River sat on the bed and looked at the children and then at Tean.She clasped her hands together.Then she planted them on the mattress.Then she twisted them together again.
“Are you all right?”Tean asked.“Did something happen?”
She made a croaking noise that, a moment later, he realized was supposed to be a laugh.“Iwishsomething would happen.It’s all this waiting.Knowing they’re here, and…” She trailed off and turned to the window.The glass held smoky copies of the four of them.The wind picked up, howling as it ran around the lodge.
When River didn’t say anything more, Tean asked, “What did you want to show me?You said you know why they’re looking for you.”
River stayed where she was for another moment, still staring at her reflection.Then she nodded, as though coming back from somewhere.“It’s going to sound crazy—”
And then the power went off.
Darkness rushed into the room.For a single moment, the alpenglobes still glowed: warm spheres of yellow light out in the darkness.And then, one by one, they winked out, and everything was black.
River let out a delayed breath that sounded wet and shaky.Milo grabbed a handful of Tean’s jeans, and Maeve clutched his wrist.
“It’s okay,” Tean said.Without the constant murmur of the HVAC, the lodge was too quiet, and Tean’s voice was too loud.“It’s probably an issue with the generator.They’ll get it sorted out in a few minutes.”
“No,” River whispered.“No, no, no, no, no.”
“Tean?”Maeve said, and the ringleader was gone; in her place was a frightened little girl.
“We’re okay,” Tean said.He found Maeve’s arm in the dark and squeezed it.“We’re going to stay here until the lights come back on.”
Out in the hall, a high-pitched scraping noise began.It was faint at first, and then it grew louder as it moved toward them.Under it came the fall of heavy steps.
“No,” River said.Now she sounded angry.The sounds of movement in the dark, and the faint silhouette against the relative lightness of the window, told Tean she was getting to her feet.“No!”
“You need to calm down,” Tean said.“Everything’s all right—”
That scraping sound cut off abruptly.
No more footsteps.
Even the howling of the wind died.
And then something struck the door.Thebangmade Tean jump.Maeve screamed, and Milo cried, “I want my mom!”
Anotherbangechoed through the room.Wood splintered and crackled.
“No,” River moaned.
The next blow shook Tean out of his paralysis.Ignoring Maeve’s cries and Milo’s whimpers, he pulled himself free and sprinted to the door.The darkness made it difficult to see what was going on, but he could tell the door no longer fit properly in its frame—part of it appeared to have buckled.Emergency lights in the hallway must have activated because a faint glow showed where something had been forced between the door and the jamb.It appeared to be two metal forks, and as Tean watched, another blow drove them deeper into the room, and metal squealed.
Tean slammed the swing bar into place.“You need to leave right now,” he shouted through the door.“Hotel security is on their way.”
For a moment, there was nothing.
And then a man howled.
It was a copy of a wolf’s howl, and Tean recognized it immediately.The hair on the back of his neck stood up.
He stumbled back a step and took out his phone.He still had service, and he placed a call to Jem.It rang.
The metal forks withdrew, but the door didn’t fall back into place; a glint of metal in the faint light from the hall showed something wedged between the door and the frame.
The phone was still ringing.
“We have to get out of here!”River was screaming.“We have to go!”
