"Hey, Tess." Vee spoke to the voicemail receiver, her phone awkwardly crammed between her cheek and shoulder as she lifted her duffel bag into the back of the truck. She lobbed in Eli's ragged suitcase, and then the box of foodstuffs hastily dragged from the pantry. Their small cooler was already crammed in the truck's cab behind the driver's seat, holding the more perishable stuff like eggs and milk. Things she was sure they could buy again in Woodwill, but she didn't want to leave behind to go sour in the fridge anyway. "It's Vee. We had a situation come up, so Eli and I are going out of town for a few days. I'll text you the address and we can talk later, I'm packing things up right now. See you." She hastily ended the call, her phone shoved into her pocket and the tailgate shoved back upright, safe and secure.

Eli himself and Iron Man were already situated in the truck, Iron Man laid across the narrow backseat and Eli in the passenger spot as usual, his backpack and a trash bag holding his favorite blanket and pillow squished into the footwell. It felt like they were moving again, but this time without any furniture. But the adrenaline was still there, even though Vee kept reminding herself it was only temporary, and they were going somewhere that was at least vaguely familiar, anyway. "It's like a vacation." She said aloud as she got behind the wheel, flashing a quick smile at Eli as he looked up from his sketchbook. But she wasn't entirely sure whether she'd said it more for his benefit, or her own.

Getting out of the city was nerve-wracking in a way she hadn't anticipated. Ryan's threat had rattled her deeply. And even though she knew there was nothing forbidding her from leaving the city, the last nearly-twenty-years of being caged within the concrete jungle had her still slightly convinced that every police car they passed was watching her, ready to swoop in and stop her, send her back to her apartment to continue sitting and waiting. At this point, she wasn't sure what she'd be waiting for in this scenario. Maybe for Ryan, if he was still this hellbent on getting his way. Waiting for him to swoop in and finally strongarm his way into taking her son.

She felt like she could only breathe deeply once the city finally fell away behind them, replaced by the long, sweeping lines of the highway cutting between the hills. The sky was so clear and blue overhead, a pleasantly warm afternoon breeze floating in through the partly-opened windows. It tousled Eli's hair and stirred the wispy strands that had escaped Vee's ponytail. If she tried really hard, she almost believed that it really was just a vacation.

With everything that had happened, she hadn't even given the elk incident a spare thought. But when they trundled along the gravelly road that led into the heart of the forest where Woodwill sat, she found her thoughts flickering back to it. She watched the sides of the road intently, bracing herself for something, anything, to appear. She still wanted to dismiss the whole thing, convincing herself that it had been a trick of the mind. She was under a lot of stress, after all, and stress did funny things to the brain, it wasn't impossible to say that—

"How long will we stay?" Eli asked, jarring her out of her spiraling thought pattern, and Vee shook herself briefly before clearing her throat, her eyes staying on the road as it stretched ahead, flanked by the towering pines. "I don't know, Eli. We can stay a few days, but I can't stay off work for too long. And after this week, you'll be going back to school."

"Oh." He spoke quietly, and from the corner of her eye she could see him slump a bit in his seat. She didn't blame him. Public school was hard for a kid like Eli, for one reason or another. But private school was expensive. And Vee knew it wouldn't fix the deeper problems.

Eventually the gravel gave way again to the mostly-paved streets of Woodwill, and Vee made her way through town slowly, watching people go about their business. It was the weekend, so there was a good assortment of people out and about. Old and young alike; she watched as a couple families crossed the street ahead on their way to the small park structure that was half-hidden behind the main street's shops. They make it work out here. A little nagging voice in her mind whispered. A long commute could be worth the peace of mind.

She shrugged the thought off. She wasn't in the right headspace to entertain such notions, not right now. As they drove past the police station, heading for that narrow road that led up to the cabin, she saw Sheriff Atkins standing outside taking a phone call. He looked up as they passed, and she saw the confusion and recognition bloom on his face as he caught her eye. She lifted a hand to wave, somewhat awkwardly. She wondered if she should've called…but the cabin was hers, wasn't it? She had the key in her pocket, the key he himself had given her. It was just the paranoid nerves getting at her again, she reminded herself. They weren't doing anything wrong.

The cabin was, just as she expected, exactly the same as it had been the previous day. It felt like it had been ages since she'd laid eyes on it, with everything that had happened in such a short time since. Eli's excitement was obvious, the boy practically bouncing in his seat as they pulled up in front of the building, and Vee couldn't help but laugh when he fumbled with his door and seatbelt in tandem, eager to get out. "Careful. I don't want you running off and getting lost, okay? Stick close to the house, I'll unload. Take Iron Man with you."

"Okay, Mom!" He grinned at her brightly, and Vee felt a pang of relief seeing that expression after such an intense day. They still had some hours left before the sun was going to go down, and she figured that was plenty of time for settling in. Tess hadn't called her back yet, but it was the weekend, after all. She was sure she'd get a call by dinnertime, surely.

Climbing out of the truck, she paced to the door of the cabin while Eli and Iron Man went jogging around the corner, apparently going to investigate the backyard. She hesitated as she slid the key into the lock, remembering how she'd felt the last time she'd stood at this door. The way it had felt like the forest was watching her. She waited to see if that feeling came back, but there was nothing. Nothing but the faint rustle of trees in the breeze, the chirp of birds and call of crows echoing here and there. And of course, the faint echoing of Eli's voice as he joyfully bounded around behind the house with Iron Man. Vee listened, closing her eyes as she absorbed the sounds, before she let out a long exhale and pushed the door open. Time to settle in.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

She was halfway through unloading the truck when the crackle of tires on the rough track leading up from town alerted her to someone's arrival. Atkins was coming up, his rugged "Jeep" grinding through the gravel as it came to a stop beside the truck, and again she felt the instinct to brace herself, ready for trouble—but he was smiling when he got out, waving as he strode toward her. "Hey!" He beamed, his sleeves rolled up over his forearms and his face still clean-shaven aside from the spots just at the corners of his mouth, which crinkled as he smiled at her. "You're back! I wish I'd known you were coming, could've set up a better welcome, heh." He rocked on his heels for a moment, his hands tucked into his pockets as he looked at her truck, then past her through the open door where she'd just been setting things down, deciding to sort them later. "…Planning on staying a while?"

"A few days." She replied, her tone a bit more clipped than she meant it to be. His brow quirked, and she hastily followed it up, "I had some time off work I could take, and Eli…well, we both really wanted to come and get a better look at things." She smiled, hoping that would smooth over his curiosity and lessen the sharpness of her initial response. It seemed to do the trick, and she was relieved when he nodded pleasantly, his attention diverted when Eli and Iron Man came back around the other side of the house, Iron Man letting out an emphatic woof at the sight of the man. "Hi, mister Sheriff!" Eli waved, far removed from his shy and reserved manner from before, his cheeks flushed and eyes bright with excitement. He'd somehow already gotten pine needles in his hair, and Vee snickered as she brushed them loose when he came up alongside her, Iron Man leaning forward to sniff at Atkins and receive some well-deserved ear rubs for it.

"Hey, kid." Atkins smiled, waving at Eli. "Having fun already?"

"Yeah!" Eli nodded enthusiastically, before turning his shining blue eyes up to his mother, tugging at her wrist. "You gotta come see, the back of the house is so cool!"

"In a minute, baby, I'm still unloading stuff. You go on and play, I'll be around soon." Vee smirked down at the boy, giving him another affectionate ruffling of the hair, sending more needles sprinkling over his shoulders. He giggled and nodded, bouncing away again with Iron Man loping at his heel. "Good kid." Atkins observed, and Vee felt her cheeks flush as she realized he was watching her. Maybe he realized it too, because he suddenly cleared his throat and looked away, nodding as he scanned the trees and she couldn't help but mirror the detached behavior. "Alright, well…if you're gonna be staying, I'll just give you some tips—common sense stuff really, but I'd kick myself if I didn't at least mention them. It's best not to hang out after dark; we do have bears and such out here, after all. Among other things." The last sentence was said almost quietly enough that she might've missed it. But as soon as she heard it, Vee's focus snapped back to him. "What was that?"

He shrugged and shook his head. "Just be careful, right? Especially with a kid and a dog out here. Most critters won't bother people, but…well, you know smaller targets are harder to pass up for hungry beasties. Kato's property's always been pretty safe, but…well, with the old man gone, who knows."

Vee raised a brow, unable to help but scoff faintly. "You make it sound like he cast a spell on the place or something, heh."

Atkins didn't laugh, and the smile on his face faltered, his brow creasing in what looked like a worried manner, his eyes searching hers as if he was trying to determine something. "…Or something." He finally muttered, almost as if he was pondering those words. But as quickly as the strange mood came over him, he shook it off, smiling again. "I'll let you get back to it, won't keep you from getting all comfortable. You've got my number; I take calls at all hours if there's ever an emergency. Maybe I'll see you in town later, or tomorrow, hm?"

"Uh…" Vee trailed off, blinking. She wanted to ask him what he meant, what his odd response was supposed to imply. Why he looked at her like that, as if she had said something…concerning. But before she could decide which question to ask first, he'd already retreated to his car, rumbling into reverse as he turned himself around and started back off down the road to town, waving out the window as he went.

"What the hell?" Vee muttered to herself, shaking her head. Strange small-town stuff, she told herself. That's all it was. She rolled her shoulders, sighing as she turned and grabbed the last box from the truck, closing it up before she hauled the stuff inside and started putting the foodstuffs away first. She took Eli's things down the hall to what had been her childhood room, sparing herself a moment to look around the small space, telling herself it was out of nostalgia, and not just because she wanted to stall, still unsure how she felt about going into Kato's room, which she supposed was hers now. That felt weird.

Some of the old papers she'd drawn on were still laid out from when Eli had been looking through them, and she bent to pick up a couple. The paper felt brittle, the years having taken their toll, even if they'd been kept safe and sound in this room for all that time. She shuffled through them gently, looking at the old work. Childlike, but she was still somewhat pleased to see her old talent shining through. It was bitterswseet, considering she hadn't put a pen to paper for anything more than signing documents in years, it felt like. She smiled fondly, studying the careful etchings of the colored pencils on the pages while Eli and Iron Man dashed by the window outside, the boy's muffled whoops helping to ease her nerves. This would be good for them. It'd be nice to have a break from the city, some true peace and quiet and the security of knowing that they were safe out here.

Vee turned over another page, and her heart thudded to a stop. There, on the twenty-year-old paper that felt brittle as old parchment in her fingers, was a creature. A beast coated in shaggy black-brown fur, standing like a centaur on four powerful legs. The front looked wolfish, broad paws splayed on the ground. The back legs were deerlike, ending in sharp hooves. Above the thick shoulders was a skull-face, like a mask made from an elk's skull complete with antlers that stretched upward. Child's drawing it might have been, but Vee felt her breath catch in her throat as she remembered the elk crossing, and the glimpse of the massive beast that had accompanied them in their migration across the road.

"What the hell?" She repeated, shaking her head as she quickly put the pages down on the bed, turning to rush back out of the room in a near-panic. What did it mean? What could it mean? No…no, she forced herself to stop, sucking a deep breath in through her nose, and breathing out through her mouth, closing her eyes as she stood there in the hall. She was getting ahead of herself. She was being silly. She must've just glanced over the drawing yesterday while Eli was going through them, and hadn't really registered it because of everything else occupying her thoughts. And then on the drive out, she had just had a little lapse of concentration, that little stress-induced hallucination—no, she didn't like that word. If she said she was hallucinating, then any potential claims of her being unstable were only further confirmed. It was just a subconscious trick of the mind.

She ran her hands over her face, smoothing back the stray bits of hair escaping her increasingly-untamed ponytail. She had to keep it together. They'd only just arrived, it was natural that she had some jitters. She took a deep breath, hefting her duffel bag and looking back toward the door at the end of the hall. Now or never, she mused, and headed for her grandfather's old room.