Chapter Four: Hopelessly Lost

River Black

River scrambled to look, but the man with red hair was gone. Like he’d never even been there at all. If he’d simply run off, she’d have seen him. There was no way he could leave so quickly without a trace.

“Where did you go?” she hollered out. No one answered.

Every second that passed, the sun began to sink lower and lower. The shadows grew longer and the air grew more chill. She only wore a short sleeved, thin t shirt over some skinny jeans. She wasn’t equipped for a cold night. That and her socks were soaking wet from accidentally stepping in the creek.

River didn’t know how to start a campfire, and she didn’t know where to go or where to run. The man had said something was going to happen to her. That it would be ‘nasty’. She didn’t know what that meant, of course, but she was utterly terrified, her hands shaking.

Before the sun sunk utterly below the horizon, she climbed atop the rock the man had been sitting on. She stood, looking in all directions. All she saw were trees. Forest. Her camp had to be really far away to not even see campfire smoke or any houses or the highway. Nothing. Just an ocean of trees.

And though she was alone, she swore she could feel something or someone -watching- her. Like eyes were boring into her back, but when she turned and peered into the dense trees, she didn’t see anything.

At least with her vantage point of the rock, she could see if anyone was actually coming. Or anything, she told herself. She sat down, her legs aching. Wrapping her arms around herself, she tried to stay warm. She rubbed her arms but still, it was freezing. She could see her breath.

Again, even though she tried not to, River started to cry. She had no idea what to do. This should have been a dream, but she wasn’t waking up. The nightmare just kept going and getting more strange as time went on. She tried to assess the situation. She’d followed a light into the woods into a clearing. There’d been a doorway of sorts, and she’d been pulled through it and ended up here.

River had no idea where ‘here’ was. It could have been the same woods. They didn’t look any different. The time was off. It had been at least midnight when she’d been pulled through the doorway and it was probably only after seven here. It all made her head hurt and made her heart race. Her mouth felt dry, but she didn’t want to get down from the rock to take another drink from the little stream. What if...whatever nasty thing was going to happen to her got her the moment she put her foot on the ground.

River felt helpless. And utterly alone.

She drew her knees up to her chest and pressed her forehead to her knees, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt so tired, but there was no way she could sleep. River tried to steady her breathing, to calm down. She’d just wait here, she told herself, until morning. She didn’t know what else to do and she wasn’t about to travel in these strange woods if something or someone was after her. It was better to stay put.

She’d seen a show on TV once about a man who got lost hiking, and he stayed put. It was the entire reason the search and rescue team had found him. That’s exactly what I need to do, she told herself, calming down now that she had a plan, even if it wasn’t a very good one. She knew her parents would never stop looking for her. She may have been nineteen and largely on her own now, but she had a good relationship with them. They loved her. They’d find the clues and find her. She believed that. She had to.

Just as she calmed down and felt her pulse return to normal and her breathing stopped coming in short, panicked gasps, she heard a strange sound in the trees. It was between the sound of thunder and a growl. It was so loud and so low it rattled her teeth. Every hair on her body stood on end.

River froze. Her body stiff. She held her breath and very slowly, very deliberately lifted her head from her knees. It was dark now, the only light was from the stars. There was no moon at all. It must have been a new moon.

Something rustled and snapped branches. Something big. The growl came again, low and rumbling. It was closer. Whatever it was. River wondered if this were the ‘nasty’ thing that was going to happen to her, the one the strange man didn’t want to watch.

There, in a thick copse of trees shone two, glowing red eyes. They were enormous. Each orb the size of her fist at least. Whatever was growling at her and stalking closer had those eyes. She’d never really believed in supernatural things like ghosts or aliens or Bigfoot, but whatever that was, wasn’t a normal animal. Given how high up the eyes were, it had to be at least fifteen feet tall.

If I stay very still, she told herself, if I hold my breath, it won’t see me. It won’t hear me. She did that. She held her breath until her lungs ached. She stayed stone-still until her limbs cramped and hurt. Whatever it was stayed put, growling, staring right at her. Right where she sat on the rock.

She had to breathe, she couldn’t hold it in anymore. Tears streaked down her reddened face and she tried to slowly take in a breath, but she was so afraid it sounded much louder than she meant it to. More branches snapped.

The thing in the woods had heard her.

#

Tamsin Eventide

He could smell her tears now as she sat weeping on the rock. The Dain was close now, close enough to begin his hunt in earnest. It wouldn’t be long now. He would devour her. Tear her to pieces.

His curse wanted the same. To rend her limb from limb. At least, that’s what he thought at first. That’s what usually happened when he lost control of himself every full moon. Anyone he came across he brutally killed. It’s why he took himself to the mountains and chained himself until the dawn returned his control.

It wasn’t her death he wanted, though. It was her. He wanted her writhing under him. He wanted her total submission, her cries of pleasure. It shamed him, his desire was so great. Before his curse, he’d had many lovers. Handsome and charming, he’d had no trouble bedding women. The youngest son of King Eventide, he was sought after at court.

But the moment it all changed with that first, fateful full moon rise, he’d not had a woman in his bed. He feared he’d hurt them. How could he take a lover and keep his secret? It didn’t seem wise. Besides, all the ladies he’d been with previously no longer interested him. He thought it was the misery from suffering under the curse, that it had tamped down all his amorous feelings, but now, he wasn’t so sure.

As he watched her, River, in the growing, gloaming dark, he thought perhaps he’d simply been waiting for her. She could tame him somehow, help him gain control over himself. If he could transform at will and keep his mind, he could easily dispatch Carmun’s three, wicked sons. The Dain would be no match for him.

The treaty meant the Dain couldn’t harm him now, though Tamsin was certain he very much wanted to. He’d run across the foul beast several times. And each time it turned away from him as if compelled to do so. He had no fear of it.

Now, he heard him crash through the trees, smelled his terrible stench. Only moments now, and the Dain would murder the girl River and take her away from him forever.