As he opened his mouth to shout, Cal felt something shove inside him, hot and strong, to smother his lungs, to squeeze his heart in a stunning agony of pain.

The light shut off. In the thick dark blew an icy cold that numbed his skin. The sound the wind made now was like an animal, like a monster that only lived inside books. Beneath him the ground shook, heaving him back as he tried to crawl away.

And something came out of that icy dark, out of that quaking ground. Something huge and horrible.

Eyes bloodred and full of…hunger. It looked at him. And when it smiled, its teeth glittered like silver swords.

He thought he died, and that it took him in, in one gulp.

But when he came to himself again, he could hear his own heart. He could hear the shouts and calls of his friends.

Blood brothers.

“Jesus, Jesus, what was that? Did you see?” Fox called out in a voice thin as a reed. “Gage, God, your nose is bleeding.”

“So’s yours. Something… Cal. God, Cal.”

Cal lay where he was, flat on his back. He felt the wet warmth of blood on his face. He was too numb to be frightened by it. “I can’t see.” He croaked out a weak whisper. “I can’t see.”

“Your glasses are broken.” Face filthy with soot and blood, Fox crawled to him. “One of the lenses is cracked. Dude, your mom’s going to kill you.”

“Broken.” Shaking, Cal reached up to pull off his glasses.

“Something. Something was here.” Gage gripped Cal ’s shoulder. “I felt something happen, after everything went crazy, I felt something happen inside me. Then…did you see it? Did you see that thing?”

“I saw its eyes,” Fox said, and his teeth chattered. “We need to get out of here. We need to get out.”

“Where?” Gage demanded. Though his breath still wheezed, he grabbed Cal ’s knife from the ground, gripped it. “We don’t know where it went. Was it some kind of bear? Was it-”