It Waits in the Woods

by Josh Malerman

For Brenda, her phone was close to holy, or the holiest thing she believed in. She cared about what it captured;

She thought of how most terrible things in life began as terrible motivations.

You had to work for the big things. You had to reach out and take your accomplishments—like all the great filmmakers and artists. It was a mindset she seemed to have been born with. People told her she had drive, but Brenda found the word cold. She wasn’t driven. She just knew what was important. Why would she hang out in drugstore parking lots like the other teens in town when she could film a movie instead? Why text crushes all night? Why scroll meaningless memes? Why stare critically at digitally altered selfies when there was real art to be made—some actual truth to capture in all its imperfect glory?