Free Reborn by Blood by Richard Murray

travelling at speed and I was catapulted off the bonnet and over the side of the bridge to land on the sharp rocks in the stream below.
    Consciousness returned and with it the agony of what felt to be a broken arm and several fingers. I could feel the blood leaking from a number of cuts on my face and the cold water was numbing my extremities.
    I had lost the shades somewhere, though the dim light below the bridge allowed me to see that I had lost Beth’s phone and Sebastian’s package was lying in some weeds on the banking. I pulled myself off of the rocks and towards the bank of the stream.
    As I pulled myself onto the banking an ominous growl sounded from the bridge above me. It was deep and guttural and raised the hairs on the back of my neck as some primeval part of my brain started gibbering in terror at the sound.
    I felt more than heard the thump as something big and heavy landed on the banking just beyond the bridge, out in the sunlight where I was unable to see properly. My heart was beating faster and my breaths were coming in shallow gasps as I pressed myself up against the coarse sandstone bricks of the bridge.
    The growl sounded again, closer and I cast desperately around for a weapon of some sort. With little to choose from I bent down and grabbed a sizeable rock from the river. As I stood upright I came face to face with a creature of epic proportions.
    It was crouched on all fours with thick brown fur covering much of its body; it was almost five feet tall at the shoulder and looked to be pure muscle. Its canine face turned towards me with eyes that glittered golden in the sunlight reflected from the water.
    Sharp white teeth showed as it growled once more, low and dangerous. It glanced at the rock in my hand with what I could swear was contempt before looking straight back at me.
    My knees were weak and I am sure that the trembling in my limbs was not just from the shock of being hit by a car. I raised the rock anyway, my only defence as against the beast I faced. A final bark that sounded almost like a laugh before it leapt at me.
    Blood sprayed over the wall beside me as the beasts teeth tore through my clothes and flesh. Pain exploded through my body with each rake of the sharp claws. The rock fell from nerveless fingers before I even had chance to swing it and I screamed.
    I lay on my back and stared into the beast’s malice filled gaze as it pressed me into the ground with one front paw and slowly, oh god so slowly, ripped apart the flesh of my torso with its other.
    Finally as I screamed out for death the creature released me. It lowered its muzzle to the crimson life force gushing from my wounds and sniffed. I watched through pain filled gaze as it turned and picked up the package in its jaws before bounding away and out of sight.
    My limbs wouldn’t seem to work no matter how I tried and all I could do was lie on the cool riverbank beneath the bridge and weep with pain and fear until I lost consciousness.
     
     

Chapter 9
    A man’s voice roused me and I lay in the darkness beneath the bridge and whimpered quietly. Every part of my body was awash with pain. It took a tremendous amount of will to just open my eyes and stare up at the stones that formed the bridge.
    The man, whoever he may be, was speaking excitedly into a mobile phone and since he was so close to where I lay, I could only assume that he was telling the police that he had found my body. I didn’t need the police anywhere near me as I had no way of explaining why I wasn’t dead.
    I clenched my teeth against the pain and tried to move my arms to no avail. The damage done by the creature was too much. The muscles of my arms and legs were shredded and no matter what commands my brain sent, they refused to move.
    With an extreme effort I managed to lift my head enough to see beyond the bridge. A man stood on the river bank with his back to me. He had one hand holding a phone pressed against his ear while he made wide gestures with