The Things in Decapolis
an excerpt

Red was too busy yelling when his wife heard the noise. Her voice was hoarse when she quietly said, "The baby's room." For a split second Red thought it was just her trying to end the arguement, but he had already forgotten what they were doing by the time he was at the foot of the stairs. His wife had heard the distinctive creak that the window makes in the baby's room when it's opened.
Red noted that the baby was asleep before he even noticed the window was open. The window was on the second floor, and there weren't any trees to climb up near it, so Red got angry for a second. He was ready to turn around and yell again, "How stupid could you be to leave the window open in a baby's room!" He didn't get the words out though, because as he turned around he saw an old woman sitting in a chair. Her clothes covered her almost completely, hanging off her body like a pile of rags. Her nose was the only thing he could see sticking out until the old woman looked up at him.
"Oh God, it's her!" Red's mouth and brain worked seperately as he felt embarassed because he nearly accused his wife of something wrongly in front of someone else. Red didn't seem to hear his own voice before, so he stared at her and asked what seemed like the most obvious question, "How did you get in here?"
"Now is that any way to talk to someone when you first see them?" The old woman spoke with an accent Red couldn't place, "You have a lot of manners to learn."
Red rubbed his forehead and glanced out the window, "Listen, however you got up here..."
"I flew, if it is so important that you know," The old lady rose up and seemed to be lost inside her rags. She waddled closer to the crib, to look at the baby, "You should know that I'm very hungry."
Red sighed, he should have known there would be problems like this living so close to the city. For all he knew there was a mental ward just down the street. He stepped between her and the crib, and tried to gently turn her towards the door, "It's alright, lady. Just go downstairs and I can get you something warm to eat from the kitchen. Then we'll call someone and get you some help." Red nearly bit his tongue after those last words, not realizing how she would react to them calling the authorities.
"I could try that," The old lady slowly turned, and Red realized she was carrying a white cane that was hidden by the rags before. It reminded Red of something like a chicken bone. It clacked as she walked past Red's wife, who was staring completely dumbfounded as she moved out of the way. The old lady clacked her cane carefully on the stairs, "It's very hard for someone as old as me to even move around."
"It's okay just take your time," Red said behind her. He looked to his wife and handed her a cellphone he fished out of his pocket, "Call 9-1-1 and tell them some homeless woman is here. I don't think she's dangerous, but she doesn't seem to know what's going on." He gave her a stern look, afraid that she might decide to come up with her own idea of what to do instead. Red looked at the stairs, but the old woman was already down them. At first Red thought she couldn't have moved that fast, so maybe she'd fallen down the stairs.
There was a rustling noise in the kitchen as the old lady looked through the fridge. Red stepped into the kitchen, and saw that she had pulled out the package of deer meat that Red's brother-in-law had given them after his last hunting trip. It was what Red was hoping to eat that night, before the arguing started. The old lady opened the package and shoved a handful of deer meat into her mouth. "Oh God!" Red gasped, "Please, let me cook that for you, lady! That's not right." Red had meant to say it was not healthy.
"It's not lady, it's..." but Red didn't hear the rest of her words. Her hideous teeth flashed, covered in raw meat. Red suddenly saw flashes of sharp teeth in his head, and fresh blood instead of deer meat. He fell on the floor and grasped his heart, as if holding it would stop it from beating wildly. He slid back along the floor as long as he could, forgetting every instinct to protect his family, or stop any threat.
"Get away! Get away! Get away! Get away!" Red yelled at himself four times before he realized he wasn't just thinking that.
"I'm not as hungry anymore as I was, but I might have to eat your baby anyway," The old woman shook her head, "All this hate in the air just whets my appetite, you see. But maybe now I'll wait." The old woman slowly walked herself towards the kitchen door that led into the back yard. As soon as she stepped outside she was gone, and Red's instincts came back to himself.