Page 12 of An Invocation of Monsters

It seemed the shriek hadn’t woken anyone else. The Lodge was still silent, all signs of human habitation hidden.

Feeling a little awkward, I used my phone flashlight to navigate the corridor, glancing out at the lake every so often. The waves shimmered gently under the moon, reflecting bright specks of pale green and blue.

Odd. Maybe it was some sort of phosphorescent algae.

It was easy enough to follow the hall to the dining room, where Kase had showed me the exit to the lake and forest trails. Two massive French doors opened on a stone patio, and I left one cracked for my return.

It took me a moment to steel myself to leave the relative safety of the patio. The shriek had been… furious. Raging. Not necessarily a sound like pain.

But if someone was hurt, I needed to find them.

I took a deep breath and took the stone steps that led downward to the yard.

I felt the cold of the dew even through my boots. To my left was the dock, and to the right was a hard-packed path that led deep into the forest.

This was nuts. I had no idea where it led. But another scream echoed, from deep in the woods, raising goosebumps all over my body.

This time there was pain in the sound.

Without thinking twice, I took the forest path.

The Lodge disappeared as I stepped cautiously into the trees, every sense hyper-alert for the sound of… someone. It had to be a person who had made that sound.

I hoped it wasn’t Kase; he might be weird, but I already felt oddly fond of the kid despite our inauspicious start. He gave me the creeps far less than anyone else here.

My phone flashlight was not equal to the depths of the night. It could only illuminate the path about five feet ahead of me, which wasn’t much comfort.

Ten minutes later, the sound of a cracking branch made me halt in my tracks, my ears literally twitching from how hard I was listening, but when silence reigned again, I continued.

Until the shriek came again, vibrating with rage.

From just up ahead.

I licked my lips, which felt parched, and cleared my throat. “Hello? Is anyone out here? Are you hurt?”

No one answered, which sent a chill down my spine. If it wasn’t a person shrieking, then what the hell was it?

God, if it was a mountain lion, I was probably toast.

But now the silence had a different quality. Like it was aware… and listening for me.

I was fully aware that at this point in a horror movie, any heroine worth her salt would immediately turn around and go home.

Do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars, do not get murdered by the serial killer.

For about five seconds, I considered doing just that—the smart, reasonable thing.

But unfortunately, smart, reasonable things often led to boring, unexciting lives. I hadn’t come all this way to hide in my dead mother’s room and go home none the wiser.

I had come to see what was behind the mask of reality.

I had come to see what these people were hiding, and what might be shrieking out there—because deep in my gut, I knew it wasn’t a mountain lion.

Ignoring the nervous flip-flop of my stomach, I pushed forward, holding my flashlight higher in a vain attempt to illuminate further ahead.

The woods were wilder here, and when I first caught sight of the ruins, I jumped back. When I realized I wasn’t looking at a creature rising from a thicket, I stepped forward cautiously, illuminating the warped and shattered boards of an old wall.

It was a house, torn down nearly to the foundation, overgrown with a mass of brambles. I frowned at it, then saw the ground underfoot was no longer packed dirt. It was cobblestone, worn smooth by hundreds of feet.

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