I don’t know what happened. What hit me. All I know is that my head is throbbing so badly I can’t hear my own thoughts, and there’s something sharp in my back. I don’t have the energy to roll over and remove one pain when it will trigger so many others in my aching body.

I was running, from what, I can’t remember. But it wanted something from me. I ran down a gravel path, and then in to the woods, following the mud track. God. I was being chased by something that probably wanted to kill me, and I followed the path like a little child.

I don’t remember the running much, it was just the continuous smack of my trainers on the mud and the snap of twigs behind me from that thing. I just ran and ran, until I failed to breath and my feet protested against hitting the ground one more time. So I stopped. Idiotic, I know. And the thing slowed, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and die. The thing creeping up behind me would take care of that.

I bent double, clutching myself, waiting for the thing to strike. It did. Something that definitely wasn’t human shoved me with the strength of an ox. Down in to a ditch.