Chapter One

    Run— Run away!

    My breathing came out in ragged gasps as I threw the heavy wooden kitchen door open and flew right over the slippery wet steps onto the pavement at the bottom. My body slammed into it before I rolled and shot to my feet, scrambling over wet grass into the woods that surrounded my childhood home.

    My eyes begged to turn back, to see what had become of the fucking prison I had come to call home, but I knew better than to look back now. There was nothing left there.

    Run— Faster!

    My legs, trembling and unstable, screamed in protest as I forced myself into a hard sprint through the trees, tree branches slapping and snagging at my clothes and hair. Rain came down in a massive downpour, soaking me right to the bone just seconds into my escape. Lightning flashed across the sky, followed by the sound of thunder clapping so hard, I swore my teeth rattled. Through the stormy cacophony, the sound of wailing sirens and police lights flashing off the trees in time with the lightning, branches reaching like skeletons from the grave of dead trees.

    Fear launched into hysteria as I cried out, slamming into a tree that seemed to almost catch me and right me again as I launched myself off it, ignoring the way the bark scraped a layer of skin from my hands. Sneakers too small for my feet and speckled with ratty holes filled with rainwater with every splash through a puddle, mud clinging to my legs and making them feel all the more heavier.

    Hilariously enough, my first thought as I picked up the pace, running through the trees, was that this had to be the first exercise I’d ever gotten in my entire life.

    I had imagined this day; the day I finally escaped that hellhole and breathed in fresh air, touched grass for the first time since I was… I was quite small actually…

    Other people—

    I’d get to see other people. But… 

    This wasn’t how I pictured it. No, this was so much more… terrifying.

    Because I never imagined I’d be a— 

    Voices shouting in the distance snapped me back into survival mode as I launched myself off the ground, panicked gasps sawing from my throat as I darted in between trees, leapt over thick tree roots on a muddy forest floor.  Leaves slapped my face and clung as I sped through the woods at a speed I never thought I was capable of.

    Have to get away— Run faster! They’re coming for you!

    But why?

    Because you’re a monster!

    Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring my vision as I choked on a helpless sob, ducking past another tree, preparing to spin around and go in another direction to throw off my pursuers, but I didn’t even get the chance as I flung my foot out in front of me, expecting to feel the soft muddy ground… only to go tumbling through the air.

    A sharp cry escaped my lip as I pitched forward head first, slamming hard into a steep muddy hillside. I yelped with each bounce on the rocky muddy slope, each rebound off the side of the hillside was like reliving a typical Tuesday back at home. Just when I thought I would spend the rest of my life falling through muck, I slid right off a slippery river bank and slammed into the filthy muddy water at the bottom. The nasty water closed over my head, filling my mouth that opened in a shout, my nose, my ears. It took a moment of frantic thrashing before I was able to break the surface with a cry that broke off into a round of coughing and choking to clear my lungs of water.

    Shit!

    I cleared my lungs of sludgy water, throwing my head back to stare up at the horrific journey that took me to the river. That wasn’t just a hillside up there, it was practically a cliff with all sorts of broken branches I’d managed to avoid on the way down. I coughed a little more, managing to get myself into a sitting position in the muddy water. A quick glance around revealed the nasty water was pouring from an overflow pipe that was jutting out the side of the cliff.

    I started to lift myself out of the water, catching my breath when the sound of dogs barking sent an icy chill shooting up my spine, making me snap my head up to stare at the top of the cliff above. Flashlights, the flashing lights of the police vehicles, and the sound of dogs howling as they latched onto my scent. A whimper rose in my throat at the thought of having to fight off dogs.

    You ever, ever try to walk out that fucking door, I’ll feed you to the neighbor dog, got it?

    His voice haunted me and tears rose to my eyes against my will as I swung around to look around for a hiding spot, but beyond the goopy river was nothing more than a devastated forest that led to a quarry not far off. And unfortunately, there wasn’t a single hiding spot to be seen, even from this distance.

    The sound of dogs barking and howling growing nearer sent me into overdrive.

    I had a weird blurry memory of sitting on our ratty old sofa, wearing nothing, but a pair of underwear as I chewed on a piece of burnt toast, eyes glued to whatever it was he was watching on TV. It was a documentary on K-9 units. I didn’t understand all of the lingo at the time, but I did remember watching an officer train his dog to follow scents. At the time, I remembered thinking how amazing it was that a dog could use nothing more than scent to find the enemy.

    Now, I felt a deep sense of panic and haunting nostalgia.

    Because I was the enemy now. I was the one being hunted.

    Duck! I had no idea where that instinct came from. It was almost like someone was whispering into my ear, but my body immediately obeyed and I let myself fall back into the water so it closed in over my head.

Being under the water was worse than just sitting in it. The nastiness of it enveloped me until all I could smell was shit. I forced myself to lay as still as possible, despite the way my heart hammered in my throat, despite the anxiety of what if I can’t breathe. I laid there, holding my breath, listening for the sounds of dogs, of police men, guns. I expected the sounds to get closer and closer as they followed my scent to the cliffside, but strangely, the sounds seemed to be moving further and further away.

    Curious, I went to slowly rise from the water, reaching my hand out to try and find the riverbank, except my hand went swiping through several feet of stinky dirty water. Confused, I reached down to push myself off the bottom of the river, only for my hand to go flailing through more water.

    Whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck.

    Panic surged and I gasped, then choked as that filthy water rushed into my mouth. I flailed, grasping for some kind of solid object to pull myself out, but it was like I was suddenly in the middle of a dirty ocean rather than a small river caused by a drainage pipe.

    My lungs squeezed.

    Oh god, I’m gonna drown.

    I choked, reaching and grabbing for some kind of air, some kind of exit, but it was nothing, except filthy water swirling around me. I choked again and this time, I felt the water get sucked in. I tried to get air into my lungs, tried to scream for help, something, anything, but it was like I was getting pulled deeper and deeper into a river that wasn’t supposed to be this deep.

    I’m gonna die, I realized in agony, choking on a sob as more water rushed into my mouth and between my fingers as I thrashed.

    After everything, this is how it’s going to end? I’m going to drown in a river of shit?

    I clawed at the water, tried to swim toward some kind of surface above me, but it was suddenly like it was miles away. I sucked in another gulp of water in an attempt to find air and I choked again, my head reaching back to once again aimlessly find something to hold onto.

    Except my hand went through the surface of the water and I felt air rush between my fingers.

    What the—

    No sooner did the thought cross my mind did I find myself suddenly getting pulled through the water by some kind of suction and a second later, I found myself sailing through the air. I choked, water spilling past my lips, my eyes peering up in horror.

    What the hell is that!

    There was no river above me. There was no cliffside. No quarry. No forest.

    Nothing, but a sea of black clouds spilling a narrow eerie red light on me that the clouds quickly swallowed as I went falling through the sky. It felt like I was falling forever, but it was probably no more than a minute later that I slammed into a hard black platform.

    What little air I’d managed to suck into my lungs during the fall came flying out in a sharp yelp as the landing jarred me. My vision flashed back and forth between black and blurry scenery as pain radiated through my body. There was a huge difference between getting my ass beat and falling what looked like several miles through the sky and into stone.

    I swallowed against the pain, sucking in sharp shaky breaths as I struggled to prop myself up on the stones. It took me a moment to realize it was raining, the only thing that seemed to carry over from where I was earlier. As I lifted my head slowly, catching my breath, I was so confused.

    The cops? The dogs? Where is everything?

    I blinked a few times, slowly managing to settle my body onto my knees as I sat up, coughing one last time to clear my lungs before I looked around.

    What in God’s name…

    Confusion. Genuine, fearful, confusion.

    Because I had no idea what I was looking at.

    This couldn’t be right.

    I didn’t know much, had never been very smart, but I knew for a fact that there was no place in Texas, let alone Jamison, Texas, that looked anything like the world I was looking at now.

    I seemed to be on some kind of stone dock. The long black cobblestone walkways led to what looked like a small little port side building on the edge of an ocean that was so black, it looked like it was just part of the dark storm clouds overhead. Wrought iron spiked fencing ran the length of the stone dock, water splashing up from the ocean onto the stones, making them slippier than if it had just been rain falling on them.

    I swung around, turning onto my hands and knees as I stared at what lay beyond the stony docks. 

    It was some kind of town.

   A thick misty cloud fell over the town with occasional softly lit lamp posts, all kinds of buildings that were tall and short and wide, but all of them looked so old. It was almost like something out of a movie.

    I blinked to try and clear my vision, because there was no way this was real.

    Unless you’re dead.

    I froze at that.

    Dead.

    I slowly lifted my head back to stare up at the clouds where I’d come from, but it was as if I had never gone sailing through the sky. No weird red pillar of light, no muddy rivers, no dogs, no police. It was a normal cloudy sky spilling rain like a misty blanket. I couldn’t even smell the nastiness of the river anymore. All I smelled was a crisp salty ocean, wood burning somewhere, and wet plants.

     No, this place looked nothing like my home.

    Texas was… Well, I couldn’t remember much before I was locked away, but I remembered our town was very small and my first and last time in school had been ages ago, and I couldn’t remember there being many people. But I remembered our town’s buildings looked more like an old western movie than some kind of scary movie, and when we did get rain, it was a heavy downpour.

    This wasn’t Texas.

   A flash of light snapped me back to reality, or whatever this was, and I turned my head to see a huge house I hadn’t noticed right away. It made sense given that it was black, practically part of the darkness around it, save for that little white light that had abruptly turned on in back.

    Except that light hadn’t been on earlier.

    My panic began to return, kicking my instincts into overdrive as I launched myself off the stones, slipping and stumbling as I grabbed onto the wrought iron fence, throwing myself over the top. I flinched as I heard my jeans snag and tear on the spikes. I hit the ground on the other side after losing my balance, but shot back up onto my feet, wading through tall grass and weird swirly looking plants that looked like tentacles just coming up out of the ground.

    “I told you I felt something. I think it came from over here.”

    The sound of a heavily accented man’s voice cut through me like a blade of ice, my eyes widening in horror. I dropped down into the tall grass, grabbing onto the dark soil as I peered up through the tall grass. I caught movement near the dock, not far from where I landed, and I held my breath because there was no way they hadn’t seen me upon their approach.

    Weird, they got there really fast, I noted, glancing back through the grass at where the house stood a good half mile away.

    “That’s so fuckin’ weird.” The same man’s voice said and I looked back around toward the docks, watching a man come into my line of sight and my stomach shrank at the sight of him.

    He was huge!

    The man who’d spoken was extremely tall, his dark navy hair catching the light from the lampposts, but he wasn’t muscular or fat. Just very tall and lean. He was wearing some strange dark clothing, something that looked almost military like in the way it was full of pockets and chains.

    Except he wasn’t alone. I watched as the guy he was talking to also came into my view and I froze in horror.

    As if the first guy wasn’t bad enough, the second man was even bigger, in every sense of the word. I had never seen a man so muscular, so tall, so well built. He was definitely a member of the military, had to be. He was wearing some kind of black sports wear that showed off bulging biceps marked up by some kind of tribal tattoos, cropped to reveal an impressive six-pack.

    These were military men. That much was clear.

    And that sent panic rushing through me.

    They were looking for me.

    Which meant the cops were still after me, and I felt a brief moment of hopeless despair at the thought.

    Would I ever be able to escape? Would they ever let me go? Would they ever stop looking for me?

    It was almost like the universe was telling me to just surrender, and the thought brought tears to my eyes as I remembered all the horrible cop shows he used to watch on TV, all the times he’d lean over and make snide comments.

    See that? You ever run, that’s what’s gonna happen to you. No if, ands, or buts about it. You’re a fuckin’ brat and they will bring you back to me every time.

    You can never escape.

    “Listen,” the second man’s voice, a deep baritone that snapped me out of my thoughts as I looked up to see him approaching his partner, “I told you to lay off the drinks when you’re on the clock, Abel.” The other man snorted and surprised me when he elbowed the bigger guy in the ribs.

    “I wasn’t even drinking this time, and you’re one to fucking talk,” the first man scoffed, making the second one look at him in clear annoyance, “Right, sorry, anyway, that’s super weird. You can’t tell me you didn’t feel anything. It’s not every day the balance is shifted.”

    “I think you’re overreacting,” the other man replied simply, making the first one groan, “It was probably just someone practicing a summoning.”

    “On the docks?” The first man pressed. His partner didn’t answer.

    I wasn’t going to stick around to eavesdrop any longer. Sooner or later, they would start looking in the meadow between the house and the docks, as they called it, and they would definitely see me once they got into the tall grass.

    I backed up a little through the grass to put more distance between me and the stony docks, turning to face the little forest that seemed to appear out of the darkness near the house. If I could reach the trees, I would have much more coverage.

    I hadn’t made it very far when I noticed something weird.

    The ground was getting muddier as I moved along and the grass was just turning into more of those weird tentacle plants, which almost looked like they were breathing with the way the mist was falling and the occasional gust of wind.

    So weird.

    I frowned, pausing when I realized I couldn’t hear voices anymore. I cocked my head, listening closely to the sound of ocean waves crashing onto the docks, the soft rumble of thunder somewhere overhead, the plants around me whispering together in the wind. I glanced to the side to see one of those weird tentacle plants, started to look away, but I swore for a split second there, the plant uncurled on its own.

    I scowled, turning to look at it again, but it was still curled at the tip, but I swore it was moving. Like, ever so slightly, but it was so hard to tell the difference between that and the wind and—

    Abruptly I felt something slimy and wet coil around my right wrist. A scream flew past my lips before I could stop it as my eyes dropped to see that one of the tentacle plants had uncoiled from its position to wrap around my wrist and it was tightening, like it felt me there, like it was trying to grab me.

    I jerked my arm back, but the tentacle seemed to tighten at the attempt to escape, like it was trying to pull me back into the ground. I yelped as the plant actually dragged me back down onto my face in the mud, making me choke and cough raggedly. I clenched my fist and started to frantically yank at the plant, but it held fast and if that wasn’t bad enough, I caught movement out the corner of my eye and watched in horror as the plant I’d eyed earlier uncoiled from its swirl to reach out and latch onto my other wrist.

    Holy fucking—

    I screamed again as my fear rose, my panic grew as I began to frantically yank at the plants, trying to dig my heels into the mud to fight back, but I felt something tight latch onto my ankle over my jeans and I looked down as another plant had come up out of the mud to find me. I started kicking wildly, but the plant dragged me down onto my back by my ankle, pulling me toward the thick muddy soil. I jerked at the plant on my wrist, reached for the one on my ankle, gripped hard, and pulled as hard as I could. It wasn’t budging, wasn’t moving, barely even fighting me as it simply squeezed my ankle harder.

    I opened my mouth with the intention to scream when suddenly an arm shot out of nowhere and grabbed onto the tentacle on my ankle. I watched in stunned horror as a pair of long sharp claws extended from that hand and sank right into the plant. Blue glowing liquid spilled through the puncture wounds a second before the entire tentacle was severed, spilling that glowing liquid into the mud. The weirdest thing was that the moment it was severed, it seemed to squeal like a pig before the stump shot back into the mud and disappeared.

    “Hold on tight!” It was the voice of the first man I’d seen on the dock. 

    “No!” I jerked my head up to gape at him as he looped his arms under mine and hoisted me up out of the mud, ripping the tentacles off my wrists. The plants squealed and flailed for a second before sinking back down below the mud. I looked down for a split second, then gasped as the man moved me to the side with great ease and placed me amongst the regular grass so I was left staring at him as his partner hopped the nearby fence to approach.

    “You okay?” The man asked. I stared at him for a second, then looked at the other man, who was approaching with a stern frown. I froze as he got closer and closer, and I watched as the light reflected off his face. For a brief moment, I was stunned by how fucking perfect his features were, like they were chiseled by God himself, until the light reached his eyes and I felt like a heavy ice cube slid into my stomach.

    Those eyes weren’t normal.

    They were definitely not fucking normal.

    Where his eyes would normally be white was black, his iris an icy shade of blue.

    Guard my life, oh Lord—

    Abruptly something tightened around my ankle and I screamed, jumping back and looking down as a tentacle crept up over the less muddy ground to latch onto me. My scream barely finished when some kind of horrific mutant lizard tail came out of nowhere and sliced right through the plant on my ankle. I jerked my head up, stumbling back as I watched that tail retract and vanish behind the first man, who looked surprised at the plant.

    “Wow, that’s a persistent Lix,” he commented, then looked at me curiously, “Hey, are you— Shit!” His words didn’t register. My brain seemed to shut down abruptly, no more thoughts, no more processing, just my eyes moving on their own to the first man, then the second, before my eyes rolled up in my head and I fainted.

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