As Laura stepped off the bus, she thought about the sequence of events that had led her here. Everything had made sense at the time, and even looking back she didn’t see what she could have done differently, at least without the benefit of hindsight.

Damn it Craig.

And now here she was, getting off a bus in rural Wisconsin. She missed New York already. Shouldering her duffel bag and putting on her sunglasses, she looked around to try to get her bearings. She hadn’t been here since she was a teenager spending summers with Aunt Joyce. The bus had stopped on Main Street, with its small mom ‘n pop shops. It was the epitome of small town America. The street was lined with big trees, and the sun falling through their leaves made patterns on the asphalt. There weren’t many cars, and only a few people walking down the sidewalk.

The bus pulled away, continuing its route west. Laura took in the scene, trying to pick out what had changed. The old bakery was still there, and the butchers shop. The town’s lone bar was still there as well. The candy shop she had loved so much as a child had closed, being replaced by a Dunkin’ Donuts. The brightness of its signs seemed garish next to the relaxed feel of the rest of the businesses on the street.

Mr. Baker must hate that. It had been an unending joke between her and Joyce that the local bakery was run by a Mr. Baker. He had always been really nice to her when she had spent summers here, sometimes slipping a little something extra in with their purchases for her. She hoped the Dunkin’s hadn’t been stealing too much of his business.

After stretching her legs for a moment, she set off down the street. Joyce’s cabin was about a thirty minute walk from where she was, and she wanted to get settled in before it started to get dark. The sun wouldn’t be up for too much longer.

As she walked she reflected on the last few weeks. She still couldn’t believe the mess Craig had gotten himself in. He had come to her about a year back needing a place to stay. He couldn’t afford anything in New York himself, and the rent on her place was outrageous, so she had let him move in for what she hoped was a short stay. He was the only immediate family she had left, their parents both having passed on.

He may be her brother, but he was definitely an idiot. Looking back, she knew there had been warning signs for the last few months, but she just hadn’t been paying enough attention. Her job had been eating away most of her time for the last year, and when she wasn’t working she sure as hell hadn’t been worrying about Craig.

She should have pressed him when he couldn’t pay his share of the rent for the last couple months. He’d been really apologetic, making up some story about having to replace the transmission in his car. Even at the time she had thought it strange, since his car was fairly new. Still, she had been making pretty good money over the last few years, so it didn’t hurt her too much to pick up his slack for a while. But over the last month she had really seen a change in him. Normally so cheerful, he had gotten so withdrawn, so quiet. She had written it off as him missing Lisa, the girl who had left him shortly before that.

Yesterday things had finally come to a head. When she had gotten home from work he was sitting on the couch, a half finished bottle of whiskey on the coffee table in front of him. He looked dejected, even scared.

“Alright, enough of this little brother,” she said firmly. “Something’s been off for the last couple months, so out with it. What’s wrong?”

“I fucked up Laura, I fucked up real bad this time.” The tone of his voice had made her heart sink. She had never heard him sound so… defeated before. Craig had always been a bit of a troublemaker, but he always picked himself up and learned from his mistakes. This felt like something different.

“What’s going on Craig? Whatever it is we’ll figure it out together. You know that.” Her words seemed to make him sink in to the couch even further.

“Not this time.” The finality in his voice sent tendrils of worry crawling up her gut. “I should’ve stopped. I know I should’ve stopped, but I thought my luck had to change, y’know? It had to.”

“Tell me what the fuck the problem is, right now. No more of this bullshit. What’s wrong?”

“You know that card hall I was going to last year? To play poker?” He didn’t wait for her nod before he continued. “I started going there again a few months back. I was doing really well at first, runs like you wouldn’t believe!” There was a feverish glint in his eyes as he talked. “It turned pretty quickly though, and I started losing money. Not that much at first, but it built up really quickly. I wanted to stop, I really did, but something just kept pulling me back there.”

“Wait, I paid your rent for the last couple months because you were off playing poker? What the hell Craig.” The anger at his admission almost made her forget about how worried she was.

“I’m sorry Laura! I didn’t know what else to do when I was tapped out. I thought if I kept playing I could win it all back.” His voice trailed off towards the end, as if he was just now realizing how stupid he sounded.

“So what, you need me to cover the rent again this month? I can do it, but you’d better get your shit together. I can’t keep this up forever.” She almost felt relieved. If it was just money problems they could deal with it.

“It’s not just that,” he murmured. “When I got tapped out, I started borrowing from the house. I’m in deep Laura. Really deep.”

“How much Craig? Stop beating around the bush here. You know I’ve got savings, and I know you’re about to ask me to bail you out. How much do you owe?” He wouldn’t meet her gaze as she spoke, instead taking another swig from the bottle.

“Too much, there’s no way you can cover me.”

Just then there was a heavy pounding on the door. Craig snapped to alertness, standing up straight, eyes darting around the room as if he was looking for a way out.

“Jesus Craig, they know where we live? Just hide or something, I’ll send them away.” He dashed almost on tip toes into the bathroom and closed the door gently. It would have been comical if he didn’t seem so damn scared.

She moved to the door with an inward sigh. “Who is it?”

“It’s Vinny. Tell Craig if he doesn’t get out here with my money right fucking now, we’re going to have a problem.” The voice came through the door hard and angry, with that stereotypical Brooklyn accent she hated so much.

Laura unlocked the deadbolt, but left the door chain on. She opened the door a few inches and looked out. Vinny was a short, burly guy wearing jeans and a grey hoodie. His hands had way too many rings on them, and he looked pissed. He probably always looks pissed.

“Craig isn’t home, I haven’t seen him for the last couple days. You said he owes you money? Get in line. That asshole hasn’t paid rent for months.” Vinny reeked of cheap cologne, and Laura had to fight to keep from wrinkling her nose at the odor.

“Who the fuck are you? You Craig’s piece? Stop lying to me and get him out here now. I ain’t got time for this shit.” He stepped towards the door, and suddenly the chain didn’t seem like nearly enough protection. She fought to keep her composure, but inside she was quaking.

“No I’m not Craig’s piece, I’m his roommate.” Letting this creep know just how close she was to Craig didn’t seem like a good idea. She had been proud about how steady her voice had been. “I told you, he isn’t here. I’ll pass on your message if he comes around.” That said, she closed the door and quickly slid the deadbolt back in place.

“You’d better pass on my message! If I don’t get my hundred grand by this weekend, Craig’s a fucking dead man. You tell him that.” She stayed near the door until she heard his footsteps on the stairwell. A hundred thousand dollars? God dammit Craig.

She did have savings, a fair amount to be honest, but nothing like that. She heard the door to the bathroom open, and soft footsteps as Craig came back in to the living room.

“A hundred thousand dollars? A hundred thousand dollars? You have got to be kidding me. What were you thinking?” she almost shouted at him. He seemed to shrink a bit with every word.

“I know I messed up Laura! I’m gonna make it right though, I just need a bit of time.” His words were a touch slurred from the whisky. “Just a bit of time…”

“Make it right? It’s a hundred grand, there’s no way you’re making that kind of money before this weekend! Jesus, today’s Thursday! What are you going to do, become a high priced hit man? Invent a cure for cancer?” She knew unloading on him like this wasn’t helping matters any, but it was like all of the frustration at a lifetime of his irresponsibility was pouring out of her. “Can you make an extra fifty for me while you’re at it? I’d love a new BMW!”

Craig sank in to the couch again, his head in his hands.

“Damn it Craig, we need to get out of here until we can figure things out. We can go to Joyce’s cabin for a while.” She was reaching for her phone as she said it.

Craig stood up, and looked her in the eye for the first time since Vinny had shown up. “You go to Joyce’s Laura. I need to clean up my own mess this time,” he said, his voice much steadier than before. “I don’t want you getting hurt because of my screw up. Go, I’ll call you there when things are safe for you to come back.” She would never forget the look in his eyes then. It was the look of an animal that knew it was cornered, that there was no way out. But rather than give up, he looked ready to fight.

Laura had spent more than an hour trying to convince him to come with her to Wisconsin. He had been adamant though, insisting that she go alone. He seemed more at peace with himself at this point than Laura had seen in years, which had scared her. Still, she ended up calling Joyce and asking to come visit.

It turned out that Joyce wouldn’t even be using the cabin this summer, however, since she was staying with a friend who had been in ill health. “You remember where I leave the spare key, right deary?” she had asked. Her voice was so cheerful and motherly that it had been jarring after what had happened.

So here she was in Blackendale, Wisconsin, by herself. Her boss at the ad agency had been fine with her taking some time off, since she’d just been banking her vacation days for the last couple of years. In fact she’d positively encouraged her to do it. This was a somewhat slow time anyways, so she’d lucked out in that regard. Still, it wasn’t exactly a dream vacation, hanging out in small town Wisconsin hoping her brother didn’t get himself killed.

By the time she looked around to get her bearings she was almost at Joyce’s place. Funny how even though she hadn’t remembered exactly where it was, her feet still took her straight there. Just as soon as her mind got out of the way, anyhow. She was outside of the town itself now, with forest on both sides of the street. The trees were punctuated by a small house or cabin here and there, many of them with lights on. Joyce’s was just a little farther on the right…. There it was.

Walking up the driveway brought back a flood of memories. Craig catching butterflies in a jar, always trying to see just how many he could get in there before he let them go. His record had been 7. Or that time they’d been out hiking with Joyce when they’d seen a big brown bear casually walking through a valley below them. Joyce had just raised her finger to her lips and led them in the opposite direction. Bears weren’t uncommon in the region, but bear attacks had never been a problem.

The cabin itself was a faux log cabin, actually more of a small one story house with log siding. The inside was similarly country, all wood and quiet charm. Laura walked around the side, taking it all in. It looked exactly like she remembered it. The back yard had some trees, but not as thick as the surrounding forests. It was quite dark back here, the sun finally starting to set.

She walked through the trees in the backyard. Each one had a few bird houses hanging from the branches. Joyce had always loved to wake to the sound of birds, and with this much luxury they had never been in short supply during the summers. She walked to the backmost tree on the left. Where is it? There.

This tree had a few different bird houses hanging from it, but she was looking for one in particular. At first glance this one seemed normal, but looking again you would notice pretty quickly that the entrance was much too small for any bird. She took the house in her hands, and popped the bottom off. Sitting there, right where it always was, was a dusty key. Joyce had made this house herself while taking a shop class. She hadn’t intended for the hole to be so small, but had ended up repurposing it as a hiding place for her spare key.

She replaced the bottom of the bird house and walked back around to the front. Sliding the key in to the lock, she pushed with just enough pressure and turned it right. The thing always stuck, but her aunt had never bothered with getting it replaced.

“Adds to the charm,” she had said.

Laura walked in and closed the door behind her, flicking on the lights. She was glad to see that Joyce hadn’t forgotten to call the power company and have the electricity turned on. She loved the woman to death, but she could be forgetful at times.

Directly to her left was the living room, and to her right was the small kitchen. In between them was a hallway, which led to the two bedrooms and a decent sized bath. The walls in the living room were filled with pictures of family and friends, many of them showing her and Craig when they were younger. The kitchen was pretty spartan, with nothing but a small sink between a fridge and a stove. The soft hum of the fridge was barely audible over the crickets outside.

Tossing her duffel bag on the floor, Laura went straight to the shower. She would have to do a bit of spring cleaning tomorrow, as the air was musty and a small coating of dust lay over everything, but that could wait. For now she just wanted a nice long shower and a bed.

Dammit Craig.

Even her inner voice sounded frightened.