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forth from the front of the wooden box, flicking the air, scenting for power. Finding none, the tongue popped back inside two thick lips that cut through pudgy scarred cheeks.
    Gnarled fingers and blackened hands massaged the sides of the box, seeking to obtain the twisted fiends’ release. But the tiny demons found themselves cemented to their prison.
    The door at the top of the stairs opened, and a tiny voice called, “Mommy? Mommy?”
    The jumble of bodies on the box quivered in joy.
    “Yes, yes, come down here, little one. We await your commands.”
    With outstretched hands the beasts beseeched the child.
    “Release us from our prison, and we’ll obey only you.”
    One, two, three stairs squeaked from a child’s feet.
    “Mommy, are you down there?”
    “Much better, we are here!”
shouted the beasts, but their tiny voices couldn’t carry to Stephen’s ears.
    “Mommy, are you hiding on me?” Stephen asked, his hands gripping the banister as he stared into the dark basement.
    “Silly boy,”
called a bestial voice, its body rolling back and forth in agony.
    “Another step,”
entreated a spindly demon who worried his hands constantly.
    “Daddy doesn’t want me coming down here, Mommy. He says it’s dirty and cold and not very nice in the basement. I never tell him about us doing magic in the basement. I never talk about the colors, the sounds, and figures we played with. Especially not about the little uglies. They gave me the creeps like those movies Dad likes to watch.” Stephen released the banister and sat down on the step, his knees pulled to his chest.
    “Don’t hesitate, little villain,”
snapped a misshapen bird, its beak slightly bent to one side, its beak firmly attached to the wood.
    “I guess Dad wouldn’t mind if I talk to you from the steps. It’s warmer up here, and I only got on my pj’s.
    “Aunt Rosemary’s coming to visit tomorrow. I told Daddy we should still go visit you, but now that you’re back I guess we don’t have to drive way out to the ocean anymore. Did you like Aunt Rosemary? Daddy says you felt sorry for her because of Robin.”
    “She got the child she deserved.”
Mommy’s harsh voice almost broke through the vacuum separating mother from son. She tried to take his hand and lead him down the steps but his flesh seemed too far away.
    “Bring the babe closer, woman. Bring him to us, and we will fulfill your wishes.”
The beasts voices spoke in unison.
“We will sing to him the same lullabies that you did. We will cradle his soul safely in our hands. We will tend to his hungers and rub our own salve into his wounds.”
    “Momma, why can’t I see you anymore?”
    “Your eyes can’t see in the dark, my sweetness. The spirits I brought into this world can help you see, but you must go to them.”
Stephen’s mother blew her son a kiss before the world of the dead retrieved her.

Chapter
12
    “Now look happy to see your aunt when she comes through the arrival door, Stephen.”
    “It’s okay, Dad. We don’t have to visit Mommy ‘cause she visits us now.”
    Jacob looked down at his son and found himself feeling both proud and bewildered. Could this be Stephen’s way of making the best of things? At some point he’d have to put a stop to his son’s fantasies, but not now. Cathy had been dead only a short time. Let the boy find his own way through the grief.
    “There she is now! Wave, Stephen.” Jacob leaned down to whisper in his son’s ear. “And don’t forget to smile.” Suddenly Jacob’s face broke into a broad grin.
    A woman with round spectacles and dyed charcoal-black hair squinted into the waiting crowd. Her ashen complexion appeared to be dotted with cherry-colored paste, and her lips nervously mumbled unspoken words. Her white teeth glinted when she caught sight of Jacob and Stephen. She rushed forward into Jacob’s arms.
    Jacob gingerly held Rosemary’s frail body. He judged her to be about five feet ten and weighing all of one hundred