Chapter 2

Dina tossed and turned, a nightmare deeply ensnaring her thoughts. She tossed as the dream grew closer, its jaws nearly going for her throat. Her forehead beaded and poured sweat profusely, yet the room was ice cold. Her mind, however, was entwined with the fumes of distress and the heat of fear.

She was running through the woods again, the demon from last night hot on her trail. She panted as she ran deeper into the woods, and she heard him calling her with a seductively soft tone. She ran harder and quickly fled to the heart of the woods. Her bare feet made running a little uncomfortable, but she didn't dare stop. She neared a tree and climbed it in a fit of panic. She hid in its branches, hoping against hope that he couldn't track her into her spot. The demon walked right under her, his eyes narrowing with a knowing grin.

"Darling…" he called out in a singsong voice. Listening for her, he called out again, "Come out, come out wherever you are…"

She felt herself sweat in exhaustion as well as panic. She felt it try to drip down her forehead, but she silently tried wiping it away. One drop fell into the air, and the demon held his hand out to catch it. Dina fought the urge to scream, and as he smelled the scent, a deep bladed smile furrowed his face as he looked up to see her. He smiled pleasantly, and said with a content tone,

"There you are! I was looking for you!"

Dina lost her nerve and fell from the tree. She landed on her side and groaned after she hit the ground. She quickly tried vaulting up to run, but the demon quickly grabbed her, and held her to him. She wanted to struggle, but his grip was strong. She weakly flailed as she begged him fearfully,

"Please, let me go!"

"And have you run away again? I don't think so, my darling Dina…" He purred.

He held her body, so she was facing him, and as his eyes went black with triumph Dina screamed out in fear as he went to reclaim her mouth in a kiss to possess her. However, her alarm's screech sounded into the air, and Dina was thrown back into the waking realm.

"HOLY SHIT, NO!" she gasped as she vaulted upright.

She panted, and fearfully checked herself over. She swore she had been bruised, and her lips had barely touched his in the dream. Despite this, however she caught the smell of oud, and sandalwood faintly lingering in her room. Dina's eyes widened in terror. He-He was here!? That isn't possible! Right?! She mentally panicked. She swung her legs out, only to see her feet were dirty from the outside. She froze in sheer horror. She….she didn't return! She had fallen asleep as soon as she got back to her dorm! Did I really go back!? Or is this just coincidence?! She panicked internally. She was avoiding that forest now like the plague.

Her roommate knocked upon the door with a firm banging. She grimaced; her roommate, a devout Reborn Again Christian by the name of Rose was a royal bitch. Well, she was devout until it came to the thought, word and even deed of sex….She had the body of a virgin, but the soul of a whore. Rose yelled through the door,

"Ugh, Dina! Can you be any louder?!"

"Good morning to you, too Rose!" Dina growled.

"Whatever. Hey, did you hear the news? They pulled Ric, Silvi and Carlos' bodies out of the woods last night! They think they were attacked by bears! I mean they looked like they were!" Rose said with a shudder.

Dina heard that and felt her heart plummet. Her friends? Dead? She felt her eyes widen in terror. She survived. Her Jeep….Her Jeep! It was still at the site! Oh, shit! She thought in anxiety. What if she was a suspect in their deaths?! She weakly stood up and checked her phone. Sure enough, a number she recognized as the police department was within the call logs. She groaned; she was in so much trouble! The thought of the demon was driven out of her thoughts for now. And to cement that nervousness, she heard a knock upon her dorm's door. She quickly dusted off her feet and went to the door.

She saw two officers standing there and groaned. She was so doomed. She opened the door, and asked gently,

"Officers, is everything okay?"

"Dina Mendes, we just have a few questions for you. Can we come in?" the young officer asked.

She invited them in, and as they sat down, they asked her all sorts of questions. Dina managed to answer honestly, and they seemed satisfied. She felt relief, until one of them showed her a crime scene picture of her Jeep. It had been totaled but the motor seemingly had exploded. What made her heart stop in her chest was the message carved into the driver side door. It read simply: I'll be waiting for you…and it was highlighted in red from the deer's blood. The officer looked a little shook, and asked her,

"Do you have anyone that could potentially wish you harm?"

"N-No officer. I thought I just hit a deer!" Dina lightly lied.

The officer looked skeptical, but nonetheless they were done here. They got up, and after warning her to be careful, they walked out. Dina felt terror grip her chest. This was bad; horrific was a better word. What had they called? What manner of demon was he? She shook in fear as she finalized her thoughts. She was avoiding the forest for a while.

However, someone else wasn't so lucky.

The young woman panted and ran as fast as her legs would carry her. She heard his delighted chuckle behind her, and the terror gripped her chest tightly. She ran deeper into the woods, knowing she only had seconds to get away. She hesitated as she looked around, her brunette hair matted to her neck and face from her own blood and sweat where he had bit her and clawed her. She was too far in to gauge whether she was close to the road. She had thought today was a good day for a hike, but now….Now she was running for her life.

"Come now, my dear! You can't run from me forever!" The strange being called out sweetly.

The woman bolted, but her legs were getting tired. A rod (or was it a branch?) swept her legs out, and as she hit the ground, she rolled down the hill, gashing her arms and legs against the thorny underbrush from the desiccated thorn bushes and wild raspberry vines. She cried out in terror as those vines raveled around her, tightly restraining her from movement. She panicked and screamed out as his shadow crossed her face. Alastor moved in, and her screams echoed throughout the pines as he shredded and devoured her before her screams silenced. Her eyes finally glassed over from death, her body mangled and shredded in a manner that was gruesome.

Her soul began to ease out and leave, but before her soul could cross, Alastor plucked it from the air, and swallowed it, savoring her final moments of fear and terror that lingered in her essence. He smiled dementedly as her essence made him stronger. He knew he needed a few more to break the binding spell that kept him here. After all, his Dina needed his company, and taught that she couldn't get away from him forever. A pleasant, yet evil smile filled his face. He took a small piece of paper, and wrote a simple, yet point driven message to his prey in his recent victim's blood. With a single hand gesture, he dropped the note next to the woman. He growled happily as he left the corpse to the ground,

"Don't worry my little Dina," He stalked back into the woods and added, "We'll be together sooner than you think…."

News of the slaughtered hiker soon burned through the little, sleepy town near the Appalachian Mountains. Everyone was hesitant, but the thoughts of a bear on a rampage masked the true, and horrifying nature of her death. The CSI investigator found the note, but Dina never knew the note was there, until Rose, whose father just so happened to be head of the investigation, sent her a text of her father's evidence. The note was titled simply Dina, rusted and splattered with decaying blood and read ominously Soon, my love. Very soon.

Rose asked if Dina thought this was a serial killer looking for her. Dina played dumb but didn't want to, even with Rose's predictable tangent about her not being interesting enough to be a target. She knew the killer wasn't human, but no one would believe her. No one seemingly knew that a demon was responsible; it was that, or people were desperately trying to gloss over the terrifying thought.

September eased into the summery air of August, and Dina was back in school. She was a photography major at the local university. Usually, summer and fall were picturesque in the area. However, the summer yielded more dark and evil things in its quiet end. Throughout the end of the month every other week, a hiker went missing. They were always the same. Brunette, but never blonde hair, curvy, and tall. They all appeared to be shredded by a wild animal. Finally, there was also always a note addressed to Dina. The last one, a female whose body was found by the dogs near the Southwestern Trail had another note. All it read was I'm coming for you, love.

Dina overheard this, and her gut knotted. The demon her friends called out was now killing anyone who was foolish enough to venture into the forest. There were also reports of deer being found torn to shreds. She felt her thoughts whirl and spin in hesitancy. She was avoiding the woods like the plague now.

However, today felt weird walking into college. She felt the stares….She knew why she was still getting them. She, being the sole survivor of the attack, was still being regarded by some to be the prime suspect. The cheerleader and sororities were having a ball with this, but Dina's mind wasn't focused on that now. She had to wonder why the art department was so eerily silent today.

She drew near the photography lab, only to see some students leaving in terror, others were nearly in tears. Muttering about how the new professor was a total dick about their photos...Moreso than usual. It was the Full Harvest Moon, and their former professor was down with illness. Who knew, maybe they got a werewolf for a new professor! Or a psycho. Maybe even a total—

She barely walked into the class, and panicked the prior thoughts out of her mind as she gazed into her new professor's face.