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Janie re into their class "It was before I knew you," she remarks

"My brother pops in now and then, just to see if I’ out of trouble He and his wife live a few hteen"

"Thankfully?"

"It’s a really small house Thin walls Needs"

"Ah What about your parents?"

Cabel lounges on the couch Janie sits in a chair nearby "My s "Dad raised us Sort of I guess my brother actually raised me"

Janie curls up in her chair and watches him He’s far away She waits

"Dad was in Vietnam, at the tail end His ot mean He pretty much beat the shit out of us…" Cabel looks at the table "He died A few years ago It’s cool Yanno? I’ets up off the couch and stretches Janie stands up "Take me back there," she says

"What?"

"Show me The back of the shed"

He bites his lip "Okay…" He hesitates "I haven’t, you know Been back there in a while It was--used to be-- place"

She nods Gets her coat Tosses his coat to hirass

Taste the air for snow

When they get close, he slon

"You go ahead," he says He stops at the edge of a sarden Janie looks at hi and squeaks as she walks through it

Janie slips away into the darkness and disappears from Cabel’s view behind the shed She stops and

peers at the shed, getting her eyes accustoainst it in the dreams, and stands there

Looks to the left

Waits for the monster

But she kno that the monster died with his dad

She crawls to the corner, to view the place where he co the house Sla

The punch to Cabel’s face

The lighter fluid to his belly

The fire and screa toward her, with knives for fingers Howling She’s starting to freak out, in the darkness

Sucks in a breath

Needs, desperately needs, to hear it was just a drea on the back step Quiet

She walks to him Takes his hand Leads him inside

The house is dark She fulow, they cast shadows on the far wall She closes the curtains Takes his coat, and hers, and hangs them over the chairs in the kitchen, and he stands there, watching her

"Show me," she says Her voice shakes a little