Pleasant Nightmares

Something foul is approaching on this strangely warm November night. The animals sense its approach and are restless, pawing at the screen door but too wary to go outside. The wind blows through the bare limbs and hisses across the pine needles, tossing dead leaves and rattling window panes. There is no sense in the balmy night air. Not this late in the year when it should be cold and frosty and laden with the first snowflakes of winter. No, something unnatural is out there tonight, riding the currents of heat. A storm approaches from the west, and as the sky is lit with electricity the silhouette of something dark and sinister boils in the clouds.