At first, I think I’m standing in a dark room. Then I realize there is no room. No walls. No corners. No end to the shadows no matter where I look.
The uneasy knot in my stomach tightens. Then a growl rumbles through the void, freezing me in place. Somewhere ahead, two red eyes blink open, impossibly bright against the black. They drift closer, watching me with a predator’s patience.
I try to back away, but my feet are rooted to nothing. Panic claws up my throat. The darkness beneath the eyes peels back into a grin. Two impossibly long canines slide into view, glistening as if they have their own light source. He growls again, so close his breath feathers across my face.
The red eyes are all I see. Red. Like blood.
The thought lodges in my mind, and suddenly that’s all there is. Not eyes. Blood. It spills from them in slow crimson waves,overflowing and running down his face. The trickle becomes a stream, then a river, then a crimson tide rushing to swallow me whole.
I try to scream, but my mouth is stuffed with cotton. I try to run, but I can’t move. The wave rises higher and crashes over me, and then…
“Kallie! Kal!”
I gasp awake, sitting straight up and hitting something hard.
“Ow!”
I blink rapidly, dispersing the darkness and red eyes away. When my vision clears, I find Casey, rubbing his forehead.
“You good? You were screaming.”
I push the sweaty, damp hair out of my face.
It was only a nightmare.
Thank fuck.
“Ye-yeah,” I reply on a shaky breath. I need a minute to let my heart slow down.
Casey’s hair sticks up in six different directions, his glasses slightly crooked on his face, dark circles prominent under his eyes. Sleep clearly hasn’t done him any favors either.
My gaze drifts to the bruise circling his neck.
It’s impossible to ignore.
A handprint.
An actual handprint.
In every shade of purple and yellow.
I force myself to look away.
Because the second I start pulling on that thread, everything else comes with it.
The speed.
The strength.
The red eyes.
And those teeth.
God.
My brain keeps trying to file everything under costume. Anything remotely normal. Contacts. Weird lighting. Prosthetic fangs.
Fangs.
