Beyond the blank, white walls and the drawn curtains of her house, the world was bathed in color and light. The touch of the sun had ignited hues of blue and green, orange and violet, ochre and cream, and the sound of music, and laughter, and animals suffused the air. But Babic didn't hear any of it. All she heard was the echo that filled her skull. A rhythm that wouldn't leave. A sound that beat at her like a fist.

Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right...


The sound of boots hitting tarmac.

It never ended...

Blood had already crusted beneath her nails, and seeping red crescents ringed around the back of her head, her neck and her ears, her hands having long since cramped into claws that pressed so firmly over her ears that she expected her skull to break. She prayed for it to happen, to hear one, last world shattering crack before everything turned to black. But it never happened, and the sound never changed.

Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right.
Left-Right...


Beyond the bare, colorless walls of her house, the sky had begun to fade towards deep purple as the last rays of brilliant orange and crimson light began to fall below the horizon. The sounds of life had also begun to fade, but Babic wasn't aware of this. There was nothing beyond the walls keeping her in. The cadence of the incessant marching remained the same, and in a fit of rage, fear, and desperation, Babic had begun to add to it. Gypsum board shattered beneath her fists, white fragments falling like hail as she plunged her hands through the wall, Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right...

Skin tore and peeled back, and bloodied bone crunched through the boards. White powder clumped against the jagged wounds, only to be scraped away again, and it was only when the dark of night embraced the world that Babic collapsed, slumping against the ruined remains of her living room wall, too exhausted to pull her mangled left arm from the wreckage. She sobbed bitterly, not even pain and exhaustion driving the sound from her mind. And yet, as she slumped there, trapped by the wreckage she had caused, images began to join the sound, images of bodies huddled in dark cells, images of long hallways made of steel and concrete, images of barbed wire shining wickedly in the sun...

Night had fallen outside, and yet the inside of Babic's apartment was stained with cruel, red sunlight. Sand and dust had begun to pour out from the holes and cracks of the broken walls, and slowly, ever so slowly, the remaining planes of gypsum began to transform, dimming into a dull, brutal grey. Babic could feel the sand covering her ankles, the spill of earth flooding her apartment, and she had resigned herself to being buried alive when she caught sight of things slithering beneath that outpouring of sand. Sinuous, sinister things, sharp edged and glinting as they swam beneath the scarlet stained dust. The electrical wire from inside the walls had changed, morphing into vicious mockeries of razor wire, and yet before Babic could fling herself away, she felt the malicious wires bite deep into her trapped arm, and then more slip over her ankles tearing deep as they swam upwards, metal edges plucking her achilles as they climbed ever higher...

A terrible scream filled the broken home as the wires twined themselves around her limbs and torso, a murderous harness that throbbed as it drank from her spilling blood. But, high above, the pale face of the moon shown down, powerful and bright, yet cradled on a crescent of shadow. And, within the shattered walls of Babic's home, the scream began to change, it's pitch rising into a howl that drowned out the incessant sound of booted feet punishing the ground. Cloth split and the wires groaned as the body held within began to grow, muscles swelling larger, bones stretching longer, and skin giving way to dark, coarse fur. Razors dug deep, and bundles of steel flexed, trying to force the monstrous form under the flow of sand, and yet the strength of the creature was unstoppable and it forced itself upright, powerful jaws splitting wide in a howl of triumph that echoed out, and up to the pregnant moon in the sky...