Had our way with her just as pretty as you please, the bass lisper said.
Then again, she did not have all of this “help,” said the Vermonter.
True, the Brit said. No one helped her a single bit.
Young man? the woman said. Is it to be here? Or on the roof?
roger bevins iii
The lad was silent.
hans vollman
On the roof, the Reverend said. If you please.
Very well, said the woman.
The carapace fell away at once, and the boy was free.
roger bevins iii
If I might request the honor of carrying him up there? the Reverend said.
Certainly, the woman said.
hans vollman
I reached down, picked the boy up.
Ran.
Out of the crypt and into the night.
Ran-skimmed.
Ran-skimmed like the wind.
Toward the only place that now held the slightest hope of affording him refuge.
the reverend everly thomas
LXXXII.
Joyful, joyful!
An exceedingly bold stroke!
roger bevins iii
Bastard! the woman cried out wearily.
hans vollman
Mr. Vollman and I ran-skimmed out of the white stone home in pursuit of the Reverend.
roger bevins iii
A low wave burst out behind us, a moving knee-high wall comprised of whatever substance the demonic beings happened to be inhabiting in that instant (grass, dirt, headstone, statue, bench)— hans vollman
Which passed us now— roger bevins iii
(Like children in the surf, we were lifted, then set down again.) hans vollman
—and overtook the Reverend.
roger bevins iii
Who, slapped and harangued by the matter-blur that plashed up all about him, broke down the small hill near the gardener’s shed.
hans vollman
The chapel now coming into sight, we suddenly understood his intention.
roger bevins iii
The demonic beings split into two divisions, as it were, coming up fast on either side of the Reverend, then performed a crossing maneuver, at knee level, tripping him up.
hans vollman
As he fell, to protect the boy, he instinctively rolled on to his back, so as to absorb the brunt of the impact.
roger bevins iii
And they had him.
hans vollman
Had them.
They sought the boy but, seeking the boy, pinioned the Reverend as well.
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In their frenzy it appeared they were no longer capable of, or interested in, distinguishing between reverend and lad.
hans vollman
By the time we reached the Reverend and the boy, the two were bundled tightly together within a rapidly solidifying new carapace.
roger bevins iii
The Reverend’s terrible cries sounding from within.
hans vollman
They have me! he shouted. They have even me! I must—I must go! Good God! Mustn’t I? Or be trapped like this, forever— Go, yes, by all means, save yourself, dear friend! I shouted. Go!
But I don’t want to! he shouted. I am afraid!
The choked, garbled quality of his voice told us that the carapace had reached his mouth, and then it seemed it had penetrated even into his brain, and was making him delirious.
That palace, he shouted at the very end. That dreadful diamond palace!
roger bevins iii
Then, from inside the carapace, came the familiar, yet always bone-chilling, firesound associated with the matterlightblooming phenomenon.
hans vollman
And the Reverend was gone.
roger bevins iii
The Reverend’s departure creating a temporary vacuity within the carapace— hans vollman
Mr. Vollman gave the thing a tremendous kick, and caved it in.
roger bevins iii
As we fell enraged upon it, digging and clawing, I could feel the demonic beings within looking askance at us, repulsed by our ferocity, our revived human proclivity for hatred-inspired action. Mr. Bevins drove one arm in up to the elbow. From the other side, I was able to puncture the carapace with a long bough, and situating myself beneath that bough drove up with my knees, and the carapace split open, and Mr. Bevins was able to get his two arms fully inside. Letting out a shout of exertion, he began to pull, and soon, like a foal newly born (as wet, as untidy), the lad tumbled out, and for a second we were able to clearly observe, inside the ruptured carapace, the imprint of the Reverend’s face, which had not, I am happy to say, in those final instants, reverted back to the face we had so long associated with him (badly frightened, eyebrows high, the mouth a perfect O of terror), but, rather, his countenance now conveyed a sense of tentative hopefulness—as if he were going into that unknown place content that he had, at any rate, while in this place, done all that he could.
hans vollman
Mr. Vollman snatched up the boy and dashed away.
The demonic beings, flowing out of the remains of the carapace into the earth, gave chase.
Soon, from below, Mr. Vollman’s ankles were cuffed, and he tumbled to his knees, and the demonic beings, forming again into tendrils, shot rapidly up his legs and torso and began pioneering out on to his arms.
I raced over, plucked the boy away, dashed off.
And within seconds was myself overrun.