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It was only the first of innumerable calls, which interrupted her every half-hour as the evening wore on, in everything she did

At first, it had been annoying, serving only to cause her anger to rise with every call until it had boiled over into rage But as night began to fall unseen through the dark clouds and torrential rains, fear subsuan to take a vice-like hold on her heart She had long since stopped heeding the ether's summons; the calls, like the first, were only short threats, but by different persons each time, as no two voices were exactly alike

And still, it continued … And continued … And continued

With every summon, she felt more and more like so with her, atte the killing strike Several tihts in the house, she checked to make sure all the doors' locks were secure She had even kept Needles by for comfort while she sat in her room, huddled in her bed, tor in counterpoint to the incessant, taunting call of the i slowness Needles, aware of her fear, tried to soothe Mericlou by ferret-kissing her cheek with her tiny nose and tongue, but eventually gave up By seven o'clock, Mericlou, paralyzed by fear, had curled herself into a fetal position She shivered as the tears poured down her cheeks like the outside torrents of rain

"Stop it …" she whispered as the imse ether incessantly,for her over twenty times in a ro, ten times, every hour "Please … just leavewails as she held Needles close to her "Aldrec … where are you?"

But she had to be reasonable Aldrec would not dare coet here safely; the roads would be flooded over with rain

And still the calling of the imse ether continued

Perhaps she could cry herself to sleep, she thought desperately a rains and , this would all have been a bad dreaht, please … make it so

She cried and cried, even more so than the day that her purse was stolen She cried until she feared that her tear ducts would dry out Her eyes already hurt fro flow, but the i worse Needles was beco distressed; she paced back and forth on the bed, twitching her long whiskers apprehensively