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I gripped the knife tighter. If I had to fight this thing, then I would.

No.

I tried to swing at it, but my body wouldn’t listen. My hand shook, the blade trembling as I clenched my jaw. Was this its doing? Could it somehow paralyze me just by looking at me?

Veins popped in my forearm as I fought the hold, adrenaline pumping through my system. I had to fight.

NO.

YES.

I groaned, snarling in frustration as my body acted without my consent, my muscles straining and tensing as fingers twitched, one by one loosening their hold on the knife until it dropped into the dirt.

The tension left my body suddenly, all my strength evaporating. Something inside me was torn, broken, deeper than muscle, deeper than bone. Nausea blurred my vision. A dampness filled my nostrils. Dripped down to my lips and I tasted blood.

I fell forward, and large hands caught me.

I fought to remain conscious, and barely succeeded, watching the overcast sky and the tops of trees blur as I was carried back in the direction I’d come.

Wood creaked under heavy footsteps. A familiar ceiling, and I was laid gently back on the grassy bedding I’d woken up on.

The beast whined softly. A large hand cupped the side of my face. Then a long black tongue was slithering between tusks as it tasted my blood.

“Get the fuck off me,” I panted, raising a hand far too weak to attempt to push it away. Somehow, though, I succeeded. The beast whined again, but it stopped licking me, stopped touching me. “Get away… from me.”

Another whine. Hesitation, but then again, it listened. The large figure retreated to the far side of the room.

“Out.” I demanded.

Its ears drooped further, but it retreated, and I listened to the sound of shuffling and the creaking of wood as it obeyed and left the house.

I was so fucking tired. So weak. My body was so cold.

I wasn’t sure how long passed before I could move again, but it was definitely some time in the afternoon. I didn’t know what to make of what had happened out by the wall. There was no doubt in my mind that the beast could easily have attacked and devoured me if it had wanted to.

Yet it hadn’t.

It had just carried me here. Then it listened to me when I told it to go, and that confused me even more.

I wanted to believe that it had somehow controlled me. Sucked up all my strength with its piercing red eyes and forced me to drop that knife. The accusation felt wrong, though. False. And that only scared me more. Because if it wasn’t responsible for my current state, then what was?

The sleepwalking to get here, the dreams that felt like memories, the voice in my head that would argue with me and make me feel like I was going mad… what if they were all connected?

I groaned as I pushed myself up to my feet. I still felt wrong as I made my way back through the house, until I could peer through the broken window to the field of chamomile flowers in front of the property. It was still out there, sitting in the grass as it looked back at me.

Whatever that creature was terrified me. But at least it listened to me. The beast inside me, however? I was starting to wonder just how much control I actually had over it.

25

JOSIAH

It barely moved. It just sat there, waiting in the grass for hours. I found multiple gaps in the crumbling wall and broken windows so I could look out and see it. Every time, no matter how quiet I tried to be, it would already be looking back at me, head tilted in my direction.

What was it waiting for?

What did it want from me?

I’d been gone almost a full day. I was certain Tash would probably be out looking for me. And if I didn’t get back soon, then Dad would catch on and it would be my face on a poster in every business’s window in Hollow Creek. The last thing I needed in my life was people getting more curious about me than they already were. Well, the last thing apart from being eaten by a monster, I supposed.