Page 202 of Hunters and Prey

I reached the darkest part of the thicket, panting, looking for low branches I could use to get up to the canopy––

When a skeletal face appeared in front of me, stepping out from behind one of the black-trunked trees.

It was smiling.

The smile pulled its taut skin back from glass-like teeth––flat and too-wide teeth, that looked to be made of some kind of hard crystal or stone. The smile made it even more grotesque, like something had ripped a hole in its thin skin, exposing its skull.

I stared up at it, panting.

My hands curled into fists. I fell instinctively into a combat crouch.

I was about to move, to dart forward to fight––

––when a sharp, blinding pain erupted in the back of my head.

My mind shifted out.

I had no way, no time, no ability to stop it.

I didn’t even have time to scream his name.

I fought it anyway, in some reflexive, not-conscious part of my light. I fought that blackness, fought the separation between my body and light, fought the part of me that would willingly let go into that abyss.

I fought unconsciousness, knowing I would die, we would die, if––

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