How I wish that what woke me was the song of morning birds, the fragrance of the garden outside the door, and the sunlight shining on the bed. Instead of the sea breeze wrapped in cold rain, the smell of charred charcoal, and the icy floor that steals body heat.
But in any case, it's always a good thing to wake up before the fireplace is reduced to ashes and before the monsters gnaw me to the bone.
I propped up what felt like a body not my own, feeling every piece of flesh ache. But my mind was unexpectedly clear. Except for still not remembering the past, everything that happened these days was vivid in my mind.
Those charred black monstrous shadows that can move inside walls, oozing ash-like blood, might be the monsters watching me from outside the Long House. They followed me to the coastal street, waiting to emerge after nightfall — those human-shaped stains I saw in the hall were their scouts.
