I lay in wait, anxiously pacing my mind, my eyes wide ajar. Across the street from my abode, I hear branches crash against one another like great tides. Foxes screech and howl with guttural, terrifying urgency. Any moment now, my soul will be snatched away from me into that dismal, ceaseless place, and my body will remain a whimpering, limp and weighty husk. The church bell bellows out two chimes. I urge myself to stay awake, but the haunting presence persists. No sooner do my eyes begin to slip, and my breath becomes lazy and listless. A weight blankets my mind, still and shuttered, and as my being slips away, the figure emerges.