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When James Wood inherits his uncle’s house it seems like the perfect solution to his problems. He can escape his dead-end job and failed marriage by moving to a small town on the Oregon coast, at least for a few months. There is something odd in the town of Rockrail Beach, and in the sprawling mansion he’s inherited. His actions attract the attention of odd strangers. Unexplained, and inexplicable deaths begin to mount.
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He was being hunted. Even if he couldn’t hear it, he would have felt it, the dark pressure in his mind, the tickle on the back of his neck, the feeling that there was something out there. In this case, though, it was a lot more obvious. Behind him, he could hear the noises, the half-formed whispers, the slight buzzing. It was hunting him all right, and there was no way he could escape.
That didn’t stop him moving, though. He lifted a booted foot from the clinging mud and forced his leg forward, pushing through his fatigue. The wet mud clung to his boot, pulling at his feet, but he managed to push forward, to move away from the hideous noise.
He looked behind him. There was a dark shape gliding between the dark trees. It wasn’t clearly visible, it simply blocked the odd star as it passed through the occasional clear spot. Tentatively he tried to make out its shape. Then he shook his head; why bother? It would take whatever shape it wanted, whatever shape it needed.
Grunting, he pushed onward, fighting the clinging swamp. He reached out, grabbing a low branch and using it to pull himself along. Behind, he could hear it moving, It was inexorable, its soft sibilant sounds mixed with the slap of foliage as it pushed its way after him. It would keep that up forever, or until it tired of the chase and finished him. Its whispers pushed the thoughts into his brain, just give up. There is no escape. You are mine.
He dragged in a great lungful of air and pushed the insidious thoughts aside. With sheer willpower, he drove his protesting legs on, ever onward, through the muck and mud of the wetlands. It followed, patient, relentless, a dark and evil presence that made every cell in his body shudder.
His foot found dry land. A thin smile crossed his face as he pulled himself up onto the low island. It wasn’t much, barely a couple of yards across, but he knew what he’d left there. The chase would stop here, now.
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