There's a rattling breath just behind him. The only warning he receives before a massive hand swings down to clamp hold of the back of his neck, in order to wrench him off his feet.

And then suddenly the thing following him has a form, blood-streaked and broken, muscle and bone protruding from under dark skin, and a nearly-featureless face staring at him from under scraggly, long dark hair, its too-wide gash of a mouth opening in wordless noise.