Page 21

“Real smart, Benji,” I mutter to myself. Just as I reach down to turn up the heat inside my Camaro, a shadow near the tree line catches my eye…

And something darts out onto the road in front of me.

“Fucking shit!” I slam on my brakes and jerk the wheel, causing the car to fishtail, but it's too late. A solid figure collides with my hood, completely cracking the windshield with a smear of blood. My seatbelt digs painfully into my chest as the vehicle skids sideways. The tires scream against the road before finally coming to a violent stop… then everything goes quiet.

My heart attempts to escape through my throat as I sit there for a long moment, gripping the steering wheel tight. Rain patters against shattered glass. A streak of crimson begins to drip down the spiderweb fracture on my windshield, and shaky breath gunshots from my lungs.

"Please be a deer,” I whisper, struggling to undo my seat belt with trembling fingers after grabbing a flashlight from my glovebox.

Cold air hits my skin once I pop open the door, and somehow I manage to pull myself out on wobbly legs. Wiping the rain from my eyes with an aching shoulder, I slowly creep toward the front of my car, noting more blood splattered across the crumpled hood. My flashlight reflects the downpour, glistening over the road, but when I finally step around the car to see what I hit…

There's nothing there.

“What the hell?” I crouch down to get a look underneath my wheels, but a clear, unobstructed view to the other side of the car awaits me. My head whips around, taking in the surrounding area. Only wet asphalt and trees. No sign of what the fuck could have left that much blood on my car.

That eerie feeling skitters down my spine again, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. I rush to slide back into the Camaro before locking the door tight because hell no. Not tonight, Satan, no thank you.

When I shove the key back into the ignition though and give it a turn, absolutely nothing happens. No rumble of my V8 engine, not even a click to suggest it's trying. Just deafening, suffocating silence.

“Goddammit,” I hiss, reaching for my phone out of habit. The blinking no signal notification on the screen reminds me that I am totally, completely and utterly fucked.

“Okay, okay, think.”

The mill can't be more than a few miles away. I could always walk there, maybe get Hank to give me a tow.

Immediately, every survival instinct I possess screams absolutely the hell not, now that the sun has sunk below the treeline. Everyone's words over the last week bounce around my skull. Don't go into the woods after dark.

I lock the doors a second time just to be sure.

My gaze drifts to the rearview mirror, but all I see is inky blackness. The clouds have cleared, stars dotting the moonless sky. Their speckled light is hardly enough to illuminate the space around me. All is quiet. And yet, somehow, I can sense that I'm not alone.

Seconds crawl by while I wrack my brain for what to do. Helplessness claws at my chest. There's no way to call anyone, and nowhere close enough to walk without encountering whatever exists in those woods. My only option is to sit here like a fish in a barrel and hope someone comes along to maybe give me a jump. Or a ride. Something.

Five minutes of silence pass. Then ten.

I keep checking the mirrors for signs of movement. Slowly, my pulse begins to settle the longer I wait.

Maybe I did hit a deer, and it just ran off after. It must have fucked up the battery when it bounced off my hood, that's all. Miss Mary’s stories got me out here all paranoid, when in reality, there's nothing out there but big ass bears with goat horns.

A nervous laugh escapes my throat. “Yeah. That's probably all it is⁠—”

Slam.

A crunch of metal steals the breath right out of my lungs.

The entire Camaro rocks as something lands on the roof.

Something big

“Jesus, what the fuck!”

A slow scrape follows. Whatever it is moves from the back of the roof toward the front of the car. My eyes lift as a massive shadow passes over the cracked glass, and above me, the top of the car creaks, denting inward. As if the thing up there weighs several hundred pounds.

Terror lances through my veins like ice. For one moment, there's only heavy silence. Then two large hands settle against the outside of the windshield, almost human-shaped.

Long fingers spread wide, rainwater cascading down pale skin. The creature balls its fists, raising them high for a suspended second that feels like slow motion before bringing them down fast.

Crack.