Prologue

It pounced while she slept alone. Innocent and vulnerable.

She twisted against the sweaty sheets, flung one fisted hand through the air in an attempt to ward it off.

It didn't stop. It came now, just as relentlessly as it had before.

The human form, black with its evil, reached for her. She felt the chill of its hideous smile, heard its vile descriptions of her imminent destruction at its demented hands, smelled its foul breath and pungent body odor.

Animal-like sounds of horror ripped through the air. The noises came from her, even in her sleep, as they had before--when the nightmare had been real.

A violent crushing of her throat brought an abrupt end to her screeches of terror and a blinding pain to her heart.

Fingers of searing misery shot through her mind and body and mercilessly clawed at her soul. A gray haze misted her fluttering eyes while death panted gleefully in her ears.