*Xamara*

Snow explodes beneath my paws as I run, my lungs burning, my muscles screaming. The forest whips past in streaks of black shadows and white drifts. I can barely feel my legs anymore, but I keep pushing because the creatures behind me will not stop. They don’t tire. They don’t slow. They only shriek, fly, swoop, and claw.

Their shadows sweep over the treetops, warped shapes that blot out the blood moon. Its crimson light should spill across the forest, but every time they pass overhead, it’s swallowed whole, plunging the world into a sudden, unnatural darkness that sinks all the way into my bones.

I leap over a...