Free Dark Daze by Ava Delany

couldn’t stop
staring at. Now glowing blue, it began to crackle. The hair on the
back of her neck stood in response.
    Something sniffed at them from beyond the
window. Buster jumped over the treadmill, an impressive leap, and
ran to the sound.
    The shrieking glass, raked by unseen claws,
grated her nerves, like fingernails on a chalkboard. She shuddered
as Ian turned the gun, putting himself between her and the threat.
She didn’t dare pull up the blinds, so she stayed next to Ian.
    “Listen, whoever you are. I have a .45, and I
know how to use it. Unless you want a few extra holes in your body,
I suggest you leave. Now!” When he finished yelling the words, a
car door slammed.
    “This is the police, open up.”
    Brie sighed and helped Ian push the treadmill
away from the exit.
    “Just around back, it might still be there,”
he yelled as he cleared the doorway.
    The clamoring cops made more noise than the
thing had, while they searched the area around the house. It would
certainly escape since they announced their every move.
    Brie opened the door to the exercise room and
leaned against the jamb, trying not to rub her arms. Ian put the
gun back in his closet before stepping through the entryway. She
followed him to inspect the pile of wood chips, most of it nearly
sawdust, on the threshold. The solid mahogany had been clawed to
the thickness of a pane of glass. The cops came to the porch,
gaping at the door with what might have been fascination.
    “I’m Officer Langley.” The tall, overly
tanned cop pointed at himself, then to his partner, a middle-aged
balding man. “This is Officer Dunstan. You’re the home owner?”
    Ian nodded. “Thank you for coming,
officers.”
    “Sign here.” Langley handed Ian a report.
    “What you need is animal control. Looks like
a bear to me.” Officer Dunstan hitched his belt over his belly.
    “We saw some trash can lids shredded over
there.” Langley pointed his flashlight toward the ruined trashcans.
“A bear is likely your culprit.”
    “How do you explain the calls, officer? We
received several unusual calls.” Brie walked to the port and
pressed the space bar to restart the V.R. program.
    They listened to the messages.
    “We took the last call.” Ian told them the
story up until the moment they’d heard the car door, omitting the
gun. Brie wondered why, but kept her mouth closed.
    Langley wrote down the last call received
from the i-com and then Dunstan looked at him. The big man set his
jaw and practically rolled his eyes at his partner. Brie didn’t
need her intuition to know they weren’t going to help.
    “We’ll check it out, but it’s obviously a
prank call. A neighbor must have seen the bear near your house and
called you to scare you. Some people have a sick sense of
humor.”
    “But Officer Langley—” Bears couldn’t do what
had been done to Ian’s door.
    “Listen Miss, maybe you two should stay
somewhere else tonight—a motel, or a friend’s house maybe.”
    “I—” Ian stepped forward.
    “Give the i-com company a call. They can help
you stop the prank calls. And animal control will tell you what you
can do about the bear.”
    The cops turned and walked back to the car,
ignoring Ian’s shaking head.
    Brie turned to Ian. “Why didn’t you tell the
cops about the gun?”
    “I didn’t want them to give me a hard time
about it. They left so fast. They obviously think this is a joke,
but something is happening here.” He stared at the julienned door
while he spoke. “And maybe you should go too. I’d understand if you
feel safer away from me and my strange i-com wielding bears.”
    She smiled, but for a moment, she couldn’t
answer. What was she doing here? She liked Ian, but she
should run. At least her flips were safe, barring the occasional
fall. Whatever destroyed the door was far more real, and dangerous.
So why wasn’t she running?
    Instinct told her he was a good man, and she
had shared her truth with him. She’d always wanted