed around the keys, slippery with sweat.
Oh, thank fucking God.
I shot upright and jammed the key into the lock, movements frantic and uncoordinated. The door finally swung open, and I shoved myself inside, slamming it shut behind me.
I caught movement in my periphery. A hulking terror outside, moving in jerky twitches, scouring the lot.
Go. Go. Go. Get away.
My fingers fumbled again as I turned the ignition, but the engine roared to life with a triumphant rumble. A manic laugh belted from me as my car peeled out of the lot. I drove away, a little too fast and a little too erratic, but the roads were strangely empty that night despite the crowd on the square. The rumble of the engine and the lights of downtown vanishing in the rearview mirror eased some of the tension poisoning my blood.
I continued hyperventilating until the neighborhood came into view.
Residual fear clung to my skin like a sticky film, refusing to come loose. Even as I reached the house and parked the car, my hands trembled, fingers locked iron-tight the wheel. Minutes or maybe hours passed as my breathing returned to normal and the sweat on my temples went cold.
Nothing moved on the driveway behind me or in the surrounding trees.
Satisfied, I exited the car and rushed toward the welcoming soft glow on the front porch. I needed a hot bath, which I would take and luxuriate in after flicking on every light in the house. Maybe even the ones upstairs. And I would double—no—triple check that all the doors were locked. Maybe even quadruple.
A few steps from the porch, a static tension crackled in the air. My spine went rigid as a heavy, unknown weight settled onthe back of my neck. Sucking in a breath, I looked around the property.
Amber light flashed from the roof.
My head snapped up, eyes widening.
Blinking slowly, something perched at the highest level of the roof.
My heart skipped a beat. Then another.
A sentinel or an omen, I didn’t know. But there sat a silent, unmoving barn owl. Air stilled in my lungs as the owl regarded me with a knowing gleam, eyes bright and yellow.
And watching.
12
Dark clouds chased away the light of the sun. The trees rose around me like the ribs of some ancient creature still breathing despite its untimely demise. I jogged faster, trying to focus on the steady thump of my tennis shoes on the dirt path and not the heavy tree limbs overhead knitting together so tight they obscured the sky. The perfume of recent rain and wet loam filled my nose and throat, slowly choking me, breath by breath.
Footsteps crashed after me, and the world closed behind me like a throat swallowing the last traces of light. The hair rose on the back of my neck from being watched.
A blip of light appeared.
