Zoey's hands were trembling on her steering wheel, and she had difficulty paying attention to the road. She gripped her phone in her hand, dialing Amber. Fear squeezed harder on her heart on every ring.

Amber answered after the fourth ring. There was a bunch of giggles on the phone before she said hello.

"H-hey Amber, have you left yet?"

"No, not yet. We're just getting ready at my house. Did you decide to come?"

"N-no, sorry. I just got spooked while leaving town square." Another set of giggles was sent through the phone, and Zoey could tell Amber wasn't paying attention. She could hear someone else talking to her in the background.

"Amber, get off the phone! No one's more important than going clubbing right now!" It sounded to be Zac, and everyone started laughing.

"You're so right! Okay, give me a second," her voice became clearer into the phone. "Hey Zoey, let's talk tomorrow, okay?"

"Oka-.." she hung up before Zoey could finish. A bolt of panic hit her, and the hairs on her neck stood up. She turned on her radio, hoping to calm down, but it did nothing.

She finally pulled into her driveway, but neither of her parents was home. The air in her lungs vanished as she realized she would be home alone. She turned off the car, dashed to the front door, unlocked it, and raced inside. Her house seemed darker and colder than usual, but she swiftly turned on all the lights. Zoey stayed downstairs, moved to their family room, and sat on the couch. She wrapped all the blankets she could find around her like a burrito.

Zoey tried to stay completely still, but she was still shaking. She didn't want to be alone, so she grabbed her phone and texted Lily. It wasn't that late, and Zoey knew Lilly's parents would be okay with her coming over since we were pretty close and considered each other as sisters. They also trusted Zoey since she had babysat Lilly many times.

Lilly responded after a minute or two, saying she would be over in a couple minutes. A little bit later, Zoey heard a quiet knock at the door. She opened it up to see Lilly in her pj's and a bag of popcorn in her hand.

I welcomed her in, and we sat down on the couch. "What's wrong? You look pretty pale," she knew Lily would notice something was wrong because whenever something happened to us, such as having problems with friends or boy troubles, they always went to each other.

I sighed, "you know how you said you thought you saw the beast a couple days ago?" She nodded.

"Well... I think he's been watching me." Lilly gasped, straightening her back to get a better view of Zoey's face.

"Wh-what? Since when?"

"About a year,"

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I don't know. I thought I was paranoid, and people would think I was crazier than they already do." Zoey muttered while picking at her fingernails.

"How do you know it's the Beast?"

"I don't actually know if it is. I just had the thought last week, and for some reason, he's been showing up in a lot of my conversation."

Saying out it loud made her feel crazier than she already felt.

"Wait, the Beast is a he?" Lily questioned, and Zoey shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe? I don't know, I had this strange dream, and he appeared to me as a man, so I've just been calling it a he."

"Huh, that's really scary. Has the Beast shown himself to you?"

"Yes, twice."

"Twice?! That's not normal."

"Well, again, I don't actually know if it's him. I thought I saw a shadow while hiking, and then I thought I saw him just barely at the town square. That's why I wanted you to come over. I was so afraid. I've never trembled that bad in my entire life."

Zoey felt chills run down her spine as she thought about what had happened only a little while ago.

"Don't worry so much. Remember what you told me the other day? Maybe you just imagined it."

Zoey nodded and tried her hardest to convince herself what Lilly said was true.

They changed the subject and began to talk about something else. Eventually, Lily had to leave since she had school in the morning.

As soon as she left, Zoey felt the panic creep back up since she was alone in their dark house. She shook her head and went up to her room while leaving all the lights on.

Zoey lay in bed and pulled the covers over her head. After a couple times of rolling over, she fell unconscious from how mentally exhausted she was.

But as she was falling, she heard the word, "be ready, Zoey, I'm coming for you."

In the morning, she awoke to her parents yelling at her for leaving the lights on.

Zoey yawned and stretched as the events of last night came to her mind. She shuddered but thought she was only that afraid because it was dark.

The words she heard while falling asleep repeated in her brain, and she couldn't tell if she had dreamt it or not.

Zoey headed to work, and the day was pretty slow. Fortunately, she worked with Ann today, so she knew she wouldn't be bored.

Ann was twenty-two and was married to Richard, who owned the hardware shop down the road from the cafe. They both didn't make a lot of money, but you tell they were happy nonetheless.

"Hey Zoey, are you excited about the festival?" Ann asked with her big doe eyes.

"Eh, I would be if it weren't for Amber dragging me out to find the Beast," she huffed.

"Oh, she didn't realize Amber was in town!" Ann beamed while she nodded. "Anyway, Zoey, I used to go look for the Beast when I was in high school. It was a lot of fun, and we never found anything. You should be excited, but make sure you bring a boy," She winked.

If only Zoey could be excited. Ann didn't understand what she had been going through lately and how going out to find the thing that haunted her thoughts and dreams terrified her.

Zoey put a smile on her face and told her Ann was right. She changed the subject, and they talked about Ann and her husband.

"You know how I've been bothering Richard since we got married to have a baby, but he always said we were too poor as we spent so much money on fixing up the store."

Richard's store has been owned by his family for many generations. It was an old store and was slowly falling apart. About a year ago, they spent a lot of money getting new products and doing repairs on the entire store.

"Last night, though, he said he's been getting way more business with the big snowstorm that's supposed to becoming in a couple weeks, and he finally agreed that we should have a baby!"

A large grin covered both of their faces, "Ann! That's so great! I'm so happy for you!" Ann would be such a great mom, and Zoey knew she wanted to be one so bad since more than half of their conversations were about her wanting a baby.

"Thank you! I'm so happy. This is how it happened-."

"Ah! Spare me the details,"

she gasped and slapped Zoey's arm.

"I wasn't going to tell you about that! I do have to say it was way better than all the other times," Anna smirked, and Zoey slapped her hands over her ears.

"Right there is what I didn't want to hear!"

Also, thank you to those who comment and vote! You seriously make my day:)