Awareness seeped in slowly. I drifted underneath it while floating on a lazy river, content, because beyond it was heartache and failure and horror. I'd had enough of that, thanks. 

But a long, low creak tugged me toward reality. I'd heard that sound before. My heart stalled. Dread unspooled from my mind and speared lost memories directly into the backs of my eyelids. I snapped them open while the rest of me froze in terror. The creak continued like a lid on a coffin opening. A ...