Chapter 1 Death's Pets

He was dying, Liam knew that much at least. The sound of his ribs breaking followed by his face dragging along the asphalt brought unbearable pain to him. FInally stopping about twenty feet from where the car impacted with his body, he barely managed to maintain his consciousness.

Laying there with his flesh shredded from his face, Liam was in pure agony. He couldn't move, couldn't even scream with the blood gurgling out of his mouth. There was a crowd gathering, most taking pictures and watching while the rest were trying to call emergency services.

Liam could see the man that hit him panicking in the middle of it all just out side of his car. Then the world started to lose focus around him, growing dimmer and dimmer until finally the lights went out.

He woke with a start, panic written all over his face. ' I don't believe it, I'm alive!!?' Liam thought as he touched his body all over. After easing his worries and confirming that he was indeed alive, Liam stood up and studied his surroundings.

'Wait a minute, since when was I so short' he thought as he was at least three feet shorter than he was previously. Though confused about this, Liam did not let this keep him from noticing his immediate surroundings.

He seemed to be in a forest of some sort, lush green trees were surrounding him on all sides, each standing about forty feet tall. He couldn't see anything outside of them, so he decided to climb one in order to get a higher vantage point and see if he could find a way out

'Ok, how the hell did I go from the middle of a busy street to the middle of a forest?' Liam thought as he climbed, simply unable to wrap his head around how he came to be in his present situation. His hands were aching as he reached the first branch, his thoughts drifting,' damn, how high is this tree, I've climbed about ten maybe fifteen feet already and I still can't see the top'.

After another fifteen feet, he was sure his hands were blistered as he pressed on determined to reach the top, which he could finally see within his reach, about twenty feet up. Another ten feet and he broke through the height of most other trees in the area, but because he had already come this far, he willed himself to make the final ten feet and reach the top.

His hands were burning and his arms were aching all over, but Liam managed to make it. Sitting down on a nice sturdy branch and panting, Liam took a look at his surroundings only to see a stretch of trees miles wide, spanning as far as the eye could see. Looking behind him he saw what looked like a break in the tree line, although it was quite a few days away by foot he could still see it.

That was when he saw something that made him enter a panic attack. ' What happened to the moon' Liam thought as he gaped at the sight of a completely shattered moon. ' Wherever the hell I am, I need to get out of this forest quick' he thought as he started to climb back down to the ground, intending to travel as he was not yet tired.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, he started walking in the direction he saw the break in the trees. As he walked he started looking for a place he could wait out the night in, as he would prefer not to walk around in a random forest with no idea of what's in it, especially with the mystery of the shattered moon looming over him.

That was when he heard a low growl coming from somewhere behind him. ' Great, just my luck, I get out of one death scenario just to fall into another' Liam thought as in a moment of panic, he decided to run like an idiot. As can be guessed, whatever was making that sound started to chase him, and it was much faster than Liam. He managed to make it about forty feet before something clawed into his ankle, forcing him on to the ground in pain.

He tried to crawl away, but whatever that creature was had a firm grip on his ankle as he was dragged away. Feeling death looming around the corner, he frantically clawed at the ground, trying to grab on to something, anything that he can use to his advantage.

Liam's hands clasped onto a palm-sized rock, and he wildly turned and slammed it as hard as he could into his attacker, who was not fazed in the slightest. Getting his first glimpse at the attacker, Liam's eyes widened in fear.

This thing was no animal, it was a demon from hell, the kind of thing he would expect Death to keep as a pet. Standing a good seven or eight feet tall was a black furred humanoid creature vaguely resembling a wolf, except for the fact that it's head was mostly bone and it had bone spikes sticking out of it's back.

' I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I WON'T DIE!!!' Liam thought in a panic and as he raised his arm to hit the beast with the rock again, he felt a surge of warmth rush through his body. When his hand made contact with the beasts head, a small crack formed on the bone around it's eye.

Not wasting a second he brought down his other fist in the same area, immediately hearing the bones in his wrist crack but doing little to the demon in front of him. Alternating between fist and rock, he quickly realized he wasn't making much progress and switched tactics, putting all of his strength in to aiming for the creature's eye with the rock.

The rock which had been whittled to a point thanks to Liam continuously whacking it against this beast's head, went straight through it's eye and into it's brain. It fell to the ground with a thud, strangely leaving no blood.

Panting and out of breath, he pulled the piece of rock out of it's head and tried to stand, immediately wincing as pain shot up his leg from the wound he got earlier. Staring at his leg, he saw a nasty gash with blood leaking out of the wound, but something else had caught his eye. ' Why is my leg so much smaller than I remember it being' he wondered until realization started to dawn on his face.

He started looking around, trying to see if he could find something that could confirm the theory slowly starting to form in his head when he saw a small stream about ten feet away from him. 'That will work just fine' he thought as he put the rock in his pants pocket and started dragging himself over to the water.

It was when he managed to drag himself over to the stream that he let out a gasp of surprise. Unable to believe what he was seeing. A cute, tan child-like face that still had yet to lose it's baby fat was looking back at him in the reflection of the water with golden eyes.

What was even more surprising to Liam than the fact that he had become a child was the set of black furry wolf ears on top of his head. He thought back to that night's events: the shattered moon, the demon creature and the fact that he was a child had now confirmed the theory that had formed in his head.

'I actually died, didn't I?' Liam thought as he had connected the dots in his head. He looked back at the creature he killed to see that it was dissolving. ' Huh, so that's why it wasn't bleeding' he thought as one last big mystery played in his head. ' Obviously this isn't Earth, so where the hell am I!!?' this thought kept playing in his head over and over.