Sara’s heart hammered triple-time. Ragged breaths coursed through her open mouth as she sprinted across the rutted moonlit meadow. She risked a glance over her shoulder, eyes wide and searching. Had it found her?

     She stumbled. On pure instinct she threw her arms out, breaking her fall. Her palms tore across the earth, and bright shocks of pain shot up both arms. A sharp cry of dismay slipped through her lips as she crashed onto the ground.

     She struggled to supply the oxygen her body demanded, but the frigid night air charred her lungs. The effort left her throat raw and she fought to suppress a cough, her body convulsing in response. Fresh fear pulsed through her brain. Had it heard her cry?

     Sara pushed herself up to her hands and knees. The moon spotlighted the meadow like a stage, with her the unwilling actor. But stage actor or not, survival sang a song deep within her soul. Keep going. She had to keep going.

     An eerie high-pitched wail pierced the air. The same wail that had awakened her and started this nightmare. Her head snapped up and every hair on her body leapt to rigid attention. It had heard her.

     She crouched in the high grasses and listened, trying to determine from which direction it approached. Not that it mattered. The purse she clutched against her chest contained car keys and lipstick. Not much in the way of defensive items.

     The left. Yes, the wail came from her left.

     She rose just above the tips of the grasses to confirm its location, knowing that doing so might give her position away. But if she could make it across the meadow to the tree line, she might just give it the slip. Whatever it was.

     Sara squinted. Something white and ethereal moved along the far edge of the field. It swept from one edge to the other, searching for her. The moonlight played on the wispy whiteness of it. The sight made her breath catch and her mouth go dry.

     Sara didn’t believe in ghosts. She didn’t. But damn if there wasn’t a ghost or wraith or something otherworldly floating over the tall meadow grasses hunting her. She tracked its movements with wide eyes, the wailing sound growing louder as it neared.

     If she didn’t do something quick, it would find her. She eased back, trying to give herself more time, when something hairy scampered over her bare foot.

     “Shit!” The yelp came out before she could stop it. She landed hard on her rump, her hand brushing frantically at the top of her foot. A shiver shot up her spine. Goosebumps raced along her arms and legs. Had it been a spider, a rodent? Why the hell was she out in a field in the middle of the night without her shoes anyway?

     The wailing grew louder. Sara’s head snapped up. She risked another peek and saw the horrid thing was headed right for her.

     “Crap,” she muttered as she flipped over and scrambled on all fours through the grasses. A brilliant bolt of light came on her right. The ground exploded. Chunks of dirt and burnt grass rained down on her.

     A ghost that threw lightning bolts? At this point, she’d believe anything.

     She leapt to her feet. She gave up trying to hide and raced across the meadow toward the tree line, the uneven ground making her stumble. A bolt of light made her veer to the right. Her arms came up to protect herself from the flying debris.

     The wailing intensified, as though the ghost was angry it had missed her. Sara glanced over her shoulder and was rewarded with another bolt. The exploding earth sent her reeling to the left. White-hot pain shot up her leg as she stumbled over a rock that ripped at the bottom of her foot.

     A sob choked her throat. The tree line was close. Just a little further.

     Tears blurred her eyes as she hobbled the final steps. Shadows enveloped her. She hurried through patches of moonlight, trying to move deeper into the woods.

     She paused within a shadow and leaned against a tree. Her lungs burned. Her feet throbbed. Even with the frigid night air, her skin was slick with sweat.

     Tears coursed down her cheeks, her mind nearly numb with fear. Only a single thought kept her moving—survival.

     A burst of light shot over her head. Twigs and leaves showered from above. The damn thing wouldn’t give up.

     She pushed away from the tree, its rough bark scraping her shoulder through her shirt. She rushed forward through the shadows and light, searching for a place to hide. Searching for a way out of the nightmare.

     The wailing grew louder. She looked over her shoulder.

     “No!” Her eyes flew wide and her heart ratcheted up so high she thought it might burst through her chest. The ghost had found her.

     The ethereal monster drifted downward until its ghastly face was on par with her own. The dark orbs where eyes should have shown held a blackness so deep and intense it threatened to swallow her whole.  Its splayed mouth revealed the same tortuous eternity of darkness along with rows of pointed teeth lining the lipless entrance.

     The wraith hovered inches from her. If she’d dared, she could have touched the wispy tendrils reaching for her. But the thought of falling into that pit of darkness stopped her.

     This was it. In a moment the wraith would strike her down with a bolt of light, blowing a hole in the core of her body and ending her life. Sobs racked Sara’s body as the fear she’d strived to suppress surged forward.

     “No, no, no.” She backed away. The ghost pursued her, stalked her when it could have easily overcome her. Why didn’t it hit her with a bolt of light? At this range, there was no way it would’ve missed.

     The lipless mouth curved into a chilling malevolent grin. Her gut twisted as the gravity of truth crashed down on her. It didn’t kill her because it wanted to toy with her. Like a cat with a mouse.

     Her mind latched onto that one thought and rebelled against everything else. Survival.

     The pain. The exhaustion. The fear. She let it all go and focused on survival.

     Her body stilled as the last ripples of trepidation slipped away. Her heart slowed. Her breath evened. She stood in the eye of the storm, free from all that churned around her.

     She tightened her fingers on the strap of her purse. Her body tensed like a tiger, preparing to leap.

     She drew a breath, pivoted from the ghost, and sprinted away. But she only took two steps into the dimly lit forest when coarse brown bark appeared two inches from her face. Her momentum was already too fast, her course set. The sound of her head hitting the tree reverberated through her skull like a hammer hitting an anvil.

     A bright light shot through Sara’s mind and could only be one of two things. Her head impacting with the tree. Or the ghost releasing a bolt of light, taking her life.

     But which?