She looks so different than usual, I almost take a step back. Her hair is falling over her shoulders, strands all over the place. She doesn’t have a stitch of makeup on. The black lines she usually has over her eyelids are gone, which softens her traits even more. At her feet, a tiny ball of white fluff pokes its head out.

“I…” My eyes drift from the dog to where her short nightgown ends, long, naked legs coming into view. Not your business, Aaron. I clear my throat. “I heard you scream. Thought something had happened to you.”

“Oh, something happened to me all right,” she huffs, looking over her shoulder then back to me. “Almost had a heart attack.”

“What happened?”

“Oh, only my worst nightma-AAAAAH!”

I don’t have the time to understand what’s happening. One second she’s talking to me, the next she’s standing on the couch, tearing through my eardrums like a knife.

“What the hell?” I say as I cross the threshold.

“You couldn’t tell me that the cabin was infested with rats before you invited me?” Her thin, delicate hands are balled into fists in front of her chest, as if she will single-handedly destroy anyone who dares come close to her. Behind her on the vintage brown couch sit the two dogs who look almost as scared as her.

“Rats? What do you mean rats?”

Her eyes almost pop out of their socket. “What do you think I mean? The little disgusting things with pointy teeth that roam around in sewers and live in this place, apparently!”

“We don’t have rats.”

“Yeah, you do! I may not have the best functioning brain, but I do have two perfectly working eyes, and there’s a freaking rat that walked around this place. Even Molly saw it.”

“So that’s what’s got you screaming like that?” I ask, my worry rapidly fading away and giving its place to humor. “A rat?”

She narrows in on me. “What’s so funny about that?”

I let out a small chuckle. “Nothing, just…” I give a shake of my head. “You look like you’re absolutely fearless, but you’re afraid of a tiny animal?”

She huffs. “What makes you think I’m fearless? I’m afraid of literally so many things.” Her gaze moves to the floor, as if she’s looking for the culprit of her panic. “And I fucking hate rats.”

My mouth twitches. I fight really, really hard to keep it under control, but in the end, I’m only human, and I can’t resist. The chuckle bursts out of me.

“Stop laughing and find the beast instead!” she hisses, which makes me laugh even harder. God, who would’ve thought that girl had it in her?