Chapter 1 - Episode 2 - Nightmares

Nuelle was sitting in the garden.
She was rocking gently back and forth, while the sewing thread slipped slowly through her fingers.
Her husband Jeremi would soon be returning from his usual rounds.
He was Greentowne's chief physician.

She thought of her children.
She smiled.
She wondered which of the three would catch the biggest fish.

It seemed like any other day.
Simple.
Peaceful.

Then a scream, terrible and piercing, struck her like a blade.
She dropped her needle and thread.
She brought a hand to her throat and ran toward the gate that marked the boundary of their property.

She opened it and stepped onto the dirt path.
“Rosemary?” she called out, looking toward the neighboring Sullivan house.

She saw the gate open and Rosemary slowly emerge.
She was staggering.
Her face was gray, her eyes empty.
Only when she came closer did Nuelle notice the blood.
A red stain spreading across her friend's abdomen.

“Rosemary… Good heavens…”
She didn't even have time to move.

Something emerged behind the woman.
A shadow.
An abomination.

The creature grabbed Rosemary by the hair.
It twisted her head to the side and sank its jaws into her neck.

Blood spurted like a crimson fountain.

The monster lifted the body and bathed its face in the cascade of blood,
laughing in a voice that did not belong to this world.

Nuelle screamed.
A desperate cry that tore through the air.

Finde pulled his siblings closer.
“We move together.”
His voice was trembling.

“Don't leave my side.”

He paused.
“And… don't look at those things.”

They moved stealthily, keeping close to the walls of the buildings surrounding the square.
Every sound was a risk.
Then a growl.
One of the monsters suddenly turned toward them.
The two festering holes where its nose should have been sniffed the air.
Its yellow pupils searched the shadows.

Finde's blood ran cold.

He threw himself behind some large wicker baskets, dragging his siblings with him.

Lisey was trembling.
Her labored breathing came out in hoarse gasps.
“Please, Lis…” Finde whispered, gently covering her mouth.
“Please…”

The monster was moving toward them.
One step.
Then another.
It was less than a meter away.
If they moved, it would find them.
If they stayed still… it would find them anyway.

Finde's mind went blank.
I have to be the bait.

Lisey understood.
She grabbed him and shook her head.

Finde smiled at her.
A smile that felt like goodbye.

Then…

Someone leaped out from beneath a nearby market stall.
The monster spun toward him.
Two strides, and it was upon him.
It grabbed him by the hair and lifted him up in front of itself.

The monster's blade plunged into his abdomen.
Its hands tore through his flesh.
Blood and entrails fell to the ground.

Finde looked away, gagging.

“Finde! Now!”
Miky shouted.

They bolted.

They ran as fast as they could.
All around them, screams.
Smoke.
Corpses.
They reached Meridia Street.
Then the northern gate, the fields, and finally the path home.

At last, the gate to their house appeared before them.

“Mom!”
Lisey shouted.
“Dad!”

But the smell of death had not left them.