Natasha wiped back the teardrops that had formed on the rim of her eyes. She'd woken with such a violent force that she nearly hurled the late night snack she'd eaten before bed. Sitting up on her sweat drenched sheets she collected her thoughts picking at the dregs of her already dissolving dreams. The nightmare had been different from others that had been troubling her since the end of summer. In frustration Natasha tore her blanket off her legs. The dream had felt so real.

  The rage and fear she'd felt lingered on for long minutes as she gathered herself. A shiver ran through her entire body. It took her a while to calm her nerves and convince her swimming mind that the dream was over.

  An overwhelming need to put everything onto a piece of paper flooded over her. She pulled herself off the mattress and got an instant light headed feeling. The urge to write was so strong that Natasha ignored her trembling knees and crossed her room to her desk.

  She rummaged through some of her school supplies in a panic, quietly repeating to herself what she remembered. Natasha had told her mom about her nightmares and she'd insisted that she record everything. Writing in a journal was a stupid tweeny thing to do so Natasha had tossed the journal her mom had given her in a pile of other unused binders.

  This dream had been one of intense contrasts. Soft sounds had hurt, and her skin scorched without heat. Her brain felt like it was in overdrive; a faint pulsing thrummed around her, as if she was too close to a booming subwoofer. She still felt a tinge of that throbbing in the air as she made her way back to her still warm bed, journal and pen in hand.

  By the time Natasha reached her bed she could only recall was the terror and a hazy mishmash of images. Without much to go on, she jotted down what she could.

  'terrified – can't remember why – & also angry about what was happening. There'd been a girl on the other side of a window, maybe a mirror. She'd been pleading for' Natasha paused mid sentence. For what? She thought hard, but the girl's plight wouldn't come to her. With frustration Natasha scrawled in large letters 'I needed to see it?'

  "But I couldn't." Natasha slapped the journal shut and threw it onto her floor. "What was it?"

  She racked her brain but no ah-ha moments came to her. Natasha pulled out her phone and it automatically lit up, too bright, it was four in the morning and there was still three more hours until she needed to get ready for school. Too restless to get back to sleep, Natasha got up and slipped on her socks.

  It was winter and in Nanaimo that meant rain, solid sheets of which poured down most days. Creeks near her house had swollen twice, and some even three times as normal. As the night had settled in, the clouds had let up and a half moon peeked out over the treetops. On clear nights the temperature dropped well below zero. In the mornings, especially so far out of town, the sun would rise to a misty and frosted world. Natasha looked out the window pleased to see the stars twinkling in the inky sky. She only ever wore shorts and an undershirt for pyjamas. Her mother always gave her a "are you kidding me" look when Natasha got ready for bed on nights like these, but she was always hot so she preferred the cold like this because it was more comfortable.

  There was a soft scratch and a whimper at the bedroom door. It startled Natasha but she sheepishly laughed, it was only her dog, Tucker. She crossed the room and opened it to find the Saluki-Cross sitting at the threshold impatiently. He whined and licked her hand as she went to scratch his ears, then darted part way down the hall and stopped to look back at her.

  "Tuck, what do you want?" Natasha approached him but again he darted a little further away. She yawned. "You wanna go outside, Tuckbuck?"

  Tucker never settled down. Even in his sleep he would wiggle and twitch like a mad thing. Natasha smiled; Tucker was exactly like her, never able to stay inside for long and legs always having that itch to move. Natasha didn't do well in school, though never at the bottom of the class. She could never find anything she was passionate about. She drifted along doing just enough to never fail. Grades didn't worry her much; she figured that she would find her path one day. Somewhere outside, where she could run, that's all she figured.

  Tucker lead Natasha down the stairs, through the kitchen and began to scratch at the back door. He sniffed frantically at the cracks and paced impatiently from one side to another.

  "Okay, okay," Natasha unlocked and opened the door for him.

  In one bound Tucker was running for the back of their fence. Natasha thought he was going to jump it, but as he reached the back he halted. He stood with his ears back, tail over his back creating an arc of white feathery fur. His head went low and heckles up. He must've been growling at something Natasha couldn't quite make out. She squinted, trying to see what he could be so interested in but all she could see was the black of the forest that bled into their property. The half moon was not bright enough to cast light in the shadows of the thick pine trees.

  "Tuck!" She called in a harsh whisper. "Hey, leave it. Tucker!"

  The dog glanced at her, paused a moment then glared at their large Garry Oak tree. A branch snapped and fell at the dog's feet. He broke out into frantic barking and howling. The only other time he had made such a fuss about was when a black bear had been rambling around their fence a couple years back. If anything, Tucker was a protective dog, something that came with his breed, Natasha's mom had said.

  "Tucker, inside now!"

  Tucker stopped, ears flattened on his head. He wouldn't be able to beat off a bear. Natasha threw on her mom's yard loafers to step onto the porch when Tucker backed off with a strangled whine. Then, with another bout of barks at the darkness he ran back to Natasha.

  She once again tried to see what had bothered the dog so much. She saw on one of the oak's low branches a black figure. She at first scoffed at the dog, thinking it was just some wildlife, maybe an owl or raven roosting for the night, but on second thought the thing must've been twice the size of any bear she'd seen around town. The branch it sat on was thick as a thigh and yet still bowed under the creature's weight. The thing didn't have much of a shape, it's edges disappeared in the weak light the moon tried to shine on it. However, three glowing orbs where eyes could be shone through the bare branches.

  It was staring straight back at her. The sound it began to make was terrifying, a rasping rattle like an old motor that had gone long past its service date. It must've moved as Natasha heard more branches snapping.

  "The hell is that?" Natasha asked the dog as she bent over to check him over.

  With a tight whine Tucker licked her arm to reassure her. Once she looked down the rattling stopped completely. Natasha scrutinized the yard. It was devoid of anything that could be considered abnormal. The thing had disappeared. Natasha removed the shoes and dragged the dog back inside. She pulled the door shut and locked both bolts. It felt like something was watching her from beyond the fence; her neck prickled. Tucker too was on edge, keeping his eyes on the closed door.

  "A bear." Natasha said, patting the dog on the head. "Must've been a bear."

  The branch kept her from being a hundred percent sure. It had bowed down so far under the massive weight. Not even a bear was that heavy. But no, no, it had definitely been a bear. Natasha left it at that as shaking she made her way into the living room.

  Now even more than before she wasn't gonna get to sleep. To keep herself from over thinking any further she turned the TV on and flipped to the Weather Network. The usual news repeated every 10 minutes allowing Natasha to lull herself into a news stupor. It was five-ten when a red alert screen appeared after the local forecast.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "Blizzard conditions developing overnight tonight and Thursday over coastal British Columbia. This is a warning that blizzard conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions and watch for updated statements."

  The screen blipped off as the weatherman droned on about the different low pressures and squall lines that were going across Canada. Natasha drifted off to sleep with her head perched on the armrest Tucker taking up two thirds of the couch head on her hip.

  Even in her dreams she couldn't wipe the memory of three glowing eyes hovering in the trees.

  ___

  With a start Natasha woke up when her mom called her name softly from the hallway. She looked at the warning screen of the TV, the time was displaying in the corner. It was 6:30. Natasha was so horribly tired. Even after the nap she fought to sit up and tried to rub the sleep from her eyes with no luck.

  "You okay Sasha?" Her mom took a seat next to Natasha pushing Tucker off.

  "I'm fine," Natasha's throat was dry and hoarse. "Just a bad dream, and I couldn't get back to sleep."

  "One of those dreams?" She stroked Natasha's forehead who could feel that it was definitely hotter than usual.

  "Yeah," Natasha sighed and frowned. "They're really dumb. It's starting to get a bit much."

  Alicia wrapped her arms around Natasha and rocked her from side to side. There was a long pause as they listened to each other's breathing. Natasha wasn't sure if she should tell her mom about what she had seen in the yard. She chalked it up as a monster she had made out of the shadows of the trees in her sleepiness.

  "Don't worry about it Sasha," her mom said finally. "They're just dreams; nothing in a dream can hurt you."

  She pulled Natasha in for a kiss on the forehead and got up from the couch.

  "Let's have some breakfast," she said walking towards the kitchen, in the doorway Natasha's mom paused and looked back. "I love you, Sasha. When you need me, I'll be there. Anytime – every time."

  "Mom, you okay?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.

  "No worries here." She smiled. "Now, how about an omelette to eat?"

  Natasha noted a hint of apprehension in her mom's voice. She knew her mother was a light sleeper. Her dad could sleep through a hurricane, like some kind of immovable object. But mom would wake up with the slightest out of place sound. Natasha saw goose bumps on her mother's arms and her jaw was set in frustration. There was something bothering her, though Natasha wasn't sure what it could be.

  Natasha watched her mom exit the room before tuning back into the news. The same channel was on. It flashed several clips of extreme weather; a bright strike of lightning, a hurricane, storms and a volcano. Intense music played as "Force of Nature" wiped across the screen. A weatherwoman dissolved in and greeted Natasha. She spoke about other severe weather around the world. Behind her heavy rain pelted a river that had once been a street in some tropical location, and then a silhouetted person trudged through three feet of snow with futility.

  Natasha heard her mother start fiddling around in the kitchen. There was a time when she dreaded eating her mother's food. Her dad used to cook the more complicated meals, like Christmas dinner and Easter brunch. Her mom, after years of hard work and studying dad's techniques, had improved her skills somewhat. Last year she had even managed cooking a halfway decent Thanksgiving turkey. She'd always been able to make eggs though. Give her an egg and she could perform a miracle, dad would always say.

  The omelet sizzled on the frying pan. Natasha couldn't resist going to sit at the kitchen counter to take in the aroma. Mom grated cheese into the pan. Tucker's paws clacked on the tiled floor as he walked into the kitchen from the dining room. He stared up at the ham mom had pulled out of the fridge in fruitless hope she would maybe this time drop it.

  "Tuck get out you silly dog," Alicia pulled off a small morsel and threw it to him. "Go on, get!"

  Tucker swallowed the meat in a gulp then looked back up at mom. She pointed to the other room. Tucker lowered his head, sniffed a bit and went to lie down on the threshold of the tiles. He continued to stare at the ham unblinking. It had however successfully made it to the counter.

  Mom flipped the omelet over and let it sit while she fetched some condiments. She set them by Natasha and turned back to the stove.

  "What was he barking at earlier?" She asked as she lifted the delicious omelette from the pan and put it on a plate in front of Natasha.

  "Something in the trees, I think." Natasha picked up the ketchup and squirted a thick line onto the omelette. "He was on the other side of the yard, so I couldn't see anything."

  Natasha looked up at her mother then back down at her food, still picking at it. She'd decided that it was best not to worry her mother about what she might or might not have seen. Mom went to the kitchen window and peered out.

  Natasha took a large bite of egg and followed her mother's gaze. "It's probably gone by now."

  "Hm. I have to go to work soon," Alicia said as she pulled out a packet of oatmeal and began to prepare it for herself. "Just keep an eye out today, at school."

  "At school?" Natasha gave her mom an incredulous look.

  "On the way to the bus stop, I mean," she took a seat next to her daughter and pulled her iPhone out to check e-mails. "Whatever was out there could still be around and I want you to be careful."

  "Ah, yeah." Natasha finished off her food in a hurry then put the dirty plate in the sink.

  There was still time to take a shower before she had to leave for school. Natasha stole a glance at her mother, worried and confused about what she meant, then headed upstairs.

  Alicia finished with her phone and stuck it back in her pocket. Before she got herself ready for work she peered back out of the kitchen window. Fog leaked out of the trees with long fingers reaching out to the house. Out underneath the coniferous trees something shifted setting the fog into swirls.

  She tensed. An instinctual warning hit her. There was a predator out there and it was hunting. Alicia wasn't sure who, but it had been a long time since she'd felt this much hesitation. She turned away from the window and muttered the incantation of a protection spell under her breath. Starting from where she stood was a low rattling hiss, like opening a pop can, and a shimmer of light wiped over the property.

  Alicia grimaced, that was not going to do much but at least it'd give them time in case her instincts were correct. She figured – she always figured that it was best to be careful.

  Natasha went back to her room from the steaming bathroom. The door slammed behind her.

  "Took you long enough!" Her brother yelled back at her. Natasha shook her head; Aiden was always the one to barge through without thinking.

  Natasha grabbed her school bag and packed in her textbooks and binders. By the time she had finished getting ready it was light outside. The sky was a light mauve bordered with yellow on the horizon as the weak winter sun hung low behind the trees. She opened her window to let in some crisp air. Everything felt a lot better after cleaning up. She left the window open and slung her pack over her shoulder and hurried downstairs to see if her brothers were ready to go.

  "Where's Damon?" Natasha asked as she passed Aiden coming out of the bathroom.

  "Dunno, he was still asleep when I got out of bed," Aiden replied with a shrug.

  Natasha pulled out her phone to check the time. "'Course he is. Dammit, we're gonna be late for the bus."

  It was already 7:10 as you made your way into the kitchen. Damon climbed the stairs from the basement, his hair a complete mess as usual. He yawned and stretched his arms above him before grabbing a granola bar from the cupboard for breakfast.

  "Mornin'," Damon said, opening the package and taking a large bite as he lazily waved to his sister.

  "We gotta go." Natasha motioned to the door and looked up the stairs for Aiden who had once again managed to disappear.

  It was like herding cats in this house.

  "Chill, Sasha. Dad said he was going to give us a ride." Damon shrugged and finished the granola bar off with the second bite and walked off to the bathroom upstairs.

  Their mom opened the front door and stepped in, a cold blast of air coming in with her entrance, dressed in her usual slacks and dress shirt holding her University coffee mug.

  "Going over to Nick's today?" She asked, looking over at Natasha with a raised brow.

  "Yeah, right after school, we're gonna walk together."

  "Okay, I'll pick you up on my way home." She pulled out her keys and gave Natasha a quick hug. "Have a good day at school, sweetie."

  Natasha's dad passed her, giving a pat on her shoulder, and walked Alicia out to the car. The couple stood outside for a while talking and Natasha groaned as she saw him give her a peck on the lips before she climbed into the Station Wagon. After waiting for the car to drive off down the road Stephen walked in with a cheeky smile.

  "Everyone ready?" He called as he shut the door getting several yeses called back from throughout the house.

  "Why're you taking us to school today?" Natasha asked as her dad shut the door and shivered from the sudden temperature change.

  "Your mom's worried about cougars or bears." He shook his head. "You know how she is."

  With a crinkled expression Natasha shook her head in reply and walked into the livingroom to wait for her brother's to get ready. She found Tucker lying on the couch nearest to the window half propped on the back looking out with watery eyes and trembling tail. He always sulked when people left the house. She took a seat next to him and they both watched as the last of the morning fog burned off in the brightening morning.

  "Alright let's go guys!" Stephen called a minute later with a couple boys calling back to 'hold up'.

  The twins sauntered in, backpacks in tow and Natasha sighed, heaving herself up, giving Tucker one last pat on the back, and grabbing her bag to join the rest of her family. It was a long few minutes before everyone was at the entrance and ready to go. Dad handed each of them a stuffed brown bag lunch then struggled to put his boots on before heading out.