KIRA

My entire body freezes in place as I stare at the figure lingering just out of the light from the sun, almost totally obscured by the dense fog that filters through the forest this time of day. The shade from the dense canopy of trees overhead shrouds it in darkness, leaving just the barely visible outline of its body against the gently shifting branches behind it.

It's tall—much taller than I'd realized when I'd first spotted it back where the cabbie had dropped me off at the front of the cottage.

I'm choked with fear.

Do I move? Do I risk looking away for the split second it will take to get me back into the cottage and the door locked behind me? I don't know what to do.

I feel like a deer, frozen in the headlights. I know I need to move, but I can't.

My heart feels like it's ready to burst in my chest—if my stranger really is the spider creature from my dreams...could this be him?

I don't know if I'm ready to see him—all of him—just yet, but all he'd have to do is step into the light, and I'd know for certain.

The sound of glass shattering and Peanut's frantic barking snaps me out of my trance, and without another thought for the figure in the woods, I bolt toward the cottage.

I grab the first blunt object I can on my way in through the back door and sprint into the living room. "Hey!" I shriek, but with the thud of footsteps, I hear my front door slam.

I follow Peanut's barking to the front door—still swinging open from having been slammed too hard.

One of the panels from the door's window is broken, and glass litters the floor around it.

"Fuck!" I scream, shutting the door and locking it tight.

Not that it's going to help, if whoever broke in just shattered my window to unlock it anyway.

Fucking hell.

I go to set my weapon aside, and frown at Elsie's favorite garden gnome, who we named Dennis when I was little. If I would have actually had to hit anyone, he would have been shattered too.

I set him on the table, turning away to look for a broom and dust-pan, but on my way back I wipe a little dirt off him, my heart still lingering on Elsie, and the way she encouraged my imagination.

Peanut is still on edge as I go about cleaning and boarding up that window—finding random scraps of wood in Elsie's tool cabinet, along with an absolutely ancient hammer.

After my somewhat sloppy job is done and I'm satisfied that no one is getting through this window again unless they're really determined, I go to put the hammer back in the cabinet, before stopping short.

If I want to be ready to protect myself the next time something like this happens, I should keep a more suitable weapon than my old gardening buddy lying around where I can reach it in a pinch.

The thought of there being a next time makes me shudder, and I pull my phone out of my pocket, praying to fucking god that I have service right now.

I finally get to Monday's contact and tap the icon to call her.

I scoop Peanut into my arms as I wait for her to answer me. He's still on edge from the break in too, and to be honest? Holding him makes me feel a little more secure.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up..." I chant quietly.

"Kira!" She says the second she answers. "How are you? It's kind of early for you to be up."

I cut right to the chase, not bothering to sugarcoat anything. "Someone broke into the cottage."

"...Huh?"

"Monday. Someone broke into my aunt's cottage while I was outside. There was glass all over the place."

Even to my own ears, my voice sounds shaky. I'm freaked out, in all honesty. Who the hell would want to break into my cottage? Who would have broken in when Elsie lived there? She was an old woman; what could she possibly have that a burglar would want?

Moreover, the place stood empty for a while before I made it down here—whoever broke in must have been looking for something of mine.

Or did someone want to hurt me?

"Excuse me, what?" I can hear the panic in her voice. "Did you call the fucking cops?"

"No." I grit the word through my teeth.

Peanut wiggles again in my arms, hard enough to force me into setting him down. Before he can go anywhere, I grab the back of his collar and yank it once, telling him to sit. He whines at me but does so, his big doe eyes staring up at me in frustration.

With my now free hand, I use it to part the curtains again to look back outside.

"I'm scared, Mon." I tell her. "Like...Whoever it was ran away when I came back in, but what if they come back while I'm sleeping?"

"You went in the fucking house while someone was on there?" She gasps.

"What was I supposed to do? Peanut was in there all by himself—I panicked." The thought of an intruder hurting my dog sends my heart racing again, and my eyes flit over to where I set the hammer. Not gonna happen. "Besides, I scared them off."

"Who do you think it was?" She asks, clearly on the edge of her seat. "Could it have been the cabbie who dropped you off?"

"I don't know, he seemed like just a normal old guy...but I guess he was a little creepy." I chew the inside of my cheek nervously. "I've had a few different...interesting visitors since coming here though."

"Interesting how?" I hear her chewing on something, and I'd bet anything that it's a gummy bear; she always binge eats them when she's stressed. "Like, Dateline Special interesting? Am I going to hear about you on a fucking true crime podcast?"

"If you're not going to be helpful, I'm going to hang up the fucking phone." I hiss at her.

"No, I am being helpful, I promise!" She protests. "I'm just trying to get a better read on these visitors; we really haven't talked much since you moved out to the cottage; I've got no idea what it's like down there."

"Fuck, Mon, I'm sorry..." I feel like a shitty friend, both for snapping at her, and for not checking in. "I'm just really stressed out right now, and the service here sucks, so I'm afraid the call could drop at any time."

"It's fine, I get it. Now...about these guys?"

"Well, it's really just been two...but that's enough to make me wonder who else might think it's a great idea to trek up to Elsie's cottage now that she's gone and let themselves in," I explain. "I...don't think it would actually be either of the guys who showed up here."

"Why not?"

"Well, the one guy—I didn't get his name—seemed to have been good friends with Elsie, and he said that he'd come back another time, so I don't think he'd go as far as to break in."

"Oh, a little old man?"

"No, that's the weird part—he looks young, like, early thirties at the latest," I explain, leaving out the part about my strange and intense dreams about him, or my suspicions that he might not be entirely human. "He's got this weird goth look too."

She's silent on the other end of the line for a moment.

"Monday?"

"You already know what I'm going to ask."

"Monday—"

"Is he cute?"

I feel my cheeks heat up at her question.

What the hell am I supposed to tell her?

No, he's not cute, he's hot as fuck—but I suspect that he might have the lower body of a spider...but that's okay, the idea doesn't bother me near as much as it should.

Yeah, no, I'm not telling her any of that.

"Mon, this is hardly the time to talk about that."

"So he's cute cute, or you'd just tell me no." I can practically hear her grinning through the phone. "Good to know."

"Monday, seriously, a person just broke into my fucking place; I don't want to talk about cute guys right now."

"Okay, okay, fair enough," she sighs. She's been my personal cheerleader about getting back on the horse ever since I broke things off with my ex. "What about the other guy?"

"Oh, some sleazy realtor. He came by to see if I was interested in selling the cottage, and I told him no."

"But, you totally went up there specifically to sell the cottage."

"Yeah, to a nice family, not to that slimeball."

"Wow, you really don't like this guy." Monday snorts. "Wait—could it have been him?"

"Mon, why would a realtor break into my great-aunt's cottage?"

"I don't know, maybe he's trying to spook you off, or maybe there's more to your great-aunt's property that he wants."

"Like what?" I scoff—but the more I think about it, the more worried I get.

Samuel Fritz is a pretty big dude, he could have totally broken that window...I shudder to think of what would have happened if I had to fight him.

If it was him.

"Oil, buried treasure...who knows. It's Appalachia."

"Fuck, okay, you're actually making sense."

"I do that sometimes."

"What should I do?"

"Well, for starters, you should call the fucking cops," she hisses. "Whether it's that Fritz guy or not, someone still broke into your goddamn house!"

The police. Why the hell didn't I think of that?

"Thanks, Mon. I'll call you back in a sec."

"Okay!"

Ending the call with her, I immediately phone the local police precinct's number.

I really hope someone's in town that can come out right now. If I have to wait an hour or two while the intruder could still be lurking around outside, I'm going to lose it.

"Alpine Springs police precinct." A nasally woman answers.

"Hi. Yes. This is Kira Clark, I—"

"Oh." She laughs. "You're Elsie's granddaughter, aren't you? The one from the city, right?"

"What? No. I'm her grand niece—it doesn't matter. Can you send an officer out here?"

Typing can be a heard on the other end. "Mhmm... Why don't you tell me a little bit about what's going on, honey."

"Someone broke into my cottage, my dog and I scared them off, but I'm worried that they could still be nearby." My eyes dark around, taking stock of the windows.

I have to fight the urge to pace—I always pace when I'm nervous, but I don't want to lose cell reception right now.

"Ma'am, are you sure it wasn't a bear?" Her voice is bored as she talks to me. "Sometimes they break into people's houses if they have too much garbage laying around and they think it's a good food source."

"Garbage?" I huff, frustration knitting my brow. "I've only been here a couple of days."

"I'm just saying, a lot of city goers get spooked by the local wildlife."

"This isn't some animal," I argue. "Whoever broke in shattered my window so they could unlock the door—this wasn't a bear!"

"Uh-huh. Listen, honey. Unless you have cameras out there, there's not a dang thing anyone here can do about it, short of stake out your property."

"Listen to me!" I plead.

I can already feel tears welling up in my eyes.

"I am, honey." She says. "Like I just told you, lotsa things out there that are going to look big and scary. Just keep to your property and they'll move on."

The way she's talking to me like I'm a fucking child is driving me wild. "Lady, listen to me—"

"Bye, bye now. Keep your lights on when it gets dark. That usually scares the critters away."

With that, the line completely disconnects. I pull my phone away from my face in disbelief. I can't believe that bitch hung up on me!

For all I know, the intruder could be lurking around here, and—fuck—what if they run into the figure from the woods?

Shit.

Maybe it's a good thing the cops didn't come out here.

Parting the curtains again, I scan the tree line for the figure I saw earlier, only to find it completely gone.

If that was my handsome stranger, whatever happened with the intruder must have scared him off.

Still, something about the fog that rolls in every morning this time of year makes everything feel so much more...mystical.

My aunt had very rarely wanted to scare me with her stories about the "creatures" that went bump in the night past the property line of the cottage. I never had to be frightened up the day time, and had even gone on a few hikes in the woods with Elsie to forage.

But never at night. She'd often tell me that once the sun set, that was when the spirits would come out to play. I never knew what she meant, always figuring it to be her way of keeping me in the house at night so I wouldn't end up lost in the woods.

I never thought it'd be anything like what I just saw.

Still, regardless of whatever creatures Elsie was talking about, it's humans that I'm afraid of, especially when I don't have anyone out here to help me.

The only person I can think of at this moment is the stranger from my window. He seemed to be close with Elsie. Maybe he could help me figure this out. He cared about Elsie too, so he might have some idea of who would want to break in.

And if he doesn't...at least someone would know to check up on me.

A sudden knock startles me out of my thoughts and I nearly jump out of my shoes. My eyes dart toward the sound at the back door while my eyes widen.