Working at the theatre’s ticket office had become a strange kind of exit from reality for me. There, my life was not the disappointing mess it normally was. My mom wasn’t guarding my every movement, and my step-dad wasn’t lurking menacingly nearby. None of the kids I’d gone to high school with ever came to see a show. It was an off-off-broadway place located on a small quiet side street with a name that no one ever heard of unless they were deep within the theatre community.

It was my haven.

“Four tickets to see Belles and Brawls,” a deep lyrical voice rumbled from the other side of the glass. My eyes locked on the hand that slid four twenty-dollar bills across the counter. I sucked in a deep breath. The skin was luminescent, faintly shining underneath the fluorescent lighting in the ticket booth. With it came the otherworldly scent of frost and mint.

I looked up, heart hammering hard against my ribcage. The four guys from the night before were standing quietly before me, and the one who had followed me into the bathroom was right in the front. They were each looking at me with an intensity that took my breath away, though their bodies reflected none of the tension. Their arms were slung into their cloaks; their stances were relaxed. It was as if they wanted the world to see one thing, and me another.

“You,” I whispered, standing from the wooden stool where I usually perched the entirety of my four-hour shift. “Are you following me? Why did you ask me about my ears? Why did you tell me not to take my pills?”

A pause. “Four tickets please.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the owner of the theatre—and my boss—staring my way. She’d always been kind to me, and she’d given me this job even though I’d had zero experience in a theatre, or any job experience at all. Still, she was tough. She wanted attendees to be greeted with a smile and a chirpy hello, as I’d been told one too many times. Some days, I found it hard to be friendly. Some days, I just wanted to curl up and hide from the world.

She’d given me a lot of breaks, but I knew if I wasn’t careful, she could easily lose her patience with me.

So, with a faux-smile pasted on my face, I tapped the ticket number into the computer and took the guy’s money. I still didn’t know his name, despite the fact he’d brushed his fingers against my skin. Despite the fact it felt as though I knew him, in some weird way.

When I slid the tickets across the counter, I held on for just a moment longer. Our gazes locked, and I dropped my voice to a hush. “Please just tell me something. I feel like I’m losing my mind, but I know there’s more to it than that. And I can see it in your eyes. You know.”

“Norah,” came the sweet, smooth voice of my boss, Andrea. “Is everything okay here?”

I loosed a breath and released my death grip on the tickets, turning to Andrea with a smile. “Everything’s fine. I just, ah…”

“We just had some questions about the show,” the guy in front spoke up. “Thanks for your help, Norah.”

They turned to go, taking with them any hope I had of getting answers anytime soon. The show was starting in ten minutes, and I’d most definitely lose my job if I interrupted it to demand some answers from four of the attendees.

Why were they here? There was no way in hell it could be a coincidence. And, if it wasn’t, why pretend to watch the show? They wouldn’t talk to me. They wouldn’t give me anything but strange intense looks. What did they want? Were they just here to…to watch me?

I shuddered. It was the only thing that made sense. I had four stalkers. With glowing skin and piercing eyes, two important features that I might very well be imagining.

I would have to talk to them after the show. My shift would be over, and I would no longer be obligated to smile and nod. It was going to be a long two hours.

* * *

When the show was over, I stood on the sidewalk outside of the theatre waiting for the strangers I should probably be more afraid of than curious about. The New York summer air was stifling, and the sun had only begun to dip behind the buildings in the west. I was still wearing my black pants and black t-shirt, along with my name tag for the ticket booth, which only amplified the heat. It made me dread going home.

Before my step-dad had moved in, Mom and I had a boxy air conditioning unit in every room, including the bathroom, which meant that we normally had five of them blasting all through the summer. But when my step-dad had moved in, he wouldn’t hear of it, pointing out the astronomical utility bill. So, he’d downsized us to only two units. One for the living room and one for their bedroom.

I’d been stuck with just a fan.

Just another one of my step-dad’s micro aggressions toward me, his own special way of demonstrating just how much he wanted me out of that apartment and out of his hair.

Something crashed in the alley on the right side of the theatre, and my mind was jerked away from my troubled thoughts of home. A heavy thump followed, and then a screech. I frowned and shifted sideways to peer down the side of the building, but it was drowning in shadows. The cast usually exited the theatre through the door at the end of the alley, and the crew would cluster together there for smoke breaks. But they would always flick on the light to chase away the darkness.

“Hello?” I called out.

Silence answered. With a sigh, I shook my head. Maybe I was imagining things. Again.

But just as I shifted away from the alley, another crash exploded in the silence. Heart hammering, I glanced around. There was no one else around on this side street. No other business lined the skinny sidewalks. All the doors were shut tight, leading up into apartments that were buzzing from the echo of air conditioning units chugging along in the stifling heat.

A soft whisper drifted to me. “Help.”

My heart squeezed tight, and I took a step closer to the alley. My boots brushed up against broken glass, likely from someone who had stumbled in here after a long night drinking in the city. The darkness that cloaked the alley seemed to pulse, and I swallowed hard. This seemed like a terrible idea. No one should go into dark alleys alone...But what if one of the cast members was hurt? What if someone had gone out to have a smoke, forgot to turn on the light, and had fallen after stumbling around in the dark?

“Hello?” I asked in a soft voice. “It’s Norah. Are you okay?”

From within the depths of the alley, a hulking shadowy form rose from the ground. My heart pulsed, throbbing painfully in my chest. Eyes widening, I shook my head and stepped back. The…whatever it was, it had eyes the color of blood and teeth that were razor sharp. It looked kind of like a wolf with long mangy hair curling off its bulky frame, but it was much, much bigger than any normal wolf. It stood three times taller than me, and its muscular body was twice as wide.

It was a monster. One that had begun to let out a low rumble of a growl, a sound that made every hair on my arms stand on end.

Suddenly, the night was no longer stifling. It was no longer hot. Chills had consumed my skin, making my entire body shake.

“Norah, help,” a strangled voice came from somewhere near the creature.

My heart shook in my chest, and I tore my gaze away from the wolf to stare at a small huddled shape on the ground by its massive feet. All the feeling rushed from my head as I tried to make sense of what I saw. Lars, one of the sound technicians, with his large, bellowing laugh and hipster beard, stared across the dim space. His cheeks and arms had been gouged, and blood rushed from the gaping wounds. And one of his hands was missing.

I couldn’t breathe, and the stars that dotted my eyes made it next to impossible to see. Wildly, I glanced around the alley, desperate to find some kind of weapon that might work against this creature. A shovel. A two-by-four. A large concrete block that I could throw in its direction.

But there was nothing in the alley other than a few discarded cigarette butts and some styrofoam takeaway boxes from the Chinese place around the corner.

“Norah,” Lars said in a gasp. “What is it? What attacked me?”

The creature's glittering red eyes looked down on Lars. It pulled back its lips, showing off the sharp points of its enormous fangs. Fangs that dripped with saliva, blood, and flesh.

My stomach turned, and I pressed my hand to my mouth. This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t real. It was another one of my panic attacks, making me see things that weren’t really there. As much as I’d wanted to believe I was okay, I clearly wasn’t.

I was seeing things. The creature wasn’t really there, and Lars wasn’t hurt.

Stumbling back, I gasped when a soft hand landed on my shoulder.

“Norah, hon, why are you out here in the alley…” Rachel trailed off, and her face went stark white. The grip on my shoulder tightened, and the skin underneath her chin began to tremble. And then she was off, rushing down the dim alley to drop by Lars’s side.

“Oh my god, Lars. What the hell happened to you?” She pressed her hand to his cheek and choked out a cry. “Norah, call the police. Call 911. Tell them we need an ambulance.” She glanced up, her eyes fierce yet full of tears. “Why are you just standing there? Do something! Now!”

Hands shaking, I nodded and pressed my cell phone to my ear. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the creature who now loomed over Andrea, his saliva only seconds away from dripping onto her head. The creature was so close. So horribly, gruesomely close. If it shifted even an inch closer, its teeth could graze her cheek. Its sharp nails could slice through her back.

“It’s not real,” I whispered under my breath.

“No, it’s very much real.” One of the strange guys whispered in front of me and charged down the alley, a dagger flashing in his hand. Bathroom Guy grabbed my arm and pulled me back, dragging me away from the mouth of the alley.

He shifted his body in front of mine and threw out his arms, holding them on either side of me. “Stay behind me, Norah. You interrupted its feeding, and it won’t take that very well.”

“His feeding." I blinked. “You can see it?”

“Of course I can see it,” he said in an impatient tone of voice. “Just stay behind me. Liam, Rourke, and Finn should be able to dispatch it easily enough. As for your friend…even if he can survive the bites, the venom will be difficult to fight.”

Fear churned through my gut as I watched the three strangers charge the alley. The creature stumbled away from Lars and Andrea when it saw them approach, and it crouched with claws and fangs bared. My heart trembled at the sight, but it did nothing to slow the men down. They quickly surrounded the creature, triple blades held high in the hair.

The stranger from the club turned toward me, his eyes full of power and darkness. And then everything went black.