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The shadows crept on all fours along the ground, their silhouettes hunched, crooked, inching toward her. Hands trembling, Sadie gripped the cupcake container, the plastic crackling, and took a step back just as the cool blade of a knife dug into her throat. Hot breath crawled up her neck, and a chest pressed to her back. Then screeching came from everywhere, piercing enough to shatter her eardrums.
Sadie jerked forward, searching around the room, her gaze meeting a framed death’s-head moth. She was inside the cabin on the futon, waking from a nightmare… Only one night without them, and they’d returned, but this one didn’t feel like the others. Goosebumps covered her arms, and the chill slowly dissipated like a cold blanket lifting away from her. She ran her fingertips across her throat, where the blade had dug in. It had seemed so real… And why the hell had she been so desperate to cling to those cupcakes? If she’d found something unruly like that in the woods at this very moment, she would’ve thrown the desserts and darted away. But she understood why the cupcakes were there—they were symbolic in a sense. River had never gotten to eat them and never would.
Sometimes nightmares could be a proper antidote, even though they drove fear through her. But sometimes fear was necessary to survive. She sighed, her chest heaving as she picked up her notebook from the coffee table.
The nightmare was already starting to fade, but she scribbled down the parts about the shadows slinking toward her, their horns, the inhuman shape of their heads, the cool steel blade pressed into her flesh, then the heinous screeching. If River were around to hear about the nightmare, he would’ve wanted her to describe the shadows thoroughly so he could sculpt them. A hint of a smile played on her lips as she thought about the memories of his skilled hands molding the clay.
Sadie turned on the laptop and opened the screenplay document. She briefly scanned over what she had so far, starting with the party, then the husband’s death, the struggling wife, her desperate need to see him again…
There was more she could add—truthful things. The story was taking a different turn than what she’d originally planned, but maybe that was for the better. She typed a short scene of the wife spreading her husband’s ashes in the woods, moving into a cabin, the quiet surrounding the place during the day, the nightmare she’d faced. And that was where she ended the work in progress for now—what would come next was still unknown, but it was there, brewing inside of her. A darkness eager to unleash itself, to sate her dark appetite. But she wouldn’t force the story as she had in the past—something told her to wait.
A knock pounded on the front door, and Sadie startled. She pursed her lips, knowing it could most likely only be one person, as she went to the window and looked out. Her sister stood on the porch, wearing her blue scrubs and backpack, her hair pulled into a neat bun at the base of her neck.
Sadie drew open the door and leaned on the frame. “You didn’t tell me you were coming by.”
“Figured you needed a visitor.” Eyebrow arched, Charlie clicked her tongue as she scanned Sadie up and down. “And possibly a shower.”
“Let me guess,” Sadie drawled, shutting the door once her sister stepped over the threshold. “You came here because you can’t stop thinking about Skyler.”
Charlie glared at Sadie. “How about we stop mentioning his name?”
That wasn’t a no, yet she would play along, pretend her sister wasn’t still in love with him. Charlie was too proud to give in so easily. But all in due time.
“Do you want me to pour you a bowl of cereal? I have fruit in there if you prefer that.” She motioned at the bowl on the counter, brimming with apples, bananas, and oranges.
“No, I brought your favorite.” Charlie unzipped her backpack and handed Sadie a white paper bag. “Glazed donuts.”
“Ah, just what I needed. Why do you keep lugging that huge backpack everywhere you go lately?” Sadie asked, digging her hand straight into the paper bag.
“If there’s an emergency, you’ll be glad I have it,” Charlie pointed out. “Besides, I’ve seen too many disturbing circumstances at the hospital not to carry one.”
“Touché,” Sadie said, thinking of the horror stories her sister had told her. Body parts hacked off, flesh burned down to the bone, bloated corpses… “I was planning on brainstorming for a bit if you have time before you go to work.”
Charlie tilted her head to the side, her mouth set in a tight line, clearly unimpressed. “So, you mean a horror movie, right?”
“Yes, your fantasy stuff won’t work for this. And it has to be one of my DVDs since I can only stream on my phone at the moment. Wi-Fi doesn’t approve of me being out in these woods.” Even then, she wasn’t fond of most new horror movies. It took her watching a truckload of awful films to get to one that she considered mediocre, and if she was lucky, decent.
“Fine, I have about four hours to kill, but I’m not going to watch any of those gross slasher movies,” Charlie pointed out as she set her backpack on the floor and plopped down on the futon. “You still decided not to get a new TV?”
“It’s unnecessary at the moment.” Sadie finished her donut, then thumbed through the DVDs in her bedroom until she settled on a classic one with ghosts. As she slid the movie into her laptop, she noticed Charlie glancing at her hand several times. “Why do you keep looking at my hand strangely?”
Charlie bit her lip. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s something.” She frowned.
“Do you plan on eventually taking the ring off?” Charlie asked softly. “I’m only curious is all.”
Sadie’s chest tightened as she peered down at the white gold ring with a sapphire in its center that never left her finger. “I haven’t thought about it,” she whispered. “I’ve always believed vows aren’t only until death do us part, that they belong even after.”
“You and I finally agree on something.” The edges of Charlie’s lips tilted up. “But even if you decide to take it off, the vows are within your heart forever, Sadie.”
Sadie continued to study the ring, remembering the day River slipped it on her finger, how she’d worn the crimson gown and he’d donned a vintage suit and a dark cape for their Halloween-themed wedding. Her chest warmed at the memory. “It doesn’t feel right to take it off.”
“You don’t ever have to. I only wanted you to know that no one would fault you for it.”
Sadie rotated the ring around her finger. “Thanks, Charlie.”
“All right, let’s see what horrendous movie you picked out.” Charlie waggled her brows, changing the subject to lighter things. “Are we going with supernatural vibes? The slow serial killer? The poor misunderstood monster? The person who doesn’t know they are the murderer?”
