Prologue

PROLOGUE

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph’s left nut!

Eric Kinley woke up blind to the frozen world around him, but not to the grin that had followed him back from sleep. The face leered at him through the darkness behind his eyes. Pale cheeks squelched like maggots as the grin widened. The lipless mouth said nothing, the teeth inside clenching so tight the incisors cracked. Its sunken eyes lusted. The pinpoints of scarlet light at their centers roved up and down Eric’s body as if measuring every inch of him. Weighing him. Slowly, the jaws began to open, stretching until the swirling darkness within shamed the surrounding black. It took a lump of snow falling into Eric’s open mouth to make him realize he was awake. The visage finally receded into the blackness. He sputtered. Only the lights in the depths of the creature’s eyes lingered, intensifying for just a moment before finally flickering out.

“Fucking nightmare bullshit!”

“You okay, man?”

Eric scrabbled at his eyelids, trying to scrape away the frost sealing them. A sea of white replaced the black, leaving his vision fuzzy. Jake had to get right in his face before the hazel eyes and green ski mask upgraded from multicolored blob status. Eric shook his head, clearing it enough to make out the finer details of the bleached trees stretching over their heads. He grunted before getting up, nose tingling with the scent of wintergreen from a dead branch on the ground.

“Yeah, just a bad dream is all. One hell of a bad dream.”

Jake lifted himself half a foot higher with a meaty arm that looked shrink-wrapped into the sleeve of his parka. Brushing off the snow covering his body, he snapped a twig off the nearest limb and broke it in half.

“Too bad we can’t wake up from this one, huh?”

Eric nodded, the warmth held in by the snow’s insulation rapidly evaporating. He looked into the open backpack at his feet, the open cans of Miller gaping at him in silent laughter. His stomach growled while his gloved hands pawed through the contents.

Still empty. I guess running out of food wasn’t just a nightmare, either.

Jake slapped him on the back. His friend’s grunt escaped in a cloud.

“No offense, but the next time you wing a buck, just let the sucker go. No matter how big the antlers are.”

Eric nodded, picking up his rifle from where he’d left it against the tree that had served as his backrest. The creature flashed through his mind, fur as white as the drifts. The rack on its head put the three trophies he’d already collected to shame.

That big bastard must have been twelve points easy. And he just kept teasing us.

He shivered, sucking in a breath of frozen air. Even though the snowfall had lightened, the chill of the flash storm the day before felt like it was stuck in the marrow of his bones. Just the thought of walking in it made him feel off balance.

What the hell is wrong with you? You’ve been hunting damn near since you could walk, and you got your ass turned around like a proper chump by a little snow and some stupid deer.

Eric could still see the buck flitting through the gusts of snow like a ghost, taunting him.

Always at a bad angle or out of range. I was lucky I even nicked his hide. But God, I wanted him so bad.

He grimaced.

Or maybe it was just the beer.

The muscles in his abdomen clenched involuntarily, forcing out a gurgle. He looked down at his stomach.

Thank God we dressed warm enough to make it through the night, anyway. Next time, I just need to make sure to pack more food instead of booze. Two sandwiches definitely don’t do it when the shit hits the fan.

Eric pulled on his pack and called to his friend.

“You ready?”

Jake nodded, shouldering his own load.

“Yeah, let’s get cracking already. I don’t have much interest in spending another night out here.” He rapped the half of the twig in his hand against one of the tree trunks. “I don’t know what it is about the trees out here, but they give me the creeps.”

Eric grinned, walking up alongside him.

“You should be honored. I showed Dad a photo of the cabin when I bought it, but you’re the first person I’ve brought out here with me. Which probably makes you only the second person to see any of this in at least a hundred years. Maybe a couple hundred.”

Jake ducked under the first few branches in their way.

“Ah, but we’re the first people to get lost here together. That’s what’s important.”

Eric tried to laugh, but the pain in his gut stifled it. Big man that he was, the lost calories were adding up quick. Visions of roast turkey and BBQ ribs were passing through his mind when he bumped into his friend.

“Ah, crap. Sorry, man.”

Jake’s voice came out as thin as the spindly branches he’d navigated.

“Uh, Eric. Didn’t we break through a bunch of shit getting to that little spot we holed up in?”

“Yeah. And we’re going to use it to backtrack now that we can actually see what we’re doing. What about it?”

Jake cleared his throat.

“Do you . . . see any broken branches around here? Anywhere?”

Eric peered over his friend’s head, scanning the area before aiming a double-take back the way they’d come.

“Uh . . . okay? What the fuck? Where the hell did we come in?”

Jake shook his head.

“I-I don’t know, man. I really don’t. What do you think we should do?”

Eric pushed his face deeper into his parka as a blast of wind peppered him with a fresh layer of snow. Even with just his eyes and mouth exposed, the cold seemed to seep inside him, adding a new layer of ice to what lingered from the day before. His limbs tightened while the sensation grew and spread. He could swear he felt it running through his veins and pumping right into his heart. The pain in his stomach swelled until Eric couldn’t tell if it was hunger or nausea.

S-s-so . . . s—so . . .

Jake shook him, but the feeling stayed inside. Festering.

“Eric! Are you sure you’re okay, man? You look like you’re ready to have a heart attack or something.”

Eric took several shallow breaths, trying to fight the sensation back. Steadying himself against one of the nearby trees, he caught his reflection in the layer of ice coating the trunk. The image was worse quality than a funhouse mirror, but there was no mistaking the light shining from his eyes. It intensified, transfixing him. Filling him even as his stomach constricted to his spine. He barely managed a whisper.

“It’s funny. I think one of the dreams I had last night came true.”

Jake smiled, a measure of relief in his voice at the words.

“Anything positive is welcome at this point. I hope it was a good one.”

Eric’s lips pulled back until they ached. The wind rose with his rasp, and when his eyes met Jake’s, his friend’s went wide. Eric shook his head.

“No, it was something bad.”

His hand reached for the hunting knife sheathed over the small of his back.

“Something hungry.”