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Rhett stands alone on the lawn, breathing hard. His shift slowly recedes. Human features returning one piece at a time.

I step outside before he can tell me not to. He looks exhausted.

"You all right?"

He nods once.

"Barely."

I study the churned earth where the entity stood. No footprints. No scorch marks. No evidence. Except for one thing.

A perfect ring of dead, frost-covered grass.

I kneel beside it.

"It's leaving traces now."

Rhett joins me.

"Which means it's getting stronger."

"Or weaker."

"If it's beginning to leave evidence..."

I touch the brittle blades of grass.

"...maybe maintaining this form is costing it something."

He considers that. And I realize something.

I've been looking at every encounter as an attack. I've been wrong. Every appearance has also been an experiment. It's testing us. But every test reveals something about it too.

I stand.

"We've been collecting data."

Rhett nods.

"And?"

"I think we finally have enough to start hunting it."

Behind us, Main Street erupts into cheerful applause as the annual Halloween parade begins. Children laugh. Marching bands play. The smell of caramel apples drifts on the breeze.

Sleepy Hollow celebrates its legends.

Completely unaware that one of them has just declared war.

20

RHETT

OCTOBER 24 ~ 7 DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN

The first rule of surviving a predator is simple. Never mistake a retreat for a defeat.

The entity disappeared this afternoon. It didn't lose. It learned.