“You don’t believe me,” she croaked. Her throat made clicking noises when she tried to swallow.

He pushed the covers aside. “I do, honey. Right now, I’m more concerned about you. Can you put this under your tongue?”

She turned away, the thermometer hovering inches from her mouth. Andrew’s hand was trembling.

“No, you don’t believe me,” she said. “But you’re going to.”

Kate recoiled when Nikki wiped her head with the washcloth. It forced her to open her mouth, and Andrew was quick to insert the thermometer. He took her pulse and waited, the candlelight making her feel as if they’d tumbled back in time. They were early settlers cowering in their cabin, terrified of the unknown animals crying and grumbling in the pitch.

“Your heart’s racing,” Andrew said.

“For a very good reason,” she mumbled around the fragile thermometer. She was both boiling hot and ice cold. It took all of her strength to keep her teeth from chattering and breaking the thermometer. She didn’t need to add mercury poisoning to the list of her ills.

She’d been struck by the mother of all bad feels. That thing out there, that horrid, monstrous thing, was the living, breathing embodiment of all her darkest fears. One look from its cancerous eyes and she’d been turned to dust.

Andrew read the thermometer by the light of his phone. “Just under a hundred and four. I need you to take two more Tylenol. If this goes up any higher, I may have to get you in a cold bath.”

“No.”

He’d had to do it twice before during their marriage, and both times she’d nearly hit the ceiling, the icy water propelling her from her delirium.

The big difference this time was that she wasn’t delirious, despite what Andrew, Ryker, and Nikki might think. Something was wrong with her; that she knew. She regretted not telling Andrew about the strange microwave feels all this time. They might have been burning her to a cinder and infecting her dreams, but she hadn’t been dreaming outside. It was real, and it was out there, waiting for them.

Out there with Buttons.

“I want my dog,” she said.

“I’ll go out and find him,” Andrew said.

She lashed out and grabbed his arm. “You can’t! It will get you if you do. Promise me you won’t go out there!”

He patted her hand condescendingly, but she could tell he wasn’t all that anxious to go back outside. He couldn’t deny the strange noises and the cottage being shaken from its foundation. Something was definitely out there, but he wasn’t buying her monster theory. It infuriated her to no end, and she knew the more she insisted, the more they’d resist, especially given her high fever.