“Honey? What’s wrong?” Megan touched her fourteen-year-old daughter’s forehead with the back of her hand. “You’re feverish. Did you have a bad dream?”
“It’s coming for me, mother,” she said, shuddering. “It’s coming.”
“What’s coming for you, dear?” a worried look washed over Megan’s face. What was Nicole talking about? “Nic, honey?”
“It’s coming for me,” Nicole repeated. “It’s going to kill me,” her daughter looked so terrified, it disturbed her.
“What’s going to kill you, Nic?” Megan held her daughter by the shoulders. “Nobody’s going to kill you, sweetie.”
“No, I’m not safe. Not safe from it. It…It’s coming,” she stammered. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to!”
“You’re safe here,” Megan pulled her into a hug, trying to calm her down. “You’re safe with me.”
“No, no…It’s coming to kill me. I can’t escape from it,” she was shaking, and it was definitely not from the cold. Something had frightened her, and was messing with her mind.
“It’s just a dream, Nic,” Megan patted her back consolingly. “It’s all just a dream. It isn’t real, okay?”
“There…there’s a man…He’s going to kill me…He said I was his next victim, and…and it was so real, I…”
“Nic,” Megan cut in. “Just go to sleep, okay? It’s all just a-
“He said…he said that I only had three hours to live. And…and then he would kill me and eat me up…” she paused, and swallowed hard. “And then his eyes turned yellow…and he became a big, scary cat…I was so terrified, I couldn’t move, and then he opened his mouth wide…And I could see those sharp, sharp teeth, and…and then I woke up.”
“All just a nightmare, sweetie,” Megan cooed. “It was all just a nightmare. Now go to sleep, okay?”
“I don’t want to,” Nicole said sternly. Her eyes were tearing up. “I can’t sleep…knowing that I am going to die in the next three hours.”
“Don’t be silly,” Megan slid into the covers next to her. “If you won’t sleep, I will make you.”
“Mum, I…I’m afraid,” Nicole hugged her knees to her chest, shivering in fear. God, Megan hated to see her daughter like this. It was as if she had just undergone an extremely traumatic experience. Could a single dream do this to someone? “What if…what if…it’s really going to happen?”
“Nobody’s going to die, Nic. So please, do me a favour, and go to sleep, okay? Nobody can hurt you, sweetie. Not under my watch.”
“But-
“Go to sleep,” Megan was getting annoyed-Nicole could be so stubborn sometimes. “Goodnight, sweetie.”
“Goodnight, mum,” Nicole obediently tucked into the covers, and was asleep within minutes.
###
Outside the window, he watched them quietly. He had his eyes on the girl, dying to know what she would taste like. He stood there where he was, up on the branch of the tree, not the least bit afraid that it might not hold his weight.
He had been so hungry since he had killed those two men, those weird looking things. And when he had gobbled them up, he had wandered all the way here, towards civilization, where there were many more of them.
He had been a panther all his life, but something had changed the moment he fed on those humans. Something that completely turned his life around. The panther was no longer an it, it had become a he.
YOU ARE READING
HUNT, OR BE HUNTED
Mystery / ThrillerHe was always blacking out, always confused, losing control of his actions. And when he did, he would have no memory of it. What he didn't know was that there was a monster inside him, a monster that he couldn't control. Once it took over, not a sin...
