Homeowners & Horrors

Meet Attie Nichols. A middle-aged spinster and accountant, her life has never been easy. Now she's ready for change, but how much can she cope with?
 

Midlife Undercover. Regular citizen by day, and monster hunter by night.

My life hadn't been easy, but it was mine. Mine to share with my husband. Too bad there was no husband. Ever. Apparently, I was a handful.

I wasn't good at connecting with people. Freud would have suggested this had something to do with my parents. And he would've been right. These were the first people I failed to connect with. They made sure I always knew I was adopted. In fact, they made sure everyone knew I was adopted. No wonder we weren't close.

The minute I turned eighteen, they decided their job was done. And since I was ready to be done with them, I didn't mind going off on my own. I was ready for a big adventure. I thought. My idea of adventure was dating, getting married. Sadly, that adventure never came to fruition. When I realized I was never going to have a conventional family, I created a non-conventional one.

I was an accountant because numbers came easily to me. I bought a house in a nice new subdivision because I could afford it, and I wanted a place of my own, to do with as I pleased. I adopted Mo, my Cairn Terrier. We were inseparable. I found Mo to be comforting, even if he was too tiny to be any sort of protection. I had never struggled to protect myself. Of course, that was before I met Liz Connelly, head of the Homeowners' Association.

According to her, I couldn't do what I wanted to my house unless my plans fell within the parameters outlined in the Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions. Apparently, I would have no purple door. I couldn't even have an indigo door. Secretly, I thought she was pure evil. Outwardly, I played along...until I couldn't.

I only followed her to talk, but when I found her attacking one of my neighbors after she changed in front of my eyes, I realized I wasn't wrong. For the first time in my life, I didn't really know what to do.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. That much I knew. So when life gives you monsters, what do you do?

Monster hunters aren't born, they're made. And I was made of tougher stuff. Soon enough I'd find I was more than human, that monsters came in all shapes and sizes, and that I was better off selling my house and moving than staying around these tightly wound people.

Never in my worst nightmares did I think by running from this life, I was actually running toward my destiny. Life was full of surprises. And death was a long way away.