Geez! My eggs are already middle-aged. Are they getting microwaved now, too?
I tugged Grayson by the arm. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!”
“Not yet,” he said, and yanked free of my grip. He straightened his shoulders and tromped two more steps toward the unidentified glowing object.
“Don’t!” I cried out, not wanting to follow, but not wanting to be left behind in the dark, either.
I stared at the mesmerizing, yellow-orange glow. It flickered on the tree trunks, turning them into ghostly visions of pointy-fingered goblins. Every molecule in me wanted to flee—not just to save myself, but my unborn children, too.
“Grayson,” I said, trying to find him in the dark.
He was gone.
“Ack!” I cried out. “Where are you?”
I reached for my cellphone and clicked the button for the flashlight. An anemic yellow light flickered once, then died.
Darkness swallowed me up—just as it had my partner.
“Grayson!” I screamed.
Suddenly, a horrible claw-like hand grabbed my arm. As I struggled for my Glock, I caught a glimpse of its eyes in the moonlight.
They were green.
“Geezus, Grayson!” I hissed. “You scared the crap out of me!”
“Keep it down!” he said, grabbing my cellphone.
“If you’re looking for the flashlight, don’t bother. It’s dead,” I said.
“So’s my flashlight,” he said. “I don’t understand. I just changed the batteries.”
“Seriously?” I hissed. “We’re about to become hors d’oeuvres for some intergalactic microwave, and you’re worried Walmart cheated you with expired batteries?”
In a sliver of moonlight, I could just make out Grayson cocking his head. “No, Drex. You don’t understand. Power drains like this are commonly reported by those encountering interdimensional phenomena.”
I gulped. “So it’s an interdimensional microwave?”
“Not exactly. Here. Hold this.”
Grayson pressed his dead flashlight into my hand. Then he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out his cellphone.
Suddenly, the glowing orange ring began to pulse.
My mouth fell open. “Uh-oh. What does that mean?”
Grayson studied the pulsing orb. “Uncertain,” he said. “It could be powering up.”
“Powering up?” I gasped. Deep inside me, I thought I felt an ovary shrivel. “Look, Grayson. I don’t know what’s going on here, and I’m not hanging around to find out.”
I turned to run, but my boots tripped up in the muck. I lost my balance and was heading for a date with a mud bath when Grayson’s arm caught me around the middle, just in the nick of time.
“Thanks,” I gasped.
“You’re welcome,” he said, pulling me face-to-face with him.
“Now please, can we get the hell out of here?” I begged.
“Shhh!” he said, laying a finger to my lips. “You might disturb it!”
“I might disturb it?” I yelled, pulling free of him. “Are you nuts? We gotta get out of here, Grayson. We need backup!”
“Fine,” he said. “Just let me get a couple of quick shots of it first.”
“Are you cra—”
I froze mid-sentence as a hot, white light seared my retinas. But it hadn’t come from that freaking space microwave. It was the flash from Grayson’s stupid cellphone camera.
“Are you kidding me?” I hissed, blinking back the white dots swimming before my eyes in a sea of red.
Another flash went off.
I stumbled forward, trying to punch Grayson in the face. My ovaries were at stake!
Then, suddenly, just as mine had, Grayson’s cellphone display faded and blinked out. Darkness again zoomed in on us like a black fog.
“Great,” I muttered. “Now what?”
All of a sudden, a low grumbling began emanating from the direction of the glowing ring. Then an inhuman, high-pitched whine filled the air, making every hair on my body stand on end.
“It sounds like it’s gonna blow!” I squealed.
“Intriguing,” Grayson said. “Listen. The frogs and insects have gone dead silent.”
He was right. All I could hear was my pulse thrumming in my ears.
Man, oh, man, this is sooo not good...
Then I heard it.
Something was crashing through the underbrush.
Something big.
And it was heading right for us.
“Huh,” I heard Grayson say some paces behind me. “Whatever it is, it must be sensitive to light.”
“You think?” I hissed between gritted teeth as I crashed through the forest like a wigged-out wildebeest.
Chapter Ten
I was exhausted and panting like a panther in heat when I scrabbled my way out of the woods and into the cleared shoulder of the road. I gasped for air, noticing the stars above provided just enough light to turn the landscape into a charcoal rendering of itself.
A branch snapped in the forest behind me.
I spun around, still wheezing.
I strained to see into the dark woods. There was no sign of the glowing form I’d just run from. But there was no doubt about it. Something was crashing through the cypress swamp in my direction. I recognized his heavy breathing.
“Grayson!” I yelled as he stumbled toward me and the clearing. “You made it out!”
“Yes,” he gasped. “No thanks to you, by the way.”
“Me?” I wheezed. “I’m not the one who flashed the damned monster!”
Suddenly, a flash of bluish light blinded me.
“Not again!” I yelled.
“That wasn’t me,” Grayson said.
I looked around and realized we were both caught in a laser beam of light. I froze in place like a fish in liquid nitrogen.
“Ha!” a voice rang out. “Flashed the monster, did ya? So you two finally went and done the deed!”
Annoyance thawed my brain in half a millisecond.
Earl!
If I hadn’t been so happy to see my dumb cousin, I’d have slapped him bald-headed.
“Howdy, Mr. G!” Earl hollered, then lowered the beam blasting from his industrial-sized flashlight.
Grayson sprinted toward Earl. I followed, hot on his heels.
“It may be fortuitous ...,” Grayson gasped, still trying to catch his breath, “to expeditiously dispatch ourselves ... from the immediate premises.”
Earl cocked his shaggy head. “You mean on account of the premises that you two was gettin’ it on?”
“No!” I yelled. “He means we need to get the hell out of here. Now!”
Earl chuckled. “Don’t get your panties in a wad, Cuz. While you two was off gallivantin’ on yore romantical stroll, I done got the RV hooked up and
