Page 37 of Lost to the Woods

“You can hold onto me all you want,” he murmurs. “Ilikewhen you’re clingy.”

I shove him, face burning. “You’re the worst.”

Before he can reply—

BANG.

A heavy thud shakes the walls. Loud. Deep. Wrong. Like something heavy slamming against the roof of the house.

I jump, gripping the front of Ghost’s hoodie. “You guys are fucking with me!”

But Nate laughs nervously without humor. Dev’s camera is still steady, his face unreadable. Kendra looks pale.

“That wasn’t you?” she asks sharply.

Dev shrugs. “It’s probably just the house settling.”

BANG.

The next bang is even louder, like it came from the floor itself. Definitely not settling.

I squeeze my eyes shut. “I hate this.”

Ghost’s arm tightens around me. His voice drops near my ear. “Told you, sweetheart, just ignore it.”

Easier said than done. I’ve never been more scared in my entire life.

Then the howling starts.

It doesn’t sound like wolves. It doesn’t sound like anything that should exist in nature. It starts low—windy, maybe—but then it layers, curls into something high and almost human, like someone screaming underwater.

The sound swells. Crashes. Lingers.

The air presses in like lungs too full.

Then—

Scratching.

Faint. One side of the house.

Then the other.

Back again.

Circling.

Searching for the way in.

Kendra gasps. “What the actual fuck.”

Dev hasn’t stopped filming. His camera pans slowly toward the back window—just in time to catch a shape moving past the glass. A blur of motion. Too tall.

I choke on my breath and squeeze my eyes shut. I do not want to see.

Nate breathes heavily as he reminds us. “Nobody open the blinds. Nobody look.”

Whispers tickle the edges of the room. Light, like leaves brushing glass. But they’re not in English. Or maybe they are, but twisted—drawn out and dragged through static.

---