He’d waited before snapping the photo. That was the piece of it she couldn’t shake. Snapping the photo when she’d let down her guard. Who was the girl he’d seen? she wondered. One who’d stopped being what others always asked of her. A girl laid bare, and it had been enough. More than. The girl he’d seen in the viewfinder had been what he’d hoped to keep.

Mosquito bites on her arms swelled, making her itch. She resisted the compulsion to scratch the plumps. The longer she waited the more she fought the urge to run. Running was the impulse she had whenever she was afraid, but she didn’t want to leave Jesse. He should be done soon, she thought, playing a waiting game to distract her body into stillness. “One more minute,” she whispered. One more minute and he’d be done and they’d be on their way.

A noise came from inside the house. A crash came next and Mira looked in the window hoping for Jesse, to see him wave and let her know he was okay, but instead of Jesse she saw someone else—another figure, large and looming in the dark of the room. This man walked toward the broken window frame, toward her, stepping closer to the light. He moved until she could see him fully through the window, and what she saw was blood, blood covering his face, blood fresh and dripping down the front of his clothes, blood staining his hands; he was wiping off its smear but it was everywhere, darkening every part of him, and it was all she could see.

Her heart leaped in her chest and she screamed, a shrieking that echoed through the woods. She sprinted away from the Woodsman house, running across the thicket and through the trees until she was deep in the woods. Stopped, she remembered Jesse and called his name between chokes of air.

Silence greeted her. Without Jesse she had to decide what to do. She couldn’t go back to the house, not after what she’d seen, but she couldn’t stay out in the woods either. Not alone like this. Calling his name again, she hoped in the seconds after she’d hear him respond. She waited a few minutes more and, relenting, ran in the direction of home.

By the time she got back to her house Jesse was already waiting for her. He stood hunched over the grass as he tried to catch his breath.

“Shit, Jesse, I thought I’d lost you,” Mira said when she caught up with him, the curse startling them both. Jesse saw her face and laughed. It was a release of tension, and Mira joined in his laughter, feeling okay for the first time since they’d left, but she soon noticed the cut on his arm. “Hey, you’re bleeding again. Are you going to be okay?”