Protecting the Sasquatches
Beginning of Chapter One
Coos Bay, Oregon
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Tawny lowered the car window and listened.
The Oregon forest was unnaturally quiet. No frogs croaking. No crickets chirping. Not a single bird calling.
A flicker of movement caught her eye. She turned sharply—but saw nothing except the dark line of trees.
Still… she could have sworn something had darted between them.
By day, the forest along Seven Devils Road was picturesque. Moss clung to towering Douglas firs, thick carpets of ferns spread beneath huckleberry bushes, and wildflowers bordered the narrow two-lane road.
At night, it felt different.
Menacing.
“I wonder how long until the tow truck gets here?” Josh asked. Sitting in the driver’s seat, her fiancé sounded bored and impatient. “I’m cold. Shut the window.”
Tawny rolled it up. “The dispatcher said it’ll be a while. There’s an accident on Highway 101. Someone swerved to avoid a Bigfoot—or more likely a bear—and hit a tree.”
Josh’s face paled. “A Bigfoot? Let’s hope it doesn’t show up here.”
Tawny laughed. “You have nothing to worry about. We both know Bigfoots are a myth.”
“No, they aren’t,” Josh argued. “They’re real.”
A low wail suddenly echoed through the forest—drawn-out and eerie—shattering the silence. The sound rose in pitch, then slowly faded away.
Silence.
Then it came again. Longer this time.
A hollow, haunting cry that sent a chill racing down Tawny’s spine.
Caught Between Life & Death
Beginning of Chapter One
Coos Bay, Oregon
_____________
David jerked upright, breath catching in his throat.
A jolt of pain knifed through his injured leg.
Someone—or something—had climbed into his bed.
He pushed himself up and stared at the shadowy figure lying on the other side of the four-poster bed. It was too dark to tell who—or what—it was.
He lived alone.
No one should be in his house.
No one should be in his bedroom.
And absolutely no one should be in his bed.
David swung his legs to the floor and snapped on the Tiffany lamp. Light streamed through the stained glass, casting amber, red, and blue across the dark walls. He turned back to the bed—and gasped. A woman lay beneath the gold and blue quilt, her light brown hair spilling across his extra pillow.
Was she a ghost?
No. She couldn’t be. He didn’t believe in the supernatural. Still, unease slid through him. His neighbors had warned him that his newly purchased Victorian house was haunted. Several people had seen a mysterious blue light glowing in the tower room window and a flame-like object circling the house late at night. But no one had mentioned a woman haunting the place.
He had lived here for two weeks and had seen nothing unusual.
Until now.
He limped to the other side of the bed and looked down at the intruder. A faint translucent cast shimmered across her skin, and a soft blue glow surrounded her body.
For the first time since purchasing the Oregon Coast Victorian, David wondered if the house truly was haunted.