I can hear Jessica behind me, gasping for breath as we run across the paddock.
The grass is long, reaching up to my knees, and I can feel it scraping against my legs.
"What the hell is happening?" I yell.
"JUST KEEP RUNNING!" someone shouts behind us.
I don't dare look back.
My chest is burning, and my feet are starting to hurt. I have no idea where we're going, but I know one thing for certain.
I'm not stopping.
We finally reach a line of trees at the other end of the paddock. I throw myself behind one of them, bending over with my hands on my knees as I try to catch my breath.
Jessica stumbles in beside me.
"Oh my God," she gasps. "Oh my God. What the fuck was that?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" I snap.
I immediately feel bad for taking my fear out on her, but I'm too shaken to apologise.
She stares at me for a moment before nodding.
We stand there listening.
For a few seconds, all I can hear is the sound of our breathing and the distant wail of police sirens.
Then I smell it.
That smell.
My stomach twists.
It's the same disgusting stench I'd noticed earlier at the shopping centre.
The smell that had made me think I was walking past a corpse.
I slowly lift my head.
"Jessica?"
"What?"
"Can you smell that?"
She sniffs the air, then immediately covers her nose.
"Oh, Jesus Christ! What IS that?"
I swallow hard.
"I don't know, but I've smelled it before."
Her eyes widen.
"Where?"
"At the shopping centre. Before my appointment."
Jessica stares at me as though I've just told her I've seen a ghost.
"You mean that person near the entrance?"
I nod slowly.
"You saw them?"
"Yeah," she whispers. "I thought I was imagining things."
Before I can respond, a sudden rustling comes from the other side of the trees.
We both freeze.
Something is moving through the long grass.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
"Hello?" Jessica calls, her voice trembling.
"Are you fucking crazy?" I whisper, grabbing her arm. "Don't call out to it!"
The rustling stops.
Silence.
Then a voice comes from the darkness.
"Excuse me?"
It sounds like an ordinary person.
A woman, perhaps.
"Can you help me?"
Jessica looks at me.
I shake my head.
Something about the voice doesn't sound right. It's too flat, as though the person speaking has heard other people talk but has never quite worked out how to do it themselves.
A figure emerges from behind the trees.
It's a woman.
At least, I think it is.
She's wearing a faded grey jumper and dark trousers. Her hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail, and her face looks pale beneath the fading light.
At first glance, she looks completely normal.
Then she smiles.
Her lips stretch too far across her face, revealing a row of yellowed teeth.
Her eyes don't move.
Not even when she turns her head towards Jessica.
The smell hits us like a wall.
I gag and stumble backwards, clamping a hand over my mouth.
The woman tilts her head.
"You're frightened," she says.
Neither of us answers.
She takes a step towards us.
"You don't need to be frightened. You're going to be just like us soon."
Jessica lets out a small, strangled sound.
I grab her hand.
"Run," I whisper.
The woman smiles wider.
"Oh, you can run," she says softly.
Her head twitches to one side.
"But you'll only make it worse."
Something cracks behind her.
Not a branch.
Something inside her neck.
She doesn't even blink.
I don't wait to find out what happens next.
Jessica and I bolt.