The woman sits on her porch, slightly hidden behind the plants growing all around her, and watches Janice collect Milly from the bus. She sips her tea and waits for the bus to pull away so she can see mother and daughter. Janice is asking Milly how school was, and Milly is lying, saying it was good, that she learned a lot. Milly is being bullied, the woman knows, but Milly doesn’t want Janice to worry, just as Janice lies and does not want Milly to worry about the man.

A black cat curls her tail around the woman’s ankle as she slips past to flop in a sliver of sun. The man will come tonight, the cat says. The woman knows it is true, but she can not do very much about it, so she sips, and waits, and watches Janice and Milly go inside their house together.

Hours creep by, and the sun sets. The cup of tea has been refilled four times but is once again empty. The woman does not leave her seat, though, just sits in the growing darkness behind her plants, watching, waiting. The cat perches on her haunches, staring with the woman through Janice’s open windows as she tucks Milly into bed, locks all the doors, checks all the windows. Janice pauses at the front window, frightened face checking the street up and down. Janice allows her worry to get to show when Milly isn’t around. She knows something is coming, even if she can’t name it. She glances up and sees the full roundness of the moon. Janice slips away from the window, and a moment later, she is standing in her front yard, gazing up, hands clasped. The woman knows she is begging the moon for help, wordlessly, and the woman smiles a cold, sharp grin. After a minute or two, Janice heads in and carefully bolts the door behind her.

The woman and the cat wait, both appearing more predatory as the minutes tick by. The cat seems to grow larger, less like a house cat and more panther-like. The woman seems wilder, her hair loose and big like a cape around her shoulders. Both lean forward, their eyes watching for the red pickup they know is coming. Slowly, it rolls into sight, the headlights flicking off long before it comes near the house. The man cuts the engine before reaching Janice and Milly’s house and allows the vehicle to roll to a stop silently. He climbs out, drunk as always, meaner than usual, and hefts a baseball bat over his shoulder. He steps onto their lawn, heading for Janice’s door.

The woman and the cat move as one. They rise and stride into the light of the moon and she smiles down at them. The woman raises her arms over her head, then drops quickly, pressing her hands to the earth. A rumble streaks from her to the man she watches, and vines shoot up around his feet, twining and thickening until he is held in place. “The fuck?” he shouts, startled, and tries to pull his feet out. The cat streaks around the woman, lending her the power to fuel her next movements. Insects crawl through Janice’s lawn, scurrying from all over the neighborhood. Beetles, spiders, mosquitos, fleas: they all heed the woman and the cat and race toward the man. He struggles when he sees them and begins screaming when the critters reach him and begin climbing. Lights come on in Janice’s bedroom, and the woman and the cat move faster. The bugs nibble, each of them taking quick bites and scurrying away to make room for more. The man screams again, long and agonized. Finally, he stops.

More lights turn on as Janice rushes to Milly’s room to check on her. The woman and the cat still quickly, suddenly, not even breathing. The insects scurry back to their separate homes, the vines retreat into the earth, pulling the white bones of the man’s fresh skeleton with them, and the cat and woman relax. They are radiant, their eyes gleaming, the cat purring loudly and the woman’s face flushed. They spiral in the moonlight, reveling in the power they have wielded, and slowly retreat to the porch. She and the cat go back to their seats, both shrinking, seeming smaller and more civilized. In the morning, Janice will call the police when she sees the man’s truck out front and his bat in her yard. They will search for the man, call his phone, interview everyone they can, but they will never find him. The woman and the cat will sit and watch, the woman with her tea, the cat in the sun, and the moon will thank them watching over her supplicant.