Heart pounding, he crashed through the undergrowth. Ghostly creepers and tendrils whipped his face and clawed at his clothes. He was running as if possessed, legs stumbling onwards, dead with exhaustion. His ears were filled with the sound of his rapid breathing and the thud and snap of trodden plants. He had to keep going, not daring to look back and break his stride. Instead he careered blindly on, lost and barely able to see oncoming trees in the thick blanket of night that surrounded him. He surged forward and out into clear, cool space. In spite of himself he stopped.

 The pale moon was casting eerie shadows around the field he had just entered. The ground was crisp with frost beneath his feet and glistened in the half-light. Faintly he could hear the sound of something moving through the forest behind him. His skin began to crawl and he shivered not only from the chill October air but from an ominous premonition of horror and the creepy sensation of the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Rather than take the risk of having nowhere to hide if he continued across this expanse of frozen ground he turned and plunged back into the woods and the frantic rhythm of his flight.

His pursuer was not far off now, the loud rustling as ‘it’ (whatever ‘it’ was) moved was almost directly behind him. He grimaced and clamped his eyes shut as if to also block out the mental image of that creature that had come flooding into his memory. The wild red eyes filled with hunger and malice. The matted fur covered in what looked like blood. The mouth filled with yellowing teeth, crooked but sharp as knives. And the howl the deafening, chilling, terrible howl. The howl that filled every inch of you with a mind numbing terror that you could not explain. There it was again. He cried out too in fear, exhaustion and desperation. A desperate cry that was feeble in comparison to the sound that had just filled the air. He shook his head to clear his mind of any thoughts and, tears streaming down his face, he ran on and into a clearing. He carried on through this opening, ready to dive back into the undergrowth until his ears became accustomed to this new silence.

It was then he realised that his pounding footsteps were the only noise. He ground to a halt. Had it given up? Was he safe? He looked around and listened intently. Apart from his wheezing breath the world echoed with silence. He felt very alone. Breathing a sigh of relief he bent down and put his hands on his knees to regain his breath, almost laughing with relief. And then he heard it. The shallow, animalistic breathing, right behind him. He straightened up and not knowing where he got the courage to do so, turned around. Those red eyes, smiling in triumph, loomed at him out of the darkness.

The scream pierced the night air and was quickly smothered. Apart from a few birds who fluttered out of their nests in indignation, no one was around to hear.