Chapter 19
Stairway to Darkness
The first step outside the cabin was the hardest. Ryan knew it would be. Turning out the gas light, killing the comforting glow, unlocking the door, then opening it. Those had been hard. Sticking his head out, the rain and a fall of water running from the roof drenching him in an instant, and half expecting the monster to tear it off before he could even step foot outside. It ran counter to every survival instinct in him, but he did it with only the slightest hesitation.
The clouds had broken up, letting moonlight through at full shine, and that had helped. He could see to the fire ring and beyond. To his right, to the last cabin, but not the trail to the lake. To his left, the mouth of The Devil’s Tail Road and the woods.
No hulking giant. No mo
