He stepped out, and I turned the heavy deadbolt.

I stood in the center of the dark cabin, waiting.

The silence of the woods seemed to press against the walls.

Then, the screen of my phone lit up.

It wasn’t a call.

It was a notification from the security system I had set up on my personal email.

An alert that someone had just accessed my old cloud drive from an IP address registered to a location less than five miles from here.

My breath caught in my throat.

I picked up the phone, my thumb hovering over the screen.

Suddenly, a loud thump echoed from the back of the cabin.

I turned toward the hallway that led to the rear exit.

The sound of wood splintering cut through the quiet night.

I held my breath.

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.

I slid my phone into my back pocket and crept toward the kitchen counter.

My fingers wrapped around the handle of a heavy cast-iron skillet sitting on the stove.

It was the only weapon within reach.