I heard footsteps somewhere outside, and a kerfuffle in the bushes. My eyes blinked open, peering around the edges of my tent, imagining what lay beyond the flimsy tarp, with only stitches, zippers, and plastic as the barrier between me and whatever was out there.
A stick snapped, and I imagined giant paws trampling upon me and a death grip clamped around my throat. I bolted upright, sitting as still as a corpse, my ears tuned to all sagging corners. The air felt crisp. It was predawn dark through my window flap, with only a faint hint of light thinning the inky blackness of the woods. I leaned to peek through the screen. No bears pillaged around my picnic table, and no deer nipped at the moonlit ferns and grass around my campsite. A distant but eerie howl initiated goosebumps, but nothing rustled near my tent. Whatever had passed through my surroundings must have slunk away into the night.
I snuggled deep into my sleeping bag, resisting the nagging urge to look at my phone. Minutes of delicious silence passed. My heart slowed. I flipped onto my side, and peace washed over me until more feet scampered in a sloppy circle around my tent. What was out there?
With a racing heart, I slithered from my sleeping bag, lit my phone’s flashlight, and crawled to the opening of my tent, zipping it down. I lurched from my tent, pointing my phone around me. There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. I screamed, and so did the intruder, holding their arms up and dropping an armful of fiddlehead ferns, along with a glittering steel knife that stuck up from the ground like an exclamation point. I gulped and shone my light into the middle-aged face of a woman with wide, glassy eyes.
“I was just collecting ferns,” she said, stepping backward.
“At night?”
“No. Well, before daylight, when the shoots emerge,” the woman said, chirpy, as if this kind of terrifying foraging were normal.
The woman grabbed her ferns, sheathed her knife, and tiptoed away.
I frowned, but wondered what a fiddlehead fern must taste like.
I returned to my tent.
Happy Halloween!
Dreamsphere Books returned my edit and work has begun on Chorus of Crows, which is set to launch in early 2026! Plus, I had a blast with my all day takeover at Tattered Page Book Club last Friday. I'm giving away 5 print copies to the winners, and ebooks to everyone that entered.
