Blood poured from my cuts. I tasted a thin stream running down the side of my face into my mouth, right alongside the bitter sensation of helplessness. What could hurt this thing? Its teeth pricked me all over, though it felt like they were leaving bruises, not cuts. The beast appeared to be saving me for something, but what? It might be only a few minutes before it got a taste for my blood and decided to stop in order to properly snack on me. Luckily, its saliva hadn't melted my skin or done anything insane like some of the monsters from the Immortal Plane. I was thankful for small miracles.
Green and brown passed in a dizzying array of moving colors. I couldn't make heads or tails of where we were, just that more forest was continuing to pass. The light around us grew darker. My head swam with dizzy thoughts that came to my brain in sporadic bursts as I tried to ignore my urge to throw up. It's taking me to its home… I can't contact my team… It's getting harder to keep my eyes open.
I clenched my eyes shut for a moment. It helped the nausea, but my head was still spinning.
"Stop that," Kane muttered bitterly. "It's crazy. I couldn't have heard her. I'm going insane in this stupid place." His annoyance broke through my confusion like a hot blade through butter. If Kane was still out there, I couldn’t become this monster's lunch without telling anyone. I struggled in the monster's jaws and slashed again with my knife.
I'm here! I'm fighting a monster. I screamed at him in my mind, but to my utter frustration, he merely huffed in response.
"This can't be—"
I cut him off. You've been talking in my head for the past week; you're not hallucinating. If you're going to jabber on in my head, at least say something freaking helpful. Or shut the hell up, Kane.
A moment of stunned silence followed.
"That doesn’t sound like something I would make up," Kane muttered. "Roxy… is it really you?"
Yes, it's me.
He gave a disbelieving grunt as I struggled between the beast's teeth. "Tell me something only you would know," he pressed. "So I know it’s real."
I hesitated with the blade in my hand. Seriously? I was in a monster’s mouth.
We kissed for the first time in the Hive. Lyra almost fainted. You got all mad because you were embarrassed, which, by the way, is sort of insulting now that I think about it. What's so embarrassing about kissing me? And just so you know that you’re not really hallucinating, I didn’t tell you, but Lyra scared me so badly I actually bit my tongue. Don’t ever tell her that.
"It is you," Kane said, and let out a deep chuckle. "How is this happening?"
Can't answer that. I'm in the jaws of a freaking monster. Help me and we'll work out the rest later.
I holstered my useless gun, using the space beside my torso where the monster’s mouth couldn’t quite close, and switched my knife to that hand as the beast ran. I inserted the knife into the beast’s mouth and raised it. It was just enough to get a better angle if I needed to strike upward.
I think I could hit this thing in the roof of its mouth… or what I think is the roof of its mouth. It's carrying me around like— My head hit a branch, and pain radiated down through my jaw. I might've cracked one of my teeth. I'm like a sack of potatoes to this thing. It's going to break my neck before we get wherever we’re going.
Kane let out a growl of anger, not at me but the creature. "Roxy, you need to get out of there. Strike now."
I’d love to, but the angle is really awkward. I’m not sure I can put enough force behind the blow. It doesn’t seem to want to eat me yet… it’s bringing me somewhere. My foot hit another bush, and I tensed from the pain but kept a yelp down. It’s treating me like a rag doll, though.
“What does it look like?” Kane asked, his voice serious.
Hard to say. It was largely invisible before this, and milky white all over when it materialized. Do you know what an albino is?
Kane grunted with recognition. “Three red eyes?”
My heart sped up. Do you know what this thing is?
“I’ve had a run-in with it before, yes,” Kane replied. "Can you see its nostrils? Look closely."
I steeled myself. The monster looked fierce, but in its pale, papery skin, two slits were cut into its face. From my perspective I couldn't see how long they ran, but they reminded me of a reptile’s snout. I switched my knife back to its original hand, in case I wanted to strike the monster there.
"Its eyesight is quite weak, but it has a great sense of smell," Kane explained. "You need to figure out a way to hit its nostrils." The creature let out a growl from the back of its throat. My hearing must have allowed Kane to hear a glimpse of it. "Yes, that's definitely the one. They saw it, too."
Who is they?
"Roxy, focus on the monster."
Right, good point. I angled myself as the creature continued to run. By now, I was used to the speed even though it was disorienting. The trees passed by in a blur.
I went for the nostrils, like Kane instructed. As quickly as I could, I smashed the knife into the beast's snout, as close to its leathery nostrils as I could get. The hit rewarded me with a howl of pain like no other. Everything happened in a blur. The beast suddenly flung me into a nearby shrub.
My limbs screamed in agony. I was sore all over from being held in the creature's mouth and slammed repeatedly into trees as it ran. I knew I’d have plenty of bruises. Fear ran
