He did a good job, but he would still disappear for a couple of hours every morning and afternoon to go visit Harvey. I was miserable from being sick, but moreso because I hated feeling left out. I missed seeing Harvey, and Rusty said he could tell that Harvey missed me too. I also still worried a little bit about how Rusty and Harvey would get along without me being there.

On the third day of me being sick I found out. I heard a commotion as Rusty came running up on the front porch and flying through the door before locking it behind him. Karen was up in her room, so he managed to avoid any questions as he made his way to our bedroom downstairs. Despite that, I almost yelled when I saw him come in.

He was sweaty and dirty, but I barely noticed for looking at his right leg. It was bleeding badly from two lines of cuts that looked like large claw marks. His eyes were wide with fear as he looked at me.

“What happened?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Harvey got mad or went crazy or something. He changed shape again. Got bigger and…he fucking tried to kill me.” His face began to crumple in on the last as tears began springing up and running down his dusty cheeks. He hobbled over to the window. “He followed me, but I think he stopped at the edge of the trees.” It had been gray outside all day, and as twilight was coming on, it was hard to make out much in the growing murk of the woods. But then I saw him. A massive shadow deeper than the rest, defined only by his own darkness and the flickering glow of large, amber eyes. He was in the woods looking at us. Not just the house, but I felt sure Harvey was staring right at us.

Watching. Waiting.

Part Three

By later that evening, we couldn’t see any signs of Harvey lurking at the edge of the woods, though we knew that meant very little. Rusty bandaged up his leg and went back through what had happened with me, but it still made little sense. He claimed they had just been playing fetch when Harvey had suddenly started making a terrible noise as his shape and size changed. Rusty immediately knew something was wrong, but thought at first he could talk to Harvey and calm him down. He took a couple of steps toward the creature, and that’s when he got clawed on the leg.