return to episode 1
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The room changed hue. The light seemed to strobe. And I understood that Little Finnegan had broken through. He meant to drive Delores away. I
got up to warn her. But there he was, scuttling across the ceiling on fingers
and toes, face twisted back to watch me as he lowered himself head-first over
the door. I stepped after him, and he stopped, and his mouth stretched, and
in an instant, he had skittered back up to the ceiling and was circling over my
head. I took a wild swing with my fist and stumbled to the floor. He extended his hand as though to help, but I slapped it away, and his foot caught me behind the ear, and the lights dimmed.
I didn’t hear the
screams or see the look on Delores’s face as she was pressed into the fog with
nothing but her housecoat and a slipper—but I was enraged. When I heard the tapping
on the floorboards, I scrambled to the stairs and spied Little Finnegan in a frilly apron and high heels, parading in front of the
mirror. Catching my reflection, he raised a hand to his brow in faux despair and
fled to the bedroom, where he fell in a swoon and lay, for a moment, deathly still. Then his eyes snapped open to see my reaction as he convulsed in what I suppose was a performance of his death throes.
I let out a shriek and launched myself at him. And though he clawed
at the bedspread in an effort to dig free, I managed to pin his arms and swaddle him in the heavy fabric. He had mostly stopped resisting
by the time I dragged him behind the garage, and even while I was winding the
bungee he was silent. Still, in my rage, I took a greasy rag and, with the aid
of a paint stick, rammed it down his throat. And then, for the hundredth time,
I grabbed a shovel and began to dig.
The light was throbbing in blues and reds when Little Finnegan announced his return with a long, inhuman
wail. I pretended not to notice as he tiptoed overhead. But the windows had been boarded and, with a click, the door was sealed tight. Where you going, Little
Finnegan? I laughed as he darted from corner to corner. Already, the flames had
reached the ceiling and the smoke was blotting out the light. I began to sing: Little Finnegan, let’s pretend this isn't the way the
world ends!
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continue to episode 3