She was already maxed out on pain meds, so there was nothing to do but take it. For three weeks, she couldn’t concentrate on anything longer than a minute. Food tasted worse than ever. Movies gave her no comfort. Sleep was hard to come by. Even Buttons was irritating with his constant, sad-eyed presence. Andrew absorbed her complaints, her irrational screaming to be left alone, or her demands for him to be with her seconds later. She knew she sounded crazy, but there was nothing she could do about it. She was, in fact, crazy, and she refused to be apologetic about it. Only once did Andrew raise his voice, telling her to calm the hell down after she had blabbered incoherently in a river of tears until she could barely catch her breath. It was either that or an old-fashioned smack to the face.

Every day had become a bad feels day.

And the shadow watched her.

As irrational as it seemed, Kate knew it was feeding on her agony – not just taking delight, but becoming more powerful.

Criiiiiccccckkkk.

She startled on the daybed. The tension in her shoulders sent ripples of misery down her back, shooting out to her limbs like balls of light from a Roman candle.

Buttons perked up his ears.

“You heard that too, didn’t you?”

She hooked her finger under his collar, keeping him close.

For the past two weeks, she’d been hearing odd sounds when Andrew was at work. Doors inching open, objects shifting inside closed cabinets, things falling on the floor. Except whenever she went to investigate, she could find nothing.

This time, it sounded as if someone had closed the bathroom door down the hall.

“I’m losing my fucking mind.”

She cried out in both pain and fear. Not fear of the shadow closing the door. It was fear that the pain and sleep deprivation were making her unhinged.

Unless the shadow was real.

And if it was real…

“Come here,” she said to the dog. She wiped the tears on her cheeks into his fur. Buttons made for a world-class hankie.

She stared down the hallway, knowing she’d see nothing. At least directly. The shadow only lived in her periphery. If she concentrated on something, in this case the corner of hers and Andrew’s bed beyond the open bedroom door, consciously aware to be mindful of the edges of her vision, it might reveal itself.

And then what?

Lie here cowering like a child until Andrew came home?