Kate looked at the ceiling, the slotted boards and light fixture washed out by the gray-and-white glow from the television. Her aching muscles tensed, waiting for something else to fall on the roof.

Grabbing her tablet, she did a quick search to see if her school lesson was correct (or her memory, for that matter).

There were actually plenty of birds that were nocturnal, including owls, the potential culprit of the flesh-crawling scream they’d heard that night.

Jesus, people talked about big cities never sleeping. Whoever had coined that phrase had never lived in the woods. The noise and hustle and bustle were markedly different from Times Square, but there was a whole world in constant motion up here.

There was a harder tap, this time on the side of the house. Kate pulled the covers up to her chest. She knew it was ridiculous, but the thin sheet was all she had to cower behind. Sudden sounds in the night were damn good reason to cower.

“Hooooooohhhhh!”

The scream was so sharp and resounding, she heard Andrew stumbling out of bed. Kate released a sharp yelp in answer to the cry in the night.

“What was that?” Andrew said, sliding on the bare floor in his socks.

“It came from out there,” she said, pointing to the open kitchen window.

“It sounded like a monkey or something,” Andrew said. He’d fallen asleep in his clothes. Cautiously walking to the kitchen, he cocked his ear to the window.

“Andrew…don’t,” she pleaded. She did not want him near that window. Whatever was out there sounded big. Andrew had said it was like a monkey, but to her, it was more like a larger primate. An orangutan or gorilla. No, that had to be wrong. It couldn’t be either.

But it was an animal. No person could make a sound like that.

It was real and it was alive and it was right outside their cottage. The nearest help was miles away, and all they had to defend themselves were some feeble locks on the doors and a scattering of steak knives.

“You hear anything?” she whispered.

She jumped at the tick-tick of Buttons waddling into the room. He stood between her and Andrew as if unsure which way to go.

“I think I hear something moving in the woods,” Andrew said.

“Just close the window and come here.”

He held up a hand to silence her.

Then she heard it too. The steady crunch of leaves.

So, so close.

Andrew pointed at the window, his body turning, finger following the progression of the footsteps. Kate watched with growing dread as whatever was outside walked along the side of the house, making its way to the backyard.