Steps pound stone and he braces, tensed in the moment before impact; a fist into stone. It never comes. Cedric blinks against the sudden brightness of cave-skin, dragged limb by bony limb. A monster from the closet.

A boy. Skinny, human, but home as any here. He shouldn’t be: Something worms at the back of his skull, alien. Other. If Cedric moves, something terrible will happen, and perhaps the terrible thing is already here.

Caius presses a finger to his lips, but it's that doubt which chances a whisper,

"Are you..."

The bed creaks. The corpse lunges. Teeth snatch empty air, and then she's after them; furious and hungry, and Cedric's thrown them both forward, dragging Caius for a mad dash into the black.