Chapter 14
It was a man—or so I assumed when I saw the sausage-like bundle heaved over one shoulder. No, not a bundle. That had to be Clarence, dead or knocked out or so sick he hadn’t even woken when he was gathered up and spirited away.
Just like my family’s pelts. For half a second, I was back in my childhood den. Quivering, four-legged, under the porch where I’d run in my terror. Listening to the pounding of feet on floorboards above me. Huddling there for an eternity after silence descended, until my twin’s face peeped in, upside down.
“She’s here!”
“Thank goodness.” My mother crouched at the edge of the yard. “My baby. You’re safe.”
She opened her arms and I crept into them, nosing for safety. The moon glowed bright above us, but my father stumbled as he came down the stairs tow
