Page 139 of Trick or Stalk

It’s bone-white against the darkness. Deep black hollows surround the eyes, spreading outward in jagged shadows. Sharp cheekbones make the face look almost skeletal, while the distorted mouth sits somewhere between a grimace and a smile.

Human enough to recognize as a face. Wrong enough to make every survival instinct inside me scream.

And even from this distance, his head is tilted, staring at me.

A scream tears from my throat.

Penny jumps to her feet and erupts into the type of barking that makes her sound much more vicious than she is.

I stumble backward. “No.”

The man doesn't move.

My hands shake. “No. You're not real.”

He just stands there, unmoving. Watching me.

I squeeze my eyes shut.

You're imagining this.

The storage room scared me.

I've watched too many horror movies.

I'm exhausted.

It’s only my imagination.

I open my eyes.

He's still there.

“Oh my God.”

Penny races toward the window, barking.

I grab her before she reaches it. “No!”

I pull her against my chest.

The man remains at the edge of the woods.

Watching.

Waiting.

For what, I’m not sure.

But it’s exactly like the masked killer in the horror movie I recently watched.

“No.”

I close my eyes again.

“One... two... three.”

I open them.