TERATO

O, Light of My Life

//Warning: foreshadowed death, paranoia, and smut.
//The smut doesn't happen til you hit the dotted line though, so if you just want a sweet Mothman fic, have at it until you reach the dotted line. Then skip over it to the next part.
//As always, notes at the end!
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This was the third night.

A noise had come from your barn, like the incessant buzzing of hundreds of insects. Had it been summer, you would've thought nothing of it.
But it wasn't summer.
It was dead winter.

Your breath fogged in front of you, your steps crunching slightly against the frozen ground. Passively, you wondered if it would snow.
The light of your lantern was so bright...

Your feet fell deeply into the snow as you trudged on. Home was somewhere close... Probably.
The blizzard raged, and you felt yourself stumble slightly. You'd been out for who knows how long, and your whole body was numb. You could hardly see a foot in front of you.
The nearest neighbors were almost a mile out, and... They'd gone on vacation, you vaguely recalled.
You were going to die here.
Yes. It is sad. I... Am sorry.

You blinked, your gaze shifting from the lantern you held just inches from your face. You lowered it, rubbing your eyes with a hand as you looked around.
Where were you? What had you been doing?
You felt as if you'd been heading to the barn... But you couldn't quite remember why. The answer nagged at you, dancing just out of reach.
You returned to your house, questions unanswered.

"Hey! We know you're busy bein' a shut in, work from home type. But we were just wondering if you could watch Dewy for a couple days."
You held the receiver to your ear, fiddling with the looped cord that connected your home phone to the wall. It was pretty old, but you'd never really had the need for much aside from your laptop, which wasn't exactly a spring chicken either. "Goin' on a vacation Mrs. Jensen?"
"Oh, you know how Rachel is." Mrs. Jensen laughed good naturedly. "She's always wanted to see Niagara Falls, and I figure we're not too far off. We could use this vacation to do some... How'd she put it? Real couple-y things."
"Yeah, I can watch D-Dog. He's bout the size of an animal cracker, so he should be pretty easy to take care of." You said in response. You felt bad for the Jensens. Sure, they were happy, and they enjoyed their simple lives living on the outskirts of town. But you'd heard some horror stories about how a few townies had acted when Rachel had settled down with a wife instead of a husband. "You guys take that time to get some fresh air. And don't let her go off on some Park Ranger-y tangent. She should take the time away to relax, not think about work."
"Oh, for sure." Mrs. Jensen said enthusiastically. "If she even tries, I'll pull down her little hood and get her soaked!"
Rachel's voice called out from the background, muffled from the distance. "I heard that, Samantha."
"Ope. Thanks again for all your help! I'll drop Dewey off tomorrow morning around ten, and I'll leave you the spare key in case he ends up needing more food than I thought. Gotta go now!"
"Okay, sure. Bye Mrs. Jensen." You said, hanging up and looking around your kitchen. A light chill hung in the air, and you let out a huff before walking over to the thermostat to try to get the heat to kick on. "Damn ghosts touching the thermostat again..."
Of course, you knew very well it was on a timer that you'd never really figured how to turn off. The thermostat would be set at a nice seventy two degrees for around an hour, then switch back to sixty without so much as a beep. You turned the thermostat up a bit higher than usual, since you expected Dewey to get cold a bit easier than you. He was a shorthair Chihuahua, after all, and it would be hard for you to tell if he was shaking cause he was cold or shaking just to shake.
You'd just taken a step away from the wall when your head spun, your vision reeling violently as a piercing ringing sound sent a lance of pain through your ears.

Your feet fell deeply into the snow as you trudged on. Home was somewhere close... Probably. Dewey barked in the distance, but the sound seemed to come from everywhere all at once. He was in the house. It couldn't be far.
The blizzard raged, and you felt yourself stumble slightly. You'd been out for who knows how long, and your whole body was numb. You could hardly see a foot in front of you.
The nearest neighbors were almost a mile out, and... They'd gone on vacation. That's right. It's why you were sure that wherever that barking was coming from, your house would be. You were dog-sitting.
You were outside, in a snow storm.
You were cold...
You were going to die here.
Yes. I can only do so much. Please listen, Fifteen.