Leaves whipped up around his ankles, and a single word slipped into the darkest places between the roots and thickets.
Liar.
Then the wind died suddenly, a switch shut off. Silence pushed down on his shoulders as if it wanted to drive him deep into the earth.
He stood still, flashing his phone light around. “Thomas? Dove? THOMAS.”
The silencebreathed out.
Goose bumps rippled up his arms.
He turned in a slow circle, his light following in a smooth arc. The beam lit up a dark lump leaning against a pine, but he moved it past before registering something had been there. A person hiding behind the tree? He slashed his light back toward the shape. Nothing. Just a single pine shot up to the sky.
“If you jump out at me,” Andrew said, his voice surprisingly steady, “I will hit you so hard you’ll bleed, Thomas Rye. I amsick of this.”Of you, he wanted to add.
No one stepped out.
He clenched his teeth and spun back to continue down the rugged little path.
Something huge stood before him.
Andrew cried out, nearly dropping his phone. The light beam skittered everywhere before settling again on the thing before him.
Not Thomas.
Not Thomas.
It reached out a hand—a claw. Its arm was bone, flesh hanging off in rotting ribbons, skin pulled so tight over a naked chest that ribs punctured through. But its face—Vines poured out of its mouth, eyes, ears, growing and writhing. Blood slippedbetween its lips as another vine broke out of its flesh and spooled toward the ground.
Its feet were hooves.
Andrew ran.
He flung himself forward with a cry so terrified it didn’t sound like him.
This wasn’t real. Thiswasn’t happening.
The thing followed. He could feel it coming up behind him, a weight so heavy and intense as it came fast fastfaster—FASTER FASTER—
His flashlight jittered so hard he couldn’t see anything. The path was too small, too rough. He tripped, kept going. Tripped again. Shoved to his feet as roots and rocks cut his hands. Panic blossomed in his gut and rose up his throat in choking waves.
A claw ripped forward.
He felt it, his sweatshirt tearing as bright pain slashed across the back of his shoulder. He plummeted to his knees, scrabbling forward even before he hit the ground. His phone flew out of his hand.
The monster kept coming. The weight of it bore down, growing larger as it blocked out the whole forest above Andrew. It took hold of his leg and slowly, languorously, dragged him backward. Claws cut into his skin.
Andrew screamed and kicked out. The thing was almost all the way on top of him now. He would not get through this. He knew it.
The vines falling from the monster’s mouth pulsed forward, tips flickering toward Andrew’s face. Searching for somewhere to spear into andgrow.
His eyes.
His ears.
His mouth.
He shook so hard with fear that he forgot to struggle.Don’t scream.He had to keep his mouth closed. Don’t let it in.
