Book 19: A Monster

Ian

I wake in a cold sweat at first light to shouts beyond the rain-smothered glass of my bedroom windows. My dreams swim, turning into a muddled cacophony of fractured, made-up memories that vanish before I have a chance to rub sleep from my eyes. My cabin is cast in calm, silver shadows like I left it the night before, but unlike the night before, I’m completely, utterly naked. 

Another trio of shouts rings through the still morning air. I can taste the fog. It’s too early for the first streams of morning sunlight to illuminate the forest floor when I slowly swing my legs out of bed and fist the damp sheets. I sweated through them. The trail of clothing on the side of my bed gives me a single shred of an idea of what happened over the course of the past few hours. 

The cold, aching prickles erupting all over my skin are just the remna