POV: Aphrodite
The dream starts the way it always does.
White fur. My fur. But wrong somehow, matted with something dark and wet. I'm running through a forest that doesn't exist, trees twisted into shapes that hurt to look at. The moon overhead is bleeding, dripping red onto the ground beneath my paws.
Then the chains.
They come from nowhere, wrapping around my legs, my throat, pulling me down. I shift back to human form, desperate to escape, but the chains follow. They burn where they touch skin, searing symbols I don't recognize into my flesh.
Blood wells from the marks. Too much blood. It pools beneath me, warm and thick.
I'm drowning in it.
I try to scream, but the chains tighten around my throat, cutting off air. My vision darkens at the edges. In the distance, I hear howling. Familiar voices twisted into something agonized and wrong.
The chains snap suddenly, violently. The sound echoes like thunder.
And then I'm falling, falling, falling into darkness that has teeth.
