“Says—uh—I—” Selena had to stop and think. She wanted to say something about science that would make the awful masked things retreat from reality, but they’d beenright thereand science usually said that if a thing was right in front of you, you didn’t say that it didn’t exist, you started trying to figure out what it was.
The only other thing she could think of was her mother saying, “There’s no monsters under your bed, Selena, go to sleep.”
Her mother, who believed in angels dutifully and demons enthusiastically.
Selena entertained the notion that the things outside the house had been demons, then rejected it after approximately three seconds, mostly because she couldn’t bear a world where her mother had been right.
“Lotta monsters out there,” said Grandma. “Most of ’em human, but some of ’em ain’t. It’s a complicated old world.” She shoveled eggs onto Selena’s plate, and scraped the rest into Copper’s food dish. “Now eat something. I gotta think.”
Selena would have been willing to swear that she could never eat again, right up until she smelled the eggs.
There was general silence until she had finished. Grandma dropped the pan in the sink and wandered around the room with her lips pressed together. By the time Selena finished her breakfast, the old woman was leaning against the back door with her arms folded, glaring at the doll by the fireplace.
“What is it?” asked Selena.
“Nothing,” muttered Grandma. “I ain’t got any proof, and he gets bent out of shape awful easy. Gonna have to catch one of the damn things.”
“Catch one?” Selena stood up so fast that the chair nearly went over backward. Copper let out a startled half woof at the motion. “We’re not catching one! We have to leave! I can’t stay here! There’sthingsout there!”
Grandma grabbed the end of her gray braid and tugged on it. “Selena, hon, if you want to leave, you can come stay with me. Or we’ll go to Father Aguirre and you can cry sanctuary, and he’ll put you up at the church. If that’s what you want to do, we’ll do it.”
Selena took a deep breath. When somebody said that, it usually meant that there was something else they thought you should be doing. If it had been anyone but Grandma Billy, she might have screamed.
Instead she picked up her coffee mug and took another drink, forcing herself to sip this time. “You’re not going to tell me that if I leave, whatever ... whoever ...wins, are you?”
Grandma snorted. “Ain’t aboutwinning. Winning’s stupid. Mostly it’s about figuring out what’s goin’ on. But I won’t lie—it’s Amelia’s house and it chafes me to think of Amelia’s kin being driven out of it. And you’re a good neighbor to a nosy old woman and I’d hate to see you go.”
Selena took another sip of coffee.
“Look,” said Grandma, “you did wonderful. You did exactly what you should do, okay? Don’t worry about that. If you want to do this my way—and you sure don’t have to—I’ll stay here with you tonight and we’ll see if we can’t put a stop to this.”
I am mad. I have fallen down the rabbit hole. The Jackrabbit Hole, in this case. This is insane. I should be running away.
You ran away once already ...said a small voice inside her head.
Yes, and it worked wonderfully! These last few weeks have been so much better—so much—not waking up and wondering how I’m going to get through the day—there’s no comparison! Running away was the best thing I ever did!
She let out a long breath. It had been the best thing she ever did, because it brought her here.
If she left here, where would she run to?
There was no answer to that, not even inside her head.
“All right,” she said out loud, and surprised herself. She sounded much calmer than she thought she was. “One night, if you stay here with me.Justone.”
“It’ll do,” said Grandma, nodding.
“Are you going to do some kind of magic?” asked Selena. Even hearing herself say it was insane—but apparently it was the world that was insane, not her.
And that was an improvement.
“Maybe, if it comes to that,” said Grandma, and grinned. “First, though, I’m gonna try a shotgun.”
“Right,” said Grandma Billy. “First things first. We’re going to go up to the church and tell Father Aguirre what’s going on—”
“What? No!” said Selena, shocked.
Grandma raised an eyebrow and waited.
