Michael Malone - Weebly

the cell, and sometimes even his ring on her finger
worked alone as a talisman, held up like a cross at a
vampire, or a cloud obscuring the moon from a
werewolf 's eyes.
Barnum snapped off the motor as soon as his
headlight beam exposed the location of her house, then
he pushed the bike along the highway's edge. Mountain
laurel grew in unchecked profusion down the side of the
Haigs' gravel driveway. Having made sure, as he inched
around, that there were no cars parked anywhere, he
dropped the motorcycle into the back of the bushes.
Hurrying off the gravel and onto grass, he trotted,
crouching over to hide against the house's shadows.
The curtains of a big picture window were poorly
closed, so that, from where he squatted in John Haig's
methodical rows of flowers, he could see into the room.
Maynard Henry did not seem to be there, for, framed in
the narrow opening, she sat alone in a soft, pale blue
garment, her hair pale gold under the lamplight.
Motionless. He watched her begin to stroke something
in her lap. He watched until his legs, stretched in a
squat, began to tremble, until he was certain no one else