7 Days

Because monsters are real.

They're still there.

They'll wait forever.

They know she thinks of them.

They call her name.

The monsters hide behind the thin door.

Peeking through the cracks.

The cracks are small.

But the monsters know how easily they splinter.

They wait. They are patient.

They know she has her whole life.

They constantly jiggle the knob.

****

Kate Morgan waits for her mother to return, knowing someday she will. The thought of it fills her with dread and anticipation. She hates and loves her mother, Meg Madison, in equal measures.

Kate has been raised by a man who is the only father she has ever known and by a grandmother who will do anything to protect her granddaughter from the evil that she's fought against her entire life.

When Meg finally does return, she has to face her demons and reveal the truth of her family's history in order to bring her daughter back to her. It takes only seven days to unravel the fragile threads that held their family together.

Debra Colby lives in Maine.