The bitterly cold March winds claw at his face as he forces each step forward, pulling on the dogs leash sporadically as he tries to keep the pace forward and her stop to the bare minimum. The music blares powerfully in each ear blocking out the rest of the world, allow his mind to escape into a void ruled by his own imagination.

He pulls the lead once more, this time the dog forces itself to the ground and refuses to budge, that’s when he casts a wayward glance back the way they’d come and spies a silhouetted figure slowly making its way towards them. He brushes it off as another lost soul braving the cold for reasons only know to them and turns back to the dog, who meets his stare with its own.

“What is it girl? Something so….”He stops mid sentence as the hair on the back of his neck stands on end and he glances back again as the figure passes beneath a street light and his heart stops momentarily as its wide toothy grin shines in the light.

He turns quickly and it stands before him, almost purring like a kitten.

”Wickedly I wove my way through the trees, endlessly searching for a prey that would fill the void inside my emptiness, but each morsel I dined upon held no more substance inside it than my nothiness, so I have returned to you my brother, I have returned to ask a favour, one that will give you all of your nightmares,” it says as it stretches it’s gigantic arms out wide and tilts its head towards the sky. “LIFE!” It bellows like a burst of thunder in the sky, then turns its gaze back to him.