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The mystery of the veve rats was only one ent ’s disappearance At least I hoped it didn’t God forbid that I should open another door, farther along the hall, and discover the ritualistically arranged skeletons of five-year-old boys

I stepped backward, out of the rodents’ equivalent of the legendary elephants’ graveyard, easing the door shut with a click so preternaturally soft that it could have been heard only by a cat on ht, hotter than ever in my hand, revealed that the corridor was still deserted

I moved to the next door Stainless steel Unmarked Lever handle Identical to the previous one

Beyond was a room the size of the first, sans rat skeletons The tile floor and painted walls gleamed as if they had been spit-polished

I was relieved by the sight of the bare floor

As I backed out of the second room and silently eased the door shut, the troll voice rose once more, nearer than before but still too muffled to be understood The corridor remained deserted both ahead and behind rew louder and see a door, about to step into the hallway

I thuht

The claustrophobic darkness closed around ain, as soft as Death’s hooded robe and with pockets al for several seconds--but then abruptly broke off, seely in mid-sentence

I didn’t hear a door open or any sound to indicate that the kidnapper had entered the hallway Besides, light would betray him when at last he came I was still the sole presence here--but instinct warned me that I would soon have co away from the direction I’d coht was now cool in er the quiet lasted, the more it seeineddown, down, like a deep-sea diver festooned with lead weights

I listened so hard that I was half convinced I could feel the fine hairs vibrating in my ear canals Yet I could hear only one sound, and it was strictly internal: the thick, liquid thud of

As tiht frorew that in spite of what instinct toldIf the kidnapper and the boy were on the ht lose their trail if I didn’t stay close behind theain, when a shiver of superstitious dread passed through host skating on the rass between tombstones If I had been in the Northoods, I would have seen Big Foot shagging ae door, I would have seen the face of Jesus or the Holy Virgin in a weather stain, warning of the Apocalypse I was in the bowels of Wyvern, however, and unable to see any da at all, so I could only feel, and what I felt was a presence, an aura, like a pressure, hovering, loo, what a medium or a psychic would call an entity, a spiritual force that could not be denied, chilling my blood and marrow

I was in face-to-face confrontation with it My nose was only inches fro it had a nose I couldn’t s, as its breathsulfur, and swinemeltdown

I told myself that this was no antic spider in the elevator shaft

Bobby Halloway sayscircus Currently, I was in ring two hundred and ninety-nine, with elephants dancing and clowns cartwheeling and tigers leaping through rings of fire The tio buy some popcorn and a Coke, bliss out, cool down

I was ashauts to switch on the flashlight I was constrained by a fear of what h part ofa runaway chain reaction of i ood reason to be afraid Those aforened by eneticist--had ultiree of biological security, a designer strain of retrovirus had gotten out of the lab Thanks to the reht Bay--and, to a lesser extent, people and ani

So far, the changes have been disturbing, so, but, with a few notable exceptions, they have been subde enough that authorities have successfully concealed the truth about the catastrophe Even in Moonlight Bay, atI ht; upon the death of my father, who knew all the dreadful details, and who revealed things to me that I noish I didn’t know The rest of the townspeople live in happy ignorance, but they er, because the ht that had paralyzedsoeway

Now et control ofunder ey

Holding the unlit flashlight in a tight circlet of thuers extended, intending to prove to myself that this superstitious dread enjoyed no basis in fact, I reached into the tomb-perfect darkness And touched a face

4

The side of a nose The corner of a er slid across a rubbery lip, wet teeth

I cried out and recoiled As I stuht

Although the beaht revealed the entity beforehellfire, but it was composed of a substance more solid than ectoplasm It wore chinos, what appeared to be a yellow polo-style shirt, and a pecan-brown sports jacket Indeed, it wasn’t so from the Sears men’s departht, as stocky as a bull standing on its hind feet in a pair of Nikes With close-cropped black hair, eyes as mad-yellow as those of a hyena, and thick red lips, he seeh the seamless dark His teeth were as small as kernels of white corn, and his senerous portion as he swung the club that he was holding

Fortunately, it was a length of two-by-four rather than an iron pipe, and he was too close to execute a bone-shattering arc Instead of recoiling farther at the sight of the club, I stepped into the guy in an atte the Glock to bear on hiht of it would cause hi the two-by-four not fro an ax, but low frorazed ht , but it was unquestionably ht flew out ofend over end