𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐒

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖘𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

No matter how hard you fought it in the days following the big clash in the cave, you eventually slipped back into your old routine. You woke up at eight o'clock, fed the horses, walked the dogs, studied your runes, and reinforced the sigils in each of the four corners of the ranch.

Above all else, you ignored the growling in the woods that seemed to always come from the direction of the big white house, and never ever under any circumstances did you leave the property after dark.

You had a lot to catch up on after your little bender. It felt like it had only been days since you met the boys and dedicated each waking minute to spending time with them on the boardwalk, but the work that had piled up on your plate told the truth—that it had really been weeks.

During your study breaks, Sam would sneak by and borrow some of your old tomes to take back down and read over with the Frog brothers. You thought it was totally unfair that you'd been banned from the rest of the world while Sam hadn't. But god forbid you bring that up to Michael. He hadn't even spoken a word to you since he first delivered you back to the ranch after the fight.

To his credit, he did knock on your door once a few nights ago. But at that point you were still marching around with smoke pouring out of your ears and you'd rather have died before hearing him out.

Once, the night after you were so rudely yanked out of the cave, you tried to go back. You waited until it was pitch black out before slipping your favorite cardigan on overtop of your pajamas and walking to the invisible border that separated the ranch from the rest of the world.

You were going to go down to the boardwalk. Or at least that's what you told yourself. If you just so happened to see one of your boys wandering around, you wouldn't object to spending some time with them. Or if you just so happened to get lost and find yourself around Hudson's Bluff, it would be smarter to make your way to the cave rather than get lost on the winding sandy coast.

You barely stepped a toe over the property line when the screen door of the main house clapped shut and you spun around to see Michael standing in the doorway, glaring into the darkness with a murderous look in his eye that warned you not to try it.

So you didn't. And you haven't thought about breaking your routine again since.

It wasn't because you were afraid of Michael. You were afraid of whatever was making him act like this. Something was turning him into a different person. A bad person. And it scared the living shit out of you.

But you missed your boys. You missed their jokes and the way their laughter would bounce and echo off of the roof of the cave. You even missed David and the sardonic amusement melting behind his stern gaze.

Autumn wasn't for a good month or two, but the nights still conjured a certain chill that let you know that change was coming. You had been reading alone in your cabin until Sam popped his head in and asked you to translate some portion of the book you lent him. You totally forgot that it had been written partially in Latin. He left a few minutes ago, taking Cujo with him to eat dinner in the main house with Nanook.

Peace was a welcomed thing. But alone in the semi-dark with nothing surrounding you but rolling meadows and thick wooded forests, silence was the very last thing you wanted.

You considered rolling out of bed to flick on the radio when something made you jump and sit up instinctively. It was a loud sound – unnatural. Like a pack of feral dogs had congregated in the pasture and began competing for who could howl the loudest.

WIth the roll of your eyes, you threw the covers back and reached for the lightswitch. More coyotes messing with the horses. Mr. E really needed to get those old fences fixed. There was only so much you could do with a roll of duct tape and a handful of rusty nails.