FIVE
Guinness crept ahead and dropped low. His growl became a snarl. And before John’s eyes the hunched shape unfolded, detached from the surrounding shadows, brought itself upright and growled back. Whatever it was, it was big. Lambent, sulfur yellow eyes flared in the gloom.
Neither boy ever gave a satisfactory explanation for the state they were in that evening, offering only vague, evasive replies to their mother’s questions. Saying it aloud would be like reliving it. Neither knew how to describe it, and even if they had, how could they expect anyone to believe them? The only clue to what they’d witnessed came when, in that fearful delirium between sleep and wakefulness that followed his nightmares, Xavier ranted about monsters and devils, surfacing from the dream in such a state that he could not be consoled.