at the ruby ring on his finger. It was a nervous habit, but while he’d been wearing the ring for so long he hardly even noticed it anymore, it had felt heavy lately. Constricting, even though it fit a little looser than usual.
He took it off and placed it on the bedside table. It didn’t belong to him anymore. He didn’t belong to the world the trinket granted passage into. He didn’t belong anywhere.
As worried as he was, Ronnie managed to fall asleep sitting up against the wall. He opened his eyes what felt like seconds later, jolting awake with the familiar sense of just having nodded off. When he found himself in the same clearing as before, surrounded by nothing but trees and a silky black sky, he realized otherwise.
It was happening again. He looked down at his hands in hopes of seeing an odd number of fingers, which was usually the only sign he was dreaming, but instead, he found the usual ten as well as a broken set of handcuffs hanging from his right wrist.
What the fuck?
Ronnie staggered to his feet. He only knew it was the same spot he’d been before because he recognized the thick and oddly shaped hunk of bark taken out of the pine tree ahead of him.
He was still dressed, at least. The only way any of this could be worse was if he was running around naked.
His attempt at optimism fell flat. He really wasn’t good at it.
This was it. He couldn’t keep going like this. He couldn’t face Colt, and he didn’t want to drag his parents into this, but maybe Roland would know what to do. He was logical. He would find a way to figure out what was going on, and most importantly, Ronnie knew his favorite uncle wouldn’t let him hurt anyone they both loved. Unlike Miles, he’d actually been a second father figure to Ronnie over the years, and he just needed to talk to someone he trusted. Someone familiar.
Of course, he had to find a way out of the forest first. He couldn’t even remember which way he had gone the last time. He’d been in a daze then, but he felt strangely awake now. His senses were acute, sharper than they had ever been.
He thought he could hear cars in the distance to his right, so he started walking that way. He could also hear the babbling of a stream, and he knew if he followed the water, it would eventually lead somewhere.
Ronnie froze when he heard another sound. One he hoped was a hallucination. He spun around, searching for the source of the crackling leaves and brush. The woods were dry, and every little sound echoed in the night. Even the air seemed somehow as opaque as the starless sky.
He wasn’t sure if it was bravery or merely the lack of decent sleep, but he walked in the direction of the sound and gasped when something shot out of the brush.
A rabbit. He was losing his shit over a fucking rabbit.
Before he could even breathe a laugh of relief, he heard it again, but this time, there was no way the sound was coming from something as small as a rabbit. He turned in the opposite direction, struggling to see through the darkness behind the pines.
He bent down and picked up a rock, sharp enough to use as a weapon if he needed to. It was better than his bare fists, that was for sure.
“Hey,” he bellowed, trying to sound as confident and threatening as he could. It was probably just teenagers screwing around. Maybe he could scare them off.
Something told him otherwise. He wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe it was the fact that the air had a strange electricity that hadn’t been there a moment earlier, or that the sky seemed to grow darker and darker as that sound encroached.
Crisp leaves and dewy blades of grass crunched beneath the weight of human footsteps. When the man finally appeared, Ronnie realized there was no way he could take him. He looked to be in his mid-forties, at least six-two, and twice as broad as Ronnie was.
There was a familiar look in his eyes: hunger. Ronnie had seen it in the other ghouls’ eyes all his life, but it was only ever that intense in a few, including Colt. Unlike Colt’s eyes, there was absolutely nothing to soften that predatory gaze.
Ronnie’s feet failed him, planted as firmly in the earth as the surrounding