Lake
It’s the snoring that wakes me.
Louder than a damn locomotive, roaring through the room, and rattling me out of sleep.
I groan as I open my eyes, seeing the tiny demon passed out on his back, all four paws up in the air, lips hanging away from his teeth.
He looks and sounds full demon.
And he’s drooling on my mattress.
I scowl, and my scowl deepens when I lift my head, see that Nova’s gone.
My phone is still in my pocket, jabbing at my hip, and I dig it out, see that barely an hour’s passed between me sliding into bed and the tiny demon waking me up.
And in that time, Nova is gone.
“Woof! Woof!” Quiet, high-pitched barks, his little feet bouncing, mouth tightening and relaxing. “Woof! Woof! Woof!”
Dreaming.
It’s…dare I say cute.
And that word running through my mind is enough for me to get up, to get out of bed. I toss the blankets back, inadvertently waking the beast as I get up.
He woofs again, does an insane amount of movement to get all of his limbs beneath him and then shakes violently, lips flopping, drool flying.
“Ew, man,” I mutter, wiping my arm. “Jesus. Get it together.”
Steve looks up at me with those wide, buggy eyes for a moment then his head cocks to the side, whine escaping.
“She’s not here,” I answer before I realize I’m talking to a dog. “Jesus.”
I go to the bedroom door.
“Woof!”
I glance back.
The tiny demon is sitting at the foot of the bed, gaze trained on me, expression concerned.
Anthropomorphizing at its finest.
“Well,” I say, impatient with myself, with him. “Let’s go already.”
Another woof as he jumps down and bounds over to me.
We walk down the hall and out into the family room together, finding it empty with the exception of that pile of blankets and clothes. I move over to them, take two minutes and fold the clothes and towels, setting them on the counter, leaving the blankets where they are because I don’t have a fucking couch, worth twenty-five thousand dollars or otherwise.
By the time I finish with that, I’ve clocked that her camera and coat are gone, and Steve is sniffing at the door. I snag his leash, trust that the tiny demon is going to be capable of leading me to his master as I strap him into the contraption, something that’s not easy because he’s dancing around and sniffing at my face and he seems to have grown five more legs. Finally, though, I get him in the harness, snap the leash on, and grab my coat, shove my feet into my boots.
Then we’re out the door, following her footprints. I pause to put the spare key back beneath the pot before moving around to the back deck that overlooks the couple of acres that come along with this property.
I can see the river that’s lined with ice winding through my yard, the clusters of trees dotted throughout, the fence along one side of my neighbor put up years before.
The rest of it is vast and open, several acres of nature and forest and peace and privacy.
I pause at the top of the stairs that lead down the slope.
There are a lot of them, one of the few things I hate about this house, but flat lots are a commodity in this area and I wanted a kickass view from the back side of the house.
So…stairs.
Lots of them.
I’m not hating them so much now, not hating the view they give me of the yard, the way I can easily spot Nova in the distance, even with the snow falling fast.
She moves slowly, carefully, arms moving, lifting her camera.
She hasn’t gone far, hasn’t even made it to the river yet, to the pond beyond that has to be frozen over by now.
But she’s photographing the trees again, and I wonder what the shots will look like.
If they’ll be as beautiful as what I saw earlier.
“Woof!” Steve says as he tugs at the leash, clearly wanting to get to his master. Giving in to that obvious need—and not whatever in the fuck I’m feeling—I start walking down the stairs.
Before I get halfway down, I’m thinking that I need to shovel these off before I break my neck.
Or before this damn dog gets hurt.
Or Nova.
Or her camera gets damaged.
I ignore the pinch in my chest and keep descending.
“Woof!” Steve pulls so hard at the leash that I almost eat shit, almost end up with a broken ass to go along with my broken neck. I throw my free hand out, grab the railing, fingers plowing through the snow gathered on the top of the banister, the cold a shock, but luckily, I manage to snag it so I don’t die or allow Steve to plummet down to his snowy death.
“What the fuck, man?” I mutter.
Yes, to a dog.
No, I’ve not lost my mind.
Or more of it, anyway.
But, swear to fuck, Steve looks up at me then turns his gaze forward and woofs again like he’s telling me to get my shit together.
Like he’s telling me to fucking pay attention.
I focus ahead of us, eyes squinting through the falling snow.
It’s harder to see Nova from down here, but I’m able to at least make out her silhouette in the trees.
“What?” I ask Steve as we reach the bottom of the stairs and he lurches to the end of the leash, a growl rumbling through his little body.
I squint again, letting Steve draw me forward through the snow.
Toward Nova.
Toward—
I falter for a step. “What the fuck?” I whisper as Steve’s growl increases in volume, as he all but drags me forward.
Drags me toward—
A man.
A man towering over Nova as she stands amongst those trees.