“Stop it. STOP IT!”
But yelling only makes the pain worse. Malorie focuses. She pushes. She breathes. But she can’t help but hear.
“I found it fascinating, the lengths the man would go to, while I watched, unharmed, as the creatures passed daily, nightly, sometimes a dozen at once. It’s the reason I settled on this street, Malorie. You have no idea how busy it can be out there.”
please please please please please please please please PLEASE
From the floor below, she hears Tom’s voice.
“Jules! I need you!”
Then a thundering of footsteps leading back down.
“TOM! HELP US! GARY IS UP HERE! TOM!”
“He’s preoccupied,” Gary says. “There’s a real situation going on down there.”
Gary rises. He steps to the attic door and quietly closes it.
Then he locks it.
“Is that any better?” he asks.
“What have you done?” Malorie hisses.
More shouting from below now. It sounds like everybody is moving at once. For an instant, she believes she has gone mad. No matter how safe she’s been, it feels like there is no hiding from the insanity of the new world.
Someone screams in the hall below the locked attic door. Malorie thinks it’s Felix.
“My wife wasn’t prepared,” Gary says, suddenly beside her. “I watched her as she saw one. I didn’t warn her it was coming. I—”
“Why didn’t you tell us?!” Malorie asks, crying, pushing.
“Because,” Gary says, “just like the others, none of you would have believed me. Except Don.”
“You’re mad.”
Gary laughs, grinning.
“What is happening downstairs?!” Olympia yells. “Malorie! What is happening downstairs?!”
“I don’t know!”
“It’s Don,” Gary says. “He’s trying to convince the others what I’ve taught him.”
“IT’S DON!”
The voice from below is as clear as if it were spoken in the attic.
“DON PULLED THEM DOWN! DON PULLED THE BLANKETS DOWN!”
“They won’t hurt us,” Gary whispers. The whiskers of his moist beard touch Malorie’s ear.
But she is no longer listening to him.
“Malorie?” Olympia whispers.
“DON PULLED THE BLANKETS DOWN AND OPENED THE DOOR! THEY’RE IN THE HOUSE! DID YOU HEAR ME? THEY’RE IN THE HOUSE!”
the baby is coming the baby is coming the baby is coming
“Malorie?”
“Olympia,” she says, defeated, void of hope (is it true? is her own voice saying as much?). “Yes. They’re in the house now.”
The storm outside whips against the walls.
The chaos below sounds impossible.
“They sound like wolves,” Olympia cries. “They sound like wolves!”
Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don
tore the blankets down
let them in
someone saw them
let them in
someone went mad who was it?
Don let them in
Don tore down the blankets
Don doesn’t believe they can hurt us
Don thinks it’s only in our mind
Gary knelt by him in the chair in the dining room
Gary spoke to him from behind the tapestry in the cellar
Don pulled the blankets down
Gary told him they were fake, Gary told him they were harmless
may have gone mad who is it who has?
(push, Malorie, push, you have a baby, a baby to worry about, close your eyes if you have to but push push) they’re in the house now
and everyone in it
sounds like wolves.
The birds, Malorie thinks, hysterical, were a good idea, Tom. A great one.
Olympia is frantically asking her questions but Malorie can’t answer. Her mind is full.
“Is it true? Is there really one in the house? That can’t be true. We’d never allow it! Is there really one in the house? Right now?”
Something slams against a wall downstairs. A body maybe. The dogs are barking.
Someone threw a dog against the wall.
“DON TORE THE BLANKETS DOWN!”
Who has their eyes closed down there? Who has the presence of mind? Would Malorie? Would Malorie have been able to close her eyes as her housemates went mad?
Oh my God, Malorie thinks. They’re going to die down there.
The baby is killing her.
Gary is still whispering in her ear.
“What you hear down there, that’s what I mean, Malorie. They think they’re supposed to go mad. But they don’t have to. I spent seasons out there. I watched them for weeks at a time.”
“Impossible,” Malorie says. She doesn’t know if this word is directed at Gary, the noise below, or the pain she believes will never pass.
“The first time I saw one, I thought I’d gone mad.” Gary nervously laughs. “But I didn’t. And when I slowly realized I was still of sound mind, I began to understand what was happening. To my friends. My family. To everybody.”
“I don’t want to hear any more!” Malorie screams. She feels like she may split down the center. There has been a mistake, she thinks. The baby that tries to escape her is too big and it will split her.
It’s a boy, she believes.
“You know what?”
“Stop!”
“You know what?”