“Not while she’s having a seizure,” he said. “It won’t last long.”

He noticed Ryker kept stealing peeks at the window. If they’d had more light, he was sure he would have seen his brother-in-law’s complexion growing paler with each look.

Kate writhed under them, her seizure seeming to be getting stronger, not weaker. Her teeth bit into the paperback, piercing the cover and yellowed pages underneath. Andrew’s gut tightened, wondering if he should chance it and run with her to the car and get her to the hospital. With no cell service, they couldn’t even call for an ambulance…or the cops.

“Hyaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!”

The monstrous roar made all of them lose their grip on Kate. Andrew looked out the doors. The eyes were gone.

“Where the hell is it?” Ryker said.

Andrew peeled his attention back to his wife, reasserting his hold on the book. She was tearing it to shreds. For such a frail woman, she bounded with the strength of a full-grown man. Her arm flew up, sending Nikki’s hand into her own face with a loud slap.

Thump!

Something heavy crashed on the roof above them.

“What was that?” Nikki screamed. Even in the wild light, Andrew could see a red welt forming where she’d hit herself.

“Rocks,” Andrew said.

There were loud thuds as whatever was outside found bigger and bigger rocks to toss. Each impact made them jump, Kate practically juddering free of them.

Andrew felt so exposed with the blinds open. It could see them clear as day, whereas they could only guess where it was going from moment to moment.

Unless it bore down on them with those gleaming, demonic eyes.

Andrew desperately wanted to pull the blinds closed, but he didn’t dare leave Kate.

More and more rocks peppered the roof. Nikki started to hyperventilate. To her credit, she held on to Kate, Ryker doing what he could to calm her down despite the growing panic in his own voice.

The cottage was under assault. So many rocks were hitting the structure, it seemed impossible they could all be coming from one source.

That thought sent a deep chill down Andrew’s spine.

What if there’s more than one of them?

He couldn’t think about that now, though it was hard to ignore as stones battered the sides of the house. Any second now, a rock – or a boulder from the sound of some of them – would come crashing through one of the windows.

“Katy’s seizure isn’t stopping,” Ryker said.

“Don’t you think I know that?” Andrew blurted.

Each tossed stone frayed their nerves more and more until Andrew’s entire body felt like a drilled tooth awaiting a root canal.

Nikki was openly weeping, flinching every time a rock hit the house.