Chapter 0002

Everything hurts.

I let out a groan that could raise the dead as I turn to my side, dull pain coursing through my frame.

Breathing in and out, I tentatively push myself into a sitting position. At least nothing seems to be broken. Likely because the well is almost filled, and the earth underneath me is damp.

I fumble blindly for my pockets, and sweet relief washes over me as I find my phone. The screen tears through the pitch blackness. I turn on the flashlight, getting to my feet.

“Isaac!” I call out, eyes squinted at the speck of open sky I can see from here, “Isaac! Tina!”

My voice bounces off the walls, and I check my phone for signals, but there’s no service. I frown as I squint at the opening again. Is a well that’s almost filled supposed to be so deep?

Hoping to God there’s no poisonous gas still lingering here, I turn my phone’s light around, scanning the walls.

There. Small protruding stones wind up the well, all the way to the top. Sighing in relief, I test the solidity of the nearest few, before cautiously starting my way up.

My phone shows a whole eleven minutes of walking as I near the top.

I can’t see any broken wood at the top though. Is it possible that all the planks broke off? I can’t remember if I saw them at the bottom. Even as I near the top, there’s no signals on my phone.

The steps stop a little short of the opening. Here, the soft glow of the moon reaches through the trees.

Trusting that I can see my way in this light, I toss my phone over. A cold shiver goes through me as a gust of wind blows.

Biting back a shiver, I reach up to latch onto the edge of the stone wall and haul myself up.

I fall face first onto the grass outside, huffing for breath. I really need to exercise more.

Anyway, I should get my phone and head back inside. It’s getting weirdly cold under the canopy of trees.

I search for the flash of it’s light, but darkness surrounds me. Did I throw it too hard? Did the light turn off?

Huffing out a sigh, I straighten. Guess, I’ll go ask for Tina’s help.

I turn around in the direction of the house—

Only to find an endless array of trees in my view.

Hold. Pause. Cut.

I give my head a shake. Did I hit it too hard? Am I seeing things now?

“Some old well gas messed up my head,” I mutter, starting forward “I’ll just walk forward, and the house will be there.”

Maybe a good bump in the wall would clear my mind.

I walk over grass, bend over low branches that shouldn’t be here but right now they are, and keep walking in a straight line.

And walking.

And walking.

Fingers and toes numb with cold, I lean against a tree trunk that shouldn’t be here to catch my breath. It clouds in front of my mouth.

“Dream,” I huff out, pressing my eyes close “This has to be a dream.”

Am I still in the well? Or did someone hear my scream and I’m currently dreaming on a hospital bed? I hope it’s the latter, and I hope I wake up soon.

Snap!

I still to my bones, the hairs at the back of my neck stand. There’s a change in the air— or the dream— and I’m suddenly reminded of the paranoid feeling of being followed on some late night home.

The shrubs I passed a while ago rustle.

I can’t stop myself from turning my neck, can’t stop myself from looking at something I really don’t think I’d like. I’m sorry to all the horror movie characters I judged for doing the same.

It evades the patches of moonlight, but the slitted pupils of yellow eyes looking right back at me glow in the darkness of the night. My soul leaves my body at that alone.

Wake up, brain. Wake up already.

Everything happens at once.

There’s a screech, shrubs snapping and crushing. I scream, knees buckled and hands wrapped over my head. The ginormous reptile sinks its teeth into the tree trunk, and I scramble away as it’s pulled from the roots.

I’m running like never before, leaves and branches cutting over my frame from every direction.

Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

The screech that follows me makes my ears ring. I can't tell if the drum beats in my ears are trees breaking away against this predator’s sheer size, or my own heartbeat. Straight ahead of me is a thicket of trees, and my heart threatens to stop at the sight. I drove myself into a corner.

Something catches at my arm then, ripping off the oversized button up’s sleeve and something more. I crash, the breath knocked out of my lungs. Realization hits me like a brick to the face.

This is real.

I scramble forward blindly, and the heel of my foot hitting something. Another ear splitting screech echoes in the air. My eyes latch onto a little opening between two of the trees. Just enough for me. Even if it isn’t, it’d have to be.

One moment I’m squeezing through, and the next, gravity is pulling me down.

The fall is not gentle, and my vision swims, senses disoriented. If I’m hurt, I can't feel any pain. Adrenaline pumps hard and fast through my veins, and I scramble to my feet again.

I can’t just sit here.

I break into a run that quickly dwindles into a breathless jog, the bones of my legs shaky and weak.

Then I see light.

A house.

I think I might be crying.

The gates and tall giants, the metal bars twice the thickness of my arm. There’s an old lamp on the stone walls holding it, and it illuminates a bolt. It’s on the outside. I instantly start opening it. Either my hands are too uncoordinated, or this bolt is painfully, terribly tight.

“Come on,” I grit my teeth, willing it to move

There’s writing on the metal, and in the dull light of the oil lamp, my scrambled brain catches some of the words.

Weakness begets Sanctuary.

Distantly, I can hear a screech.

“Open up,” My efforts reinvigorate “Open up you stupid piece of metal! Aren’t you supposed to be a sanctuary for the weak?”

The bolt gives.

For yet another time tonight, I fall forward. This time on cobblestones.

My relief dies before it could even register. The low growl that comes from behind across the gates makes goose bumps raise all over my skin.

I will my legs to move, to get up and close the gates, but they remain unmoving under me. I’m frozen in place. A hundred thoughts ricocheted through my head.

Am I about to die?

Something slices through the air, and a disgruntled sound snaps me from my thoughts. I whip my head over my shoulder.

It stands there, three times my size, a reptile I cannot name. Its eyes are blown wide, hands twitching.

Through its forehead, a hilt protrudes.

It collapses on the ground with a thud, rivulets of blood flowing from the sides of its wound.

I’ve never heard the sound of a blade being drawn in person, but I know in my bones that this is it. Something cold touches the side of my neck.

“How did you get in?”