For a moment, she was so scared she couldn’t breathe, but fast on the heels of fear was white-hot anger. “What did you say?” Rage-induced bravery swelled inside her. “I don’t know who you think you are, but—”

A child’s scream cut through the air. She jumped and swung around toward the wail. It sounded like it had come from her backyard.

The stranger laughed again, but when Wendy turned back to face him, he was gone.

Another cry rang out, and this time it continued without stopping. It was a child.

And it was definitely coming from behind the backyard.

Without another thought, Wendy dropped her bag and ran for the gate. She raced along the side of the house, feet pounding on the cement. She tripped over the handle of a rake and sprinted into the backyard. It stretched out before her. The old swings waved in the breeze, and standing just past that on the other side of the small fence was a little boy. He continued to cry, and Wendy slowed her pace, taking cautious steps.

Closer now, she recognized the back of the little boy’s head, and his oversized blue hoodie.

“Alex?” Wendy said. The crying cut off abruptly. He remained still, facing the woods with his back to her. Wendy’s own breaths roared in her ears. “Alex, what are you doing here?” She slowly stepped closer to him.

Alex finally turned.

Small twigs and leaves were stuck in his mess of brown hair. His eyes were huge. Black pupils devoured any trace of his brown irises. Tears rolled down his dirt-stained cheeks.

“Alex, what happened?” she asked gently, extending a hand out for him to take. It quivered.

Something was very wrong. Not just the fact that he shouldn’t be here, in her backyard, but the stricken look on his face, the earthy smell in the breeze, even the deadly quiet that hung in the air.

Wendy’s eyes kept darting to the woods behind him. The dark trees loomed over Alex’s tiny form. She couldn’t see into them, but the feeling of something waiting there in the dark made her skin crawl.

“Alex.” Urgency leapt in her throat. “Take my hand—” Wendy lunged forward to grab him, hips slamming into the short fence, but before she could reach, Alex’s mouth opened wide.

He screamed with his whole body.

Wendy cringed as the sound’s sharpness split through her. She stumbled forward, nearly toppling over the fence as she tried to reach him. With a violent gust of cold wind, something like large, crooked fingers made of tar lashed out from the trees and ensnared Alex’s legs, knocking him to the ground. He scrabbled at the dirt, trying to claw his way toward Wendy, but the fingers dragged him to the trees.

“Alex!” Wendy screamed.