The beasts eyes glittered in the split second it took for our gazes to lock, before the fur

snapped back around his pale skin and he bounded towards me, the slap of his

footfalls on the cave’s stone floor loud enough it froze me in place.

“Get away from me! No! I am not going back there! Mmph!” I screamed wildly,

pumping my legs as hot hands encircled my midriff and lifted me from the floor.

This was it, this was the day Nola Reynolds would die.

Sam had always said it was my curiosity that’d do me in at the end.

The blood pounded hot in my ears as...