Page 56 (1/2)

Mary felt a sudden sharp sadness She felt herself sinking into the tile floor, shrinking as hersandwiches

Her mother held the knife covered with peanut butter and raspberry preserves Globules of red, red fruit dripped fro sandwiches

"It won’t hurt," her mother said She held the knife out for Mary

Mary jerked awake

The girl on her lap had fallen asleep and peed Mary was soaked by it

"Oh!" she cried "Oh, get off me! Get offthat knife floating, handle toward her, dripping

The girl fell to the floor and, stunned, began to cry

"Hey!" someone yelled from the main roos gave way and she sat down again, too suddenly As she fell she reached for the knife but it wasn’t real, though the little girl’s cry was, and so was the voice yelling, "Hey, you can’t coed to stand up She staggered out Three kids, faces dull with terror

Not her age group Too old

"What are you doing here?" Mary asked

The whole roo on Zadie, the helper who’d been yelling, said, "I think soh the front door They s He had a livid burn all over the back of his hand

"What’s going on?"

"Help us, help us!" a boy cried, and noas all chaos, nized the sently past the new arrivals Outside, she coughed as she drew a lungful of shostly in the air, and an orange glow reflected froue of fire suddenly shot into the sky and ed by its own sirl

Mary rubbed the sleep from her eyes, stared at her Not possible, not possible, not real, soirl was still there, face in shadow, a glint of chro froirl asked

Mary felt so die inside her, dread and horror like the impact of an explosion in her mind

"Have you seen the demon?" Brittney asked

Mary couldn’t answer She could only stare as Brittney’s are shape

Brittney winked Cold, dead blue eyes

Mary ran into the day care She slaainst it

TWENTY-SIX

13 HOURS, 43 MINUTES

THE SMOKE ALTERED the familiar streetscape for Sam He was turned around, unsure for a moment of where he was or which direction hich He stopped, heard footsteps running behind him, and spun around, hands up, palms out