Nightmares of a Predator

    For what seems like the millionth time, I’m running through these woods when suddenly I freeze. My fingernails are caked in blood and dirt, my heart racing and my feet unable to move beneath me. It’s always the same. In front of me, beyond the black waters of the lake I can hear the wolves. I’ve never seen them, but every night their howls get louder, more menacing. Behind me, the footsteps get closer as I struggle, willing my body to move. They move quickly - these women who chase me night after night, whose long bony fingers claw at me from the shadows of the trees, whose cackles will soon fill the air as once again I am unable to escape.     It’s time. A leathery hand reaches out, grabbing my hair and jolting my leaden legs into action, but it’s too late. I’m on my knees. I know what I have to do and I know it will be futile in the end. I wrench my neck up, so my eyes lock with my captor’s as I bare my

  Aria POV   There had to be a rational explanation for this. Right? He’s probably come through here before. Maybe I noticed him without really knowing. I mean, he IS gorgeous... that seems like reason enough for him to be crawling around in my subconscious. I’m sure that was it. And his eyes changing color? Well, this is a coffee shop... not the best lighting. Just a trick of the shadows. Mystery solved. I breathed a sigh of relief. At least one thing about my nightmares finally made sense.   What I couldn’t wrap my mind around was the way he was looking at me. At school and here at the Stitch’s Brew I wasn’t the type to attract a lot of attention. I’m the kind of girl who is pretty enough to escape being bullied, but also plain and quiet enough to fly under the radar of any male attention, good or bad. It was an unusual feeling to be gawked at. Especially by someone who looked the way he did - utterly perfect in every way. Cold and distant, s