She glanced at him defiantly. “Or you’ll throw me to the big bad wolf? Stop being such a sodding wanker and lie down with your wife, Andy. Feed her her pills and pretend that you’ll make it all go away. That’s what you want to do, isn’t it? Well, you could never save her, and you sure as shite can’t save her now.”

Andrew saw red.

Kate attempted to grab his pants leg but he pulled away.

“Face it. We’re never getting out of here. That’s what it wants us to know. That’s why it’s standing there like some kind of fucking gargoyle. We…can never…leave. Not me, not you, and especially not Katy.”

“I need you to cut it out now,” he said.

“Or what? Are you going to hit a grieving widow?”

“Andrew, just leave her be,” Kate said. She sounded so lost and afraid, it only fueled his anger at his sister-in-law.

Nikki looked at them with disgust and turned away from the doors and the abomination that had killed her husband. She walked to the kitchen, where he hoped she would at least attempt to wash the blood from her face.

Instead, she pulled the cork from a bottle of wine and drank it straight from the bottle.

Adding drunkenness to madness would not be an ideal combination, but her momentary silence was more than golden to Andrew – it was platinum. If she had kept going on, he wasn’t sure how much longer he would have been able to control himself. Widow or not, family or not, he’d had enough.

Focus on Kate.

Her face was buried in Buttons’ side.

“Can you please cover it?” she asked.

When he turned to hook the blanket over the doors, the monster was gone.

Where the hell is it now?

She hadn’t seen that it had left, so he quickly reaffixed the blanket, blotting out the yard and lake that looked so normal, so pristine, if only he didn’t look down and see the bloodstains on the porch. He wondered if the old couple’s bodies were still floating on the lake or if someone had found them by now.

If they had been discovered, he would hear sirens.

It was as if everyone around the lake had left them to the wild demon, only returning once it finished them off.

“Is it covered?” Kate said.

Her voice pulled him back.

“Yes. You can’t see it now.”

He threw a quick look at Nikki, who was too busy drinking to say something cruel or upsetting.

“Can you please hold me? I’m so scared.”

Andrew had to nudge Buttons aside so he could enfold his wife in his arms. She felt as fragile as a newly hatched egg and as hot as an omelet.

“What am I supposed to do?” she said, sniffing back tears.