The tree-thing came through the doorway, smashing the flimsy drywall and framing aside. Bits of dust and debris scattered everywhere as it stalked toward me, eyeless and silent, made of darkened wood that looked constantly slick with wetness.
I couldn’t back up fast enough. It grabbed hold of my ankle as I tried to crawl backward. Icy-cold burned my skin, and I screamed in pain, lashing out with my other foot at its head. The move must have caught it by surprise because it let go. I was up and diving over the bed in a flash.
Bloodbound.
The tree-thing was fast. One incredibly strong arm reached under the bed and flipped it up on end before I had cleared it.
Screaming, I flew through the window, glass shredding my skin in places. I hit the roof outside, rolling down it and then out into nothingness.
I hit the grass flat on my back.
Pain lanced up my entire spine, and I sat up straight, my eyes wide as I tried to breathe. My lungs weren’t working. They weren’t working! No air was coming into them, I was going to suffocate.
I’m going to die. This is it. It’s over.
Air abruptly rushed into my lungs. I clutched at them in relief and immediately let go as fresh agony hit my brain. My right hand came away wet and warm. I looked down. There was a giant rip in my shirt just below my clavicle. I was bleeding profusely. The wetness was blood soaking my shirt and hand.
Bloodbound.
“Enough!” I screamed, struggling to my feet as the tree-thing smashed open another hole in the wall of the house and leaped clear down to the grass in one motion. “Just stay out of my head already.”
I backed away, wondering how long the adrenaline would keep me going. I should not be on my feet so soon after falling out of a window. At some point it was going to catch up with me and I would be toast.
Bloodbound.
The pressure in my head was growing worse. My spine was constantly trying to lock itself up. My danger sense was not leaving. Not going away. It was only getting worse, a pressure trying to explode.
The tree-thing darted forward and snatched me up, lifting me off my feet. Extra limbs sprouted from it, wrapping around myfeet and holding them tightly together. Then it plunged one thick “fingertip” into my open wound.
I shrieked as a pain unlike anything I’d ever known before filled my body. It was like every blood cell had lit on fire at the same time. I was burning from the inside out. Arching forcefully, I stared at the creature, watching it torture me by digging its appendage in deeper.
Thundering pressure tightened and twisted my spine. Agony injected itself direct into my brain. The world was covered in black dots. My throat was raw from screaming.
Lincoln had to hear me.
Someone had to hear me, and come stop it. Come save me.
But nobody was coming.
The tree-thing lifted me higher and plunged its entire hand into my open wound. Blood poured down my side, and I slumped, sure I would lose consciousness. I didn’t. The blood ran down my neck and into my eyes as my body bent in half the wrong way.
I shouted and tried to swat at the tree-thing.
Which is when blackness started to flowout of me, like a creeping vine inching its way up over the tree-thing’s fingers, wrapping them in a coat of bloodied-paint. My muscles were locked tight. Unmoving.
The back of my head was thundering with pressure as my danger sense tried to warn me that this wasn’t good. Something bad was happening. It was a cacophony of sensations. Too much for one brain to handle.
Bloodbound.
Where was Lincoln? Was he not going to save me? Was I all alone?
Bloodbound.
The pain and the pressure intensified. I couldn’t do it anymore. I was going to black out. Whatever it was doing to me, it was going to succeed, and I was going to die. All because I couldn’t fight back. Couldn’t doanything. I was too weak. Too useless. Too-
The thundering pressure of my intuition suddenly erupted like a volcano. My spine popped as I flexed backward, and then my core tightened, and I curled up into a violent scream.
A wave of sonic thunder poured from my mouth, battering at the tree-thing. Its skin cracked and peeled like a cheese grater had been run over it repeatedly. Bits and pieces ripped free and were blown away.
The scream intensified as it dug its fingers in deeper, and the power behind it slammed into the tree-thing and flung it back against the house. Without it holding me aloft, I hit the ground, wrenching my knee in the process. The impact slammed my teeth together, and blood flowed fresh from my tongue.
What the fuck was that?
Peeling itself from the side of Lincoln’s cabin like a banana, the tree-thing righted itself. I got to my feet unsteadily. Power of some sort circled around me, lifting my hair, and filling the air with static energy.
The tree-thing approached warily. Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed at my wound. In the wave of pain that followed, I screamed again. The air around my mouth warped as yet more sonic thunder thrashed out at the tree-thing. It tried to brace itself, digging roots into the ground.
I screamed harder, pouring my pain into the noise as I dug fingers deep into the open wound on my shoulder. Sound-force snatched the tree-thing up and tossed it clear through Lincoln’s house.
That was the last I could see. My eyes rolled up into my head and I fell forward limply, the ground coming up fast.
I never made it.
Strong hands scooped me up. “Gotcha,” Lincoln said, easing me into his arms and down.
“Lincoln!” I struggled in his grip, awakened by his touch.
“Hey, hush,” he murmured. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay now. It’s gone. You drove it off. Somehow.”
Pushing his hands away, I got myself to my feet, the world spinning wildly around me. Gritting my teeth, I tried to nail the corners of it in place.
“Sylvie, lie down,” he growled commandingly, standing up and taking me by the shoulders. “You’re badly hurt. But it’s over now. It’s done.”
“No,” I whispered, grabbing at his hands and holding on to them for dear life. “No, it’s not over. Not yet. We have to stop it, Lincoln.”
“You tossed it through my house,” he pointed out. “You stopped it.”
I clutched at him, my eyes wide. “No, you don’t understand. It took something. From inside me. I-I don’t understand, but Lincoln, if it reaches the river …” I shook my head. “You have to stop it from crossing that river.”
“How do you know this?”
“I don’t know!” I shrieked. “But I just used my voice to toss it through your house. Maybe you could trust me on this? I can feel it. Whatever it took … I need it back. The Chained can’t be allowed to have it.”
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