COMET
hometown: center, NP
property of SC
11/16/13

The edges of Meghan's vision blurred. She leaned back against the wall as Carly happily took the baby fawn and placed it with Vixen. Gordon took her arm to sit her down in her chair. She ignored him and continued gazing at the wall.

She found another peculiar fawn. Some sort of figure was after her. What was it?

"Meghan," Gordon soothed, holding her hand firmly in his. "You're shaking. What happened?"

Meghan swallowed, her lip beginning to tremble as if she was on the verge of breaking down. She took a painful breath and moved her eyes to Gordon's concerned face. Ryder was by the fireplace, watching intently as Carly pet Comet and Vixen. Her daughter glanced up at her for a moment, though, looking a bit concerned for her wellbeing too.

"I-I just went out to take the t-trash to the curb," Meghan stuttered. "I saw the fawn and thought Vixen had gotten outside somehow. Right after I found him, everything seemed to go quiet." Meghan paused, feeling somewhat frightened to continue the story. Gordon sat on the chair beside hers and nodded for her to continue, giving her hand an encouraging squeeze. She looked at her children. Should she really say it in front of them?

Ryder seemed to read her thoughts. He frowned, shaking his head. "No, I am not leaving the room. I want to hear this."

"Your sister," Meghan mouthed to him, hoping he'd understand.

Ryder glanced down at Carly who was still sprawled on her stomach, her attention solely focused on the two baby deer. She seemed to sense the eyes because she looked up. She glanced between them before shaking her head. "I'm not leaving either. You can't keep anything huge a secret."

Meghan blinked, but gave in with a sigh. They did deserve to hear. She couldn't let them walk around and play outdoors feeling safe and secure when they might not be. She looked back at Gordon who gave her a curt nod. "Fine. So...so, everything went silent until a glass bottle rolled down the road. After that, a figure just-just walked around the corner and looked at me. Well, I think it did. I d-didn't see its face."

"Was it a person?" Gordon asked.

Meghan bit her lip. "I...don't know. No, it didn't seem like it. The arms were too long, and the way its body build was...it just seemed off. No piece of skin was visible either. It had it all hidden."

"Did it come after you?" Ryder asked quietly.

Meghan nodded reluctantly. "It started to walk in my direction even though it was all the way down the road. I quickly went back up the porch to get inside the house, but when I looked over my shoulder, it was right there behind me, reaching its arm out to grab me."

Meghan inhaled deeply after she finished speaking. Everyone remained silent for a moment, so she took that silence as a minute to steady her shaking hand, tucking it between her knees.

"Was it the one who left the note?" Carly finally asked, looking a bit pale.

Meghan held her arms out for her daughter who took up the offer and got up off of the floor, walking to her chair and hugging her tightly. Meghan rubbed her back.

"What note?" Ryder questioned.

"A note we found on the porch last night," Carly told him.

"And what? None of you were going to tell me?"

"Because we suspected maybe it was you trying to scare us," Gordon admitted.

"You mean just you," Meghan said sharply. "I knew it wasn't Ryder."

Ryder scowled, clearly angry at his father once again. He looked at Meghan, his eyes digging into hers. "May I see it?"

Meghan nodded and Gordon got up to pull it out of a kitchen cabinet. Ryder snatched it out of his hand when he went to give it to him, turning away from Gordon and opening it up.

"We should call the police," Meghan suggested, mostly to Gordon.

"They might not even do anything," he told her. "We have no proof."

"We have the note," she argued. "And I saw something abnormal walking down the streets."

Gordon rubbed his head. "Fine. I'll call them over, but I don't think there will be much they can do about it."

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"Well, ma'am, there isn't much we can do right now," a police officer told her apologetically. "No real threat has been made except for this note, but it is highly likely that pranksters left it to scare you."

"And the thing I saw?" Meghan demanded, tightening her coat around her torso as she stood out on the porch. Gordon was beside her.

"Your descriptions still make it sound human," he said. "Maybe with just a few peculiar things."

"Then how did it get to my porch so fast?"

The police officer shook his head. "I don't know. Do you want us to leave someone here outside for the night? They can monitor what happens at your house."

Meghan nodded, the offer giving her a small amount of comfort. "Yes, please do. Something doesn't feel right here."

The officer nodded before descending down the steps. Meghan entered back into the house with Gordon. Their children were sitting on the floor by Vixen and Comet, staring absently at the wall. Ryder looked up when they entered. "What did they say?"

"They're going to leave someone here overnight," Gordon answered.

"And are they going to take Vixen and Comet?"

Meghan hadn't even told them about the two fawns just showing up in the snow. Probably because the other matters seemed more important. She should have told them about them though. Maybe they could take them somewhere with real help. Their small family couldn't take care of them forever.

"I don't know yet," she answered.

A heavy silence weighed down on the family. Meghan wanted this Christmas to be nice. Now, they had already called the police over to their house.

She turned her head to look at the abandoned gingerbread house. Candies lay alone on the counter, the icing bag still mostly full. "We should finish the gingerbread house."

"Right now?" Carly questioned.

"Why not?" Meghan questioned back. "It was our project for the day."

Carly rubbed Comet's back before getting up to wash her hands. Meghan gazed at the fawns, her stomach twisting uncomfortably. Calling WASART was probably the best thing to do for the babies. They couldn't keep them, and Carly had had her fun.

With her children back at the gingerbread house, Meghan made her way down the hallway and toward her bedroom. She sat on the bed to take a moment and think. The police car was out front by the driveway. Having an officer there overnight was reassuring. She knew it would help her get some amount of sleep.

Gordon didn't fully believe her description of the figure. He must have thought it was a person. A stalker. And he may be right, but a stalker was not a good case either, and wouldn't do a thing to help Meghan relax. Whoever or whatever it was was threatening their family, and no matter what it was, prankster or not, she would not rest until it was gone.

Motherly instincts are said to kick in when the woman senses a threat and danger toward her children. Well, never had those words been more accurate.

As the day progressed into night and the kids went to bed, Meghan found her way into her bedroom. After a tense goodnight to Gordon -- who returned it with equal strain -- she lied down in bed and pulled the covers over herself. Placing her glasses onto the nightstand, she forced her eyes shut.

Even with a police officer stationed outside, sleep couldn't find her. She rolled around on the bed, the creaking causing her to grow more and more anxious as minutes passing turned into hours. Still, no sleep came to her. What if it was lurking outside right now? She looked over at the window, and the curtains she had shut so that she would not have to see outside. The curtains swung gracefully, a small gap allowing a street light lamp to cast a dim light across her ceiling.

She pulled the blanket closer to her face, trying to shut out the cold winter air the season initiated. As she shut her eyes and willed sleep to overtake her a final time, a noise sent her bolting up in the bed. She managed to turn her head just in time to see a figure walk past her window, the curtain veiling her eyes so that she could not see who it was. Immediately, a rush of cold spiraled down her body that was not caused by the frigid air.

Meghan froze in bed, her eyes trained on the window just as the figure appeared again, coming to a stop in front of the thick glass. She thanked herself for closing the curtains before she got in bed. What if whoever it was was trying to look inside? Was it the police officer?

As quietly as possible, Meghan slipped out of the bed on the opposite side of the window. The figure remained there, but the swaying curtain kept her from being able to study the body build as the rippling curtains made the figure look distorted and unclear.

She took timid steps, backing up to the bedroom door. Without looking away from the window, she reached behind her to twist the rusty doorknob, a small squeaking noise following the movement. The figure outside of the window leaned forward, their silhouette getting larger as it grew closer to the window. Meghan's heart took off at full speed and she wrenched the door open, sprinting across the hall to the guest bedroom.

She flung the door open to find Gordon sprawled on his bed, sleeping peacefully, with his arms spread out to take up all of the space. His face looked so relaxed, differing from the serious expression he so easily maintained throughout the day. Meghan leapt toward the bed and shook his arm, trembling softly. "Gordon! Gordon, wake up!"

Without her glasses, she could barely make out as his eyes snapped open. She stumbled backward when he jerked up in the bed, but he caught her arm to keep her from toppling to the floor. For someone who just woke up, he seemed highly alert already. "Meghan! What is it?"

"There is someone outside my window," she whispered fearfully, tugging her arm out of his grip. "They were just standing there."

Gordon stared at her a moment before climbing out of the bed and exiting the room without any need for further explanation. Meghan followed slowly, making sure to stay close to him. The floorboards creaked beneath their feet. He opened her bedroom door, making her blink in confusion.

She didn't shut it when she ran out.

She entered the room with him, standing behind him and gripping his arm so that his sturdy and unwavering body could keep her upright, lest she walk into, or trip over, something in her blind state. As he moved farther into the room, she reached out toward her drawer to wrap her fingers around her cold glasses. She slipped them onto her face and everything cleared up.

"There's no one there," Gordon said, his voice hushed. He turned to look at her. "You saw someone?"

"Yes!" she said. "They were standing right outside the window!"

"It was most likely the police officer," he told her. "Patrolling or something."

Meghan nodded slowly; hesitantly. Maybe he was right? Maybe her anxiety just got the better of her? They had a police officer outside the house. He would have seen somebody lurking around their property.

Gordon opened the curtains and Meghan stared out at the white snow coating everything. She approached the window too, peeking out at the snow below.

"There are no footprints," she whispered. "The police officer would leave footprints!"

"So would any other person," Gordon soothed. "Maybe you hallucinated or something. Come on. You should go back to sleep."

"I don't want to be in here alone," Meghan whispered, omitting that she hadn't even been able to fall asleep in the first place.

"I'm right down the hallway," he assured her, moving to exit the room.

She looked back at the window and immediately furrowed her eyebrows as she realized something. "The window is open."

"Didn't you open it?" Gordon asked, pausing in the doorway.

"No!" she told him. "It's freezing, are you kidding me? But then...how is it open?"

On cue, the same cold rush of dread overwhelmed Meghan and she backed away from the window. She glanced around the room cautiously. The closet door was shut with her T-shirt hanging from the doorknob in the exact same position she had left it the previous day. Gordon watched her as she looked around.

Where is it? Is it really in the house?

"Oh my gosh!" she suddenly exclaimed, pure terror consuming her. "The kids!"

She shoved past Gordon and barreled down the hallway, stumbling down the pitch black hall, not even bothering to turn the light on as she flung Ryder and Carly's bedroom door open. She could hear Gordon moving after her as she flipped their light switch on.

For a second, she nearly collapsed as her eyes found Ryder's empty bed. But a moment later, she identified him. He was with Carly in her bed, his arms wrapped around her comfortingly. Signs of tears stained Carly's cheeks from where she laid with her face partly pressed into her older brother's neck. She must have been crying and Ryder went to comfort her.

Meghan exhaled loudly, a wave of pain stinging her heart at the fact that Carly was scared and crying, but relief that they were both okay. Gordon placed a hand on her shoulder. "Meghan, come on. You need to go to bed."

"Let me get a drink first," she told him faintly, turning the light off and silently closing their door. The fright and adrenaline of the night was leaving her parched.

"Want me to come with you?" Gordon asked.

She shook her head. "Go to bed. Sorry I woke you."

He nodded, studying her closely before walking back down the hallway to his room. Meghan swallowed and headed toward the kitchen. Comet and Vixen were huddled by the fireplace, their silhouettes barely visible in the dark night. She flipped the kitchen light on and moved toward the cupboard. As she pulled a cup out and closed the cupboard door, a shriek pierced through the night. It was immediately identified as her own as she stumbled backward, hitting the fridge.

The mysterious figure from earlier outside stood by the front door, looking straight at her through its hood. A moaning sound filled the room, sending terror across Meghan's frail body. Tears spilled down her cheeks as the figure dropped a piece of paper onto the floor, moaning more loudly before opening the front door and walking out.

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Question: Why didn't "the thing" attack her when she saw it in the kitchen? Instead, it looked at her and left the house - leaving the note. :O