Chapter 4 - The Night the Lights Went Out
The darkness inside the cabin was total. Without the ambient glow of the valley lights, the mountain night was like being buried in ink.
Megan froze by the kitchen counter, her ears straining. The crackle of the fireplace was the only sound inside, throwing long, erratic shadows across the pine walls. She reached slowly into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. The battery was at eighty percent, but the signal bar was gone. No service.
The landline phone on the wall was dead too—its digital display dark.
Darren had done it. He had cut the line.
Megan didn't panic. Panic was a luxury for people who had someone coming to save them. For eleven years, she had been her own rescue squad.
She walked softly into the bedroom and retrieved a heavy, tactical flashlight and the small, legally registered handgun she kept locked in a biometric safe by her bed. She didn't want to use it—she prayed she wouldn't have to—but she knew that Darren when drunk and desperate was entirely unpredictable.
Moving to the living room window, she looked out toward the gate. The security cameras were down because the backup generator hadn't kicked in yet; she realized with a jolt that the automatic transfer switch must have been tampered with as well.
Suddenly, a bright beam of light cut through the trees near the edge of her property line.
It wasn't a flashlight. It was the headlights of an ATV.
Megan watched as the vehicle drove straight past the locked iron gate, traversing the rough, muddy terrain of the neighboring forest lot—a lot that belonged to an absentee owner—and pulled onto her private gravel road inside her perimeter.
There were two figures on the ATV. Darren was driving. The passenger, smaller and wrapped in a thick jacket, was Melissa.
They weren't just trespassing; they were invading.
Megan stepped out onto the wraparound porch, keeping herself in the shadow of the heavy roof pillars. She clicked on her high-lumen flashlight, shining it directly into the eyes of the oncoming vehicle.
"Stop right there!" Megan shouted, her voice cutting through the mountain air like a whip. "You are on private property. The police have been notified of your threats, and you have cut utility lines. That is a federal offense!"
The ATV skidded to a halt about thirty yards from the porch. Darren climbed off, holding a heavy iron crowbar in his right hand. His face was flushed, his eyes wild under the glare of Megan's flashlight.
"Hey, cousin!" Darren yelled, stumbling slightly on the gravel. "Looks like you're having some power issues! Such a shame! It gets real cold up here in the dark!"
"Megan, just give us the keys!" Melissa screamed from the back of the ATV, her voice shrill and hysterical. "Mom is freezing in that motel! We just want to use the house! Why are you being so selfish? You have two bedrooms! We have a right to be here!"
"You have no rights here!" Megan replied, keeping the flashlight beam locked on Darren’s face, blinding him from seeing that she was holding a weapon down by her side. "Darren, put the crowbar down and leave. If you step onto this porch, I will defend myself."
Darren laughed, a loud, ugly sound that echoed off the rocks. "With what? Your drafting pencils? You’re a coward, Megan. You’ve always been a coward. You took our money and bought a house, and now we’re taking it back."
He took three steps forward, the crowbar swinging loosely by his side.
Then, from the darkness of the trees behind the ATV, a sudden, blinding red and blue strobe light exploded into life.
A siren gave a short, deafening whoop.
Darren froze, his jaw dropping open. Melissa let out a sharp shriek, throwing her hands over her face.
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Out of the darkness, a heavy-duty sheriff's truck roared up the gravel road, its brush guard slamming to a halt inches from the ATV. Deputy Miller stepped out, his service weapon drawn and held at a low ready.
"Drop the iron, son," Miller said, his voice dropping like an anvil in the quiet night. "Drop it right now, or you’re going to find out what a mountain jail feels like before midnight."
