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"Little doggie! Come out, come out wherever you are!"

The death-rattle voice was alive with joyful malice. Their prey was close. The clan could smell its fear and they were getting restless. The younger ones were twitching with delight at the hunt, held back only by looks from their slightly more sage elders. At moments like this, self-control was crucial. Move too soon and the prey would bolt from its hiding place and into the light outside the cave. Beyond that point, none of them could exist. They knew from from birth to fear light – it burned their bodies to ash and if they chased a quarry from the caverns, they were forced to follow it for the rest of its days as a shadow.

No, they had to surround it, let it know it was trapped, keep it claustrophobic until it was within their grasp. Fill it up with fear and panic. All the better to gorge themselves upon. Yes, this one would make a fine feast! It was sniffing the air, trying to find them, trying to disguise the rapid beating of its terrified heart.

Its shallow gasps quickened. Good. It was looking for a moment to escape. So close, but where was it?

"Come on out, little one. We promise we won't take long. All we want to do is hurt you a little, rip at your flesh, make you scream and cry and beg! It'll be over in a flash. How about this - I'll even be the one to end it! One quick bite to the neck and you'll know no more, I give you my word. But come out from behind that rock soon. We're starving and your panic is so mouth-watering."

The speech worked like a charm and it fled from its hiding place. One of the legion smoothly blocked its path and embraced it in the folds of her lithe body.

"Is anybody hungry?" she asked.

In reply, a horde of shapeless bodies descended. The terror was at fever pitch, and they could stand it no longer.

They dug deep into its fur with hands, teeth and claws, cutting every available inch of skin in their frenzy. Blood flowed freely onto the floor and into their mouths, covering their eyes and painting their hands. But they consumed none of this. What they fed on was the pain, panic and fever pitch of wretched hopelessness emanating from the creature's brain. It had been far too long since the demons had found something unlucky enough to drop their way and each one was determined to derive as much sustenance as they could from this pathetic mammal. Its weak barks died down into mewls and eventually it stopped making sounds at all.

When they had finished they threw it towards the cave entrance and promptly slithered away down their system of tunnels and into the depths of the earth, leaving their victim to live out its last moments in the dregs of the dying light.