This wasn’t happening. I was delusional. Half asleep, hungover from beers, and still freaked out by the campfire stories and running around in the woods. My fear and dreams were combining. The scratching noise suddenly stopped and a pregnant silence took over the night.
A knock.
A horrifying, quiet knock on the car that an animal wouldn’t make. I pulled the covers over my head and unlocked my phone, trying to send off a text to my mom.
Me:Something is trying to get us!
Me:I’m scared!!
Both texts failed to send.
Caspian slowly moved to the front of the tent, blocking the entrance.
The knock came again and frightened tears spilled from my eyes.I was not crying, I insisted to myself. This was an adrenaline reaction, something biological.I was not crying.I wiped at the water leaking from my eyes as I tried to calm down and think logically. Think like a person who grew up in a normal family and didn’t jump to wild conclusions.
I popped my head out of the covers.
“Hello?” I whispered as quietly as possible. It had to be his bandmates. Maybe they were trying to scare us.
“Ava,” Caspian said quietly in warning but I ignored him. I cleared my raggedy throat and tried again. “Hello?” I said louder.
In response, the knock came again. Goosebumps rose over my arms. Why wouldn’t theysayanything? Something felt off.
I thought of the eyes, the cave, the sensations of wrongness. Mothman, a shadowed monster cloaked like some western gunslinger—hiding how different he really was.
I shook my head. I came out here to get away from these things.
“Who is it?” Caspian barked out.
Silence. We sat there eyeing each other, Caspian’s eyes looking inky black in the darkness. His nose twitched as if he smelled something. I took a deep inhale but smelled nothing.
Then the knocking came again.
And again andagain. Each time it seemed to reach inside my chest and tease more fear from me.
I shivered and more water leaked from my stupid non-crying eyes as I squeezed my arms around myself. Caspian laid back down beside me, holding me tight in his arms.
“It’s okay, Ava. I can protect you,” he murmured into my ear and he sounded so confident, so nonplussed. His confidence eased me a little. He squeezed me tight, holding me protectively. His hand gripped the base of my neck and his thumb purposely pressed into the bite he’d given me. It throbbed painfully but then I could breathe easier.
The knock came again but this time it was against the picnic table—right next to the tent. A dull thud of knuckles on wood.
“Cas!” I gasped.
“I’m going out.” He started to pull his arms from around me.
“No!” I cried, clinging to him. He settled back down right away and whispered to me that everything was okay over and over—just like he used to. His gentle words and the slow way his hand rubbed between my shoulder blades made me breathe easier.
The noise never came back and Caspian’s quiet, calm assurances that everything was okay settled me.
Eventually, I fell asleep exhausted.
10
Ava was still in the tent, sleeping in after the scare of last night. I roamed the woods behind our tent, trying to find evidence of what had been sneaking around. I wasn’t having any luck though. I sent a look over my shoulder, making sure Ava was still in the tent.
I didn’t want her to see something that scared her and there was so much of myself that could.Thatwouldn’t be very conducive to my love.
I cracked my neck and rolled my head, stretching as I felt the shift come over me. It was instantaneous, a small ripple over the skin. It felt like stepping in water. My eyes blinked open and I winced from the sun, too bright for these eyes. They were made for darker places.
