Run.

My eyes snap open. Sweat drips off my lashes into my eyes as I inhale and exhale heavily. Aching covers me in a blanket, pain pulsing with every beat of my heart. I can feel it at the tips of my fingers, like the blood is running too hot and to fast. What am I doing here? My head pounds like a gong and I let out a muffled cry, head slamming back against the tree. I can’t think past arriving at my grandmothers, but that must have been hours ago. I lift my hands shakily to my face, feeling the tears I don’t remember crying mixing with the earth and… and something else sticky. Blood?

Run.

My whole body jolts at this amplified thought, then the sensation of a mallet hitting my head sends me slumping back against the tree. Shit. Shit! Somethings wrong with me. I can’t calm down, I can’t slow my breathing. My body is overrun with a paralyzing panic, though I cannot trace the fear to anything material. It’s just there, like a lurking shadow, pulling me deeper into dispair. I pull my red sweater tighter around me, as if it can shield me from the forest.

Run.

I can’t. My feet slip as I try to stand, the ground slick like from a recent rain. I grip the tree for balance, fingers digging into the rough bark. I don’t want to turn my eyes from the forest, the crawling feeling that eyes watch me curling in my gut. I need to run, I need to run, I need to-

Run.

My heart jumps into my throat, my breathing becoming unsteady gasps now. I swear a growl comes from behibd the foliage. The glint of eyes in the moonlight.

Run.

I’m trying. I’m trying to run, but it’s no better than a hobble. I’m going to die. I don’t even know why or how, but I cannot shake this deepening dread.

Run.

Leaves crunch beneath feet, but I’m not walking on leaves. Someone is coming. No. Not a one. A thing.

Run.

I look over my shoulder, then wish I hadn’t. The face of nightmares locks eyes with me.

Run.

Gnashing teeth, feral gaze. I choke on my burning scream.

Run.

I don’t want to die. I urge myself to move, to escape.

Run.

Sobs fill my throat. Its footfalls come faster now.

Run.

I trip, falling to the muddy forest floor.

Run.

It doesn’t wait, coming faster now.

Run.

I don’t know why I still think I can-

Run.

Hot breath on my face.

Run.

Lashing tongue.

Run.

Unhinged jaw.

Run.

To young to-

Run.

BANG!!

I scream, heart pounding even harder now. My ears ring so loudly I almost don’t hear the next two shots. BANG, BANG!! I cover my hears, hands cupped and curled into a ball. My knees hug my chest as tears snake down my cheeks, carving their way through the mud and blood I’ve smeared there.

I wait a long time before I allow myself to crack my eyes open. It lies still up against a tree, the bark splintered from impact. It does not move, not a twitch of the ears, nor a flutter of the eyelids.

Slowly, I remove my hands from my ears. There is only my own heavy breathing now, and the whistle of wind.

“Helen, you stupid shit,” curses another voice, and I jump. I have had enough scares in one night to last me a lifetime. I turn to see the voices’s owner. He lowers a large shotgun as he steps towards me. I know him. My grandmother’s neighbour. Harvey, was it? ”I thought you were smart! Don’t you watch the skies? Visiting your grandmother on a full moon? Thought you’d just waltz into her house and leave unscathed?” He shakes his head, exasperation making him grow a few more gray hairs. “You’re lucky I was here,” he grits out.

I glance back at the beasts monstrous form. The tattered nightgown stretched over its middle, torn from growth. The hair scratches across its snout. Her snout.

In a rush, the memories return to me, like a wave crashing over itself, tumbling inward. Knocking on the door only for no one to answer and having to fish the spare key out from under the doormat. The lights all out inside, curtians drawn. Dropping off my mothers backed goods in the kitchen as I called her name through the house. Hearing that horrible scream mixed with growling, the one leaking from her room. Pushing open the door. Seeing her there, human at first, making that keening, screaching noise, then all at once, limbs elongating, fingers forming claws, spine bursting from her gown, fur sprouting along her skin. The howl that crawls from her mouth. Her eyes, black onyx instead of their usual pale green, snapping to me. Running. And now…

“Oh, Grandma…” I choke. I feel stupid, I _am_ stupid. I did this. Crawling across the earth, I come up next to her, stroking her wet fur, sodden with blood. This is all my fault. How could I be so careless? How could such a thing slip my mind.

The man, Harvey, kneels beside me, hand going to my shoulder. He must regret being so harsh with me because his tone softens. “There’s nothing you can do now. She’s the one who told me what to do when things got out of hand. She knew the price. She knew what was coming. It was only a matter of time before something happened again,”

_Like with grandfather_.

I cup her monstrous face in my hands, closing her eyes. My whole body is shaking, doubled with weeping. I trace her ears, the lines of her face, as if my grief can bring her back. Tears drip onto her muzzle. I think of when it was human, when it smiled kindly down at me. A memory of her combing her fingers through my hair, singing lullabies as I curl against her bosom surfaces. Then of her, with her hands over mine, as I am convinced that I am the one driving us to the grocer. Tickling me when I wouldn’t listen. Forehead kisses. For a monster, she is so far from villainous. If there is one, it is me.