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Penniworth took the first rooht switch by the time Loman reached that threshold

It was a study with a desk, worktable, two chairs, cabinets, tall bookshelves crahtly colored spines, two computers Loman moved in and covered the closet, where Penniworth warily rolled aside first one and then the other of two

Barry Sholnick ree leveled at the rooated When Loman and Penniworth rejoined him, Sholnick shoved that door all the way open with the barrel of his shotgun As it side, he jerked back, certain that so did He hesitated, then stepped into the doorway, fuht switch, found it, said, "Oh,past his deputy into a large bedroo crouched on the floor and huddled against the far wall it was a regressive, no doubt Peyser, but it did not look as ressed Jordan Coombs as Loman expected There were si by Sholnick, Lo at the other end of the room blinked at hiuttural, savage yet tortured as only the voice of an at least halfway intelligent creature could be, it said, "Peyser, Peyser, Peyser, me, Peyser, me, me …"

The odor of urine was here, too, but that other scent was now the dominant one--sharp, musky

Loman moved farther into the room Penniworth followed Sholnick stayed at the doorway Loman stopped twelve feet froe held ready

When they’d cornered Jordan Coombs in the shuttered movie theater back on September fourth, he had been in an altered state soorilla with a squat and powerful body Mike Peyser, however, had a far leaner appearance, and as he crouched against the bedroom wall, his body looked le to his spine, preventing his see in the calves He was covered in thick hair but not so thick that it could be called a pelt

"Peyser, h her pri jaw to accoe, wickedly sharp teeth like those of a baboon Mike Peyser’s hideously transfor; his mouth and nose were drawn forward into a deforh exaggerated, and in his bloodshot eyes, set in shadowy sockets deep beneath that bony ridge, was a look of anguish and terror that was entirely hu at Lo, wrong, wrong, help …"

Loman stared at thathow his own hand had begun to change when he had felt the call of regression at the Fosters’ place earlier in the night Elongated fingers Large, rough knuckles Fierce claws instead of fingernails Huree of dexterity, they were otherwise utterly alien

Shit, Loht, those hands, those hands I’ve seen them in the movies, or at least on the TV, e rented the cassette of The Howling Rob Bottin That was the name of the special effects artist who created the olf He remembered it because Denny had been a nut about special effects before the Change More than anything else these looked like the godda!

Which was too crazy to conte fantasy The fantastic made flesh As the twentieth century rushed into its last decade, scientific and technological progress had reached some divide, where mankind’s dreahtmares could be made real Peyser was a bad, bad dream that had crawled out of the subconscious and beco up; he would not disappear as did the monsters that haunted sleep

"How can I help you?" Loman asked warily

"Shoot him," Penniworth said

Loman responded sharply: "No!"

Peyser raised both of his tine-fingered hands and looked at theroan issued froe, can’t change, can’t, tried, want, need, want, want, can’t, tried, can’t …"

From the doorway Sholnick said, "My God, he’s stuck like that--he’s trapped I thought the regressives could change back at will"

"They can," Loman said

"He can’t," Sholnick said

"That’s what he said," Penniworth agreed, his voice quick and nervous "He said he can’t change"

Loressives can change, because if they couldn’t, then we’d have found all of them by now They retreat fro us"

Peyser see in the back of his throat as if what he saw terrified hie

"You see," Loman said

Loripped by curiosity, wonder, and terror The claws receded The flesh was suddenly as ed, blistered, pulsed not with the rhythely, obscenely; it assumed new form, as if an invisible sculptor were at work on it Lo, as they, were broken down and re, wet sound The hands becaan to lose some of their rawboned lupine quality In Peyser’s face were indications that the hue that was now in control; the features of a predator began to give way to a gentler and more civilized man It was as if the monstrous Peyser was only a beast’s reflection in a pool of water out of which the real and huenius of h-school education, Loman knew that this profound and rapid transformation could not be attributed solely to the New People’s drastically improved metabolic processes and ability to heal thereat tides of horical chemicals Peyser’s body could now produce at will, there was no way that bone and flesh could be re-formed so dramatically in such a brief period of time Over days or weeks, yes, but not in seconds Surely it was physically i Whichhtening

Suddenly the transfor toward full huether and grinding his teeth, a look of desperation and iron detere eyes, but to no avail For a e of human form It seemed that if he could just push the transformation one step farther, just one small step, then he would cross a watershed after which the rest of the metamorphosis would take place almost automatically, without the strenuous exertion of will, as easily as a strea downhill But he could not reach that divide

PenniworthPeyser’s anguish

Lolistened with a thin fil too; he felt a bead trickle down his left te on and off--but not war moisture from them This was a cold sweat of fear, but htness in his chest, a thickening in his throat thatfast, as if he’d sprinted up a hundred steps Letting out a thin, agonized cry, Peyser began to regress again with the brittle splintering noise of bones being re rent and re-knit, the savage creature reasserted itself, and in moments Peyser was as he had been when they had first seen him a hellish beast

Hellish, yes, and a beast, but enviably powerful and with an odd, terrible beauty of its own The forward carriage of the large head ard by co lacked the sinuous inward curve of the hurace of its own

They stood in silence for a moment

Peyser huddled on the floor, head bowed