This was indeed the lair of a beast.

I saw no table, no shelves, and no lambskin rugs. Instead, there was a heap of bones in the corner and a faint smell of blood.

It looked like a dungeon. There were chains hanging from the ceiling. I was lying on my side and was aware of movement to my left, something strange that I couldn’t identify. What was happening? I wondered.

I felt befuddled. My head was throbbing and my vision was blurred. Only very slowly did I start to make sense of what I was seeing.

Finally, with a jolt, I understood the true horror of the scene before my eyes.

Jenny was hanging from the ceiling by her legs; her head, which was about three feet from the floor, was facing me. Her legs were bound together, her hands tied behind her back. The creature was sitting with its back to me, slightly to one side of the girl, and in its mouth was a thin transparent tube. The other end of the tube had pierced the girl’s neck.

That tube was bright red. It was using it to drink her blood.

I tried to move, but I found that I was totally paralyzed. I could only stare in horror as the beast drained her blood.

Then Jenny opened her eyes and stared at me, her face twisted with terror. She was conscious. She knew exactly what was happening to her.

She mouthed something to me. I didn’t understand, but then she repeated it:

Help me. Help me.

Desperate to go to her aid, I struggled to rise. But my body didn’t respond; it no longer obeyed my brain. Sweat began to pour off me as I tried desperately to overcome whatever rooted me to the spot. It was like a nightmare that went on and on without end. Jenny shuddered and groaned, and the beast continued to drink her blood. And all the while, I could do nothing.

But all nightmares come to an end—unless they end in death. Gradually, feeling began to return to my limbs. It began in my extremities, with pins and needles, which spread up my arms to my torso, followed by a burning sensation, as if my limbs were being consumed by fire.

After a while the pain subsided, and I tried moving my fingers. I didn’t want to alert the creature, but it seemed that my whole body was now capable of movement.

What should I do? I couldn’t allow the beast to continue draining Jenny’s blood, but I had no weapon at hand and it was extremely strong, even without any magical abilities it possessed. It had breathed into my face and caused me to fall unconscious.

What else could it do? I wondered.

Had we been on a ley line, I would have summoned the boggart. The pact between us specified that it would answer my cry for help, and in return could take the blood of my enemies. I was sure that it would have made short work of this beast. But my knowledge of the area told me that we were far from the nearest line.