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I dropped the stone pendant. It bounced slightly against his chest. "Daniel? If people like
you--these Urbat--still exist, does that mean monsters do, too?"
Daniel turned his head away. "I should go now." He pulled me up with him as he stood.
My feet felt uneven on the slope of the roof. Daniel steadied me. I didn't want him to leave. I
would have kept him with me all night if I could. But I knew he wouldn't stay. He wouldn't
answer any more questions tonight.
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He helped me through the window and popped the screen back in place. "Good night, Grace."
"Will I see you again?" I placed my hand on the screen that separated us. "You're not going to
disappear now that your secret identity is blown?"
He put his hand against mine, the thin metal mesh between our skin. "Tomorrow. I'll be here
tomorrow. I told your dad I'd fix the fence." He made no guarantee beyond that.
"I'll see you then."
Daniel pulled his hand away.
"Wait," I said.
He stopped.
"Thank you. For what you did for my dad ... out in the backyard."
Daniel bit his lip. "You saw that?" I nodded.
His face colored slightly. "Don't worry about it, Gracie. Your dad was just feeling the aftereffects
of what happened today--thinking he'd lost a son forever." Daniel stepped backward to the edge
of the shingled eve. He sprang up onto his toes. "Lock your window," he said, and did a back flip
dive off the roof.
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Chapter Fourteen Such great heights
IN BED
I curled up with my comforter and tried to make my brain stop whirling. But I couldn't stop
thinking about Daniel: how it felt to be held in his arms, the exhilaration and freedom of running
with him in the woods, what he told me about his ancestors ... about himself. But most of all, I
couldn't stop wondering why Daniel hadn't answered my question about the existence of
monsters.
I have to admit I didn't know much about that sort of thing--monsters, demons, vampires. A lot
of people in the parish thought it was a sin to read books or watch movies about such things. My
parents limited the shows we were allowed to watch, and I had friends who were banned from
reading the Harry Potter books because they supposedly celebrated witchcraft. I always thought
that was silly--those things were just make-believe anyway.
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At least that's what I'd believed.
But restrictions didn't stop people in Rose Crest from talking. I'd always tried to believe that the
Markham Street Monster was just some kind of morality tale to scare us kids into behaving. The
stories started out as just sightings of some kind of hairy beast on Markham Street. Then people
in that part of the city went missing. Mostly shelter guests, prostitutes, and kids who were
wasted, so no one seemed all that concerned. That is until their mangled bodies started turning up
on Markham about once a month. At least those were the rumors I'd heard when I was a kid.
Things closer to Rose Crest weren't as bad. Mostly dead animals--like my little dog, Daisy,
ripped to pieces. Dad had said it was probably just a raccoon from the woods, but I'd always
feared something worse. And what if I was right? What if it had been the Markham Street
Monster? What if it had been as close as my front yard?
Those strange things had stopped years ago--before Daniel ever left town--but now they were
happening again. Maryanne had died from the cold, but her body had been abused like the ones
found on Markham Street. Then James went missing ... and the blood on the porch. And I
couldn't forget what had happened while I was stranded on Markham Street itself. What might
have happened if Daniel hadn't come along?
Could it really be a coincidence that any of these things started happening again only after Daniel
had
190
come home? Could the monster have followed him here? Or maybe he was the one who was
tracking it.
Daniel said he'd returned because of art school, but I'd felt there was something more to it. Was
this it? Was the Markham Street Monster back? Was Daniel here to protect us from it?
MORNING
I must have fallen asleep eventually, because I was startled awake by a loud thunk outside my
bedroom window. I rolled over and looked at the clock: 6:00 a.m. I heard the thunk again, so I
stumbled out of bed and went to investigate. It was mostly dark out, but I could still see that the
side yard was empty. The thunking continued. It seemed to be coming from the backyard. My
legs were so stiff I practically had to slide down the stairs on my butt.
I was in the kitchen when I saw Daniel out in the backyard. He was driving a wood fence post
into the frozen dirt--with his bare hands. I couldn't tell for sure because his back was to me, but it
looked like he was holding the post in one hand and then swinging his arm, presumably
whacking the top of the post with the butt of his hand. No mallet, or hammer, or any tool was
even nearby from what I could tell. He'd probably gotten such an early start so he could do it his
way.
I was about to go out and join him when I ran my
191
hand through my hair, and my fingers lodged in a nest of snarls. I watched Daniel take another
swing, sinking the post a good three inches into the ground, and I suddenly felt compelled to he
cleaned and dressed in something more flattering than my flannel yellow-ducky pj's.
By the time I'd done my makeup, flat-ironed my hair, and changed my sweater three times--why
was everything I owned so boxy?--Charity was in the kitchen perusing one of her science hooks
and eating sugared cereal from her private stash. Which meant that Mom wasn't up yet. The
thunking noise had stopped, so hopefully Mom and James would sleep in for a while longer.
I peered out the window. "Did you see where Daniel went?"
"Nope," Charity grumbled. "I was about ready to go strangle him for making all that racket, but
he was gone by the time I got down here."
"Sorry," I said, like anything Daniel did was my fault.
"Meh." She shrugged. "I was gonna get up early today anyway. I've got to write a whole first
draft for my research paper this weekend."
"Oh." I stared farther out the window. "I wonder where he went."
"The Corolla's gone. Maybe Dad took him to the hardware store or something."
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Or maybe whoever took the car last night never came home. I didn't hear the garage door last
night, and I hadn't fallen asleep until at least three a.m. Dad's study was closed and locked, and
the light was out. If Daniel wasn't with Dad, then where had he gone?
I sank into a kitchen chair. Perhaps Daniel's reason for fixing the fence so early was because he'd
changed his mind about wanting to see me again.
"May I?" I reached for Charity's box of Lucky Charms. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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