Prologue
Silver Creek, Minnesota. August 1994
Jack awoke in darkness, the sour burn of whiskey in his throat and his head pounding in time with his pulse. He groaned, low in his chest, and struggled to rise; only to stop when his alcohol soaked brain realised it was already upright.
He grunted in confusion and tried to move his arms. They were bound; in fact he was suspended from them. Not good, the thought whispered across his consciousness. He glanced around, a little thankful at the lack of light, for the sake of his thumping hangover.
A small whimper came from his six and he froze, becoming more alert as the adrenaline started to flood his system. "Is somebody there?" The feminine voice came from behind him and he tried to twist on his wrists. The darkness span lazily until his sense of direction told him he'd done a 180. "Hello?" he said his voice rough.
The woman started crying, choked sobs spilling forth with great gasps of air. Oh crap. "Where are we?" he asked, only to wince at the answering wail, "I don't know! We were out camping in the woods and that…that thing came and…and now Stacey's gone and…" the words dissolved into sobs. Gone where? Jack's eyes must have finally been adjusting to the low light because the black was slowly resolving into shapes.
Jack had to bite back a laugh, he was hanging from his wrists in an abandoned mine shaft with a woman who, now that he could actually see her, could pass for Lori Petty. Just wait till I tell Charlie, he thought before he ruthlessly choked it down. For a moment he was drowning in the grief that had swallowed the past four months. He heard a skittering behind him and dragged himself back up from the abyss.
Jack turned again, just in time for a greyish blur to rush past him, knocking his shoulder and causing him to sway uncontrollably. His head span, his feet scrabbling for purchase on the packed earth of the shaft as screams rang in his ears. He finally regained his footing just as the screaming stopped, "What the hell was that?" Jack looked around wildly, there was no way that he just saw what he thought he did. Emaciated, hunched figure, grey skin and six inch claws his mind whispered traitorously. "Hey! What was that?" Silence, Jack twisted to face the girl again and had to swallow back the bile that surged into his mouth. She'd been…eaten his intuition supplied only to be dismissed by a more rational part of his brain. Oh yeah, definitely time to go.