Her memories of that time come in flashes of sounds and images. That thing snarling above her. A gunshot. Pain, blood, screaming. Her head being pillowed with something that smelled of old leather and burnt matches. Voices. Sirens, lights, more voices. Waking up in the hospital to her husband's worried eyes and two-day-old scruff.

The authorities say it was a wild animal. Probably a cougar wandered down from the hills. She and her kids know better. And she'd learned her lesson. Never again would she scoff at the existence of monsters. She'd seen one and lived to tell the tale.