The nurse smiled as she set the tray on the little table attached to his bed. “Hungry?”

“No,” Arrin said. The nightmare had ruined his appetite.

“We’ll get you situated anyway, so you can eat when you’re ready.” The nurse raised his bed so he was sitting up, moved the rolling tray in front of him, and breezed out of the room.

Arrin pushed the tray away and looked out the window at the sunset. As he watched the clouds go from yellow, to baby pink, to glorious orange flames, he drifted back to sleep again. This time he dreamed he was trying to escape from a monstrous living shadow. He was running as hard as he could, but making no headway, as if his legs were trapped in molasses. The caliginous thing was close now, its mouth wide, long, sharp...

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