“Daddy? Why did you leave me here all alone daddy?” A music box chimed in the background of the dilapidated house. His daughter’s face distorted in the darkness, and her small body changed. The creature that now stood before him was revolting, and terrifying, it had giant claws instead of arms, empty, glowing eye sockets, giant bat like wings, and teeth so sharp you could silence a lamb with them.
Drums picked up, beating faster and faster as was the beat of his heart, the creature circled him, the wind from its wings chilling him, and making him scream in anguish.
Connor Benton woke up in a cold sweat, his new fiance had long since retreated to the couch. She entered the room with a start,
“you were screaming.” It had been two years since his wife and daughter had died in a car crash on their way to a summer vacationing cabin. Connor had left them in the car, desperately trying to find a freeway, and some help. By the time help came, Their bodies were gone, they had been dragged away, their remains partially eaten. they were buried in the backyard of the cabin. Connor couldn’t go back. The nightmares had disconcerted him since his engagement. The creature’s raspy breathing still rang in his ears.
  “Bad dream, sorry.”  Lillian Gwenaelle just wasn't sure how much more grief she could stand from her future husband. She understood his pain, having lost her father in a hunting accident. How much pain could he go through? How long would it take before he could heal? Her heart ached for him, but she didn’t know what to do anymore. She sighed and turned,
“don’t leave, please.”  Connor needed her there, and he held her closer than ever. The hellish nightmares ensued again, he was slowly eaten alive by animals, torn to pieces by moving trees, strangled by an airbag, so many ways to die.
Such little time to live. His little girl’s figure shuddered at the foot of his bed and seemed to rapidly slide forward towards him. her fingers elongated into sharp black bloody looking spikes. her teeth serrated and her eyes became swirling, dark holes. swirls etched themselves into the corners of her mouth, giving a permanent smile.
Connor screamed.
Natural causes.
She could write a novel on dealing with loss through alcoholism.
The Benton Complex.