“They ain’t smart,” said Grandma. She reloaded and opened the door.
There was nothing there but the increasingly large pile of cloth. The one at the window had vanished.
“Back door,” she said calmly, bolting the front. “Still sticks, don’t it? You’ll need to open this one for me, then.”
Selena dragged Copper into the bedroom and shut the door, then moved to the back. She could hear the dog’s claws scrabbling at the wood.
“Stay low,” said Grandma. She held the gun pointed off to the side. “And move fast. I don’t think it’s anything but more of the same, but you never know.”
Selena grabbed the handle, took a deep breath—and flung herself to the side, pulling with all her strength.
The door stuck for a minute, then scraped open.
Selena caught a glimpse of a white face, white ... feathers? ... and then the gun went off and she actually felt a puff of hot air across her face.
The cloth crumpled to the ground, as if it had been hollow.
“Right,” said Grandma. “Shut it.”
She reloaded again. Selena knew that her hands were shaking and yet she felt remarkably calm about the whole thing. Grandma knew what she was doing. There were clearly no people inside the robes.
They really were monsters. I’m not crazy. It’s reality that ought to apologize.
“Open,” said Grandma.
It only stuck for a moment this time. Grandma swung the gun up, then paused. “Nothin’. Okay. May be the last of them, but we’ll go look. Bring Copper, but keep hold of her.”
Selena let Copper out. Copper lunged for the back door, gave the cloth a good sniff, then looked around. There was a growl in her throat, slowly dying away.
“Around the side of the house,” said Grandma. “If you see one, point and get behind me, got it?”
Selena nodded.
The three of them—old woman, young woman, dog—went around the house. They didn’t move fast, but they didn’t move slowly either. Grandma’s head turned ceaselessly, and she even looked up to the roof a few times.
When they had circled the house twice, she lowered the gun and relaxed. “Think we got ’em,” she said. “Come on, let’s go have a look.”
She set the gun down on the porch and pulled on her garden gloves. Selena opened the door to shed a little more light.
“Empty robes,” said Grandma. “And ... let’s see ...” She held something up to the light. It shed small white feathers down her arms.
“Fetch,” said Grandma Billy, sounding disgusted. “Thought so. Some bastard got himself a pile of owl skins.”
“Owl skins?” said Selena blankly.
“Yep. That’s what was looking in at you. Barn owls.” She held up the owl skin and the empty face. It had hollow eye sockets and a familiar shape, with a dark triangle at the bottom.
“But—they were a lot bigger! You saw them! And they had real eyes!”
Grandma nodded. “They stretch a lot. There’s not a lot of smarts in a skin, but it’s got a little bit of memory to it. Enough to give it eyes and walk it around and follow some simple orders.” She sighed. “We better take these to Father Aguirre. I want ’em burned, but I’d rather do it there. The smoke might call things.”
“He won’t mind?” asked Selena weakly.
“Hell, no, he’ll love it. He ain’t had a baptism or a marriage to worry about for ages. Even priests get bored eventually.”
Selena would have balked at making the long walk to the church again, particularly in the dark where there might be more of the monsters, but she didn’t get much chance. Grandma loaded the skins and the cloth into her wheelbarrow. “Gonna have to ask you to push. I need to keep my hands free.”
“For the gun,” said Selena. “Um. Yeah.” She rubbed her palms along her jeans to scrape off the sweat. “It’s a very big gun.”
