A seven-foot brute is lumbering down the middle of the street. It wears a rotting pig’s head, snout split in a foul grin, black eyes shiny and empty. Its body is fat and pale, rolls of flesh hanging over a bloodied butcher’s apron.
In one massive hand it drags a huge meat cleaver, the blade scraping loudly against the cracked pavement. Its other arm is twisted into a thick, coiled appendage like a sharp pig’s tail.
It moves slowly, swinging its head low from side to side, sniffing the air. Searching for something… searching forme.
I yank back behind the wall, pressing hard against the bricks, while the static in my head explodes. For a second I’m not here anymore, I’m a little girl again in my childhood bed.
The smell of blood, the heavy sound of a similar cleaver in the kitchen, his bloodied apron, and that grin while he told me to stay quiet and take it.
That thing looks like an even crueler and warped version of the abuser who made my younger years a living hell. Like every nightmare I ever had about him has slithered out of my head, taken form, and then been tugged over a monster’s body.
The others stare at me, eyes broad, waiting for me to hint at what I just saw. I place an unsteady finger to my sewn mouth and shake my head, trying to warn them without words.
We’re not just being hunted. This island knows exactly who the fuck we are.
I hear a loud oink followed by a high-pitched, unhinged squeal that ricochets off the buildings, and my body stiffens.
The sound is sickening and distorted, like a pig has learned how to scream through it's hunger.
But thankfully, it keeps moving further away, the scrape of the cleaver fading with it.
Mattie leans forward gently and peeps around the corner instead of me. My entire frame trembles violently, unable to stop the shaking, even as my scarred hands dig into myupper arms, nails biting skin, the terror just won’t let go of me.
“It’s gone,” Mattie murmurs after a moment, voice tight. “Only a few more steps and we can make it to that store just there.”
But I no longer want to move. I’m fucking stuck, just like Lena was a few hours ago. Petrified and frozen in place while the past claws its way out of the dark and stares back at me with my father’s eyes.
The pig-headed thing isn’t just some monster on this island. It’s him, and it knows what he did to me. It knows how small I felt under that same blood-spattered apron.
I can’t take another step toward that store knowing something wearing my father’s shape is still out here, dragging that cleaver and trying to find me.
Mattie stares at me, worry cutting through her fear, and the others are watching too. But all I can do is shake my head, eyes bulging, trapped inside the memory that just grew seven feet tall and learned how to fucking stalk.
They let me take a moment to calm my racing heart, and in the meantime, I try to convince myself this isn’t possible, that it’s just some fevered nightmare my mind has dragged up from its darkest depths.
But nightmares aren’t supposed to leave bruises on your soul like this.
“Let’s go,” Mattie suddenly says, her voice low and urgent, and she grabs my wrist, yanking me sideways, not giving me a choice.
I stumble after her, legs heavy and unwilling as we break cover and run toward the store, my eyes darting wildly everywhere.
Once we reach the storefront, Mattie pushes the door open with her shoulder, and we all hurry inside in a panicked huddle. She quietly closes the door behind us, trying to make as little noise as possible.
The inside of the store is dark and gutted—shelves knocked over, products scattered across the floor. Everything is covered in a layer of dust and mold, with heavy cobwebs sagging in every corner.
This place smells rotten as I press my back against the nearest wall, hardly able to draw a breath.
Mattie glances at me behind her shoulder, her hand still gripping my wrist like she’s afraid I’ll bolt.
“We’re inside,” she whispers. “We’re going to be okay… for now.”
I nod once as our eyes sweep around the huge store, shadows stretching long between the shelves.
“It looks like it’s a big one,” Lotty murmurs beside us. “We’ll probably find everything we need, then we’ll get the hell out of here.”
I push myself away from the wall on shaky legs and start moving forward with Mattie down one aisle, the others splitting off into the one alongside it.
“Let’s find something to fix you up a bit.” She mumbles under her breath.
