I’m a child, standing below it in the middle of a clearing.
The forest in front of me is black in the night, the treetops visible against the star-speckled sky. There’s rustling in the forest, the feeling of something coming out of it, wanting to hurt me
.
Monsters.
I stand, feeling the moon seep into my veins, filling the well inside me with pale gold.
Two figures burst out of the trees, running fast.
I watch them, silent, knowing they’re here to do harm.
But they run past me, on either side, a man and a woman, cloaked and too blurry to see clearly.
I whirl around, watching as the two figures head for the house by the sea.
My house.
Where my parents live.
Suddenly the fear is real.
I’m screaming, running after them, my little legs too slow, and then I’m falling, crawling, watching as the figures disappear into the house and the house goes up in flames.
I scream and I crawl and I keep going.
The moon switches position in the sky, rising in front of me.
Red tears spilling from the crescent.
Raining blood.
And I keep crawling, until I’m right at the flames, until I am the flames.
I am the flames.
Drowning in the moon’s blood.
Sinking into the red.
Down, down, down.
And then…
I’m awake.
The dream fading away like fog.
I’m lying on my side in total darkness, bound at the wrists and ankles, my skin aching against the rough rope, the gag cutting into the corners of my mouth.
I’m alone.
And yet not alone.
Because there’s something…else.
Something crawling over my legs.