Free In the Dark of the Night by John Saul Page A

larger building. But it looked all right—dark and safe, although even from here he could feel the pull.
    But it was all right.
    He could resist, at least for now.
    For now, he was safe.
    But he couldn’t resist the family inside the big house.
    He crossed the lawn to the steps, slipped silently up onto the terrace, and peered in through the big living room windows.
    A fire burned in the fireplace.
    He remembered another fire burning in that fireplace.
    There was a woman reading in Dr. Darby’s leather chair in front of that fireplace.
    He remembered Dr. Darby reading in that chair.
    As Logan watched, a little girl appeared, carrying a bowl of popcorn.
    No! No little girls! No boys, no little girls!
    Danger…so much danger.
    It was happening again. It was all going to start again! Soon!
    Logan put his hands to his head, pressing hard. There was something he was supposed to do—something in case this very thing happened.
    But what?
    He couldn’t remember!
    A little white dog started to bark and jump at the window a few feet from where he was standing.
    Panicked, Logan backed away from the window, then turned and ran back into the woods, making his way as quickly as he could down to the water.
    Down to the water, and his boat.
    His heart still pounding and his head still throbbing, Logan untied the line from the tree, got into the boat, and shoved off.
    Careful to keep the big wooden cross on his prow between himself and the house, he backed slowly and silently away, until he was completely out of sight of the evil.
    But out of its sight, he knew, didn’t mean he was away from its influence.
    Away from its force.
    “Mercy,” he whispered once more.
    Praying silently, he began to row home.
                      
    “ W HAT’S THE MATTER with Moxie?” Merrill asked, looking up from her book.
    “Something’s out there,” Marci said, her eyes narrowing as she gazed at the blackness beyond the window.
    “Nothing’s out there,” Eric said, coming in from the dining room with a piece of pie, which he was piling on top of the s’more he’d already eaten. The dog was still scratching at the window and whining to get out, and though he’d just said there was nothing out there, Eric wondered if maybe Adam Mosler had decided to come back and do what he’d heard him suggesting to Cherie earlier. Except Adam Mosler hadn’t had time to get all the way to town and back, and Eric was pretty sure that whatever Adam had in mind, Cherie wouldn’t be willing to go along with it.
    “Go take a look, okay?” his father asked, emerging from the den at the far end of the living room, which could be closed off with a set of sliding doors. “Set your mom and sister’s minds at rest.”
    “Probably a raccoon or something,” Eric said. “I better put his leash on him, or he’ll get himself in trouble.”
    “Moxie could beat up a raccoon,” Marci insisted.
    “Yeah, right,” Eric said, snapping the leash onto the dog’s collar. “And Tippy could bring down a deer.”
    “I didn’t
say
that,” Marci shot back, injecting as much scorn into her voice as she could summon. “But I bet she could,” she whispered as her brother opened the door and stepped out onto the terrace.
    “Bet she couldn’t,” Eric tossed back. Glancing around and seeing no glowing eyes, he bent down and released the dog from the leash. “Sic ’em, Mox.”
    The dog ran barking down the lawn toward the lake.
    Eric stood on the patio, gazing out into the night. The moon was just rising, and the light on the horizon threw the pine trees into silhouette and reflected in a faint silver tinge on the water’s surface. The whole world seemed to be turning black and silver.
    Then, from off in the distance, Eric heard the creak of an oarlock, and he saw a glittering splash of water. As his eyes adjusted from the brightness of the house, he thought he could see the faint form of a boat disappearing into the darkness. But almost as soon as it