I was in the middle of my bath when Aunty came barging in. She asked if I needed help, but when I told her ‘no,’ she went about helping anyway. Why is it that grownups always ask you questions, when they never mean to hold to your answers?

“But Aunty, I don’t need any help!”

“You need to wash your hair for tomorrow, child. You want to look pretty for your father’s wedding, don’t you?”

“No, ma'am,” I told her flat.

“Don't be ridiculous.” she said and started pouring water over my head. Next I knew she was dumping shampoo up there too. It got in my eyes and they started watering up a storm.

“Ow!” I had to scream it in her face. I tried to get the soap out, but my hands had the soap I was using all over them and in my efforts, I got that soap in my eyes.

“Sit still, child.” 

Easy for her to say, she wasn't  coated in soap.

“But Aunty, it’s in my eyes! They hurt!”

“Just a minute, we’re almost finished.”

She dumped another bucket of water over my head and the suds came crashing off. After twice more with the bucket dumping, the welt hair started to squeak. 

“See there?” Aunty said. “Squeaky clean.”

She went about the rest of me with the washcloth. It was mortifying. I’ve been doing it myself for as long as I could remember. She was treating me like a baby and I didn’t like that- not one bit.

“There you go. All finished,” she said and smiled.

She got up and went after a towel, stretching it out between her arms. “Stand up.”

I did as told and wrapped up in the towel.

“Now dry yourself off, and get ready for bed, dear.”

I stared at her, giving her the hard, squinty look I saw Chief use from time to time.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothin’,” I told her and held my ground.

“Would you like me to get your nighty?”

“No.”

“I see. Well, if you need anything, I’ll be downstairs.”

I waited for her to leave and went about brushing my teeth. After the teeth were done, I scrubbed my head with the towel and hung it back up on its peg, and fled to my room in my "birthday suit". Why take the towel with me, only to have to bring it back? Once in my room, I threw on a clean nightshirt and underwear and slid into bed. Hoover came running in when he heard the bedsprings. He jumped up and curled into a ball at my feet. 

I leaned over and hugged him. “’Night, Hoove.” I kissed him on his head. 

He yawned, then put his head down and I could hear the noises he made when he ran his little pink tongue around in his mouth. They kinda sounded like TJ when he snaps his bubble gum. When they stopped he was asleep. I watched him for a spell. He started running in his sleep, chasing something like a rabbit or a ‘coon. He whined a few times and gave “false barks” which sounded like “yip-yip.”

I leaned back against my pillow and stared at the ceiling. I thought about all the trouble Miss Elly was in now. I knew what that kind of trouble felt like. It wasn’t fun at all.

In my head I thought my prayers to Jesus, then rolled over and fell off to sleep hoping they’d be answered and the dreams would stay away.

But apparently Jesus wasn’t listening again and it wasn’t long before the dream took hold. It started out the same as always. I was in the fog. Off behind the trees I heard something crashing. It was coming....

At first I couldn’t move. The fog was cold and wet and blinding. Ahead, trees were shoved down in the path of something large. Somewhere in the fog, I heard Aunty- it scared me to think of her in here. 

“Run child!” she screamed, but the words got whipped away in the swirling roar of the clammy air.

I was dressed in my Sunday clothes again and the buckles of my shiny black shoes bit into my feet as I shoved off into the fog, away from the tiger’s path. The ground was all muddy and I kept slipping, losing traction and my lead as it crashed through the trees and bushes behind me.

“Run child! Run!” Aunty cried again and tried to run to her, but I couldn’t figure out where she was.

The air was thick as a malted and cold when it fell on me, chilling my skin and pulling up goosebumps. My heart was slamming against my ribs, but I couldn’t slow down. Behind me the tiger growled, then screamed through the woods so loud it shook the trees.

Once I passed the first clearing, those trees started moving in on me. Their roots grew along on the ground, poking in and out of the mud, criss-crossing the path. The buckles of my right shoe caught up in all the roots and I spilled over, slamming into the bloody mud and dark ooze that covered the ground. 

Behind me, the tiger was getting closer. Each breath it took vibrated in the woods. It’s roar made me tremble. At the end of the path my buckle caught again and I this time I  spilled to the ground head first. The bloody mud poured down my throat and started me to choking. When I looked up I realized the tree had caught me on purpose. I yanked off the shoe and bounced it hard against its black bark and the tree’s eyes flew open. Its branches started waving in the air, clacking together and stretching towards me. I wanted to scream, but held it in so the tiger wouldn't hear me. I pulled loose of the mud and lit out down another path at full speed, my hands over my ears to save them from the brutal crashing.

Up ahead, Preacher was mumbling out a sermon to anyone who’d listen. But his voice was so low and whipped by the wind too hard, for me to make out what he was saying. Even though I knew what would happen when I got to him, I followed his words. His voice was pulling me, the trees were herding me, and the tiger was pushing me....

He was hunched over on a log when I broke into the clearing. 

“Preacher, sir,” I asked him, “how do I get out of here?” Even though I knew there was no way out. 

“Our plight is solely our responsibility!” shouted the Preacher’s head perched high in a tree. “It is up to us to stop this unholy monster. We must involve ourselves in this fight for humanity… this war against the fog! We must have the courage to stage our own rescue. Fight our unseen enemy… beyond the cat that stalks us under the curtain of darkness...the tiger of penance! Save our souls! Save us all–Trust in the wolf, child, the guardians of the fog...” Preacher’s voice trailed off and I looked at him in the tree ... His glazed eyes were fixed in front of him and blood drained like tears at their corners.

Behind me the tiger crash into the clearing. He was covered in fog, but his eyes shown through. Blood red. I backed up to get away from those eyes. Preacher’s body stood and turned when I bumped into his back.

“My soul belongs to them, child. I’m truly sorry... I cannot help you...You must fight for yourself...break free of the damned...” The head in the tree cried tears of blood before the eyes shut a final time. Preacher’s will was gone. 

Blood squirted into the air like a fountain from the body that was left; splattering me in the process. Then Preacher’s arms clamped me in a bear hug, pinning me. He held me as the tiger moved in. It was only a foot away. It’s hot breath landed wet on my face, reeking of stale air, rotten meat and rancid blood. The breath of the dead. My skin started to crawl and I realized maggots and beetles were piling out of the Preacher’s arms, crawling and squirming down my back and arms. My stomach began to cramp and I felt myself start to puke, but I pushed it back down. The tiger was still coming. He stalked, swishing his tail back and forth. He licked his bloody lips with a black tongue.

The tiger would have killed me for certain, if it hadn’t been for Aunty. She showed up swinging her handbag and it landed square across Preacher’s back. He dropped me flat. Then she turned the purse on the tiger, swinging it hard.

“Run child! Run!”

I lit out towards the other side of the clearing and once there, looked back just as Aunty heaved her purse again. Only this time the tiger got hold of it and pulled it free of her with a giant claw. He growled, his eyes narrowing their fire at her. Then he swiped, his sharp claws out and Aunty’s face was gone– all that was left was white bone and chunks of meat. I tried to scream but the fog had taken my breath away. I couldn’t run either, I was stuck, looking at Aunty as she fell to the ground. I started to shake. I saw the tiger, wavering in the water of my eyes, but I couldn’t move. 

“Kelly! This way!” Sam’s voice broke the spell the tiger had on me and I turned and ran full out down a path that would take me to him. I bit back the fear–hard. I felt the blood on my lips seep into my mouth. Salty and thick. The pain kept me from slipping away. I ran until I made the other clearing and glanced around, searching until I found Sam, in a large pale tree with roots growing out above the ground. On Sam’s shoulder sat the black bird of Death.

“Believe in your power child and learn the Way,” Sam said sharply, despite the hold the bird had on his shoulder. He set his jaw against the pain as the bird’s claws. “Believe–” Sam choked out. “In the chosen strength–Believe in yourself, child–”

His face twisted up in pain as the claws dug deeper and deeper, blood was pooling around them. Then the bird leaned over and took Sam’s eye. Before I could scream the tiger jumped free of the trees, knocking me down into the bloody mud.

“Make a wish,” it breathed out at me in a voice that oozed slow and deep. “Soon we’ll be one ... you ... and I.”

I tried to pry loose, but it held me between it’s paws. The smell of its breath was bringing up my supper. I tried to push it back down, but it wouldn’t go. Instead, it shot out all over the tiger. He shook, then stared at me. Its eyes were as lifeless as the bird’s. I started to cry.

“Make a wish.” Blood dripped from its jaws and landed on my face where it crawled slowly down my cheek.

“No.” I tried to get away but the tiger held me down. It put a claw on my neck, its nails dug into my skin and I felt the blood come up there.

“You belong to me. You’ve always belonged to me.”

I shut my eyes against it.

“It takes us both... I need your power!” it roared. “Together we will have the strength to defeat it! Don’t you understand–”

“It wants you to, you dumb shit-head!” I let it know. “So it can eat you up, too!”

“Tricks ... you have so many tricks.”

“No–”

It slammed me back down and my head thumped against the ground. Stars danced around in the fog as the fog swirled red and blue. Then the fog moved in, wrapping around my neck, it seeped into my ears and started freezing my head. I was going numb, like my whole body was going to sleep at once.

His wet black tongue worked down my face. “Open your eyes. You must see–”

I gave it one more twist to get free. 

His claw came down on my face to hold me back. I bit down, as hard as I could. The tiger screamed. His black blood drenched me. But I held on until I could feel my teeth meeting each other. The tiger pulled loose and swiped with its other paw, claws out. There was a bright flash of light and the fog came back, leaving me cold.

There was a deep growl and sharp bark behind us, then Hoover jumped out of the bushes. He came at the tiger, clamping his teeth around its thick neck and holding the tiger in his jaws. Hoover shook–hard, ripping the tiger’s hide. The tiger growled more deeply and louder than ever, before rolling over my dog. He got to his feet and with one claw ripped Hoover from him, flinging him into the air towards the trees beyond. Hoover turned in mid-air, landing solidly on all four paws. He ran back at the tiger, diving at him again, his teeth coming around the tiger’s neck. But the tiger shook him off easily, and this time Hoover landed hard on the ground, sliding in the mud about three feet where the tiger pounced on him, taking him in his large jaws and shaking him violently. 

Hoover flopped around like a sack of laundry and started to whine. I tried to yell for the tiger to stop but the fog piled down my throat and closed it off. I could still feel my supper down there too, stuck halfway. It tasted rotten. I couldn’t breathe and was getting dizzy. The trees spun wildly above me, getting closer and closer in swirls of fog, blood and fear. I fought them off; I fought the dream off too.

 I started choking as I tried to break free of the Dead Place, but it gripped me harder. Then the tiger spit out Hoover’s collar and it rolled next to my foot. The metal tag glinted in the moonlight. Tears stung their way down my cheek. I tried to swallow but couldn’t. 

The tiger rose from its haunches and stalked towards me…I scooting away…the tiger matched my pace. 

“Make a wish... I need a way inside..” Chunks of Hoover spilled out of its mouth.

“Leave me alone! I wish you would go away!”

“A way indeed.” It opened its mouth to feed...

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