“Sounds like our local fox is whooping it up again,” Andrew said unconvincingly. He looked back at Kate in the bed. She struggled to sit up, eyes on the blinds over the sliding doors as if whatever had made the sound was standing on the porch, waiting for someone to let it in.

It.

Andrew shivered.

What was out there wasn’t an it. No, it was a pair of stoner dropouts (his assumption all along, because who else would have the time or inclination to do this?) playing some recording they had ripped from the audio track on a horror movie.

“That is not a fox,” Nikki said.

“We thought the same thing, but we looked it up. Kate can show you some videos we found that’ll give you goose bumps.”

“No, I can’t,” Kate said softly. When Andrew caught her eye, she looked guilty, as if she hadn’t meant to speak it out loud.

“If that’s a fucking fox, I’m Lady Gaga,” Nikki said. She still hadn’t moved from her spot.

Ryker tried to lighten the mood by saying, “You do sing pretty good in the shower.”

The scream came again, a ragged, throat-searing screech that morphed into a strangled howl before tapering to a dull, repetitive chuffing. Every hair on Andrew’s body stood on end. He backed into the bed and sat next to Kate, gripping her hand.

This was nothing like before. At least on the other nights, they had found correlations to the strange sounds lurking around the cottage.

Not this time. What was out there sounded neither like man nor beast.

Nikki flew into Ryker’s arms. Andrew knew it was impossible, but the temperature in the cottage seemed to plummet twenty degrees.

“The doors!” Andrew exclaimed, bolting from the bed to lock the front and back doors.

“Do the windows have locks?” Ryker asked. Nikki had her face buried in his chest.

Andrew shook his head. Of course they didn’t. Why the fuck would you need window locks out here in the middle of the sticks?

To keep the monsters out, he thought, sending a fresh wave of shivers up his back.

Kate caught his eye and he was more alarmed by what he saw. She’d gone white as the sheet, fat beads of sweat pouring down her face.

“Kate?”

She was still staring at the sliding glass doors.

The flimsy sliding glass doors.

Suddenly, Andrew was finding weaknesses everywhere. They wouldn’t be able to stop a determined child from breaking in, much less a…a…

“Shhh,” Kate said, eerily calm.

“What?” Ryker whispered. Nikki wiped her eyes and did her best to compose herself.

Kate pointed at the doors. “It’s out there.”

The cabin was preternaturally silent. Andrew breathed slowly through his mouth, straining to listen.