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Shandi shoved her phone into the drawer of her bedside table. She needed something to make her feel normal in all the chaos; something to beat back the fear and worry. She’d wanted to turn to Jake, and the fact that Deirdre had taken him from her made her angry. What right did Jake have to come back into Rose Valley and make her feel like a stupid little girl again?
The house reverberated with Macy’s current favorite love song. It had played no fewer than a dozen times over the past hour. Shandi felt quite certain that music had been better in her youth, but of course Macy disagreed. Shandi was the mom. She could have forced Macy to turn it down. Shandi opted not to interfere, though. She remembered the emotional turmoil of that age. All too well, at the moment.
What she actually needed came in a bottle. That would make her feel better. Or put her to sleep. She would settle for either one.
In the kitchen, she pulled open the cabinet door to discover all the wine glasses dirty in the dishwasher. Trying to dismiss the nagging notion she might have a problem, Shandi grabbed a disposable Solo cup instead. Classy, she thought. Very classy. She filled it halfway with wine.
The song ended. Peace. Quiet. For about ten seconds until it started up again, with its upbeat lyrics and light, springy music.
Shandi decided to enjoy her wine on the back porch. The warm night air enveloped her as she turned her eyes to the beautiful clear sky. The moon cast a happy glow over the trampoline Macy hadn’t used for years.
The night was hot though calm, allowing her to clear her head. It had been an insane day in Rose Valley, and she felt like she somehow sat at the center of it all. She knew that she couldn’t really claim that honor. Certainly, Dub and Marie felt more directly the shock of an evil beast terrorizing their town. Cam surely had his hands full. But being regaled with the paranoid ramblings of nearly every citizen in Rose Valley took its toll on her.
It had only been one day since the football game, and things would only get worse from here.
She closed her eyes and sipped her wine, trying as hard as she could to put the beast out of her mind, but the brief serenity of the night shattered with the screams of Macy echoing into the backyard.
The music suddenly stopped.
“Mom!” Macy’s frantic voice echoed into the night air, followed by her terrifying, throaty scream.
Macy sounded impossibly close, almost like she was outside. Had she opened her window? Shandi rushed towards the door, having no doubt that Macy’s screams were urgent and important. Before she made it inside, something emerged from around the corner of the house.
Not something. The beast.
Shandi ran inside and latched the lock, knowing that a glass door wouldn’t protect her from the force of nature on the other side. Macy stood behind her, her screams dribbling off into terrified whimpers. Tears welled up in the corner of her eyes, and she clamped a hand over her mouth.
The beast stood on the porch, looking at Shandi through the glass. Its eyes locked onto hers, barely visible through the long brown hair framing its face. Though she suspected it before, she knew for certain now, a man—not a beast—leered at her through the glass door.
His body heaved up and down, as if breathing proved more difficult than it should have. He did not advance towards Shandi. He only stared at her. His eyes did not glow. He did not have wings or horns. His fingernails were abnormally long, but not sharp. Hair coated most of his body, thickest around his scalp and beard.
He stood with a strange slouch, his biceps wide as tree trunks, his chest like steel. In his hand he held a stuffed animal. He squeezed it with such force that white clumps of stuffing oozed from the seams. Shandi recognized it as one of Macy’s.
“Macy. How did he get that?”
Macy answered through her sniffling. “M-My window. It was open. Scallops was on the bench.”
That explained Macy’s scream.
Shandi kept her eyes locked on the beast’s, seeing only the feral needs of a wild animal.
“M-Mom,” Macy said from behind Shandi. “We should g-go. We should run. W-we should call daddy.”
Shandi didn’t have her phone with her. Macy must not have had hers either, or she would have already been calling. Neither of them could stomach letting the beast out of their sight right now. Shandi felt certain that if she turned her back to him, he would descend upon them. In truth, Shandi possessed no script for how to handle this situation. She searched for a way to deescalate, but could come up with nothing that didn’t end in bloodshed.
The beast’s mouth turned up into a snarl. His eyes focused. In a snap decision of pure instinct, Shandi turned and ran towards the front door, grabbing Macy along the way. Halfway there, she heard a loud thud and cracking glass. Macy screamed again.
Shandi grabbed the keys hanging on the wall and jerked Macy through the door. Neither of them wore appropriate outdoor clothes, nor did they even have shoes on.
She didn’t know if the beast lurked behind them in the house or would meet them in the yard. She hoped the former.
She let go of Macy, who understood fully what she needed to do. They both fell into the car, slammed the doors, and Shandi started the engine. She saw him out of the corner of her eye, felt his wild primal eyes following her.
She threw the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway. Once she got her car aimed in the right direction, she floored it. In her rearview mirror, the beast loped behind them. She looked at the speedometer as her car groaned up to forty miles per hour. Somehow, the beast galloped impossibly fast, managing to keep pace.
“Come on, come on,” Shandi cried to the car. “Go faster, you piece of crap!”
It accelerated slowly. To fifty. Then sixty. The beast started falling behind. Macy cheered. Shandi kept her foot on the pedal. The beast stopped in the road, howled, then disappeared into some trees on the side of the road. Shandi relaxed her hands on the wheel.
She should have driven to the Sheriff’s Department. Or to her mom’s house. Or to Cam’s. But by the time her mind caught up with her actions, she realized that she headed towards none of those places. Macy either didn’t notice or didn’t question it. She did, however, belatedly put on her seatbelt.
Shandi’s head began to clear, but she still felt her heart racing in her chest. Rather than turning around and doing the logical thing, Shandi chose to continue toward her destination.
Without thinking about why, Shandi exploded at Macy. “Why the hell was your window open? It’s a hundred degrees outside and there’s a homicidal monster on the loose! Are you crazy?”
“I’m sorry. I-I-I. Wes. Wes was coming over,” Macy said as she started crying. “I’m so sorry mom. I didn’t mean to. Please don’t be mad at me.”
Shandi’s heart softened. Though she didn’t like that Macy intended to sneak a boy into her bedroom, right now it seemed utterly unimportant. She reached over and stroked the back of Macy’s head. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I yelled at you. When we get to a phone, you need to call Wes and tell him not come over.”
Macy’s crying intensified. “Oh no. What if he goes over there and that thing gets him?”
“I’m sure Wes’ll be fine. The beast chased us away from the house, remember. He probably won’t go back.”
She didn’t really know that and shuddered to think of the beast rummaging through her house. So far, the beast had followed no discernible pattern. For all she knew, he would take up residence in her bedroom. If he did, she had no intention of being the first to find out. She would make sure someone crazier than she scouted the house before they went back.
She took a deep breath and slowed down as she approached their destination. She suddenly regretted coming here, but as soon as she passed through the gates of Watermelon Ranch, she felt safer. This ranch provided no tangible security benefit—the beast had mutilated a sheep on this very property, after all.
“Mom? Why are we here?”
As she pulled the car up beside the old truck she’d spent so much time in as a teenager, Shandi didn’t know that she had a good answer. In fact, she worried greatly that she would walk into an awkward and uncomfortable situation. She briefly pictured Jake and Deirdre answering the door naked, shocked to see her.
“I don’t know, baby. It’s just where I thought we needed to be.”
