She walked slowly down the lane, not knowing what to expect. Every shadow felt like someone waiting to leap out at her, every grain of sand felt hostile.
The darkness around her was slowly creeping into her soul, ready to claim her for its own.
She gulped.
‘There’s nothing,’ she whispered to herself, ‘there’s nothing. The shadows are just shadows, the darkness is just absence of light, I’m going to be fine. Mum needs me tonight – I really cannot allow fear to overcome me.”
But deep, numbing fear of what might be waiting for her at just the next shadow made it hard for her to carry on, not stumble and cower in a corner of the alley.
And then she heard it. It wasn’t more than a grain of – something, dropping somewhere nearby, but she heard it.
Every sense alert, the blood rushing through her body, she still froze, finding herself unable to move.
The feeling of being watched grew upon her, her back muscles became stiff from the expectation of being attacked from behind.
She felt something move above her, and knew Death had come for her before he leapt, before he bit through her neck, and sucked the lifeblood out of her.
Her last thought was of her mum, and of the food she’d been taking back for her, which would never reach now.
The last thing she heard was, “Are those two ants fighting? Go, little anty, go!”
And this grain of sugar had been particularly tasty too….
This was just the beginning. No ant could be safe from what soon came to be called…
