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PROLOGUE
Mud squelched beneath Anna's feet, cold and invasive, as she propelled herself forward. Her breaths came in ragged gasps, each one a desperate snatch at the stale air that hung heavy in the tunnel. She was barefoot, her soles numbed by the chill of the wet earth, but she couldn't stop—not even to glance at the cuts she felt blossoming along her feet with every step.
"Keep moving," Anna whispered to herself, the words barely escaping her lips. The echo of her own voice seemed to mock her, a haunting reminder that she was not alone in this subterranean hellhole.
Her head snapped back, eyes wide, searching the darkness behind her. Nothing but shadows greeted her, yet every instinct screamed that she wasn't alone. Maybe it was the way the silence seemed too complete, or how the air felt charged with a threat that had no form yet.
"Who's there?" Her voice broke the oppressive quiet, betraying her position, but she couldn't help it. The need to confront her unseen pursuer was overwhelming.
No answer came, just the drip of water from the tunnel walls, rhythmic like a metronome to her flight. She moved again, heart pounding, the slick mud almost claiming her with each precarious stride. She couldn't shake the feeling—the certainty—that something was coming for her.
"Please," she begged the empty air, "please don't let it catch me."
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, a primal alert system that needed no confirmation from her other senses. It was an ancestral warning, one that spoke of predators and prey, hunter and hunted. Every cell in her body tensed, anticipating an assault from the void.
"Can't—can't be nothing," she panted, the words punctuated by the slap of her feet against the ground.
But the darkness held its secrets tightly. She'd seen it before... him... it? Anna tried to clear her head, but her mind was in opposition to sanity.
Her breaths, ragged and sharp against the damp night air, caught as she burst from the tunnel's mouth onto a deserted road. The ground here was harder, unforgiving, and her bare feet slapped against the asphalt, caked mud flaking away with each punishing step.
"Okay," Anna murmured to herself, a feeble attempt to inject courage into her trembling form. "Okay."
The quiet of the night shattered, a low growl in the distance pricking her ears—the sound of an engine, far yet approaching. Instinctively, she searched for cover, but the barren roadside offered no sanctuary.
"Can't be..." Her voice trailed off, the rumble growing distinct, a harbinger of something new to fear or perhaps a newcomer heralding salvation. She couldn't decide which it would be.
She grimaced again, clutching at her head. It ached...
This was such a far cry from what she'd been doing Monday... Monday seemed so far away. Shopping, a visit to the ATM, an angry talk on the phone with...
With him?
No...
Why couldn't she remember?
Her head throbbed, and she knew she didn't want to remember.
Her eyes darted towards the road once more. She didn't dare look back towards the tunnel, as if peering in that direction might only realize her fears.
Like a child trembling under covers, she'd decided it best to leave the monster unseen beneath the bed.
She stared in desperate hope towards the approaching vehicle on the slick road.
Twin beams pierced the darkness, slicing through the night and thin tendrils of fog. The headlights crept closer, the truck's rumbling syncing with her own erratic pulse.
"Please," she whispered, not to the approaching vehicle but to some unseen deity. She'd grown up religious, and it had been a simpler, quieter time. It had been years since she'd stepped foot in church, and now she was wishing she'd kept lines of communication open a bit longer... She needed help... from somewhere. "Don't let it be them."
She stood frozen, a statue carved of panic and indecision, as the headlights swallowed her shadow, casting her in a harsh, unwelcome spotlight. The roar of the engine crescendoed, now a beast unleashed, its vibrations traveling up her legs, a physical manifestation of her pounding heart.
"Move!" The command ricocheted within her skull, her mind grappling with the primal urge to flee once more. Each thud of her heartbeat was a drumroll, counting down to the moment of revelation—of life or death encased in steel and gasoline.
"Can't stop..." Her thoughts fractured, splintered by the escalating noise, the blinding light. "Have to choose..."
She lurched forward, her decision made. Her bare feet slapped the asphalt, each step a staccato beat. The truck bore down on her like an iron-clad predator.
The horn blared from within the cabin, joined by a voice muffled by the glass and steel yet sharp with urgency.
