Prologue
It was a dark, cloudless night. Danny lay there twisting and turning underneath his covers, his sleep plagued by haunting nightmares. A cold sweat glistened on his face and every now and then a low moan would escape his mouth.
He couldn’t stop running. He couldn’t afford to fall down. Or it would catch him. Danny didn’t know what ‘it’ was, he didn’t even know what ‘it’ looked like. All he knew was that he couldn’t let it catch him. Otherwise he would be dead. Danny was running along the middle of a dark street. The road was slick from earlier rain. Tall street lamps glowed dimly along the sides, barely enough light for Danny to see five meters ahead of him. Dangerously he risked a glance behind him and caught sight of what was after him.
It was horrific. Tall, impossibly thin. It wore a large torn and stained overcoat, the stains seemed to dark to be assumed as anything but blood stains. Its sunken face seemed to be missing both eyes; its nose and a gaping black hole stood in place of its mouth. Its bald head was cracked in many places as though it were porcelain. Its feet were blackened from running along the street with no shoes and its arms hung limply by its sides. It’s was hobbling with malfunctioning limbs but moved towards Danny with terrifying speed. Danny’s distraction had apparently cost him his life. Because as he turned back around, his foot caught on a forgotten pothole.
His whole body catapulted into the air before gravity came rushing back and dragged him to the ground. His chin smashed into the asphalt and Danny heard the crack of his jaw breaking. His arm twisted in an awkward angle underneath him.
The force had ripped through his jean and torn away most of the flesh on his knees. Danny cried out in agony, just as it reached him.
"Danny!” A girls voice called out to him from within the night. ”Danny!” she called again closer this time. Danny could still feel it above him but he was incapable or moving on his own. ”Get away from him!" The girl appeared next to him. To Danny’s surprise, she pulled out a large red sword from at her waist and sliced the creature in half with one powerful swing. It let out a deafening scream before disintegrating into a pile of ashes. Danny felt disgusted as the ashes fell to rest on his back and beside him. “Hey? Hey are you okay? Danny, did it get you?”
“Uh, no.” Danny replied before sharp pain exploded in his jaw and warm liquid escaped his eyes. He felt the girls hand on his shoulder, pushing him onto his back. She was short and had long tangled blonde hair. Her eyes were the darkest brown Danny had ever seen. She was perhaps sixteen, Danny’s age. For some reason, he knew her name, Riley. He wanted to speak to her ask her what ‘it’ was who she was, how did he know her name. But even without talking his jaw throbbed painfully.
“Come on, we’ve got to get you out of here.” Riley stated. But as she tried to move, the walls seemed to disintegrate around him. Like wall paper peeling away to reveal empty blackness. The girl, Riley became cold and pale, fading away into nothingness. Until all that was left was the surrounding blackness and Danny felt very alone.
