Chapter 6

Startled by pounding at the door, Casey knocks over a glass that shatters on the floor. She opens the door to find her neighbor, Lee Traynor, who has braved the woods to check on her before the storm. He surveys her preparations and urges her to light candles soon, adopting a concerned, authoritative tone that irritates her.

Lee notices duct tape on her windows and insists it’s dangerous because it can create larger, flying shards if the glass breaks. Embarrassed, Casey agrees to remove it after he leaves. He then questions her failing roof and Rudy’s reliability, offering to fix it himself or let her ride out the storm at his more secure cabin with storm shutters and a small generator.

Casey declines, unsettled by Lee’s frequent visits and ambiguous motives. She recalls opening up once about a recurring nightmare of being on fire and immediately regretting the vulnerability. Despite believing Lee isn’t predatory, she senses an undefined threat if she goes to his cabin and chooses to stay put.

Before he goes, Casey asks if Lee had been behind her house earlier; he denies it. She withholds mentioning the pale face at her window and movement by the toolshed, refusing to seek his help despite lingering fear. As rain begins, she lends him an umbrella, watches him disappear toward his cabin, and then removes the tape from her windows.

Alone again, Casey reassures herself she’s prepared, yet the unease from the earlier sighting lingers. The storm intensifies, and she cannot shake the ominous feeling that something bad will happen that night.