Rowan
"Something's wrong."
She looked innocently up at me with her dark, overlarge eyes. "Why, whatever is the matter?"
I kneaded my hands against my brow, agitated; confused. "Something's not right. Something's different. How did we get here?"
Her eyes grew wider as she shook her head. "What could you possibly mean?"
"Here, how did we get here? What was I doing before this?" My voice grew louder as I paced in a circle, scrubbing my eyes, running my hands through my hair.
She laughed. "Oh, don't be so stupid, you were working in the orchards, of course."
"I can't remember. What are we harvesting this season? What moon are we in? Something's—"
I looked up to find her watching me, and my breath froze in my chest.
Her cold smile widened. I saw a pair of jaws beside her, teeth bared, salivating, waiting for the kill. Her head lowered as she fixed her eyes hungrily on me. The beast next to her started a low, guttural growl.
I stumbled back. She leaned in and whispered:
"Run."
I ran. I could hear barking and maniacal laughter behind me. I knew I was soon far-gone. This was it.
My legs carried me as fast as they could, stumbling over the uneven ground. I saw the clearing and the lake. A faint thought told me it would be a good place to die.
Behind me, I hear a piercing, almost inhuman shriek, stretched until its pitch splinters and frays outward over the still meadow:
Kill him.
I fall, scrambling forward on my knees. I turn just in time to feel a pair of jaws close around my throat.
The air is wrenched from my lungs. I stare upwards at the sky, as it starts to melt. Bright blue-and-white drips from the heavens and reveals grey concrete, and then it all blurs into nothingness.
I close my eyes.