Mason
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Open.
I heard the sticky pull of the weather stripping, then the faint creak of the hinges.
I had checked that lock.
I know I had.
I checked it twice.
I still don't know if the door didn't latch all the way, or if the lock failed, or if it opened some other way.
But I heard it.
Then I heard hooves on the kitchen floor.
Slow, hard, one step at a time.
Clack, pause.
Clack, pause.
The dispatcher asked what I heard.
I couldn't speak.
I just held the phone close and listened as whatever had been outside walked through the kitchen.
A normal deer inside a house would panic.
It would slip, crash into cabinets, knock things over, smash itself against windows.
This didn't.
It moved slowly through the house like it was checking rooms.
I heard its hooves on the tile, then on the wood floor in the living room.
I heard the dogs scrambling.