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It could be an animal. Colorado had bears, cougars, and foxes.

Fear like ice water filling her veins turned her heartbeat into a broken dam. Some preternatural sense spoke. A voice that once kept her ancestors alive. It wasn’t an animal stalking her in the dark.

Peeking around the tree, she sought out the lights of the motel. There was only a wall of pitch-black.

Another twig snapped. Closer this time. Forty, maybe fifty feet at most.

The owl hooted. Louder than it was all night. It repeated its triple call. Mouth dry, she took a step towards the song when more noise sounded from behind.

Memories of the violence inflicted by the killer flooded her mind. Sliced skin. Severed tongues. Cold panic threatened to overtake her as she walked on unsteady legs. Cutting right, she moved as quickly and quietly as she could, ducking behind another tree. The owl called, still to her right but further now.

Inhale for four, hold for seven. Driving into her training, she tried to wrangle the thoughts of blood and gore.

She was not going to die. She would not let them take her and put her on that rock.

Get to the room. Get to the room. She chanted the words, begging them to get her back safe. Another deep inhale.

Looking over her shoulder, she tried to hold still long enough to make out any movement. Nothing.

Crossing to the other side of the tree, it was all she could do to not scream in relief when the yellow of a light cut through the dark.

Desperation demanded she run straight for it but she yanked on its short leash, forcing herself to follow the strange call of the bird somewhere above. Vera didn’t have time to consider why she felt she could trust it before she sprinted for the next large tree, remaining parallel to the lights.

When the sound of feet quickened behind her, she was sure the owl was leading her away. It seemed to be guiding her in an arc back towards the lot, the neon of the Sylen Sleeper sign now close enough to read.

One loud hoot and she caught sight of a pearl white body dipping low and then cutting through the tree line ahead. The owl revealed itself as it delivered her back to the motel where Teddi slept.

Simultaneously bitten with cold and sweating from fear, she clenched her trembling jaw shut.

She’d never been so happy to see the worn-down building. She tried to remain quiet, hoping she lost whoever was in the forest, reminding herself not to sprint across the gravel and cause it to scatter loudly. Adrenaline shook her body. Her hand reached out as if she could touch the room Teddi resided in just as she crossed over the barrier of the forest.

A whoosh of breath burst out of her as she landed back in the lot. Released from the grips of the forest, she felt the final dregs of fuzziness dissipate. Sound returned fully to her ears. The neon sign buzzed like a shaken hornet nest.

Gasping, Vera turned back to the wild that had held her, that had almost taken her, eyes wide as she listened. Hand on her chest, she took a blind step backward. Even the owl seemed to abandon her as she tried to hear beyond the motel. When nothing came, she heaved out a shaky sigh of relief and turned back toward her room.

She made it back.

Whatever compelled her to step into the dark was something to consider later. Once she was inside, safe and warm again. Teddi was going to kill her.

Armpits sweating against the slick of her jacket, her hand reached for the rusted door handle.

The sensation of being slammed into overtook her. Something drove into her side, knocking her down onto the pavement with a thud. The weight of her head landed on her cheekbone, the concrete like a cheese grater against her skin.

“You little bitch.” A man’s low voice cursed against her ear, his weight fully atop her prone body. Mortal fear seized her heart, halting its machinations for a life-altering second.

Scrambling to get free, to alleviate the oppressive weight, she tried to move. In her alarm she made a foolish, anxiety-riddled mistake as she twisted onto her belly, giving him her back.

A thick forearm looped around her neck as he smashed her body flat to the ground.

All air whooshed out of her lungs as his arm synched down and his chokehold sank in.

The weight was oppressive. Invasive. A violation against her life.

“Leave this fucking town and never come back. Do you hear me?” He drove his considerable weight down harder, not even a whisper escapable from the vise around her windpipe.

Her eyes felt as if they were going to bulge out of her head, the pressure of her blood filling up the space.

“I said do you hear me? Or do you want to end up like your little cousin? Do you want me to carve those pretty little eyes out of your skull? Slice off your tongue? He was missing his dick but I’m sure I can find something to cut off you. Leave you for the animals to feed off of in that god-forsaken forest?”