Candace Sharkey’s fingers trembled as she flicked the wheel of her lighter and touched the flame to the tip of her cigarette. She inhaled deeply, trying to suppress her growing sense of unease. She would never admit it aloud, but she was afraid of the dark.

Standing on the side of an unlit road that wound through the little nothing town of Starke, Maryland, the blackness was nearly total, broken only by an occasional glimpse of the moon between shifting clouds. She could barely make out the shapes of the towering trees lining the road, their branches interweaving to form a skeletal canopy over the neglected blacktop. Listening to the symphony of creaks and moans as the bare tree limbs rubbed together overhead, Candace shuddered.

“Cold?” her companion asked. Without waiting for her response, he shrugged out of his coat and hung it around her shoulders. His musky scent enveloped her. The coat was several sizes too large for her petite frame. Its sleeves hung past her quivering fingers, so she had to push them up to avoid singeing them with her cigarette. Despite the warmth of the coat, a shiver ran down her spine.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t alone.

He brushed her hair, which was the color of aged walnut, away from her shoulders. His hand lingered on the back of her neck, his thumb making lazy circles against her skin. She broke out into goosebumps. He leaned closer, nibbled her earlobe, and heat surged through her body. “If you’re still cold, I can think of better ways to stay warm,” he murmured.

In response, she ran her hand over his chest. She loved the way he felt, all hard angles and firm muscles. “I’d love to, cowboy, but my husband is going to start wondering what happened to me soon.”

Thinking about the husband and son waiting for her at home sent a pang of guilt through her. She’d fallen in love with Nick when they were both just sixteen but over the years, Candace had managed to lose more than passion for her husband. She’d lost all sense of herself. She thought it would get better when she went back to work after her son was old enough, but between her tedious job, the grueling commute, and a needy child waiting for her at home, she felt herself slipping away a little more every day.

The only time she really felt alive was when she was in her companion’s arms.

She’d cheated on Nick before, usually when she was feeling particularly invisible. It helped, for a while. Her husband paid little attention to her beyond, “What are we having for dinner, hon?” and “Can you go check on Mark, babe?” Being the object of affection of a man, even for one night, made her feel sexy and important.

Then she met her cowboy and realized that there could be more to life than fleeting hook ups with random strangers. Being with him was exhilarating. He was more imaginative than anyone she’d ever been with before. She got a thrill out it, even if sometimes his idea of a good spot for a quickie was a deserted road in the middle of the woods.

He stroked her cheek with one calloused finger. “When can I see you again?” he asked breathlessly. His enthusiasm made her feel like she was a teenager again, free from all responsibilities.

As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t ignore those responsibilities forever, “I’m sure I can slip away sometime this weekend.”

He grinned. “It’s a date.” He plucked the cigarette, nearly burned down to the filter, from her fingers, dropped it, and ground it out with his shoe. Then he kissed her, his tongue probing into her mouth. She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning into him. He was like a drug to her and she never wanted to let him go, even as the kiss fogged up her glasses.

A low grumbling noise startled them apart. Candace looked around wildly, trying to pinpoint the sound. Her companion grabbed her by the elbow and propelled her up the steep bank, dragging her into the dark woods. “Hurry,” he said.

The guttural growl repeated itself, this time louder and much closer. A flash of light threw wild shadows across the road. Candace’s heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest as he pushed her further into the woods. “Hide,” he ordered, shoving her behind a tree.

The sound swelled to a roar as a truck rumbled around a sharp curve in the road. Its single headlight swept over her station wagon, illuminating the still-fogged windows. The speed limit was only thirty miles per hour on this stretch of neglected road, but the decrepit pickup truck was barely managing half of that. As it approached the pair of vehicles parked on the narrow shoulder, it slowed to a crawl. Candace held her breath, even though there was no way the driver could have heard her panting over the cacophony coming from under the hood.

She peeked around the tree she was hiding behind as the ancient truck finally passed. The tailgate was barely held shut with bailing wire. The truck, which listed dangerously to one side due to the donut tire on the back wheel, hit a pothole. The muffler, belching exhaust, struck the blacktop road and sent a shower of sparks into the night.

“That was close.” Candace said, breathless. The possibility of getting caught made sneaking around even more exciting, but the real world repercussions of it would have been disastrous. “We should call it a night.”

He grinned at her. “Whatever Candy wants,” he said as he helped her down the steep bank and steered her towards their vehicles. He pressed her against the passenger side door of her car and leaned in, one hand planted on either side of her. “I had fun tonight.”

“Me too,” she admitted as she shrugged out of his jacket and handed it back to him. “Why don’t you go first tonight?” she asked, shivering in the frigid night air.

It was their standard operating procedure. Whenever they parted ways, one of them would leave first, taking the most direct route to their destination. The other would wait ten minutes and take the long way back. Normally, Candace would go first. But her heart still raced from nearly being discovered.

She shook a cigarette out of the pack. “I think I’ll have another first.” Nick would be furious if he found out that she was cheating on him, but it would be almost as bad if he knew she’d picked up smoking again after Mark was born. As long as she kept the windows rolled down on her drive home, he would never be the wiser about either indiscretion.

He kissed her again. “Text me when you can slip out.”

“I will,” she promised.

Slipping his fingers from hers, he gave her one last heart-melting grin before heading back to his vehicle. She wanted to call out to him, to ask him to stay, but forced herself to smile instead when he glanced over his shoulder at her before unlocking the door. He started the engine and waved as he pulled away. His brake lights flashed once before he disappeared around a curve.

She sagged against her car, feeling the oppressive weight of the night envelop her as she tried to light her cigarette with numb fingers. She felt the familiar twinge of nerves that always accompanied being alone in the dark, but she pushed it away with an effort of will. This would likely be the last cigarette she got to enjoy until she got to work the next morning, so she intended to savor every second of it.

Despite the cold night around her, stolen moments like this made her life feel more bearable.

A noise in the trees caught her attention. The woods were never really silent, but this sound was unfamiliar. It sounded almost like a puppy’s bark, a high-pitched yipping. Candace tensed, listening intently for the sound but it was not repeated. Automatically, she slipped her hand into her cardigan pocket and closed her fist around her keys.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” she told herself aloud, clutching her keys. What would Nick think if he saw her now, cowering in the dark because of a weird little sound she couldn’t identify? How could she ever teach her son to face his fears if she couldn’t handle her own? Candace took a defiant drag on her cigarette, determined to not let herself get spooked over nothing.

Then, somewhere in the woods, a branch snapped and Candace jumped. “It’s probably just a raccoon,” she told herself under her breath. Pressing her back against her car, she inched sideways towards the hood. She told herself that nothing was stalking her from the deep shadows, that it was just her imagination running away with her, but the noises grew louder as something approached. She glanced towards the sound.

Two tiny pinpricks of light appeared, hovering in midair. They were soon joined by another pair of glittering eyes a few feet away.

“Oh to hell with this!” she exclaimed. Candace dropped her cigarette and bolted around the front of the hood. She focused on her key ring, her hands trembling as she shuffled through the absurd number of keys, looking for the one that would unlock her station wagon. When she glanced up, she froze in terror.

Something crouched beside her car, blocking the driver’s door.

As it stared her down, it rose to full height. For a moment, she goggled at it, unable to move, unable to even breathe. If her worst nightmare had nightmares, the result would be a mewling calico kitten compared to the abomination before her.

Candace tried to run, but her body refused to cooperate. Her limbs felt paralyzed, even as it reached for her. Finally, she forced her legs to take a single shuffling step backwards, but when she did, she collided with a solid mass behind her.

Before she could glance over her shoulder, the thing behind her grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked. Candace cried out as her head snapped back, sending a bolt of pain down her spine. Adrenaline flooded her veins as another brutal yank wrenched her off her feet. Her screams cut off abruptly as her head hit the pavement, and everything went black.