Virginia was nervous. She loved exploring new things but hated following through with tasks she knew nothing about. Yet, after hearing Charles's reassuring words that she could manage just fine, she agreed.
Charles spent a few minutes explaining to her the different kinds of switches that she would see inside the breaker box and how to feel for the one that was tripped. Virginia nodded her head, letting him know that she understood.
She returned to the bathroom underneath the stairway and located the breaker box planted in the wall. She opened the small metal door and quickly ran over all the different switches. All of them had labels that named the various locations of the house. Trailing her fingers across all of them, she found the one that felt loose. She flipped the switch back, waited for a second, and then back in the other direction. Instantly, the lights in the house came on.
"Hey! Good job!" shouted Charles from the back door.
Virginia smiled at her success. "Yeah! It wasn't so bad after—"
SMASH!
Exploding from the dining room was the sound of glass breaking, followed by the rush of a strong wind throughout the house. Virginia screamed at the frightening blast. She set the candle down and peered out of the bathroom to see what had caused the noise. Piercing through the dining room window like a spear was a large tree branch, its limbs now sprawled over the dining room table like the hand of a monster reaching into the house.
"Stay there!" shouted Charles to Virginia.
She turned around and saw Charles closing the back door. All she saw was his silhouette image until he ran out of sight of the door towards the front of the house. She looked back at the tree and saw it being pulled out of the window slowly. A few moments passed, and she saw Charles standing at the window, pulling the branch out with his hands. The branch was huge to Virginia. She ran over to the broken window.
"Do you need help?" she called out to him.
"No! No, you stay there!" he shouted through the storm.
Virginia took a few steps back as Charles continued to rake the limb out of the dining room.
With a final tug, the tree branch broke free and was now in Charles's arms. Holding the branch over his head, he launched it over the front porch railing and into the front yard. He placed his hands on the railing and breathed in a few strong breaths, glad to know that the worst was over and there was nothing to fear. That was until he raised his head and saw a dark figure standing in the distance. He leaned forward, peering to get a better-detailed image of what he saw. With each flash of lightning, he could see an outline of what appeared to be a man dressed in dark clothing wearing a hood. There was no mistaking it; someone was standing on the front lawn.
Charles became alert. He turned back to the house and shouted through the broken window. "Virginia, lock yourself inside the bathroom."
"Why?" she shouted back. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, but please, for your safety, go!"
"What about you?"
"Don't worry about me! I'm going to put a sheet of plywood up against this window, and then I'm coming inside!"
Charles turned his head back to the front lawn and waited for another flash of lighting to illuminate the night. Even before the lightning came, he saw a small pair of green eyes glaring back at him from the distance. There was a flash of lightning. Standing where the stranger once stood was a dark outline of a four-legged creature. The lightning passed, and all went black. The green eyes remained. Then, there was another flash; the same creature was still there, its green eyes fixed upon Charles. All went black, but the green eyes were not seen. A second later, another flash of lightning arose; nothing was there.
Charles grew nervous. He turned back around to see if Virginia had followed his instructions. Sure enough, the bathroom door was closed with her inside. He then ran down the porch steps to a trailer full of lumber that Andrew had parked on the front lawn. He grabbed a sheet of plywood from it and carried it back up to the porch, fighting the wind like a sail. He placed it up against the broken window, pulled out his hammer from his tool belt, and quickly drove in several nails loosely around it. Now having the window momentarily patched, Charles ran to the back door. Quickly letting himself in, he locked both the doorknob and the deadbolt. Next, he dashed to the kitchen counter and pulled out a large steak knife from the rack on the wall. He picked up the cordless house phone stationed near the knife rack and dialed a number. Breathing slowly, he walked into the dining room and stared at the sheet of plywood billowing and flapping against the broken window, not taking his eyes off it. The phone rang for a few seconds when a voice came from the other end.
"Hello?"
"Andrew!" responded Charles. "This is Charles."
"Oh, hey, Charles!" came Andrew's voice through the other end. "You're still there? I thought you would have gone home by now."
"Andrew…they're here."
A long moment of silence paused from Andrew's end. "Is she alright? Is she safe?"
"Yes. I told her to lock herself in the bathroom after I saw it."
"Does she know what you saw?"
"No."
"Okay. How many were there?"
"I only saw one."
Charles waited a moment, then asked, "What do you want to do now?"
"I'm on my way home now," responded Andrew. "Just stay put for now."
Charles stared at the plywood as it violently beat against the house. "Are you sure? You don't want me to move onto Plan B, like how we had discussed?"
"No," replied Andrew. "Just stay there and protect her and yourself. I'll call everyone else."
"Understood."
Andrew took a deep breath. "Charles, are you sure it was one of them?"
Charles was about to respond but was cut off by the sound he was waiting for. A haunting wolf howl pierced through the void of the night, echoing in unison with the swelling waves of thunder.
Charles held the knife close as the ghostly cry sent shivers down his spine. "Yes, I'm sure."