Hide and Seek

it found her and took her down by the shoulder, a powerful, brutal

black shadow in the midst of shadows.

"I couldn't even scream for you," she said. "I wanted to. God knows I

wanted to. But all I could do was fight. All I could do was push at

him and try ... try to ... and then soon I couldn't even do that

anymore. I gave up, I guess, and he started ... dragging me...

along... and all I could do was lie there and stare at him weak as a

baby. And then I felt something hot, hot and red I ike it was

throughout my whole body, and I guess I passed out then. All I

remember after that is something like pressure waking me, pressure in

my shoulder. And there he was, snapping at me, just inches from my

face .. . snapping. That sound!"

"Where is it now?" I asked her. "Did you see?"

"They... took him ... through there."

She pointed toward the far wall. There was another opening

4.|_

tnsrG

"I think that's where it opens to the sea. When I was lying there, I

could smell it."

"They?"

I remembered the cold hoarse laughter.

"Is it Mary, Case?"

"It's both of them. At least I think it is. I've been ... in and out

a lot. But there's a woman, and there's a man. Who else could it

be?"

"Ben and Mary Crouch. Jesus."

"They're horrible, Clan. And that thing. I saw Steven. It picked him

up and dragged him ... like a doll. And parts of him ... parts of him

were trailing..."

"Don't."

"... were spilling out of him, trailing along the floor..."

"Stop it, Case!"

She looked at me. It was horror and not loss of blood that had bled

her white. In her eyes was a surfeit of horror.

The death freak in her was dead and I'd never miss it. Instead there

was sadness now and a grim responsibility- to me, to what Steven had

tried to do for her, to herself. I saw that as I watched her