Tessa picked up the broken pieces of glass with careful fingers, tossing the shards into a plastic grocery bag from their recycling. She had felt a strange mixture of emotions swirl through her since Lucas sped off. She was fearful, certainly but above all, she wanted to get to the bottom of what was happening with her husband. Months of slow, building tension in the household had finally exploded; it was as if him throwing the vase in a fit of anger was just the thing she needed to see to be able to accept that things might never be the same between her and Lucas. But, either way, she needed to know what was going on with the man she loved, the man she thought she knew so well.
Once the kitchen was finally clean, she considered what her next step would be. After some deliberation, she decided that the only course of action was to find out just what Lucas was doing, and just who he’d been doing it with. Tessa decided that she’d wait until the evening arrived before setting out on her new mission, and she decided to spend the rest of the daylight working on her latest art project.
Taking one last look over the kitchen to make certain that no stray shards remained, Tessa set off for the small studio reserved for work. The room was as sunny and cheerful as always, the many windows of the room looking out onto the long, green stretch of the backyard, the trees beyond swaying in the gentle morning breeze.
Tessa stepped in front of her latest piece, a still-life done in the hyperrealism style that she had been perfecting over the last decade. The painting of the bowl of wax fruit on the table beyond was starting to come together in a way that she was mostly happy with, the fruit on the canvas drawn with such clarity and detail that it almost seemed to be real, and that was exactly what she was hoping for.
Her photorealistic style had found many admirers over the last few years, with buyers everywhere from the Upper East Side to Shibuya who were eager to pay hand-over-fist for her latest work. As she looked over the painting, paying special attention to a draping pineapple leaf, she couldn’t help but wonder if Lucas’s relative lack of success was factoring into his change in behavior. He still had patrons, but his drive had seemed to peter out over the last few years, and the sales of his work reflected it. He just didn’t seem to have the same hungry ambition that she fell in love with so many years ago.
Tessa was still shaken up from her fight with Lucas, but she needed to pass the time somehow, and she knew that art was the best way for her to burn off any built-up energy or tension. Besides, it was either that or pace around the house until the sun set. Getting her equipment together, she set to work.
And just as she intended, the hours flew by, with the morning shifting into afternoon, then finally into evening. Tessa only took breaks for a quick snack or to use the restroom. Eventually, after nearly a day’s worth of work, she felt a little less stressed out about the fight with Lucas, her fear being replaced more and more by a desire to get to the bottom of what was going on with her husband. And as she predicted, Lucas hadn’t come back home.
Setting her painting tools on the long, L-shaped desk in the workroom, she took one last look at her painting and a feeling of satisfaction spread through her. She cleaned up in the wash basin, put her things back in order, and shut the lights off in the workroom.
As soon as she flicked the switch, a feeling of determination took hold; she was ready to get to the bottom of things. Grabbing her keys, she stepped out into the cool evening air, the lights along their front walkway were small pools of illumination against the pitch black of the forest that surrounded them. Tessa was happy that they decided to move out into the woods because-she could focus on her work here in a way that she never could with the constant noise of the city streets outside of their old apartment in Brooklyn. The darkness, however, was something she never grew used to. She always relied on Lucas to feel safe, but now that things between them were strained, standing in the still, quiet air of the woods, the silver sliver of moon above bright that only source of light beyond those of her home, she had an acute sense of just how dark the woods were.
Her keys in hand, she made a fist around them, letting one stick out from between her middle and ring finger. She knew how silly it was to think this would provide a defense against whoever, or whatever, was lurking in the darkness beyond the property lights, but it made her feel a little bit better.
She walked along the path towards the gravel driveway where the car was parked. But just as she approached the black Roadster, a rustling sounded from the woods on the other side of the driveway.
Tessa stopped in her tracks, standing stone still next to the car as she listened to the noise. It was a gentle noise at first, like a small critter running through foliage, but over the course of the next few seconds, it grew in volume and intensity. Tessa realized quickly that it wasn’t just one animal causing the sound, but many. And they were all growing closer by the second.
Then, the stomping of heavy footfalls could be heard. These, too, grew closer and louder by the second. She caught the glint of a pair of yellow eyes in the darkness, then another, then another. The snorting of breath cut through the air, hot puffs of exhalation forming and dissipating in the night.
Tessa’s heart raced as the animals moved closer, and as they stepped out of the darkness and into the small pools of light, she saw that these weren’t just any animals- they were a large pack of black bears, their eyes all on Tessa as she stood frozen.
Her body locked up as the animals stared at her impassively, looking her over as if they didn’t know what to make of her…or if they hadn’t yet decided what to do with her. As they all emerged from the shadows, Tessa saw that there were six in total, the two largest in the middle and flanked at both sides by the smaller members of the pack, their fur nearly as dark and black as the shadowed night behind them.
Tessa’s fight-or-flight instinct seemed to have short-circuited and all she could do was stare at the animals as they stood in a row on the other side of the car. Though she was gripped with fear, she knew that there was nothing she could do. If she ran, they’d chase her down; if she fought, she’d be dead in seconds. So, instead, she chose to stay still, hoping that they’d see she wasn’t a threat.
After a moment, the largest bear broke from the pack, and moved on all four paws around the car, its muscles shifting as it walked, its smooth, coal-black fur catching the moonlight as it approached Tessa. It closed the distance between them quickly, coming to a stop only a few feet from her. Tessa looked into the deep, brown eyes of the animal, which was close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from its massive body. She knew that if it wanted to kill her, it could do so in a split-second. Tessa’s body was perfectly still, aside from her right hand, which shook rapidly, the keys jingling as they dangled from her fist.
The bear looked at her hand before turning his gaze back to her. Then, it walked around Tessa in a slow, lazy circle, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as it moved directly behind her. It completed its loop around her, the gravel crunching under its massive paws. It took one last, appraising look at Tessa before, to her surprise, it turned and walked back to the rest of the pack. Lifting his head up in a quick, nodding motion, it gestured to the other bears before walking back into the woods, disappearing into the shadowed foliage. The other bears followed, and in seconds, Tessa was once again alone, rustling branches the only evidence of the bear’s former presence.
Tessa, finally able to move, stumbled over to the car, her heart pounding in her chest. She leaned forward against the car, catching her breath and letting the adrenaline finish rushing through her body.
The experience left her shaken, but what she considered most disturbing of all, was when the bear looked at her, something about its eyes didn’t seem like the cold, empty eyes of a beast. It seemed…human.