First Snowfall

First Snow I loved the house. Until the first snowfall. I was going to my car when I spotted tracks leading from the shed: odd organic impressions with claws marks splaying at random angles. They led to my basement door, now open. Something is in my house, I thought, suddenly terrified. Sometime during the night,…

Svelty and Stock

Svelty and Stock It was my turn to seek. Again. . . . 99, 100. I turned around, pretending not to see Svelty—the size of a house and trying to crouch behind leafless trees. Svelty always felt bad about being found first. Stock—whip thin and camouflaged—felt bad he could never be found. It was an…