Prologue
They were coming.
Shadows.
Ghosts.
Monsters.
His lungs burned like he was inhaling glass. He felt his brain swell inside his skull, making his eyes bulge. The pain threatened to take him to his knees, but he kept going. Kept running.
Branches tore at his bare arms, slicing welts into his skin, but he barely felt the sting. The relentless rain drilled into his scalp, failing to provide any relief.
What was happening?
Think.
God, just think.
But his thoughts wouldn’t come, slipping through his mind like oil on water. Run. That was all he had left. That one command, overriding everything.
Run.
His body obeyed, feet pounding the earth in an uneven, desperate rhythm. His limbs were no longer his own. They were just separate, detached body parts propelling him forward. Warmth slid beneath his nose, thick and hot over his mouth.
Blood.
His stomach lurched. Frantically, he wiped his upper lip, fingers trembling. Red. So red. So warm. He stopped. Just for a second. Just long enough to look down at his hand.
Then silence. Not just quiet. True, absolute silence.
The forest was still moving. The trees swayed, the rain pelted the ground, and the wind surged. He could see it all, but he couldn’t hear any of it.
Nothing.
Blissful. Terrifying. His heart pounded but his body had gone quiet. His mind had gone still. His eyelids sagged, the exhaustion pulling him down like a weight.
Wait. The blood. Why was he bleeding?
He swallowed hard, jerking his gaze to the side. The world kept tilting. The trees blurred and the earth dipped. He was standing still, but the ground rolled beneath him. The nausea hit him fast, bile burning up his throat.
A spiral of heat tore through his veins, curling up from his spine and bursting into his skull. His body jerked violently, like something inside him was fighting to get out.
Flashlights sliced through the forest behind him.
They were coming.
The bobbing lights swayed and dipped, bouncing through the trees. Not dark yet, but the forest swallowed the light, the wet leaves swallowing sound. Cover. Was he covered? Did he need cover?
A sudden dagger of pain pierced his skull.
His vision blurred.
Run.
His body reacted before his mind caught up. He turned, lurching forward, his arms scraping against rough bark. Blood. Monsters. Pain.
The world remained silent, eerie in its emptiness. His breath thundered in his chest, but he couldn’t hear anything. They wanted to kill him. He knew that much. But he couldn’t remember who they were.
