I didn’t have to wait long.

The bed was an island in the middle of the room that left space on three sides for the creature to appear. Not able to discern which one, I rolled my eyes wildly as I tried to get a better look at my surroundings.

The shadows seemed darker. Stranger. Like they were too long. I did my best to ignore them and keep my focus on what I was on the hunt for, but instead of finding it—it found me.

I had my gaze set as far to the side as I could, as I tried to look behind me, when a shadow darkened the comforter that covered my body. Something was between the window and I, and for the love of God—I didn’t want to look.

I didn’t want to look, because there was no question as to what it was. It was the creature from the woods, and it was hungry. Hungry for what, I wasn’t sure, but I doubted it was one of Anita’s vegetarian casseroles.

Look at me.

The thought, again, wasn’t my own. It was a rasping guttural sound that left me wanting to shower. Whatever was in front of me spoke to me from inside my own head. However that worked.

Look at me.

No.

This had to be proof that I’d lost my shit. No sane person hears foreign voices in their head and then responds to them without being a few crayons short of a box. No sane person sees naked pale monsters in the woods.

Look at me. Look at me.

Fuck. You. No.

I saw the shadow move before the bed creaked. Something had put pressure on it and my cheeks grew cold as the blood drained from my face. A thick wide pressure slithered its way up my stomach to my face.

My eyes screwed themselves shut. I didn’t want to see this thing up closes and I didn’t want to see what was touching me.

Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.

Stop it! I’m not looking!

The moonlight that hit my closed eyes blacked out and I had to assume the creature moved closer to the head of the bed. I tried again to move. I had the faintest of hopes I would be able to fling myself off the other side of the bed part way to the door before it realized what I was up to.

No dice.

The foul smell that encased me grew, hot and wet right near my face. I gagged and tasted bile in the back of my mouth.

The pressure that moved its way up my body was now past the protective barrier of the comforter. I felt the end of tit brush against my cheek and the only thing I could liken it to was the outside of Janice’s old leather purse.

Look at me, Sophia.

How do you know my name?

Look at me and I’ll tell you. I won’t hurt you. Just look.

No.

I promise. Just look.

Stop it.

Ray will look. I’ll make him.

Don’t you dare.

Then look.

The meaty object on my face brushed a loose strand of hair that must have fallen while I was sleeping out of the way. This thing, whatever it was, knew my weak points. It immediately spoke of Ray in a tone that was murderous.

I opened my eyes and choked.

The bulbous egg-shaped head of the creature was not more than a foot from my face and its mouth was wide open. Its neck was stretched to an absurd distance from its bony shoulders. From my close view, I could now see the thing was covered in scars that oozed a clear viscous fluid.

My heart pounded so loud I hoped Frank and his super senses would hear me from down the hall and come to my aid. I tried once more to scream.

Nothing.

The creature’s head tilted in a quizzical manner and moved one of its spindly legs in a large step closer to the head of the bed as the tentacle moved from my face to the space between us. it wriggled slowly in the air like a giant gray earthworm.

Are you going to ask?

How do you know me?

You made me.

MY eyes bulged as I recalled the horrible pain in my head earlier in the night. That had been this thing? How had I created this monstrosity?

Pain. Loss. Grief. Depression. Delicious.

What?

Pain. Loss. Grief. Depression. Life.

I stared at the creature’s toothless sideways grin. Was something so wrong with me that I had created something so gross and terrifying? Why couldn’t I have created a unicorn?

The monster moved closer. Its noodle neck struggled to hold up its massive head. My eyes watered from the stench as it neared.

A scream was in the process of bubbling up from within me and no way to exorcise it. the muscles in my legs started to cramp from how taut they were, and my hands were numb from being motionless for so long.

The tentacle wavered between the two of us like a cobra ready to strike. The thick end of it pointed directly at my face as I laid there, barely able to breathe.

Feed.

What?

Kill them.

No.

Kill them!

No!

Then I feed from you.

The tentacle moved closer at a speed where it disappeared for a second, and then there was a pressure on my ear.

No way!

More pressure. Then pain. If I could’ve cried out, I would have as the tendril forced its way into my ear canal. Its mission left no room for caution. A feeling similar to spiders crawling worked it way out from the tentacle as I watched the appendage it was attached to move closer.

Though my ear killed me, that’s where the pain stopped. I couldn’t tell where the tentacle had gone after that. I didn’t really want to know.

As I lay there, unable to close my drying eyes, I noticed the creature had begun to smack its jaws together. Wave after wave of rancid breath was pushed at me as a gnarled bone colored tooth pushed its way through its rotting gums.

Thank you.

Its other tentacle wound its way to its mouth and touched the tooth. The creature opened and closed its mouth like it wanted to test the new addition and how it fit.

Done now.

More pain. The spider-like feeling receded to my outer ear. My eyes watered as the sharp pain jabbed and peaked. There was no reprieve during the monster’s slow withdrawal.

After what seemed to take forever, I spotted the end of the tentacle as it moved from the side of my head. I was still in pain, but it had deadened to a dull ache.

The creature’s mouth closed, its lowly tooth fit perfectly over its chapped lips. It stepped back and the room bent around it and seemed to swallow it, leaving me in the room alone.

Whatever hold it had on me seemed to break. My eyes snapped shut. Hot salty tears seeped from my ducts and down my face.

I can move?

I tried to unclench one of my hands and sure enough they responded how they were supposed to. A small jolt of hope bubbled up as I next tried my jaw, which had been clenched so hard my teeth were sore. the cold of the room washed over the inside of my mouth. Now that I knew it was possible, there was nothing to stop me from doing what I had wanted to do since the encounter began.

With nothing to hold me back, I let out a shrill cry filled with every single emotion I’d been through during my paralysis. Pain, terror, hopelessness. I screamed myself into the fetal position in the center of the bed.

“What the fuck,” a muffled yell of surprise from down the hall let me know help was on the way as my scream devolved into a crying jag. The hollow thud of feet on the floor followed by a door being flung open as one of the two Vena men came to my rescue.

“Sophia, what happened? What the fuck is that smell?” Frank was on full alert and his tone showed it. the mattress caved under him as he sat and put a hand on my arm.

“There was something in my room,” I sobbed and described the creature that violated my mind and how I was unable to move the entire time.

After a heavy sigh, Frank pulled on my arm to get me to look at him. I rolled onto my back. I expected him to look at me with pity for absolutely cracking. His dark brows furrowed.

“What happened just now, that’s sleep paralysis,” he explained. “It happens when your body is awake, but your mind isn’t.”

“But,” I glanced back at where the monster stood. The smell still clearly hung in the air. “It was so real. It touched me. I could feel it…and the smell.”

“Just your mind playing tricks. As for the smell? This house is old and has so many crawl spaces, it’s probably something dead in the wall I need to find when it gets light out.” He sounded so sure of his answer. If it hadn’t been for the pain I could still feel, I would have believed him.

“What’s going on? What happened?” I turned bleary eyed to the sound of Anita’s voice. She flitted into the room, hair mussed from sleep and crawled onto the bed with me, to brush strands of hair from my face.

“Sleep paralysis,” Frank said simply. I wasn’t going to argue with him, though I knew in my heart he was wrong.

“Oh honey,” Anita frowned down at me before she looked to frank. “I told you the energy from earlier would have effects.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Frank muttered. “I’m up for the day. It’s almost six a.m. anyway. I’ll go wake Ray and we’ll make breakfast.

Breakfast was a mostly silent affair. For the adults it was probably due to not getting any sleep between last night’s events and my episode at the crack of dawn.

On my part, it was because I was fucking pissed that Ray didn’t come to my rescue when I screamed. It was stupid to be mad at someone for being passed the fuck out, especially when he obviously needed it, but all I wanted was to be held, and he wasn’t there.

I had been making it obvious that he was in the doghouse. He tried to rush to my aid as soon as Frank explained what happened, but I had thwarted his attempt to hug me with a pointed finger to the chest and a frosty glare.

Frank noticed the tensions and made a comment about Ray being ‘royally fucking screwed’. He was right. I had zero patience for Ray after our conversation last night where he tried to convince me I wasn’t crazy.

Today I wanted so desperately to be crazy that it killed me. no matter how much Frank wanted to say it was something dead in the walls, my ear had been violated by a giant tentacled monster in the middle of the night. That had happened—the smell that lingered was proof. It wasn’t just me. Anita and frank commented on it over breakfast.

I had given Ray a pointed look, one of the ‘I-told-you-so’ specials I reserved for certain occasions where pointing out that he was wrong was necessary. He just responded with a confused frown and excused himself.

The rest of us were nearly done. Forks and knives clinked against ceramic plates when my phone rang.

I looked at the small screen and winced. It was Janice. I announced who it was and asked to be excused as I stood and left for the great room for some privacy.

“Just let me know if you need me to talk to her,” Frank waved me off.

Once I crossed the threshold onto the carpet, I answered:

“Hey, Janice.”

“Where in God’s name are you? The boys woke me up crying because they were hungry!”

“I’m at the Vena’s place. There was—”

“Why are you there this early? What is going on in that empty little head of yours?”

Well fuck you, too.

“Listen, okay? Something happened last night…”

“Good lord. Give it to me shorthand.”

“I got a text from Matthew’s phone, so me and the guys went to go get him home, but…we just found his body. The cops came and couldn’t reach you so the Vena’s took me home and said I could stay here until you woke up.”

“Well I’m sure as shit awake, now!” Janice roared. “I’m on my way. Don’t go slipping out the back door before I get there.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Click.

Well that couldn’t have gone better.

I dropped onto the couch fully prepared to await my fate in solace, until I saw Ray get shoved into the room via Frank’s beefy arms.

I looked pointedly at the floor, not ready to give up being upset, yet, although I knew I would need his support for when Janice arrived. She was always a beast of a woman, but when she was inconvenienced in some way, no matter how minor, she was an outright terror.

“Went bad, huh?” The unsure nature of Ray’s tone showed me he was testing the waters as to the state of our relationship.

“Yup. I’m fucked.” I clasped my hands together and hung my head.

“Anything I can do?”

I shrugged.

“You going to actually be available this time?”

“Shit, babe. I was passed out—it’s not my fault I didn’t wake up!” His distress hit me right in the gut. I knew he was right. It’s not like I wouldn’t feel just as bad if the roles were reversed.

“I know, I just…it’s been a fucking hard night and I’m just not coping well,” I finally lifted my head to look at him.

His hair stuck out at random from sleep, and the bags under his eyes had gotten worse, but he had this hopeful smile on his face that made him look so sweet.

“I’m sorry for not waking up, Soph. Please don’t be mad?”

“I know, I know,” I invited him to sit and patted the cushion next to me. “I’ll probably still be crabby for a bit, but my anger has dropped down to mild annoyance.”

“I can handle that,” he chuckled and padded over to where I sat and dropped down next to me. I leaned my head on his shoulder, already exhausted before the day had begun.

I relayed the call from Janice word for word as best I could to Ray as we waited for her arrival. He tensed at the phrase ‘empty little head’ but let me continue until the end.

“I don’t understand why she has a beach worth of sand in her vagina. I mean, seriously?”

“Eh, it’s Janice. I’ve come to expect it.”

“You know that’s not okay, right?”

“Oh yeah, I know…I’ve just accepted that if I want to stay here until I’m old enough to age out, that her word is law. It’s just easier to pick my battles. I know I’m not empty-headed. She can think what she wants.”

“I guess,” Ray didn’t seem too happy about my view, but didn’t say more on the subject.

Jett bounded into the room followed by Anita and Frank. The great dane jumped across Ray and I to the other side of the couch to lay down.

“I see you two made up,” Frank looked from Ray to me with a sparkle in his eye.

“I was just in a shit mood.”

“Fair enough,” he ventured to his recliner and got himself settled before he continued: “So how’s the old bat?”

“On her way…and pissed,” I frowned.

“Wonderful,” Anita dropped my freshly laundered clothes into my lap. “Janice is a…treat.”

“She’s something.”

The couch creaked as I left the comfort of its cushions to go change. Janice didn’t need to see me in a harlot red satin nightgown with the knowledge I stayed the night at my boyfriend’s house.

I moved through the kitchen into the downstairs guest bath and hastily dressed myself. I nearly fell into the vanity in the process. My balance was off due to the exhaustion, so it took me a bit longer to pull my clothes on than it should have.

I exited the bathroom to the sound of Jett barking as someone pounded on the front door.

Jesus fucking Christ.

“Coming!” Frank bellowed and the pounding ceased.

The dining room and the parlor were a blur as I ran through the house to meet Frank at the door. I didn’t want Janice to burst through like the Kool-Aid man if I wasn’t easily accessible. I hit the foyer just as Frank got to the door. He gave me a sour look before he plastered his family-man façade back into place.

The door opened to Janice. Her foot tapped impatiently on the old wooden boards of the porch. Her short, severe haircut was wild from her long night on the couch, and for once, she was completely bare faced.

“Janice, nice to see you.”

“Hmmm,” was her only response.

Janice’s attention turned to me and her lips twitched in annoyance. I wilted under her stony gaze. I didn’t want to provoke her further.

“Would you like to come inside? Anita and I can feel you in.”

“No, I’m going to take Sophia home,” she looked me over, her eyes glazed in suspicion. “Get your shoes.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I turned and briskly headed to the foot of the stairs where my dusty moto boots were neatly lined up next to the rest of the Vena’s shoes. I wedged my feet in. There wasn’t time to make sure they were on properly. Janice didn’t like to be kept waiting.

“Let’s go, Sophia,” Janice called from the door.

I was out past Frank in a matter of seconds to stand at my foster mother’s side. I did my best to keep myself together. I always hated leaving the Vena’s house, but this time was especially bad. Frank’s ill-masked look of disapproval just twisted the knife.

Once we were in the car and the doors were closed, Janice let loose:

“I’m not going to have to take you to Planned Parenthood, am I?”

“We slept in different rooms. Nothing happened.”

“If you say so. I don’t have the money or time to deal with that…and exactly who’s bright idea was it for you to stay with them? Why not the Jeffers’?”

“Mrs. Jeffers wasn’t really prepared for guests. The Reverend was with Matthew’s dad and her and Kerrie were fighting…so not a good time.”

“Uh huh. Well I hope the Vena’s loose parenting doesn’t come back to bite me.”

“They were trying to help…I don’t get why it’s such a big deal. My friend was murdered, and you’re stuck on me staying at Ray’s?”

“It is a big deal, Sophia, because I work hard to set a good example for you, Brucie and Jay—and you seem to be doing whatever it is you can to defy me. you know I don’t approve of that boy, but you keep seeing him anyway.”

“Please can we not have this fight again?”

“You brought it up, kiddo. You must focus on what’s important. You’re sixteen. You should be worried about school and family. Boys can come later when you actually have something of substance between your ears.”

“I’m not stupid, Janice, I’m my own person.”

“You can be your own person when you’re out from under my roof.”

“I came to your house my own person…”

“You know, I’m seriously starting to reconsider your placement here…”

Fuck.

“Please don’t send me away, Janice,” tears welled in my eyes. I might dislike Janice, but I loved everything else about Green Glen.

“What else can I do when you’re doing everything you can to get yourself into trouble? I’ve had Sheriff Doonan at my house twice now! Twice! Do you know how that looks to the neighbors?”

“I didn’t do anything, though! They were just asking questions.”

“Do they know that? No, and then I get side-eyed in the grocery store because they think I took in a criminal.”

“Why do you care so much about what the neighbors think?”

“Because it matters, Sophia. Especially in a small town like this. Especially after Bruce left us.”

I knew it would come back to Bruce. It always did. He was a great foster dad, and seemed to really care for Janice, but I guess that doesn’t count for much when you’re in love with someone else.

“Still, you know I’m not a criminal. I’m trying to help as much as I can. I babysit all the time, I get good grades, I’m doing really well in dance—”

“Dance. Where’s that going to get you? Nowhere.”

“It could…and wait—why are we even having this conversation? Matty was murdered and you don’t seem bothered.”

“Some crazy transient in the woods, probably,” Janice shrugged. “Doubt he’d come into the gated communities.”

“He was chopped to bits and stuffed in a trash bag. Somehow that seems more than crazy homeless guy to me!”

“What would you know?” She glared over at me between spurts of looking at the road. “Don’t make this into more than an unfortunate situation, Sophia. Matthew shouldn’t have been out there, anyway.”

“So, you’re saying it’s his fault?”

“I’m saying it could have been avoided if children these days knew their place was at home with their family. On that note, I will admit you are a great help with the boys. Between both my jobs, I haven’t had much of a chance to be there for them. I noticed Brucey’s last report card was better.”

That small nugget of praise seemed too good to be true, but I went with it seeing as how it was the best I was going to get.

“He’s super smart. His problem was he was bored—I had to find a way to make his homework fun for him.”

“I know he’s smart, he’s my kid...but as I was saying, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” I stared out the window as we turned onto our street, surprised by the small bit of gratitude. If there was any way I could stay in Green Glen it would be by exploiting Janice’s weakness—the twins. Despite her general demeanor, she really loved and wanted the best for them.

“What the shit is this?” Janice swore and slowed the car down.

At the end of our street in front of our house was a slew of reporters, and a news van all the way up from Salem. Across the street was a group of neighbors all talking to one another between looks at our house.

Shit, that was fast.

I hadn’t expected anyone to find out about us until tomorrow at the earliest. Most people in Green Glen were still reading their morning paper at this time.

The look on Janice’s spray-tanned face said it all. She was livid. We rolled up the street and turned into the driveway without another word to each other. There wasn’t anything to say. Somehow, I had managed to bring scrutiny down upon her.

Once the town had found out Bruce Sr. had left Janice for another man, perception was all that mattered to her. before she used to be more understanding, and less of a witch. But now? All she wanted was to show everyone she had her shit together and life was perfect despite Bruce’s infidelity.

“Don’t you say a word to anyone,” Janice warned and switched off the car.

“Yes, ma’am,” I hung my head to let my hair provide me with a makeshift privacy curtain and stumbled my way out of the sedan and onto the steeply inclined driveway.

“Sophia McLellan!”

“There she is!”

A ripple of excitement went through the reporters as I sped to the front porch, not daring to look in their direction. I didn’t want to give the impression I had anything to say on the matter—and I didn’t want Janice to think I was hungry for attention.

“Can we get a statement?”

“Is it true you found the body of Matthew Radanelli?”

I made it to the steps when I heard Janice begin to shoo the reporters off the lawn, citing that I was tired and had a traumatic evening.

Like you give a rat’s ass.

I rolled my eyes as she continued the façade of a caring foster mother and went indoors. I kicked off my shoes and placed them carefully on the neglected shoe rack.

“Sophie!”

I let out a low ‘oomph’ as I was tackled around the waist by two excited eight-year-olds. Both had tore ass out of the den where they were watching TV, and probably had been told not to move an inch.

“Hey guys,” I placed a light hand on the back of their blonde heads and ruffled their shaggy hair. It was nice to feel welcomed, even if my fans were still wearing super hero pajamas.

“Where’s mom?”

“Yeah, there’s a bunch of people outside!”

“And the news!”

I gave them both a tight hug as best I could and waited for them to take a break so I could answer.

“Mom’s dealing with the news people and telling them to go away, right now. She’ll be in, soon.”

“Why are they here?”

“Uhhhh…”

Fuck, what do I say?

I scrambled for something that wouldn’t betray the real events from last night. I didn’t want death to become part of their lives anytime soon.

“My friend Matty got hurt, and the news is here to talk to me about it.”

“Oh…is he okay?”

“I don’t know, yet. I’ll keep you updated, okay, Brucey?”

Thankfully the promise of future information seemed to satisfy both the twin because they released me without further questions and went back to whatever cartoon they were watching.

I climbed up the stairs on the way to my room. I didn’t want to be easily accessible when Janice finally got in the house. The one good thing about Janice was that she rarely went in my room.

As soon as I entered I was hit with a familiar smell.

Meat, death, sweat.

Oh no.

I looked around the room for any sign of it. Nothing. Not a single sign of the creature. I checked my closet even though it was too large to fit in such a small space.

But it had been there, coating its putrid breath all over my stuff with the boys downstairs none the wiser to its presence. That’s what bothered me the most—whatever this thing was, it knew me.

It knew where I lived, where I slept, and it seemed like it could go wherever it wanted to.

Was the rest of my life going to be full of sleepless nights? Full of days haunted by its rank-ass smell? I wasn’t sure if I could handle being stalked by this thing for that long without completely snapping. At least right now, I was somewhat functional.

A door slam from downstairs brought me back to the issue at hand. Janice. What was I going to say about the reporters and the news? It wasn’t like they were going to go away anytime soon. Not until they somehow got their pound of flesh from one of us.

“Sophia! Kitchen!” I groaned and pulled myself from the fetal position I had found myself in and rose to go downstairs to find out what Janice wanted.

It was a weekday, so Janice had to work, and the boys had school. I was sort of looking forward to spending all day on the phone with the others and lying in my room—not so much now that I knew I wasn’t completely alone, but still.

I entered the kitchen ready to be torn a new one. Janice was seated at the table, mug of tea in hand. She pointed to the seat across from her and waited for me to sit.

As soon as my butt touched the polished wood, she spoke:

“So I had an interesting chat with the neighbors. I made it clear you were not in any trouble. I made it clear you were just a witness, and I made it clear you were not to be answering questions to anyone.” She took a long sip from her mug.

“I’m fine with you staying home the next couple of days, but you’re on twin-duty as soon as they get home. No leaving the house.”

“Okay, I can do that. Can Kerrie come over if her mom says its okay?”

“If Birdie is willing to drop her off. Neither of you can open the door to anyone, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Now go get the boys ready for school, I’ll do their lunches.” Janice rose and shuffled behind the breakfast bar to the fridge and began pulling out sandwich stuff.

“Got it!”

This had gone surprisingly better than I thought it would. Sure, I was pretty much on lock down, but at least I wasn’t getting kicked out. I could handle wrangling the twins full time for a few days. I’d still have school hours to myself before my job began.

I was almost out of the kitchen when Janice called out from behind me:

“Oh, and Sophia? Your room stinks. Clean it up.”