Chapter 10
Sunday Afternoon, January 9th
As the minivan turned onto the driveway leading to the Ambrose house, Cole reached over and placed his hand on his uncle’s. He had seen something in the trees that had seemed out of place.
“Wait,” he said urgently. “What’s that over on the side of the road in the trees? It looks like a car.” He had seen the lights of the van glinting off of metal as they turned.
Harper brought the car to a halt and looked over in the direction that Cole had pointed, while Dinah moved over to the right side of the car and looked out the side window. She could see what Cole had spotted. It was the back of a car, sticking out of the line of trees on the other side of the road. The sky was still overcast, so they couldn’t make out many details in the dim light of the forest. But the fact that a car was there at all was odd. The only cars that used the road leading to their house were the cars of residents that lived along it. The Ambrose house was the last one on the road, but it continued on another mile before ending at state forest lands. There was a utility entrance to the forest at the top of the hill where the road ended, but vehicles rarely used it and neither Cole nor Dinah could ever remember a car being parked there. And since the road was so lightly traveled, they had never seen an abandoned car along it either.
Dinah looked over at her uncle, “Do you think they broke down or something?”
Harper stared at the car as he answered, “It’s possible, though I don’t know what anyone would be doing this far out.”
“Uncle Harper, it’s freezing outside,” Cole said. “If there’s someone in the car, they might need help.” If the car had broken down, it was likely that the heater wasn’t working. A person could quickly freeze to death in the winter air, which worried Cole.
Harper thought for a moment before pushing the shifter into park. “Wait here,” he told the Ambrose children. “I’m going to take a look.”
“Be careful,” Cole told his uncle as he opened the door. He thought of the demons’ ability to take the form of humans and wondered if they could drive cars, as well. If they could, his uncle could be walking into a trap. He unlocked his door just in case it looked like his uncle needed help.
Harper walked slowly up to the car and then along its side. The windows were frosted from the cold, which made seeing inside difficult. He reached for the handle and pulled it open quickly. Cole and Dinah both tensed when he did this, both fearing that something was going to jump out as the door flew open. But nothing happened. They watched as their uncle stood tensely for a moment before leaning in to get a better look. After a few moments, he leaned back out again, looked over at the van and shook his head. It appeared that the car was empty. He closed the door, but then something seemed to catch his eye. He leaned down and looked closely at the driver’s door and brushed his finger along it before standing back up. He walked back over to the van and got inside.
A blast of cold air came in with him and Dinah shivered in response. “Did you find anything?” she asked her uncle.
Harper shook his head. “There was no one there, and no tracks in the snow, so who knows how long it’s been there.” He sounded slightly distant as he spoke, as if he was working through something in his mind. Cole and Dinah both knew that the car could have been there for days and they wouldn’t have noticed. It had snowed lightly two nights before, which could have covered any tracks that had been there. If someone had walked away from the car or even been picked up by another car, they wouldn’t have known it.
“What did you see on the door?” Cole asked as he remembered his uncle’s inspection of the driver’s side.
“There was a smear of blood along the door,” Harper answered. He looked out at the car again and then seemed to think of something. “Cole, grab the pen and paper from the glove box and write down the license plate. I want your father to check it out when we get back to the house.”
Cole did as he was asked as Harper stared at the car with his forehead creased in thought. When Cole signaled that he was done, Harper put the car back into drive and finished the turn onto the driveway. Cole and Dinah both looked at the car as they pulled away. It looked eerie in the gray light and somehow lonely.
They pulled into the garage shortly after and the two teenagers moved to get out of the car, but their uncle’s voice stopped them.
“Dinah, let’s not mention the thing with the wolves to your father just yet,” Harper said while looking at her in the rearview mirror. “I think it might just worry him if it’s said in the wrong way, so I want a chance to explain a few things to him. Okay?”
“Sure, Uncle Harper,” Dinah answered as she reached for the door handle, and realized what her uncle and Mr. McCallister had spoken briefly about when he had first arrived to pick her up. She was relieved that she wouldn’t have to tell her father any part of the story, especially the part where she had outrun a pack of wolves. She wasn’t sure how he would handle hearing about Dinah’s rapidly growing strength and she wasn’t quite ready to find out. She knew that it wouldn’t change how he felt about his daughter, but she worried that he would want to have her go to the doctor or something, which would only lead to more people knowing.
The three of them got out of the car and walked into the kitchen, but no one was there. The sound of the TV drifted in from the living room. Cole and Dinah walked down the hall to their bedrooms just as Jerry walked into the kitchen.
“I thought I heard the garage door,” he said to Harper. “Did you need help carrying in groceries?” He looked around in confusion at seeing Harper’s empty hands. He thought it odd that Harper wouldn’t have carried in some of the groceries or that the children wouldn’t have carried some in, as well.
“No, Jeremiah, but thank you for offering,” Harper answered. He picked up on Jerry’s confused expression as he added, “Cole and I went for breakfast before the rest of you were up and picked Dinah up on her way back from a run.”
Jerry felt a flash of worry at the thought of Dinah running outside when the wolves were around and wanted to let Harper know about his conversation earlier that morning. “I spoke to animal control about those wolves this morning, but they haven’t gotten their agent’s report back yet. They did recommend that we not allow the kids outside unattended. I’ll let Cole and Dinah know, but if you can make sure all of the kids listen, I’d appreciate it.”
“Absolutely,” Harper answered. He reached into his pocket and handed the piece of paper with the license plate number to Jerry as he told him what they had found along the side of the road. “Can you run this license plate to see who it belongs to?” He didn’t mention anything about the blood that he had found. Harper thought the car being there was suspicious, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions without more information. He had enough to worry about with everything that had happened in the past few days.
“Yeah, sure,” Jerry told him. He thought it was just as odd as that a car would be abandoned on the side of the road near their house, but assumed that someone had gotten lost in the winding roads of Evergreen and gotten stuck in the snow. If no one was in the car, he thought it likely that they had had someone pick them up. “Larry’s at the office now,” he said to Harper. “I’ll call him and have him run it.” Jerry used the phone in the kitchen to call his office and waited while Larry ran the plate. After receiving the answer, he thanked his partner and hung up.
“He said the car belongs to the animal control office,” he told Harper. “Are you sure there was no sign of anyone nearby?” He thought of his conversation that morning and wondered if that was why he hadn’t heard from the officer on Friday.
Harper shook his head, “No, but it looked like it had been there for several days. With the snow we got the other night, any tracks would have been covered. Should we call someone?” Harper thought again of the blood on the door and his first thought was that someone had been taken by the
creatures. He made a mental note to ask Cody and the wolves to keep their eyes out for signs that any strangers had been in the woods. The snow fell lightly in the trees, and if someone had been walking through them recently, there was a chance that their footprints would still be visible. Even if they weren’t, the scent of their passing could still be detectable. But he also knew that if whoever had been in the car had ended up walking through the trees, the creatures would surely have taken them. He hoped that the car had merely broken down and the driver had been picked up by someone as Jerry had suggested.
Jerry thought for a moment before answering Harper’s question, “No, I’ll give them a call tomorrow. They said that someone came by Friday morning, so I wonder if that’s who the car belongs to. Maybe it broke down and the agent had to have someone pick him up.”
Jerry saw Harper’s eyes narrow slightly and wondered if there was more to his story. “Harper, is there something you need to tell me?”
Harper stared back at him and Jerry thought that he looked like he was about to say something. But then he just shook his head. “No, Jeremiah. Thank you for checking on the car. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to rest in my room for a bit before I start dinner.” Harper had thought for a split-second that it was time to speak with his brother-in-law about everything that was happening, but he still didn’t know what he would say. He had to be very careful with how he shared information with Jerry, since he couldn’t guess how he would handle hearing that two of his children’s lives had recently been threatened.
“Sure, Harper,” Jerry said as his brother-in-law left the kitchen. His mental alarms started ringing again and he knew that Harper was hiding something from him. He felt a moment of irritation that his newfound empathy toward Harper was being replaced by distrust, but something told him that the secrets Harper was keeping were related to the strange things that had been happening in the past few days. Harper’s usual strangeness was something to which Jerry had grown accustomed, but his brother-in-law had been exceptionally odd since the night the power had gone out.
Jerry looked down at the license plate number again and decided that he would call animal control first thing in the morning. It was a mystery that seemed like it could be easily solved and he needed the small sense of satisfaction that solving it would bring.
Cole sat on the edge of the bed, listening as Dinah told him what had happened during her run. He thought that he would be ready to hear just about anything at that point, but something his sister said immediately caught his attention.
“Wait a minute. You outran a pack of wolves?” Cole asked incredulously.
Dinah nodded. She saw the look of disbelief on his face and knew that what she said sounded unbelievable. But to his credit, she saw him quickly nod in acceptance. She told him of the strange creatures that had also been chasing her and noticed that Cole’s demeanor changed to one that she guessed was fear when she described the creatures, but that he didn’t seem surprised, which Dinah thought was strange. She had expected him to respond with either amazement or disbelief, but he hadn’t even reacted.
The bedroom door opened at that moment and Harper walked in. Dinah silenced immediately and watched as her uncle sat next to Cole and looked over at her. It was obvious that he wanted to speak to them both.
“I’m sure you already told Cole what really happened on the road to James McCallister’s house, so I’m sorry that you’ll have to repeat yourself,” he told her as he looked directly at her.
Dinah stared at Cole in confusion. The way Harper had spoken, it had seemed like he knew more than he should, unless someone had said something to him that they had sworn to keep secret.
“Cole, you promised,” she said to her brother with a mixture of hurt and anger. She had always been able to trust her brother to keep a secret until now.
“He didn’t tell me anything, Dinah,” Harper said. “I’m leaving that up to you. And there are a lot of things that you don’t know about that we need to tell you. But first, I need to know why James McCallister met me on his front porch with a shotgun in his hand.” Harper knew that the wolves could have been the reason for the gun. But there was something about their neighbor and the familiar way that he had held the weapon that told Harper that it would take something other than wolves to spook him. And he had definitely been spooked when Harper spoke to him. Harper remembered the way his eyes had kept searching the trees, as if he had expected to be attacked at any moment.
Dinah looked between her uncle and her brother, trying to decide how much she wanted to share and what her uncle would think of what she did share. She thought of everything that had happened in the past few days and how Cole had reacted when she had told him about her morning encounter. He hadn’t seem surprised when she had mentioned the creatures, and her uncle’s demeanor made her wonder about what he had said about having things to tell her. She was still hesitant to share anything more with her uncle, since she knew it meant that he would eventually tell her father. She could count on Uncle Harper to be discreet when she needed him to be, but she also knew that anything that threatened their safety would be shared with her father.
“Please, Dinah,” Harper asked her when she still hadn’t spoken. He almost sounded like he was pleading, which was unlike him. It weakened any resistance that Dinah had left.
“Okay,” she said as she looked at him. She told him everything, from the unexpected increase in her physical speed and strength, to the barbell snapping in half, to a complete retelling of her terrifying morning run. When she finally finished speaking, he continued to stare at her for a few moments. She worried that he was going to laugh at her, as if she had been joking. But what scared her more was that he would believe that she thought she was telling the truth and think that there was something mentally wrong with her. Finally, he looked down at his knees and sighed loudly.
“This is completely unexpected,” Harper said softly. He looked over at Cole and then Dinah, as if considering something. “And it changes everything. But I promised you some information too, Dinah.” Dinah wondered what he was talking about, since his reaction was completely unexpected. He had seemed as unsurprised by her confession as Cole had seemed when she had described the creatures that had chased her.
Harper’s odd reaction was explained as he proceeded to tell her everything that he had told Cole that morning in the car, including the story of their mother’s origins. When he had finished, and before Dinah had a moment to process everything her uncle had said, Cole shared the story of their encounter in the forest the night before.
Had Dinah heard either story on any other day, she would have thought they were both crazy. But her own encounter that morning had prepared her to accept their stories, even though she felt like she was going to fall down. She slid down the wall that she had been leaning against and sat on the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest with her arms. In a strange way, she felt relieved that there was an explanation for all of the recent upheaval in her life. While finding out that your mother wasn’t human and therefore that you were only half human should have only complicated things further, it had the opposite effect instead. The words put her at ease, even if only slightly. There wasn’t something medically wrong with her – some mutation that had caused her phenomenal increase in strength and speed. It was merely something that she had inherited from her mother.
Dinah thought of her mother and the fact that she had been immortal. She tried to grasp what that meant, but realized that she had absolutely no frame of reference to understand such a thing. And she realized at the same time that it didn’t matter. Nothing she discovered about her mother could change the way Dinah felt about her. If anything, finding such a thing out made her feel somehow closer to her mother. As she quickly moved to acceptance of everything that she had heard, her mind moved on to what she knew to be the pressing question that all of them shared.
“What do we do now?”
she asked her brother and her uncle.
Harper stared at the wall as he answered, “I have no idea.” He looked at each of them in turn and then added, “I don’t even know which one of you is the Solas. If I knew, we could leave and find safety somewhere else. The rest of the family wouldn’t be in danger. But now…” He stood up and paced along the foot of the bed. For the first time in his long life, he was at a loss as to what to do.
Cole watched his uncle as he paced, “Are there any other Aes Sidhe that can help? Maybe if you call some of them?” He had never seen Uncle Harper so agitated. He had always been the one who was calm and collected in any situation. His obvious uncertainty worried Cole, especially since he knew the most about what was going on and was the one person most able to protect Cole and his siblings.
Harper stopped his pacing, but didn’t look at either of them when he answered, “No, Cole. There are none whom I can call for help.” He seemed uncomfortable when he said it, and Cole thought that there was something that he was withholding. Harper thought of the people that could have helped them, but knew that he had burned that bridge a long time ago. They were on their own until he could figure out someplace for them to go. “I would normally say that we should stay put until we figure something out, but what happened to Dinah this morning has me worried. It’s not like them to make such a bold attack in broad daylight. It’s a risky move that could have brought unwanted human attention.” In the past, the demons’ best weapon was secrecy - their ability to blend in and avoid notice.
“Can’t we all just leave?” Dinah asked. “We can just tell Dad what’s going on and then all of us can just pack up and…go. Go somewhere safe, I mean.” It seemed to be the simplest choice to her. If the demons had found them, then go to a place where they couldn’t be found.
Harper shook his head as he thought of his brother-in-law’s possible reactions, “Even if your father believed us, I’m not sure how he would react. He might think that we’d be safe at some sort of safe-house for the FBI. But that would be a mistake. If we were to leave, it would have to be to someplace where no one could find us, and I’m no longer certain that such a place exists.” He sat down at the edge of the bed again and looked over at Dinah. “Besides, this house is well-protected against those creatures. There would have to be hundreds of them to overcome the wards that were placed on this house when it was first built.”
Dinah and Cole both looked at him in confusion and he explained, “Your mother had someone place spells of protection on the entire house. I saw the wards when I first came here and could tell that they were extremely powerful. I’ve added more over the years, so the house now is practically impenetrable by the demons.” He knew that his sister had taken many steps to protect her family when she had finally accepted that one or more of her children could be the Solas. She had wanted to tell him everything that she had done, but he had still been angry with her for asking him to stay with the family. He had refused her request at first, refusing to have anything to do with her human husband and half-human children. When he had finally relented, she had been so far gone that she was surrounded constantly by her family. There had been no opportunity for her to discuss her plans with him. And then she was gone. But he knew that the wards on the house were currently their best bet for protection. “No, we shouldn’t leave the protection of the house unless we can find someplace safer. We’ll stay until I can figure something out.” He was quiet for a moment again before he said softly, “I wish your mother was here. She’d know what to do.”
Cole and Dinah were quiet as they thought of their mother, but Dinah wondered if her mother could have helped in such a situation. She was so gentle and kind that Dinah wondered if she would have even known what to do. Even learning that she had been immortal did not make either of them think that she could have protected them against the demons.
“What could Mom have done to help?” Dinah asked her uncle. She was starting to get frustrated with her uncle and his indecision. “Would she have known somewhere to go?”
Harper smiled slightly as he answered, “I forget how little you know about your mother’s past.” He motioned for Dinah to sit next to him and she somewhat reluctantly moved over and sat down. The three of them sat at the foot of the bed as he told them of their mother.
“Your mother was one of the wisest and most respected of our people,” he told them. He sounded wistful as he spoke, as if he was remembering things from his past. “She knew more about the Solas and our enemies than any of us. And she could have gotten us the help that we need now.” He thought of his sister’s strength and how she had never been afraid of anything. And how she had always known exactly what needed to be done. She would have made the right decisions now and Harper would have been able to focus on what he did best – fighting.
They were all quiet until Dinah broke the silence, “Well, she’s not here, Uncle Harper. So it’s up to us to figure something out.” She had made up her mind that something had to be done and if she had to push her uncle and brother until they reached the same decision, she would do it.
Harper stared at the ground for a moment before looking up at his niece, “You’re right of course, Dinah. First, we have to figure out what to do about school tomorrow.” He worried that the demons had decided that the Solas was in the Ambrose house and that they would attack before he could decide on their next course of action, but he still couldn’t think of a safer place for them to go to, and he needed more time to think.
“Do you think it’s such a good idea for us to go to school tomorrow?” Cole asked. He thought of how vulnerable he had felt at school when he had first encountered the single creature in the trees.
Harper nodded, “Yes. If both of you stay home tomorrow, your father will be suspicious. Besides, the schools are far too public for the demons to try anything there. I’d guess that besides this house, that’s one of the safest places for any of you to be right now.”
Cole didn’t agree with his uncle’s reasoning. If the house was so well-protected, it didn’t make sense for them to leave it. And then he thought of his younger brothers and sister and worried about their safety, “Do you think anyone else is in danger - any of us kids, I mean?”
Harper shook his head, “No, as long as they don’t show any signs like you two have, they’re probably safer than you are for now. But I’m not going to take any chances. We have to be sure that all of you are protected, just in case.” He stood up and started pacing again as he laid out the plan for the next day at school.
“I’ll go to school with Billie and Louis and offer to help in Billie’s class. Ms. Waverly’s always looking for help, so it won’t seem odd for me to be there,” Harper said.
Dinah knew that Ms. Waverly would be thrilled to have her uncle in the class for the entire day. Her crush on him was obvious to the older Ambrose children and it was something that they frequently joked about. She felt better knowing that Uncle Harper would be with her two youngest siblings. They would be completely helpless if the demons decided to move against them, but if anyone could protect them, it was their uncle. She hadn’t seen him as Cole had seen him the night before, but she had always seen the strength within him.
“I want you two to stay close to each other as much as possible tomorrow,” Harper continued. “I’ll have the wolf pack guard the high school, but if the two of you are together, they’re even less likely to make a move.” He still hadn’t seen the complete manifestation of Cole’s abilities, but he grudgingly admitted that Cody had probably been right about him – if he had to fight against the demons, he would be a formidable opponent. And if Dinah’s description of her strength and speed hadn’t been overstated – which he doubted that they were – she would be equally capable of defending herself if she had to.
“What about Vaughan?” Cole asked. He and Dinah were going to be protected by the wolves and Uncle Harper was going to protect Loui
s and Billie, but Vaughan was at the middle school by himself. And it was too far from either the elementary or high school to make it easy for either the wolves or their uncle to cover at the same time.
“I’ll have half of the wolves guard the middle school, while the other half watches out for you two,” Harper said. He worried about the distance between the schools, as well. And Vaughan was the only child that would be alone. Luckily, there was enough woodland around Vaughan’s school that the wolves would be able to keep a close eye on him whenever he was outside. He thought of something else and asked Cole, “Can you ask Cody to keep an eye on Vaughan, as well? Cody’s a little upset with me right now, so it might be better if the request came from you.”
Dinah was confused by her uncle’s question. “How is Cole going to ask our dog to protect a school? Is he the Dr. Doolittle all of a sudden?”
Cole smiled as he realized that there was one part of the story that he and his uncle had both left out. He explained Cody’s true nature to his sister and then told her about his ability to speak with most animals. He left out the part about being able to hear people’s thoughts as well, since he wasn’t sure how she would react to hearing that she couldn’t even keep her thoughts to herself when he was around. Dinah looked at her brother for a moment before nodding. It was getting easier and easier to accept such unusual stories the more she heard about them.
“Sure thing, Uncle Harper,” Cole answered. “I’ll talk to him tonight.” He had little doubt that Cody would do as he asked. Beside the fact that Cole had such a strong relationship with the dog, Cody felt very protective of the other Ambrose children, as well. Cole had sensed on more than one occasion that Cody thought of the entire Ambrose family as his pack.
“Wait a minute,” Dinah interrupted. “Why are the wolves helping us? Are they something else, too?”
Harper shook his head as he answered, “That was Cody’s doing. He decided we were going to need help, so he called one of the larger packs on the continent down from Canada.”
Dinah looked over at Aidan, who was curled up near the pillows on her bed. She hadn’t heard or seen the dog come into the room and wondered if she had been there before she had walked in. She stared at Aidan for a moment, wondering if she had a secret identity too. But Dinah could see nothing strange about the dog other than her eyes. There was something about them that was so familiar to Dinah, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Well then, that’s settled,” Cole said, interrupting Dinah’s thoughts. “At least we have a plan for tomorrow.” He smiled at each of them and they couldn’t help but smile back. He had a way of instantly putting people at ease with his smile and Dinah wondered if it was another power that he had inherited from their mother’s people.
Harper stood up, then turned around and looked at them, “Let’s get through tomorrow and then we’ll decide on a long-term solution, okay?” He smiled at both of them for a moment before saying, “I’m going to get dinner started.”
Both of the children nodded as they smiled tentatively at him. Harper knew they were scared, but their faces were filled with more determination than fear. He thought of his sister again and how each of her children had inherited her strength in different ways. They were extraordinary children and it was now up to him to figure out a way to protect them.
He turned back around and walked out of the bedroom, his mind scouring itself for an idea of what he could do to protect the family on his own, but he knew that he was overmatched. He needed help from his people, and he needed to ask for that help, no matter what had happened between him and them in the past. There was one person that he thought he could reach out to, but he doubted that he would even be able to find him. It had been nearly three hundred years since they had last spoken and even that conversation had been less than polite. But if any of his people were going to help him protect the Ambrose children, it was the Fairtheoiri – the Sentinels. And the person that Harper was going to try to reach was their leader. He hoped that his old friend and mentor could put aside his animosity for Harper and enlist the help of all of the Sentinels to protect the Ambrose family – his family. Harper thought of the Sentinels – a group that he used to belong to and knew that they would be formidable allies in the fight against the demons. But he thought of his last conversation with his cousin Colin ten years before and wondered if any of them, including their leader, were still alive.
Though he was considered fairly young for one of his people, Harper had lived for nearly three thousand years. He had seen human civilization advance to a level that still amazed him. He had felt first-hand the betrayal of humans nearly two thousand years before that had led to the deaths of many people who were dear to him. He had written humanity off after that and gone into seclusion for a long time, avoiding prolonged contact with humans or Aes Sidhe. Throughout all of it, Harper had never doubted himself. He had never worried that what he was doing was right or wrong. It was just what he needed to do, and he did it. But as he tried now to think of a means of protecting his family from the demons that had taken so much from him, he felt something that he had never felt before. He felt powerless and helpless.
Dinah watched as her uncle left her bedroom. She wondered if she was in some form of shock from everything that had happened that day and everything that she had heard. She should have been terrified of even leaving the house. But while she could easily admit that she was afraid, the feeling that she felt more than anything else was determination. She was angry that these creatures had invaded her home and threatened her family. She wondered what her reaction would be the next time she saw them, but she had little doubt that she would willingly face them if they threatened any one of her family members. She would gladly use her newfound strength to make them regret such a thing.
She and Cole were silent for a moment before he asked her, “Are you scared?”
She chuckled mirthlessly before answering, “Of course I am. I’d be nuts if I wasn’t. But Uncle Harper will figure something out.”
“Do you really think so?” Cole asked her. “I mean, it seems like he doesn’t know what to do.” Cole had sensed the indecision coming from his uncle. He wasn’t able to hear his thoughts like he could often hear the rest of his family’s, but he could sometimes sense what his uncle was thinking. And the sense of near-helplessness that had been coming from Uncle Harper only heightened Cole’s fear.
Dinah put her arm around her brother as she answered, “He’ll figure it out, Cole. He’d die before he let something happen to any of us.” She knew it was true and she knew that Cole knew it. Uncle Harper would fight to protect them until he could fight no more.
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Cole told her. “I know he’d give his life for any of us. But if he dies protecting us, then who’s going to protect us from those things?” Uncle Harper was the only one with first-hand knowledge of fighting them. If he was no longer there, Cole suspected that they would be easy pickings for the creatures.
Dinah couldn’t think of a response to her brother’s question. If Uncle Harper failed, they were all dead. They looked at each other in silence, each of them thinking of the demons that even now were likely prowling the woods around their house. For the first time in their lives, their home that had seemed so safe and secure now felt like a trap.