Something below her grunted. She turned on her phone’s flashlight and shone it downward. The light wasn’t as powerful as she’d hoped. She could make out shadows moving between the trees, which were enough to make her feel panicked and nauseous. Taking deep breaths, she told herself she was safe up here. Those noises clearly didn’t come from a human being. No ax murderer was stalking the house. It was a bobcat...or something. Did bobcats even live in these parts?
Another dart of movement gave her an idea of where to shine her light. The beam of light landed on two glowing eyes that shone like green-gold coins. Her light illuminated a snout and large fangs.
It was a bear.
Holly took a few steps back from the railing. What the hell was the protocol for when a bear approached a house? She started to clumsily dial the wildlife control number when more movement caught her eye. She shined her light and illuminated two more bears.
“What the fuck?” She gasped. Did bears travel in packs? She never pictured bears traveling together. Why were they coming to the house? Did they smell the steak?
“Do you want food?” she shouted as if they could understand her. She shone her light from bear to bear. They weren’t sniffing the air or anything. They were all fixated on her. One bear, a ginormous black bear, rose up on its hind legs and roared. Holly wanted to run, but she found that she couldn’t. She was totally paralyzed.
Another roar tore through the trees, but as far as Holly could tell, it hadn’t come from any of the bears in front of her. Before she could get her bearings, three streaks of movement caught her eye. She shone her phone light to the left just in time to catch Johnny, Keller, and Garret run into the tree line.
They looked...bigger somehow. They moved faster than any human should’ve been able to move. Johnny removed his shirt.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she tried to shout, but fear had her throat in a death grip. Her voice, if it came out at all, came as a whisper.
She couldn’t see Keller or Garret anymore, but she could still see Johnny. Something wasn’t right. His body twisted and bent into impossible shapes. Holly wasn’t sure what she was looking at. At some point, between one step and another, Johnny disappeared and a bear took his place. A bear with hair as black as midnight and gray-green eyes that shone in the darkness.
Two more bears appeared from the tree line. One had reddish-brown fur and the other, sandy blond. Holly felt like she was choking on air. She couldn’t be seeing what she saw. It just wasn’t possible. Johnny, Keller, and Garret ran into the trees. She definitely did not see Johnny turn into a bear.
The bear that was definitely not Johnny collided into the other black bear with an impact Holly felt through the deck floor. She staggered backward, out of shock more than anything else. The blond-ish bear took on one of the original three, as did the reddish-brown bear. All she could hear were snarls and roars. Her brain refused to accept what her eyes were seeing. There was no fucking way a man just turned into a bear. There had to be another explanation.
She took another uneasy step backward. A wave of dizziness and nausea hit Holly hard enough to make her world spin. Her mind spun like a tornado. The only coherent thought she could grasp onto was that she had to leave. She had to get away.
She took another step with the intention of turning back to the French doors and retreating inside, but her second foot didn’t land. Her vision narrowed into a tiny pinprick of light. She was overcome with a sensation of weightlessness right before she hit the deck. The roars of the bears echoed all around her.
CHAPTER TEN - Holly
Holly awoke feeling sore and discombobulated. Her head ached like the worst hangover she’d ever had times ten. What the hell had happened to her?
Then the memories started flooding back. She remembered the roaring. She remembered seeing bears in the woods, stumbling backward, and then...
Had she fainted? Did she trip and hit her head?
One memory came charging to the forefront of her mind. One she wanted to reject, but her brain wouldn’t allow it.
She’d seen Johnny turn into a bear. An actual fucking bear. That couldn’t have really happened. It just couldn’t have.
She needed to get out of here. Johnny definitely did not turn into a bear, but she thought she saw him turn into one. That wasn’t a good sign. She needed to leave right now. Something wasn’t right in this house, in this whole damn town.
She was in the master bedroom. All of her stuff was in the room. As quickly as she dared, she got out of bed and hurried to shove everything into her overnight bag. She grabbed her phone from the bedside table. One of the men must’ve put it there. Much to her annoyance, the screen was cracked. Not a subtle crack, either. The screen might not be useable. To test it, she tried to tap in her password, and nothing happened.
“Fantastic,” she groaned. How was she supposed to leave if she couldn’t do so much as call a cab? She could always walk to one of the shops in town. It wasn’t a walk she was dying to take, but if it meant getting someplace normal, she’d take it.
Once her things were together, she crept out of her grandmother’s room. She didn’t hear anything, and she didn’t smell anything cooking. Both Keller and Garret ran a business. It would make sense for them to be out during work hours, but what about Johnny? Aside from
