'Yes. Now what happened to you?'

'Oh, thank God!' the woman cried in relief. 'You have to get us out of here. There's no time. He'll kill us all. Hurry.'

Kasey reached for the ignition but realized that her keys were still lost on the floor of the car. She bent over and pushed her trembling hands blindly around the mat. As her fingers closed on the key chain, she heard a panicked scream behind her.

'It's too late! Oh my God, he's here!'

Kasey's head snapped up. Her hand flicked to the headlights, and when the two beams split the night, she saw the black outline of a man ten feet in front of the car. He had no face, like a headless monster, and Kasey realized he wore a ski mask pulled down over his skull.

'Kill him!'

Kasey lifted the gun, but the man outside the car ducked to his knees and rolled away. She snatched up her keys and fired the engine, and the Cutlass motor roared to life. She shoved the gear into reverse and pressed the accelerator to the floor, and the car shot backward, swerving. Before Kasey could control it, the Cutlass veered into the long grass and collided with the trunk of one of the trees bordering the driveway. Pine needles and branches sprinkled over the windows. The impact knocked her gun out of her hand, and it disappeared between the seat cushion and the right-side door.

'Shit, I dropped the gun.'

'Oh, my God!' the woman screamed.

Kasey jumped across the seat for the gun, but she wasn't fast enough. When she looked up, he was outside the car window. The man's black ryes gleamed at her, and for a split second the two of them stared at each other through the glass. She thought he was smiling. He reached tor the door handle.

Behind her, the woman dissolved into panic. Her cry was like an animal's howl, and she reacted the way an animal would, by trying to flee. The woman flung open the rear door and bolted into the night, running in bare feet toward the deeper woods beyond the farm, swallowed up by the fog. The man outside the window abandoned the car and followed her. In an instant, he was invisible too. Kasey was alone.