Opening Chapter

The dream crept upon her slowly at first, like a mist lifting to reveal a dark forest with tree trunks towering up into the gloom. The moon was bright in the night sky, but the dense canopy only allowed a dim light to filter through.  Trying to turn her head, she realised that she could not move. Resolving to see what this dream would bring she stared straight ahead.

A dark shape began to materialise from the gloom.  It looked like the figure of a person but was walking with an odd, rolling gait.  Another of these dark forms appeared, then another and another.  These shadows were all ambling towards her in a slow, inexorable shuffle.  She began to feel afraid.  Although she knew she was dreaming, the forest was so real that she had difficulty keeping that fact in her mind.  The lumbering forms drew closer and she began to pick up the scent of rotten flesh.  The lead figure stepped into a shaft of moonlight and revealed its grim countenance.  The flesh of its face was half-rotted and its eye sockets were crawling with fat maggots.  She tried to scream but could not even utter a whisper.  As the lumbering thing drew nearer it stuck out its tongue and uttered a low moan.  She tried to turn her head away from the stench and horror of the thing but still she could not move. The creature stopped with its face just a few inches away from hers and bared its stained teeth with a low growl.  She screwed her eyes up tight, expecting at any moment to feel those teeth sink into her soft flesh but instead she felt its tongue licking her face.  Confused, she slowly opened her eyes to see the light of day and the end of her nightmare.