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"Will so?" Kate pleaded, desperate for information

"It&039;s Danny," Lizzie mumbled, her voice barely audible

"What? But how could he-?"

"Keep your voice down, Katie," Mark warned

"Let hi forward Mark pushed her back away from the door "Come on, Mark, let him take her Give her to him Get the little bitch out of here We&039;ll be safer if-"

He kept pushing her away, the noise fro louder and louder He shoved her back toward her catatonic parents, then ran to the spyhole and peered outside again He watched as McCoyne finally forced his way into the rooain just a few seconds later, and this ti next

"Get back!" Mark hissed as he stu therabbed a baseball bat they&039;d kept in the rooh around the foot of the double bed, gesturing for theht

"Is he-" Lizzie started, the sound of the first flurry of blows fro her question obsolete before it had even been fully asked The door rattled and shook in its fraside her parents, then turned and faced the door again, desperately trying to give the iht when all he wanted to do was run

The Hater in the hallway booted the badly daainst the wall, splinters of wood flying in all directions He charged into rooht into Mark, who ran toward hih He clu the bat at his cousin&039;s head but -footed by the sudden speed of events, the close confines of the cluttered room, and the utter terror that he felt in every nerve of his body McCoyne grabbed the end of the bat on its fast upward arc, yanked it frorip, and threw it out of reach across the rooht he recognized the man in front of him Mark? Mark Tillotsen? Was it really him?

The unexpected appearance of a face frouard For a split second he stood there in numb silence and simply stared at the other man, his head suddenly filled with otten since he&039;d first tasted the Hate He rocked back on his feet, hardly even blinking as another explosion outside shook the entire building Then, as Mark lunged at hiible from the far corner of the room, he snapped himself out of his sudden trance and reht Mark as he leaped forward, grabbing his collar, spinning hiainst the wall to his left, then dropping him onto the floor in a cru at the Hater&039;s feet

He sensed

McCoyne looked up as Lizzie ran toward him Her face was tired, old, and drawn, her cheeks and eyes sunken and hollow, but he knew immediately that it was her

"Lizzie, I-"

She swung the baseball bat around and smashed him in the side of the head