Page 108 of Trick or Stalk

Perfect.

Nothing says emotionally stable woman living alone in a Victorian surrounded by woods like spending the evening watching people get slaughtered.

I hit play.

The opening music begins.

Penny adjusts her position against me, still chewing on her bat.

For the first twenty minutes, I'm completely invested.

Then a man appears on-screen. Tall. Broad shoulders. Dark clothes.

My thoughts immediately go somewhere they shouldn't.

“Hades would make a good serial killer.”

I freeze.

Penny stops chewing her bat and looks up at me.

“I cannot believe I just said that.”

She just stares at me.

“Just by his appearance. That's what I meant.”

Sure, Presley.

His smoky eyes flash through my mind. That intense stare. The way he leaned closer during lunch.

I stop the thoughts before they go further.

I grab a handful of popcorn. “Why am I thinking about him?”

Penny's tail taps my leg.

“You're no help.”

On-screen, the killer steps from behind a tree. He's wearing a mask.

The woman sees him through her window.

My hand stops halfway to my mouth.

Something cold crawls over my skin.

For a second, I'm not seeing the movie.

I'm seeing my own window.

The movement in the woods.

The shadow I convinced myself was an animal.

The ghost I convinced myself was fixed by the wind.

Stop. Everything’s fine.