Uninvited
CHAPTER ONE
Kelly Ruland didn't know how long the animal had been watching her.
She was at the edge of the road, studying the memorial that she and her friend Nick had been working on for the past few months. After countless designs they decided on a tall wooden obelisk, which they cut and hammered together in Nick's stepfather's workshop. On two sides of the triangle, Kelly painted a portrait of each of the high school students who had died. The third side she had sponge-painted black.
Black for mourning. For the night of the car accident that had stolen so much.
Black for the abyss.
The thought came to her, unexpected and unexplained, and she jerked her head.
It was then that she saw the coyote.
At least, she thought it was a coyote. It looked a bit like a medium-size German shepherd, sitting on its haunches at the edge of the tree line. His fur -- she was suddenly certain that the animal was male -- was dark tan washed through with black. His narrow head was pointed toward her, ears sharp and alert, as if there was something he needed to communicate. As if they were on the verge of a conversation.
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