“Get back inside,” he said, ushering them in the door. Nikki still had Kate in her arms, the pressure tightening as they crab-walked into the cottage. Andrew slammed the door shut, chest heaving.

Nikki pulled Kate to the bed. As they were about to sit down (Kate’s legs had suddenly gone numb and her sagging weight must have been more than Nikki could handle), Andrew blurted, “Not there! Use the chair over there.”

Buttons had stopped barking, staying close to Kate and Nikki.

They turned as one and Kate saw her brother.

“Oh my God! Ryker!”

His face was covered in thread and blood. Was he dead? What had happened to him?

The commotion of Andrew lifting the mattress and jamming it against the glass doors stopped her from voicing the multitude of questions circling her brain like agitated gnats. Nikki settled her into a chair next to Ryker. Kate reached out to touch his arm, relieved to see he was breathing.

“Help me move the table,” Andrew said to Nikki.

They piled the heaviest furniture they could find against the mattress, scoring the floor with deep gouges.

The owners are going to be pissed, Kate thought, immediately wondering why that would even enter her head. Because maybe it’s better to think regular thoughts than face the fact that there’s a crazed creature that wants to kill us.

She couldn’t stop her heart from racing, and her chest was getting tight. In the throes of her fright, it seemed that every joint in her body had swelled to twice its normal size and was screaming in agony. Her wrist started to slip out of place and she had to pull her hand away from Ryker, resting it in her lap, feeling the bones slide back in place.

Even if the pain in her chest got worse, she wasn’t going to tell Andrew. What was the point? There was nothing they could do about it now.

When he and Nikki were done reinforcing the front and back doors with every stick of furniture that would move, they collapsed onto the floor beside Kate and Ryker.

Andrew was sweating profusely and having a hard time catching his breath. Nikki was just the same.

“Did…did you see that?” Nikki said.

Andrew stared at the wall, through the wall, into the woods where the beast waited to make its return. “I still can’t believe it. I mean, what the hell can it be?”

“It’s sick,” Kate said.

Two heads turned to her.

Andrew gingerly rested his hand on her knee. “What?”

“Something’s wrong with it. I’ve seen it twice now and it looks worse than before.”

“For all we know, that’s the way it always looks,” Nikki said, wiping a tear from her eye.

“No. It’s infected. With what, I don’t know.”

“Honey, you can’t know that,” Andrew said.