“D-E-A-T-H” was the long, drawn-out whisper that Samuel heard whistle through his ears. “D-E-A-T-H.”

Samuel realized they had strayed into a thicket of soaring cathedral pines, tops towering over him as if they were ancient, disapproving gods. The canopy swayed fiercely, intoxicating and terrifying Samuel with strobing glimpses of darkness and moon-drenched shadows. His eyes grew wide, pupils the size of marbles taking in the dim light as he jerked right, then left, spinning out of control. As a wailing wind tossed pine needles at his head like darts in the blackness, the forest spirits possessed him, pushing his fear over the edge and commanding that he pull the trigger on the evil spirits that besieged him. Absent of conscious thought, he blindly obeyed. He turned to the four dark figures lurking, stalking and poised for attack, and watched his smoking barrels obliterate them.

The spirits quieted and smothered the winds, allowing an eerie calm to blanket the forest. The canopy opened and invited the moon to shine its light on the forest floor. Samuel’s panic subsided as he stared at the moon, which now seemed a tranquil beacon of hope. He traced its searchlight from the heavens to an object five times his own height: a tremendous granite outcropping overhanging a natural spring. The boulder’s weathered wrinkles reflected the moonlight throughout the pine cathedral.

Samuel’s eyes fell to the spring at the base of the boulder, where four lifeless bodies lay, covered with black blisters and spewing blood into the cursed soil. Samuel loomed over them, mouth agape, staring at what remained of his family in the darkness. In a trance, Samuel stood still, unaware that his hands—or something else—had repositioned the choke of the shotgun just beneath his chin. He submitted to the soil’s final command and pressed his thumb down on the trigger. As Samuel’s body collapsed and draped over Sarah’s, the echo from the shotgun faded and the evil crept back into the soil through the blood of its victims.

Baldev nodded in approval of the sacrifice.

Chapter 1

Ozzie jerked his head up in the darkness, his adolescent shaggy black hair standing on end. It wasn’t the rain dripping on his head that had woken him so violently. By now, he had adjusted to sleeping through rain and oppressive heat. No, he had heard something. A drawn-out menacing moan from far below, a monster slugging its way up the mountainside, getting closer to Ozzie by the moment. He was sure he had heard it, but for now, the forest remained calm.

As the clouds began to clear, a wedge of moonlight shone through a rip in the shack’s roof and landed on the dirt floor. Ozzie stared at the dust particles as they danced in the beam of light between the floor and the ceiling. Other than soft snoring from the three bodies that surrounded him, the forest was eerily quiet.

Until a deep, haunting whisper rose to him through the trees.

“Beware, my boy. I’m coming for you.”

Ozzie bolted straight up, deadly still.

“I’m coming, little Ozzie. Coming to eat you. And then I’m going to eat your entire family too, put you all in my black, evil belly!”

Ozzie froze momentarily before he tugged at his brother. “Felipe! Wake up!”

Felipe rolled away from Ozzie. He never woke when Ozzie heard the monster coming. Other nights the monster had spared him, passing by just close enough that Ozzie could smell its breath––breath that stank like exhaust from an old rusty muffler. But this time it taunted Ozzie, called him out by name!

“I’m getting closer now, little one.”

“Mom,” Ozzie whispered before raising his voice. “MOM!”

“What is it, Felipe...Ozzie?” Isabella responded, voice deep and groggy with sleep.

“The monster’s coming up the mountain! MOM!”

“Ozzie,” Isabella said with her eyes closed, “It’s no monster. They’re just bringing us breakfast as they do every day. You know how you love your breakfast, Ozzie.”

That was true. Even if it was just the same sloppy gruel every day, Ozzie looked forward to it. It was all that he had ever known, although his mother had shown him how to forage for some wild foods, mainly mushrooms and wild berries. But it didn’t matter, as Ozzie had little room to explore. An electric fence three times his height kept his family, and countless others, imprisoned.

Isabella pulled Ozzie close to her and snuggled him. Ozzie’s fear had caused his voice to escalate steadily until he let out a high-pitched, juvenile squeal.

“But mom, it said it’s going to eat me...eat all of us!”

“What the hell is going on? The sun’s not even up yet!”

“Nothing, Eduardo,” Isabella said to Ozzie’s father. “Ozzie just got a little scared, that’s all.”

Eduardo stood and stared firmly at Ozzie, furious that he had been woken.

“Dammit, Ozzie, you’re not the only one who sleeps in here, you know. We all have to sleep together. You’re almost grown now, and it’s time you start acting like it! Now, go back to sleep!”

Eduardo didn’t have the patience or the tact of a mother. With all they had been through, being held captive on this foreign land for so long, it was a wonder he had any patience left at all. As with most fathers, he felt it was his role to make sure his son grew up to become a leader—the protector and provider that Eduardo felt that he should have been.

“Shhh! Listen, mom...it’s coming!” Ozzie said, being careful to keep his voice low.

“I don’t hear anything, Ozzie.”

Eduardo went back to sleep under their leaky roof as Isabella sat with Ozzie and listened carefully. Ozzie had a remarkable sense of hearing, nature’s way of compensating for his extremely poor eyesight, Isabella reasoned.

Finally, Isabella heard the faint sound of the dilapidated old farm truck, Ozzie’s enraged monster, grow louder, moaning along and grinding its teeth as it made its way up the makeshift mountain road. A road that existed on no map, to a destination that virtually no one knew existed.

Boom! Pow! Belch! The truck sputtered and backfired, the sound bouncing off the mountainside like cannon fire in a brick alleyway, as the black monster crept closer still. Ozzie had never seen it before and didn’t want to see it. Always it came under cover of darkness, and every detainee knew to keep away until it left. Most just learned to sleep right through it. Ozzie never could, but as long as his mother was beside him, protecting him, the monster uttered not a word.

The truck inched forward in stops and starts, belching and grinding its way along the circular road, skulking ever closer to Ozzie’s encampment. Ozzie dug into Isabella’s side, bracing himself for the worst as the sound closed in on him. But then, as Isabella had assured him, the truck completed its rounds and slithered back down the mountainside. Ozzie cozied close to his mother as the sound of his monster slowly faded, and he drifted back asleep.

As his eyes fell shut the wind whispered down the Georgia mountainside, “I’ll be back for you, Ozzie.”

***

Ozzie climbed out of bed two hours after sunrise and staggered to the food drop. When he found nothing, he just stared dumbfounded and listened intently to see if the truck was coming back. He heard nothing, so he began exploring. Fifty yards away Ozzie found a cluster of oyster mushrooms spiraling up an oak tree. Starving, he ripped a mushroom off the tree and devoured it.

“Mornin’ sweetie.”

“Mom! I didn’t hear you coming.”

Ozzie walked over and rested his head on his mother’s shoulder as he soaked up the warmth of her love. Eduardo’s right; he’s growing up so fast, Isabella thought. Practically full grown now but still so innocent...so naïve!