The waiting became unbearable. Daniel sat shivering in the corner until Dad wrapped a coat around his shoulders. Dad looked tired, his eyes black-rimmed, like a panda"s, thick with sleep, but no one dared surrender to exhaustion. How could they? Daniel snuggling down into the coat, thought dark thoughts of demons visiting him in blacked out rooms, in dank dungeons, on windswept moors. At any moment the mob would begin their assault on the house, and then the real demons would come. He had to be awake to help fight them off.
Fight them off? Who was he trying to fool? That thing, that beast as Grüber had called it, would not be denied by anything. Certainly not a few popguns. They were only delaying the inevitable.
Fight them offbeast“Daniel?”
Dad held out a steaming hot cup of tea. “How
