Each slam of her heart seemed to give away her position. Her hand clamped down tighter over her mouth, until she felt her teeth through her lips. She still tasted copper on her tongue; she'd bitten herself too hard.

The footsteps headed in the direction of where she'd been sleeping, carrying the light with them. She shifted herself with painful slowness, moving a little faster as the steps grew quieter. Once on her stomach, she started wiggling under the bed. The light glittered in the distance like a village in the night.

Her reprieve didn't last. The light swiveled suddenly, then started bobbing her way. A cry caught halfway in her throat before she stopped it. The light streaked towards her. She'd been heard. Terror lurched as her stomach did the same. Hide, hide, hide, she needed to hide. Nothing else mattered but hiding.

Footfalls clapped like the thunder of a nearing storm. She got under the bed just in time for her hunter — a man, with those shoes — to race past her hiding spot. Only her eyes moved, tracing his light even as it almost disappeared altogether. It drifted back her way after a moment, as if it were an ember caught on the wind. His footsteps were short and clipped. Agitated, perhaps, that he hadn't found his quarry. She drew in a long breath through her nose just before he reached her, then held it.

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Those black shoes went round the bed, towards the door, and disappeared from sight. The footsteps stopped. The angle of the light shifted, and there was the small rasp of metal on metal. He'd placed his lamp in a wall bracket, surely. (And that sound was another thing she inexplicably knew, familiarity in an unfamiliar world.) But why was he doing that?

Air burned in her lungs. She couldn't hold her breath much longer. Leave, just leave, leave me and go away, whoever you are. She clamped her eyes shut. Go, damn you.

Step, step.

Her heart jumped into her throat and her eyes flew open. He was coming her way.

Step, step.

No, please, no. She wasn't here, she wasn't here, she just wasn't.

Step, step.

A long silence. Then cloth rustled and leather creaked. The leather of his shoes. He'd moved close enough for her to hear such tiny noises. Her eyes widened so much that they felt as if they might roll straight out of her skull. But she couldn't look. He'd hear her if she moved as much as a muscle.

The bed shuddered with sudden force. It lifted away from the floor in a single, violent jerk. An enormous crash sounded behind her. She twisted up, tried to get on legs that refused to carry her. Above her loomed a dark figure with a headful of fire and Hell raging behind its back. She gasped out a huge breath, then sucked another one in to scream. The shadow fell upon her before she ever made a sound.