With all the thoughts running through my mind, I made it quite a distance down the path and away from the house before I noticed it. When I did, I was too shocked to do anything but run. Run as fast as I could away from it...

It was a tall, shadowy figure with glowing red slits resembling eyes. It had fangs dripping with ruby-red blood. I kept running, but I couldn't help it when I looked back to see how far away it was. 

I screamed as I realized it was suddenly right behind me. I turned around again and ran faster then I ever thought was possible for a normal human being. However, when I looked back again, the thing was right behind me. 

I finally screamed as I tripped over a fallen tree. As I fell I swear I saw the thing smile. I scrambled away as the thing stalked closer, it's head tilted as if it was confused by me. And then it lunged at me. 

I just narrowly dodged it. But the thing didn't give up easily. It lunged again and this time it's aim was true. 

I felt its fangs sink into the soft flesh of neck. I screamed out in pain and in fear. I watched, paralyzed, as the thing backed away from me and into the shadows once more. It was still smiling, a wicked, sinister smile. 

When the thing had been fully enveloped by the darkness, I tried to move, but found that I could only move my head. Nothing from the neck or below. 

The leaves in the trees beside me began to rustle. I whipped my head to face them. The shadow figure appeared before me, but then disappeared in the blink of an eye. Leaves rustled again, but this time in a different direction. I looked over to see the same thing happen as before. 

The dirt of the path began to crunch as if someone was walking towards me and I faced forward to see nothing there. However, the crunching continued. Colors began to blur together and my vision got blurry. The world around me seemed to spin. 

The shadow thing must have poisoned me... I thought, barely able to form a coherent thought. 

Even that one small thought made my head spin. My arms began to shake from having held my upper body up for so long. I tried to lower them, but I still couldn't move. 

The dizziness kept getting worse and worse. Everything I looked at lit up in neon colors and it made my head hurt along with my stomach. 

Just as I started to feel like I was going to pass out from the pain and nausea consuming me, everything stopped. The colors looked normal again and my vision was no longer blurry. I tried to stand up and this time I could move. My knees were shaky, but I managed to fully stand. I looked around and realized that I was no longer on the pathway. Instead I stood on an outcropping of rocks looking over a river. Three people stood before me. I held my breath in anticipation of what was to come next.