I open my eyes, flailing my arms in front of me. I so desperately need air. I need to breathe. The air is thick and murky. It stings. I catch a distorted glimpse, rippling and blurry, of the full moon above. It is all that I can see. All except for one thing-a pair of murderous gray eyes.

My world begins to fade.

Twilight.

An endless scream, “Why, Rowan, why?”

Darkness.

Falling.

Impact.

I was vaguely aware of struggling toward consciousness as my nightmare world sought to meet reality. Something, or someone, wasn’t ready for that however.

Running.

I am running blindly through a forest.

Chased.

Hunted.

The icy snow numbs my frozen feet. I am nude. Nude and streaked with blood. Wounds cover my tortured body.

Fear tears mercilessly at my soul as my labored breaths take in the wintry air, bringing frozen pain to my already frostbitten lungs.

I stop and search franticly for a place to hide. From what, I do not know.

A tortured scream in the night.

Fire.

Fear absolute.

The taste of death.

I am running.

I started to sudden wakefulness, eyes snapping open, and my body feeling as though it had just been soundly pummeled with a two-by-four. Foggy disorientation quickly lifted and was replaced with knotted fear in the pit of my stomach. Fortunately, after a few short moments of deep, labored breathing, I realized that it had only been a nightmare. It was simply yet another terror in the long series of phantasms that had once again begun to plague my sleep in these recent weeks. I thought I had seen the end of them, September last. Apparently, I was mistaken.