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Tracy screaain and leaped at her

It hit Tracy hard enough to knock the breath clear out of her The flashlight flew from her hand, tumbled across the lawn She fell, and the creature came down on top of her, and they rolled over and over toward the stable As they rolled, she flailed desperately at the thing with her s into the flesh along her right side Its gapingher over, soing for her throat-she thought, I’ to kill me, I’m dead, like the cat-and she would have been dead in seconds, for sure, if Goodheart, less than fifteen feet away now, had not kicked out the latched half-door of his stall and bolted straight at them in panic

The stallion screamed and reared up on its hind feet when it saw them, as if it would trample theain, though not in rage this ti itself to one side, out from under the horse

Goodheart’s hooves slammed into the earth inches fro at the air, screaly trample her skull to mush She threw herself out from under him, and also away from the amber-eyed beast, which had disappeared in the darkness on the other side of the stallion

Still, Goodheart reared and screa all over the neighborhood, and now lights appeared in the house, which gave her hope of survival However, she sensed that the attacker wasn’t ready to give up, that it was already circling the frantic stallion toShe knew she would never reach the distant house before the thing dragged her down again, so she scrambled toward the nearby stable, to one of the e, "Jesus, oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

The two halves of the Dutch-style stall door were bolted firether Another bolt fastened the entire door to the frame She unlatched that second bolt, pulled open the door, rushed into the straw-scented darkness, shut the door behind her, and held it with all the strength she possessed, for it could not be latched from inside

An instant later, her assailant sla to knock it open, but the frame prevented that The door would only move outward, and Tracy hoped the aure out how the door worked

But it was sh- (Dear Lord in Heaven, asn’t it as du the barrier only twice, it began to pull instead of push The door was alrasp

She wanted to screa in her heels and hold the stall door shut It rattled and thuainst the frame as her demonic assailant wrestled with it Fortunately, Goodheart was still letting loose shrill squeals and whinnies of terror, and the assailant was also shrieking-a sound that was strangely animal and human at the same time-so her father could have no doubt where the trouble was

The door jerked open a few inches

She yelped and pulled it shut

Instantly the attacker yanked it partway open again and held it ajar, striving to pull the door wider even as she struggled to reclose it She was losing The door inched open She saw the shadowy outline of the leamed dully The amber eyes were faint now, barely visible It hissed and snarled at her, and its pungent breath was stronger than the scent of straw

Whi in terror and frustration, Tracy drew back on the door with all of her strength

But it opened another inch

And another

Her heart was haun blast She didn’t knohat she’d heard until a second shot boorabbed his 12-gauge on the way out of the house

The stall door slaunfire, let go of it Tracy held fast

Then she thought that ht believe that Goodheart was to bla From within the stall she cried out, "Don’t shoot Goodheart! Don’t shoot the horse!"

Noout, and Tracy i her father would bloay Goodheart Daddy was a cautious uns, and unless he knew exactly as happening, he wouldn’t fire anything but warning shots More likely than not, he’d just blasted soht, and the a it for the foothills or the canyons or back to wherever it had co?)

-and the ordeal was over, thank God

She heard running footsteps, and her father called her na toward her in a pair of blue pajaun cradled in his ar behind Daddy with a flashlight

Up near the top of the sloped yard stood Goodheart, the sire of future cha froht of the unharo have a closer look at him With her second or third step, a fiercely hot pain flaht side, and she was suddenly dizzy She staggered, fell, put one hand to her side, felt so She re into her just before Goodheart had burst froreat distance she heard herself saying, "Good horsewhat a good horse

Daddy dropped to his knees beside her "Baby, what the hell happened, what’s wrong?"

Her mother arrived, too

Daddy saw the blood "Call an aiven to hesitation or hysterics in time of trouble, turned i dizzier Creeping in at the edges of her vision was a darkness that was not part of the night She wasn’t afraid of it It see darkness

"Baby," her father said, putting a hand on her wounds

Weakly, realizing she was slightly delirious and wondering what she was going to say, she said, "Reirland I thought soht?"

He froorriedly "Honey, maybe you’d better be still, be quiet and still"

As she lost consciousness, Tracy heard herself say, with a seriousness that both ahtened her, "WellI think eyman who used to live in the closet at the other house I think maybehe was realand he’s co, only hours after the attack at the Keeshan house, Lemuel Johnson reached Tracy Keeshan’s hospital room at St Joseph’s in Santa Ana Quick as he was, however, Lem found Sheriff Walt Gaines had arrived ahead of hi doctor in surgical greens and a white lab coat; they see quietly

The NSA’s Banodyne crisis tea the police departe, in whose jurisdiction the Keeshan house fell The teaht-shift leader had called Lem at home with news of this case, which fit the profile of expected Banodyne-related incidents

"You relinquished jurisdiction," Lem pointedly reirl’s closed door