Actually, I should have realized myself that there was none because the closet was too small for me, and under the bed, only those were hiding who always died first in horror movies, not to mention the idiots who went into the basement just to ask if someone was there. Of course. In the basement!

I did the next best thing, and at the same time, probably the dumbest thing: I tiptoed through the bulky door of the room and peered across the hallway.

Somehow, I had to get into the bathroom, where the window could be opened in such a way that one should be able to disappear silently over the side roof. However, once again, I hadn’t done the math with the creature on the first floor.

Creak.

My heart sank even lower.

It was the damn stairs.

I was at the mercy of this monster if I didn’t hide somewhere now. My eyes darted down the hallway in panic, and I discovered that the door to the room of death was open a crack.

I was about to reach for the door handle. But instead of a giant wolf, my mother appeared on the stairs.

“Oh my God, Mum!”

I rushed to her and threw my arms around her shoulders.

She looked at me in confusion.

“Bayla, what are you doing here, darling?”

“You won’t believe what just happened!” I gasped, half upset, half relieved. Then I realized I was probably almost smothering my mum and pulled away from her.

“What’s going on? Aren’t you supposed to be at Vanderwood?”

Just the name of the place triggered panic in me once again.

Where the hell had Mum sent me there?

“And anyway, why is your shirt so torn and your pants...Bayla, what happened?”

Her surprise gave way to a certain worry that I knew all too well.

“No, I didn’t have an attack, but there was this girl, and suddenly she was a wolf, and then there was this other girl with...”

“What did you just say?”

If there was supposed to be a peak of tension for my mother, she had reached it now.

Horrified, she looked at me and grabbed me by the shoulders. She seemed to be struggling with herself, but I didn’t know why. Right now, I knew absolutely nothing, only that my headache was starting again, and I just wanted to get out of this town.

“It’s dangerous here, Mum...” I urged, but her expression remained unchanged.

“Bay, what are you talking about? Are you okay?”

Her words felt like a slap in the face. Had she even listened to me?

I knew I didn’t know what was right and what was wrong right now, but this couldn’t have been a dream. It had felt so real.

Mum didn’t wait for a reaction but pulled me down the stairs to the kitchen, where she sat me down at the table, went to the sink, and a few seconds later, put a glass of water and a pill in front of me.

Stunned, I stared at the pill and finally at my mother.

She didn’t seem to mind my horror, instead she asked, “When did you take your last pill, young lady?”

She sounded ...angry? After all, the only person who should have been angry was me.

“When Bayla? When?” She paced impatiently.

“Mum, I...”

“Tell me what you dreamed,” she interrupted me, sitting down next to me.

Her eyes pierced me as if I were a piece of Swiss cheese.

“It wasn’t a dream, it all felt so real,” I tried again, hoping she would believe me. “The Copeland girl turned into a freaking wolf!”

Angrily, I pushed the pill and glass away from me.

“Bay, you forgot to take your pills. You’re hallucinating.”

“No, mum. Believe me, please!” I jumped up. “We have to get out of here!”

The panic inside me mixed with the feeling of oppressive tightness.

Why wouldn’t she believe me? I knew what I had seen there, and it scared the shit out of me. At any moment, a giant beast could show up here and make us its afternoon snack. But all my Mum did was give me one of those stupid pills that magically didn’t seem to run out.

Angrily, I grabbed the pill and tossed it into the living room, when suddenly the glass next to me burst and the water spread across the table like a flood, dragging all the broken pieces in the stream with it.

I jumped to the side, as did my mother, who was now looking at me in horror, as if it had been my fault.

I was shocked and didn’t understand anything anymore. My heart was pounding and there they were again, the veins. I wanted to pull down my sleeves, but I had completely forgotten that I was only wearing a T-shirt because I had stripped off my brown knitted sweater while running through the forest.

Mum stared at my arms in pure horror. More shocked than usual when I got my attacks.

Then, all at once, there was a knock on the front door.

“Bayla. Go up to your room now, please.”

I barely recognized my mother. The shock on her face was unfamiliar to me.

Tears of pain gathered in my eyes. The chaos this new life was causing was just too much for me. A faintness threatened to overtake me.

There was another knock and there it was again, the fear.

“Diana! I know you’re there. Please open the door, or I will,” a harsh female voice called out.