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I wait another minute, straining to listen for—well, anything.
Someone rattling at the windows, testing the back door locks, but there’s nothing.
With my mouth cotton dry, I slide off the couch and creep to the door. Stretching up on my toes, I peer out the peephole with my phone clutched to my chest.
Still nothing.
No one there.
Not even when I open the door, letting in the moonlight and the chilly night scent.
I stand on the porch, staring across the front yard.
It’s like no one was ever here.
There’s just calm starlight falling over the gabled roofs of Redhaven, bathing the sleepy town in the illusion of peace.
I won’t have any peace until I’m sure, though.
So I keep my phone close and shove my feet into my boots, clomping down into the yard.
A quick circle reveals more nothing.
No one’s been in the backyard, either.
I’d be able to tell when you’d have to stamp down a path through the overgrowth to get anywhere but the worn trail between the back door and the storage shed.
Did I just imagine it? Or did I just have a narrow miss with an actual break-in?
Maybe I’m just being jumpy after all.
Call it stress, being back home, worrying about my mother, about my baby sister, seeing Grant again, unpacking all these frothing memories I’d hermetically sealed.
I’m so tired, and not just physically.
It’s no surprise if my brain keeps conjuring demons coming home to my doorstep.
I turn to let myself back inside, climbing up the back porch steps and—
Another rattle, this time from the shed’s direction.
I freeze, breath hitching, the air cold in my throat until it’s like I swallowed a fist of ice. Poised with one foot on the step above, I listen to the heavy silence.
This is silly.
...it’s probably just raccoons, right?
Possums. Mice. Bats.
Something normal and furry and annoying that goes thump in the night.
But I won’t feel okay until Imake sure.
I’ll just check the shed, scare the critters off, and go to bed safe and sound.
With my breath rushing loudly in my ears and sweat icing my temples, I turn slowly and step back into the yard.
Every step down the path feels like an eternity. My fingertips are numb as I switch my phone over to flashlight mode.
