Claire stopped to cradle her stomach again. Why did everything always seem so much heavier when it rained? She did not care much for being wet, and she knew that it must be bad for her baby but she had to keep running. She would not let herself be found, either by the doctor and the rest of her "friends" or the "bad man".
"It's okay," she crooned her baby, "I promise, we're going to be okay –"
"You."
The rain poured down, and Claire turned, perplexed, to investigate the voice. She saw someone. Who was he?
"You." he said again.
Not good, her mind screamed. Who is he? she asked herself. Half of her wanted to run, half of her wanted to stay. She turned, took a few undecided steps, stopped, began to turn back around, stopped again, and began to run, half holding back, stopping again, her movements jerky and hesitant. Then she heard the Man advancing. That was not good. In an instant, she made up her mind to run.
She ran, fast, as fast as her legs could carry her, with the rain pounding against her cheeks and rushing through her hair. The rain obliterated all visibility she could have hoped of having. She could not see her stalker clearly but the dark image of the Man kept flashing between the trees as she ran, sometimes consistent with her, sometimes falling behind, sometimes ahead of her, sometimes on the other side, sometimes behind her. Claire kept running. She was frightened. She did not know where she was, or who was chasing her, or why. She glanced over her shoulder, but saw no one. She looked to both sides, up, behind her again; she did a spin in her running, but she saw no one.
Claire stopped. Where was he? How could he have disappeared so completely? She backed away a few steps, listening hard. The pouring rain was thundering in her ears but she knew what sound she was looking for. She turned her head, left, right, up, down, but she saw no one.
From behind a tree, head bowed in the fashion of a predator, his dark hair falling in his face, soaked by the rain, the scratches on his face glittering as if the blood was new, Ethan slunk noiselessly, one hand outstretched towards her, fingers bent like cruel claws, as if he meant to tear her limb from limb like a wild animal. She did not hear the sliding of his feet across the dampened clay, littered with an assortment of tree discards. Ethan, his twisted smile fixated across his pointed face, lunged at her.
Claire screamed. If she had ever screamed before in her nightmares it was nothing compared to this. Ethan had grabbed her, but she would not be taken down so easily. She kicked and screamed, usually gentle hands balled into fists were swinging violently, legs kicking anything they could reach, hair flying in every direction. Ethan took her slender, smooth neck into his rusty hand and jerked it backwards. "If you fight, I will break your neck." he whispered, just loud enough for her to hear over the roar of the rain. Instantly she stopped fighting. Ethan took a few ragged breaths, laced with traces of mad laughter. He bent down to her ear again and breathed into it, his breath strangely cold.
"Hello, Claire." he whispered. "Nice to see you again. Did you miss me?"