“Babe …”
I sit up so fast, I would’ve smacked him right in the jaw with my skull had his reflexes not been just as quick. “Alright. I’ll go to bed, then. Away from my kids. By myself. On my cushy-ass bed.”
Tanner’s face twists. “Babe? I didn’t mean—”
I’m off the couch, hugging the comforter to my chest. Marcus is looking up at me from the floor, the glow of his tablet making his face look ghostly and scared. Joshua has peeked an eye open, giving himself away.
I realize the mask is all but shattered in front of the kids.
There’s no doubt now. Nothing to hide behind.
I doubt we were fooling them anyway.
And just as I make it to the doorway of our bedroom, in a moment when the storm sounds eerily calm, the unmistakable, splintering snap of wood is heard, and before my eyes, the roof of our bedroom cracks open to the night sky and delivers unto our bed a familiarly thick and deadly arm of a tree, crashing down like a murderous gift from the gods.