Because I’m scared and it’s real and they won’t believe me and it’s going to come in here and they won’t be able to stop it and even if we try to get to the car I know it will be waiting for us and oh sweet fucking Jesus what are we going to do?

And Buttons is out there with it.

Everyone was taken aback by her outburst. Nikki looked like she was about to say something, but instead she turned away and dumped the glass shards in the kitchen garbage.

When no one said anything to stop her – or piss her off – Kate took a breath and decided there was no going back now. Funny, the moment she started to speak, she began to feel uneasy, as if putting it in words made it less real. She had to keep telling herself it was real, and they were all in danger.

“It was big, really tall. I’m not good with judging height, but I’d say it was around seven feet. Maybe more.” She’d once met Patrick Ewing, who had played for the New York Knicks. If she remembered his bio correctly, he was seven feet tall. The thing outside was definitely taller.

Andrew, Ryker, and Nikki stood in a row opposite her, faces grim but mouths closed. She continued.

“It had a wide face, like in a cartoon when someone gets run over by a car and just kinda flattens out. But it wasn’t flat at all. Just wide, almost human looking but with exaggerated features. And it was scarred, like someone had slashed it at one time. It also had deep pock marks and gouges taken from its flesh. It looked hurt…diseased. I couldn’t see much of its body, but I think it was covered in hair.

“And I don’t know if it was the reflection from the phone, but it had yellow eyes, just solid and almost glowing. Those eyes, I couldn’t look away. They were terrifying. I was looking in its eyes and then I was in here.” She swallowed hard, her stomach coiled in a painful knot. “I can still see them, staring into me. It was like being stabbed. Those eyes. Those eyes…”

A wave of exhaustion threatened to pull her under. She wanted to throw up. She felt like passing out. Her mouth was dry as dust, all of the moisture in her body expended in running rivulets of sweat. The building microwave feels nuked whatever fluids were left in her. Kate shuddered as a strange, pulsating wave swept through her. It left her spineless, her muscles turned to jelly.

She looked at Andrew, her gaze sliding up toward the ceiling. She heard shuffling feet and found herself in her husband’s arms.

“I’ll get her legs,” Ryker said from the next town over.

“Nikki, I need a fresh, cold washcloth,” Andrew said, setting her on the bed.