Lofoten, Norway, 980s

Great spires of earth rose out of the sea, butting up against the dancing miasma of the northern lights, and the sound of laughter and drumming echoed into the night air. That is, except for the howl that rose along the black sand beach, and the wails of terror that echoed beneath them.

Sprays of dark sand shot from beneath two pairs of feet, and the howls echoed on into the night, the scent of blood filling the air.

Los Angeles, 1980s

The blinding miasma of light pouring up from the city blinded the heavens, but the city was too full of smog, and greed, and cocaine to care. In a penthouse apartment, a sobbing man dragged himself across the floor, a thick trail of blood smeared in his wake like the tail of a massive snake.

A bloodied axe was dragged along the wall, matching the mans desperate struggle to haul himself forward, inch by inch.

Folsom, 2018

In a trash strewn alley behind a dive bar, a man whimpered as the tip of a knife tickled his neck. The blade bit in, just enough to split capillaries, even as fingers roughly grasped at his scalp. He groaned, the smell of piss and fear sweat mingling as the blade of the knife continued to move, the fingers massaging his scalp all the while, the hundreds of tiny, needle sharp tubes flush with blood.

Then, suddenly, the knife disappeared, the pain replaced with a sudden starburst of agony as his skull rebounded off of brick, his brain rocking in the thick cerebral soup as the skull met brick again and again, until the man slumped boneless to the ground. Still breathing, still alive, but sure not to question the five missing patches of hair, and the dusty, dead skin beneath.

She couldn't afford to be messy...yet.