Chapter One-Hundred Forty-Eight: Creatures of the Night: A Terrifying Encounter

Stephanie's Perspective:

Gulping down the fear that threatened to choke me, I surged forward into the cabin's orifice with a desperate leap. The door groaned on its hinges as it swung shut behind me, as if the shadowy insides of the shelter were swallowing me whole.

There was no time for my eyes to adjust to the pitch-black interior; I could hear the creature's loathsome mumblings just outside, its hunger an intense force trying to penetrate my refuge. Fumbling blindly, I bumped into a table strewn with the remnants of human habitation—dusty bottles, tattered clothes, and the brittle bones of forgotten rodents. I knocked the debris aside, searching frantically for a weapon or tool, anything that could serve as a defense.

My paws, though they ached with a human yearning for the dexterity of my hands, moved with swift certainty. In this form, I was not only safer but could battle with a grace and agility that my human form could n