The jagged rocks and thorns bit into my bare soles, a relentless torture as we fled through the suffocating darkness of the town. My feet were shredded ribbons, each step a fresh agony. I yearned to stop, to collapse, but Mommy surged onward, deaf to my pleas.

She wasn't thinking straight. We should have left at daybreak, when the vampires retreated to their hidden lairs. But she’d insisted we wait, claiming the werewolves patrolled Baron's grounds, making escape impossible. I had warned her, but she dismissed me as a silly child. Now, night had fallen, and the vampires were out.

They would find us. Baron would find us. And he would punish us for running. "Hurry up!" Mommy hissed, her grip like iron as she dragged me through the desolate streets, past crumbling buildings that whispered of a forgotten world. "Mommy," I gasped, stumbling. "Please, wait… my feet."

She clicked her tongue, a sound of impatience, and pulled me into the gaping maw of a decaying building. Once, perhaps, it had been a shop. Now, in the dim glow filtering from outside, only toppled shelves and a dust-covered, broken doll remained. She yanked me down, forcing me flat against the grimy floor, then rolled on top of me, pushing my face into the dust and shattered glass.