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Jennifer couldn't wait inside anymore. It had been a mistake to let him go alone, to let him convince her to stay in the house while he looked for Arabelle.

She cracked open the front door, peeking into the landscape of green outside. The trees shifted in the warm, midday wind, and there wasn't anything amiss. It looked like a regular summer day, not one clouded by the threat of assassins coming for her husband.

Where washe? He'd been gone for much longer than usual, too.

Now when Jennifer stepped out of the house, she had three reasons. She had to find the others and make sure they were safe.

The front yard technically spanned a larger area than she could take in with a quick scan, but if Jake, Mark, or Arabelle were out there somewhere, she would have spotted them. After determining that they weren't out front, Jennifer hurried around the mansion, keeping to the makeshift path so she didn't lose her way.

She checked all of the spots where she and Arabelle usually went, but there was no sign of her after circling the whole mansion. Another ten minutes gone, and no sign of anyone.

"Mom!" Jennifer called out, starting to panic. "Jake? Mark? Where are you?"

Her words echoed through the trees, but there was no response.

Somehow, when she stared out into the forest, this time she didn't see the usual serene landscape that shielded her from the busyness of the city. Instead, it was as if the forest had gained a sinister complexion, the leaves staring down at her with evil eyes. Watching.

Jennifer hesitated at the thought of delving deeper into the forest. Something was wrong with this place, and until now, she hadn't noticed a thing.

But if she stayed behind, she might never find her family. She might be left alone in the mansion. After finally finding love with Mark, she knew she would rather run out into the woods searching for him, risking death, than staying behind any longer only to find that she lost him and her mom and she survived.

Mark was her husband. Arabelle was her mother. And she wasnotgoing to let anyone take them from her.

She scanned the part of the landscape that she knew was the house, searching for a utility cabinet. After patting the trees and cleverly designed exterior walls of the mansion, she found a closet with some gardening equipment. The lawn clippers looked like a decent weapon, but they were rusted from too many years of disuse. Her second choice was a shovel. The edge seemed sharp enough, and the handle was sturdy.

With the shovel held out in front of her, she cautiously approached the edge of the woods. Tree branches grabbed at her clothes like the hands of malevolent spirits, but she yanked herself free, her eyes set on every hint of movement in the wilds.

"Mom?" she called. "Are you out here?"

The underbrush shifted, followed by a snapping twig. Jennifer jumped, whirling around with her shovel just in time to see a startled stag leap behind a tree and disappear deeper into the woods.

Jennifer wiped sweat and fear from her brow. There wasn't anything but animals out here, what was she so afraid of? The chances of a wolf or bear coming so close were minimal, too.

But that didn't explain the sinister feeling she got from the forest, or how Jake, Mark, and Arabelle had all but disappeared.

Jennifer tried to push down the rest of the fear pounding in her heart, but it was impossible. "Mom! Where are you?"

Her steps grew hurried and more frantic with each call. She rushed through the trees, her sleeves tearing from all the wild branches. Now she was approaching the edge of Mark's property, she had to be, but still no sign of anyone ... and she couldn't have made her way back to the mansion if she wanted to.

All around her, the trees looked familiar and yet unfamiliar. She could wander out here for days without finding her way back.

A shiver coursed through her, as if she was being watched. She tightened her grip on her shovel.

And then she heard her mother scream. A high-pitched, terrified sound that made Jennifer's whole body lurch in that direction.

"Mom!" she screamed, her feet already moving way ahead of her voice.

Between the trees, she spotted a small clearing—and Arabelle was running right through it and toward Jennifer. Behind her, a little bronze-colored creature about the size of a medium dog raced after her.

"Jenny!" Arabelle cried out just as Jennifer leaped through the bushes. She pushed her mother behind her and swung her shovel at the snarling creature.

The flat of the shovel smacked it over the head, knocking it back and into the grass, leaving it to lie there twitching. She held her shovel out to hit it again, to make sure it wasn't going to jump back up at her, but it stayed groaning like an old man in the grass.

She could have smacked it again, made sure it didn't wake up. But the fact that she'dhitit surprised her. She definitely wasn't a killer. For now, though, it seemed like it was unconscious.

Jennifer turned back to her mom, and they embraced. Arabelle was cold and shaking.

"What the hell is that thing?" Jennifer said.