Of course the moving truck crashed.

After going through the worst month of her life, Amelia Ruiz had come to expect disaster.

Thankfully, her friend Noah lived in Watermill Valley and was able to pick her up from where she'd been stranded on the median after her wreck. As they rolled down the quiet suburban streets in his shiny blue Toyota Corolla, she dodged his questions about how life had been since college. She'd gathered that he was doing pretty well for himself and had moved up the ladder as an investment banker.

Amelia had little to show since her college days except for a string of failed relationships, frequent job changes, and decisions that generally hadn't panned out. She dreaded the moment when they would pull up to her driveway and he'd see the humble two-bedroom farmhouse that she bought when she was still dating Erik. She could tell by the gleam of Noah's new dress shoes and the quality of his thick cardigan that the house he shared with their mutual friend Gianna had at least four bedrooms, a pool, and rolling fields of tidy grass that were no doubt maintained by someone else.

They arrived at her place, and Noah slapped his knee in a way that made Amelia want to chuckle at how much of a dad he’d become.

"Here we are! Are you sure you don't need some help getting set up here? Gianna and I don't mind, especially with you on your own. We can keep the kids distracted with their tablets and they won't be any trouble."

"No. You have already helped so much. I just needed a ride to my place."

Amelia smiled at her friend and grabbed her tote bag from the backseat. The bag was a sun-faded red overlaid with a pattern of black apple outlines. The scent of better days wafted from its fibers: sun, sand, and campfires. The bag and its meager contents were the only things she'd been able to save from the road. She squeezed it to her chest for a moment and breathed in the musky odor.

"In some ways, moving is easier now, I guess. No furniture to lug around!" She laughed even though she felt her chest tighten. The memory of seeing her few pieces of furniture strewn across the highway in pieces still made her feel depressed.

The same dark mood also overtook her every time she found another tiny piece of glass in her hair. The glass seemed never-ending, just like her problems. It was starting to seem like she would just keep finding sharp slices of trouble anywhere she turned in life. But she had to maintain a positive attitude. If she fell into the well of depression, she didn't think she'd be able to claw her way out again.

She had to start believing that things would get better. Call it kismet, karma, or faith. Call it poetic justice. But Amelia felt that the universe owed her some good luck after all she'd been through. She just had to stick around long enough for the scales to balance again.

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As she stepped out of the car, she pressed the Ignore button on her phone below the image of her ex's face. She had nothing to say to the guy who had convinced her to take out a solo loan for this house. The guy who ditched her the night before the move because he'd accidentally fallen in love with someone else. The guy who had convinced her to buy a house in a town where she knew nobody because he wanted the best location near the motocross track. That guy could go fuck himself, as far as Amelia was concerned.

She turned back to Noah. “I’m fine. Really.”

"If you say so." Noah's eyebrows were knit with concern. It seemed that becoming a parent had sharpened his powers of bullshit detection. "Are you going to have another vehicle soon?"

"Yeah," she said, confident this time. "Thankfully my insurance proved to be more reliable than my ex."

Noah laughed but the unease lingered in his eyes. They both got out of the car and looked at her little house for a moment.

"I get to pick up a rental tomorrow," She assured him as she eyed her white house with black shingles. There was one shingle missing right in the middle. Another shingle on the right side trembled in the wind as if it was about to go as well. The screen door rattled with another big gust of wind, blowing open with a lonely wail before slamming back against the house.

"Okay. Gianna has the afternoon off, so just give her a call when you need a ride to pick your rental up."

"Thank you both so much," she said as tears pricked the back of her eyes. She put her arm out and gave Noah a side hug. "I really can't tell you how screwed I would be if you hadn't come out after the wreck. You're the only people I know here."

"Don't mention it," Noah said. As he pulled away from the hug, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the property. "That's funny," he said. He pointed at the stone lions that flanked the driveway.

"Yeah, it is a little pretentious to have stone lions in front of such a tiny house." Her face flushed with embarrassment.

"Oh no," Noah quickly corrected. "That's not it. It's just that they're facing the house. Normally they are turned toward the outside, so that they look like they are protecting the place. Here, it’s like they are protecting the house from us.”

Or protecting us from the house. The thought came to Amelia’s mind unbidden. She shuddered at it.

Noah popped a piece of gum into his mouth and the smell of spearmint filled the air. “Odd.”

“Yeah.”

He offered her a stick of gum, and she waved it away.

The stone statues were watching the house. Why was it that she hadn’t noticed that before? As she took the lions in, with their gaping maws and scowling eyes, a trickle of ice entered her veins.

"Talk about having an ass-backward sense of style," she quipped to cast off the fear creeping up on her.

She made a mental note that if she stayed in this house for long, she'd find a way to tear those creepy statues down.

“Well, I’ll get out of your hair,” Noah said, returning to his car. “Good luck.”

Amelia waved as he drove away. She turned back to the house and approached the flapping screen door, feeling the sensation of eyes following her as she passed the stern gray statues.