Bear

Lily’s cage was a prison of straw and despair, the stench of blood and fear clinging to her skin. Claire’s lifeless eyes haunted her, the bull’s bellows echoing in her skull from the slaughterhouse horror. Mia’s whispered defiance, *We’re not dying like that*, was a faint spark in the dark, but it flickered under the weight of The Kennel’s cruelty. The collar bit into Lily’s neck, her body a canvas of bruises and claw marks from the dogs’ assaults. Sleep was impossible, each creak of the barn promising more torment. A low growl, deeper than the hounds’, rumbled through the walls, and Lily’s heart sank. The bear, Vixen had said. The next nightmare.