Prologue

The rain drove her onward, its cold lashes biting at her arms and legs. She wore only a thin T-shirt and fraying shorts, both soaked through and clinging to her skin. Each shivering step was a battle, her body convulsing with the effort. She staggered toward a streetlamp, clutching its frigid steel post as though it were a lifeline.

Across the street, beneath the shadowed sprawl of an overpass, she saw them—a cluster of figures huddled together. They had cocooned themselves in layers of plastic tarps and damp rags, barely distinguishable from the gloom.

"Help!" she rasped, her voice splintered and raw.

The figures froze. Their heads tilted toward her, the movement sharp and wary. For a suffocating moment, they seemed to measure her desperation against their own. Then, one by one, they shrank back, retreating deeper into the shadows. Tarps shifted, pulled tight over hunched shoulders or hollow faces, until all that remained was a shapeless mound of retreating silhouettes. Safer, they had decided, to see nothing, to know nothing.

Her cry had stolen the last reserves of her strength. She slumped against the streetlamp, her cheek pressed to its icy surface. Rain streaked her black hair across her face, cold rivulets trailing down her neck. A creeping numbness began to take hold, coiling around her throat, weighing down her limbs. Her eyelids fluttered—heavy, defiant—until finally, her body sagged. A bitter flicker of relief stirred within her, uninvited and cruel. Surrender felt easier than the agony of another step.

Then came the growl.

Low and guttural, it cut through the relentless percussion of rain. Her eyes snapped open, terror surging through her veins like fire. A single headlight split the darkness, its stark beam locking onto her. The light carved a jagged path through the downpour, and the growl swelled into a deafening roar.

She pushed off the streetlamp, lurching into motion, her legs stiff and uncooperative. An alley opened to her right. She bolted for it, heart hammering, but the motorcycle followed, its roar closing in.