The First Encounter - Twenty-Four

A screech tore through the hallway, sharp, primal, and wrong. It was the kind of sound that curled into your spine and refused to let go. Half fox, half wolf, but not quite either. The sort of sound that doesn’t just echo, it embeds itself in your memory.

And I knew, in that instant, it was a sound I’d carry with me for the rest of my life.

A sound that w…