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closed
his eyes again.
    Scratch, scratch, scratch, whoomp!
    Adam sat straight up, his heart pounding at
the sound of something heavy hitting the end of a rope. It had
appeared to come from just overhead. But there was nothing hanging
from the ceiling. There was only the soft flicker of the exterior
light dancing against the far wall, filtered through the leaves of
the tree outside his window.
    A soft swishing noise made Adam look up. The
ceiling lamp in the center of the stained ceiling swayed gently.
Shadows danced around the light, looking like ghostly fingers
reaching across the yellowed plaster.
    Adam took a deep breath and turned, finding
Walter sitting up, quietly staring at him.
    “Sorry boy. I must have been dreaming.”
    Adam lay back down, intending to go back to
sleep, but he was wide awake. He couldn’t relax. So he picked up
his iPad and started reading.
    Scratch, scratch, scratch…
    Adam waited for the terrifying sound that
had followed the previous set of scratches. He could explain the
scratching. Mice or bugs. Even Walter’s nails moving across the
floor as he dreamed. But that other sound…
    He shuddered.
    He glanced at Walter and the big dog was
staring toward the door, unmoving. “What is it, boy?”
    Walter whined.
    Scratch, scratch, scratch…
    The wind howled past the window, setting the
branches of the enormous oak tree near the house into motion. Adam
could see them stark and skeletal against the light. Then the light
blinked out and the wind slammed something against the house.
    Adam was on his feet before he even thought
about it. Walter jumped up too and barked twice, obviously reacting
to Adam’s fear. Adam moved to the window and looked down, trying to
read the shadows swaying across the yard for anything that looked
out of place.
    The wind howled again and, in it, Adam could
have sworn he heard the call of a spectral voice, musty with age
and disuse. Behind him, Walter started barking again and the
bedroom door slammed shut. Adam spun around, gooseflesh lifting on
his arms.
    Walter stared at the door, a low growl
vibrating in his throat.
    The night was black. Only the light of a
full, fat moon shone through the window to give Adam some sense of
the room around him. The moonlight cast a weak trail across the
floor, culminating just beyond Walter, whose fur was standing up in
an alarmed ruff all along his shoulders. The big dog’s tail drooped
and his long ears were tucked back on his head. The growl vibrated
in the silent room, tightening Adam’s chest with fear.
    In the space before the closed door, the
shadows took a terrifying form. Shaped like a man in tattered
clothing, the shadowy figure stood in silence, appearing to stare
at Adam as the wind howled past the window, providing an eerie
lament.
    Adam blinked and the shadows seemed to merge
again. Moving slowly, carefully, he stepped toward the cot and
reached for his tablet. He pressed the button and a bright
rectangle of light shone forth. He held it up, illuminating the
spot where he’d seen the shadow.
    There was nothing.
    Walter yawned and circled three times,
settling back onto his bed with a groan.
    Just like that, everything Adam thought he’d
experienced was gone. He sat in front of the window for a while,
just listening, and then finally went back to bed, though he was
pretty sure he wouldn’t sleep.
    DS
    “We need a new well.”
    Adam stared across the yard, his mind stuck
in events from the night before. He’d gotten very little sleep
after he and Walter had been spooked by their mutual, overactive
imaginations. It had all been nothing. Except it really hadn’t felt
like nothing.
    “Adam?”
    He blinked, realized what Bud had said, and
frowned. “Shit.”
    “Yeah. And it gets worse. The updated survey
was lost in a fire at the title office in town years ago. We can’t
do anything until we get a new survey done.”
    Adam dropped his head into his hands and
expelled a frustrated breath. “How long?”
    “The