Excerpt: Phaedra's Light

Anna pulled out her keys and grabbed her purse. If she’d been thinking she’d have checked the light in the alley before she left. Made sure everything was well lit. But she didn’t. She didn’t think to grab her tazer and pepper spray. She’d never been fond of that feeling of preparing for battle just to step out her own door. But this hadn’t always been the nicest neighborhood, and there were occasional hold-over’s to those days. So tonight, when she stepped out her door without paying much attention to her surroundings it was unusual. Nearly unprecedented. But it had been a long day. And she was thinking about other things.
Not Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome as Sarah had supposed. Absolutely not. Important things. Business things.
They’d all fled her memory when she found herself in the oppressive dark of the alley. It was unusually dark, as if someone had suddenly extinguished the moon, and it seemed to wrap itself around her. An odd skittering echoed off the walls, a shiver chasing up her spine.
A shadow loomed over her, and Anna turned slowly. The temperature seemed to drop suddenly. She didn’t know what she’d expected to find looming over her in the alley. A vagrant asking for money. Maybe an Alley Rat intent on stealing her purse.
Not a six foot tall…thing with gray skin and clawed hands. Anna suddenly felt as if someone had stuffed wool into her ears. She tried to breath, her lungs working furiously for no air. A sucker seemed to emerge from it’s face, and she watched in horror as it reached forward.
It was going to eat her.
Anna’s last thought as her vision started to blur and she slipped into unconsciousness was that it was going to eat her. And she was going to let it.