When the seven of them reached the woods, Jessie broke off from the group, staying on a path fifteen yards in. A hundred feet down, Ava. Then Nate and so on until only Larry was left on the trail twenty-five yards above the clearing.
Three minutes into her stalk, Jessie heard a twig snap in the darkness beyond her. The hair stood up on the back of her neck. Slowing the pace a little, she dared to flick the small flashlight on for only a second. Nothing.
Continuing on, she made another thirty feet or so before hearing a rustling of leaves. Fear stopped her in mid-stride. She slowed her breathing to stay as quiet as possible and again clicked on the light. This time, the beam was reflected back to her from a set of pure silver eyes.
Realizing what she had walked upon, or had it come up on her, panic set in. Forgetting everything she turned tail and ran. She ran back towards the house, the road, a field, she didn’t know. She didn’t care. The only thing Jessie knew was to run, she had lost all coherent thought.
Snapping out of her fugue suddenly, she saw the barn. Looking behind, she spied the form of the big cat leisurely emerging from the trees. Heading around the front of the outbuilding, she hoped the Daemon would think that she had kept going to the house.
Slipping in between the double doors, she ran to the ladder up to the hayloft. Careful to make as little noise as possible, she climbed to the top. Seeing that there were around two hundred bales of hay or more stacked deeply to the back, she made her way to the furthest of rows.
It was a tight squeeze, even for someone as small as her, but she slid in between the mounds as far as possible. Hoping that the dust and dried up grasses wouldn’t make her sneeze or cough, she steadied her breathing.
After a few minutes, just as she had convinced herself that it hadn’t seen her come in here, the door creaked as it opened. She broke out in a cold sweat. Dread washed, no, rained down over her.
Then the sound of someone whistling came to her ears. Whistling? Oh yeah, she remembered this thing could change forms in the blink of an eye. Shit.
Footsteps, slowly ascending the ladder. Her chest tightened as the sound of feet stepping onto the hayloft floor reached her. She went for her gun only to discover that it had been lost during her panicked flight.
The whistling stopped. The air froze in her lungs. Just as Jessie glanced up at the top of the haystack, a face appeared inches above hers. Icor dripping from fangs that protruded from the mouth. Eyes glowing pure silver. A clawed hand reaching around, circling her petite throat.
She felt herself being lifted up and over the top. He held her close enough that she could smell the putrid odor of death emanating off of him. There wasn’t enough air in her lungs to allow her to speak, much less scream.
The eyes shown an even brighter silver, half-blinding her. Dak lowered her to the point where their lips were almost touching. As he inhaled, she felt two sensations at the same time. The first was excruciating pain as the talons of his right hand slid into her abdomen, slicing upward. The second was as if she were being emptied.
It only took a few seconds for her to die. But in those last few moments, she turned her eyes downward only to see what looked like a mist coming from her. The Daemon was breathing it in. The last two words that her brain could process was terrifying…. “My soul”.
When it was finished, Dak slung Jessie’s eviscerated body to the barn floor. He opened the doors of the loft and jumped to the ground. Turning his attention back to those that were left, he started up the slope. By the time he entered the treeline, he had reverted back to full panther.
