“Nightmare! Get back here!” I called as the tiny black dog skittered through the front door and into the field. Dinah said, “don’t worry about her, she’ll come back when she feels like.”

I heard her call my name as I whirled after the dog. I ran across the field after the tiny black dog, it’s form almost invisible under the waning crescent of the moon. Following the dog into the tree line, I lost sight of the creature, but I could still hear it scampering through the bush.

Then it stopped.

“Nightmare!” I called standing still, listening for any sound of movement.

I felt my skin prickled in the silence. Surveying my surroundings, my fingers twitched at my sides as an uneasiness washed over me. I felt like there was something watching in the darkness. So, I quietly retreated back to the house.

“Did you find her?” Dinah asked me as I marched up the patio steps.

I shake my head as I tuck my hands into my pockets. Dinah held the front door open for me, but I remained on the front veranda. Nightmare was a Chihuahua, I couldn’t just leave her out in the bush in the middle of summer. She’d probably get eaten by a snake or a fox.

“You’re not coming in?” Dinah asked.

“I get the feeling your father isn’t fond of me.” Which was true, considering Dinah was seventeen and I’m over two hundred.

“Neither is Nightmare, but you still threw yourself into the woods after her.”

“Nightmare’s a chihuahua, I can handle her. Your dad on the other hand, could totally kick my ass. I’m gonna go take a drive around the estate and see if I can find her, okay?”

Dinah rolls her eyes with a huff and then closes the security-screen door. “We had Nightmare microchipped, you can use it to track her if you’re that worried.”

“I would appreciate that very much.” I smiled sweetly at Dinah who tried to stifle a smile as she disappeared into the house. A moment later Dinah returned with a small device and opened the screen door to pass it to me.

“Are you sure you won’t come in? Not even for a little while? It’s New Years Eve, Claude.” Dinah whined as she batted her eyelashes at me.

“How about when I find your dog, I’ll come in and we can…hang out for a few hours?”

Dinah smiles as her eyes drop to the floor, she leans against the door. “Okay, well you better hurry up and find Nightmare then.”

With a smile, I disappear. Dinah sighed heavily and locked the security-screen.

Standing at the edge of the trees I check the receiver. The microchip is trackable via satellite. Nothing showed up at first, but after a minute a red dot appeared approximately fifteen kilometres away. How did something so small travel fifteen kilometres so fast? I have absolutely no idea. I assumed that maybe a fox or a dingo get her.

I got in my car and matched the coordinates on the tracker with coordinates on my phone. I found the closest road to the location of the dog and drove there. After ten minutes the red dot still hadn’t moved and I am sitting at the edge of private property. Staring at the remnant patch of woodland, I check the tracker again, and the receiver is telling me that the dog is in there somewhere. I get out of the car, jump over the wire fence, marching into the woodland towards the red dot.

Wading through waist high shrubs a branch catches on the bottom of my jeans. When I look at the ground I notice footprints in the dirt around me. I just assumed that it was from some kids who had passed through recently on their way to a party. Just beyond a wall of shrubs there was this clearing where the dog was supposed to be. As I’m looking around for the small black dog, my eyes find a girl instead.

There’s blood on her.

I check my surroundings to make sure that no one else is there. Then, I slowly start walking over to her. Her blond hair is covering her face, but there’s blood coating some of it and her skin looked pale. So I take another step towards her. I accidentally step on a twig and then this sharp yapping sound scares the crap out of me.

I realise that Nightmare is now standing beside this girls body, she must have been laying beside her and just blended in with the darkness. Nightmare growls at me as I crouch next to the girl, I turn her face with my hand. Her skin still felt warm and she was still breathing. In the dim light I thought she looked like someone I once knew.

I picked her up, took her back to my car. I didn’t realise until I got into the car that Nightmare had followed us. She was just sitting on the girls lap. I took her back to the Dante’s house, and… that’s how I found her.

That was the first night I met Terra.