THERE’S NO POINT in trying to hide anymore. Dawn screams for her life.

“Help! Help me, please!”

With every last ounce of strength she can muster, Dawn screams for help.

Above her, Warden continues to descend. He doesn’t speed up, and he doesn’t slow down. He just drops, slowly and steadily.

And Dawn keeps screaming.

---

Whoever it is on the trail?

They hear Dawn.

They stop moving, and then they call back, “Hello?”

A man’s voice. A voice Dawn doesn’t recognize. But that doesn’t matter.

She screams for help again.

---

Warden keeps dropping. He’s twenty feet away now, and Dawn keeps turning to look up at him and then screaming again. And as he gets closer, she screams louder, more desperate, until it’s barely words coming out but just something primal.

It tears her throat raw.

But it doesn’t stop Warden. Warden keeps coming. He keeps coming and in Dawn’s eyes he’s not even close to the boy she thought she could be falling for.

He’s a monster.

And her screams don’t hurt him.

He’s ten feet above her now. Coming down fast. Whoever’s on the trail is crashing up through the bushes toward them, but they’re too slow, too late; Warden will get to Dawn first.

Dawn looks up at Warden and doesn’t even see life anymore in his eyes. Doesn’t even see a smile. Just grim, deadly determination. Like a shark.

He’s almost on top of her, and Dawn closes her eyes. She stops screaming, even.

It’s over.

All she can hope is that Warden kills her quickly.

But then Warden walks past her. She feels him brush past as though she isn’t even there. Listens as he continues down the slope of the mountain toward the innocent bystander who’s coming up toward them, drawn by Dawn’s screams, and hoping to help.

Instantly, Dawn knows what Warden is thinking. She’s too exhausted to move, but the bystander is a threat. She knows Warden means to neutralize that threat. She knows once that’s over, he’ll come back for her.

Dawn starts screaming again. Loud as she can.

This time, she’s screaming at the bystander to run.