There have been reports of strange sightings and unexpined disappearances.

  I’m standing in the field in front of my family’s home, speaking with a man who has come to investigate the matter.

  I turn around to survey the surrounding field and when I look back he’s gone.

  I run to the house, swing open the gss front door, lock it closed behind me, and hide behind the nearest corner, too paralyzed with fear to run any further.

  In a reflection in the window opposite I see shapes silhouetted outside, tall and hunched with beastly faces. One of the approaches the door. I do not move. If it sees me the door will not stop it and I and everyone else here will die.

  The shape at the door leaves.

  I rex.

  I colpse.

  Hours pass.

  I wake.

  In the window’s reflection I still see the shapes outside the front door, although they are no longer actively inspecting the house.

  I hear my mother coming down the hallway and stop her just in time before she walks in front of the door and into the creatures’ field of view.

  We are both scared and don’t know what to do.

  A commotion erupts outside and a bck armored van ploughs through the front of the house.

  The van’s door, now where the front door of the house used to be, slides open to reveal my brothers, my older brother’s fiancé and the fiancé’s sibling who is driving.

  They bid my mother and I to climb into the van so they can drive us away to safety.

  I fetch my father first and together we all leave.

  The fiancé and her sibling confess that they have been secretly serving the creatures’ dark lord and creator for years as their only shot at survival and have gained amnesty for now, but once it is realized that they’ve chosen us and our family over that dark lord they will be in just as much danger as us.

  I have never believed in any god, but as we drive away from our home, I pray over and over to any being that might be listening for powers by which to sy these monsters and protect those I love.