Page 3 of Granny’s Christmas Shifters

“I know. I’m sorry.” Edna wrings her hands. “At first, I was ashamed. I figured she’d be back, and then we wouldn’t have to speak of it ever again. Then too much time had passed and…” She shrugs and puts on some forced cheer. “Don’t you worry, now. We’re doing great. I love the girls to pieces, and it’s so nice having them around the house.”

I’m reminded of my own silent house and absent family. I miss the days when Jacob and Olivia were toddling around the house in diapers and making snow angels in the yard. I miss helping them with their homework by the fireplace and teaching them to make gingerbread cookies in my spacious kitchen.

Edna clears her throat. “Now, enough about me. How’s my favorite horror author doing?”

“Looking forward to seeing what you’ve got for me. Now tell me everything.”

Edna gives me a rundown of the spooky rumors circulating around town and then walks me to the door.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come? You know, just in case? I can ask Dottie from next door to watch the girls.”

“I’ll be fine. We both know monsters only exist in books. And if there are any in Ravenwood’s forest, they wouldn’t dare harm a nice little old lady now, would they?”

Since my main characters are always in their twenties—practically children, if I’m being honest—Edna chuckles right along with me.

She repeats the directions to the forest entrance, walks me to the car, and sends me off with a steaming hot to-go mug of tea and promises to call as soon as I’m done exploring.

I park on a small street and make the short walk to the path that leads into the forest. The ‘Beware of Monsters’ sign is right where she said it would be. Of course, my main character will ignore it and enter anyway. They always do. Wouldn’t make a very good horror story if they turned around and went home now, would it?

But this is real life, not a book, and there’s no such thing as monsters.

I step into the forest and make mental notes of all the eerie ways to describe it, though it’s really quite picturesque. Trees tower over me, their branches blanketed in snow. The air is crisp and fresh, and the snow crunches under my boots as I slowly make my way deeper and deeper into the forest.

By the time I’m ready to turn back fifteen minutes later, it’s snowing quite heavily, and my footprints have all but vanished. Luckily, this isn’t my first rodeo, and the brightly colored ribbons I tied at eye level flutter in the wind, marking the way home.

I pull out my phone while I walk and hit record. I set a brisk pace, thanks to the mall walks that have become my only hobby of late, and dictate the synopsis of my next book.

It’s a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself, and excitement courses through me as I hit send. Edna is going to be beside herself when she hears what I have planned.

The exit looms up ahead amidst a sea of white, and I’m only a few feet away when my foot snags on a buried rock.

I tumble into a pile of snow, and it envelops me in its frozen embrace. The chill seeps straight into my bones as my head hits the ground. And then everything fades to black.

Chapter 2

Dragon

“Monsters!” I snap as I swing my ax. “Everyone in town is calling us monsters.”

My blade slams into the tree trunk and slices straight through, the cracking sound echoing through the otherwise silent forest.

“Timber!” Bear shouts, even though there’s no one else around for miles. Bear always shouts timber. I think he enjoys the sound of his own voice echoing through the forest too much not to.

The tree crashes to the ground, sending fresh snow flying up before it lazily drifts down and settles onto the ground.

Wolf rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “The monster thing is kind of my fault.”

His name isn’t actually Wolf. It’s Samuel. Bear is Henry, and I’m Benjamin. We use our given names when we head into town for supplies, but stick to our nicknames at home. It made a whole lot more sense going by our shifted form centuries ago, when we first met, but we’re too old to change our ways now.

I scowl at Wolf. “What did you do?”

“Put up a sign.”

“What kind of sign?”

He breaks into a huge grin. “Private property. Beware of Monsters.”

“You dolt.”