The Work of Our Lord’s Hand

Scott and Kelly Temple moved to the big house at the beginning of an unusually cold April. The house was at the end of a long dirt road. It was their first home together.

The real estate agent informed them that the house had been built in the 1940’s, but was well cared for and modernized. It was enormous and secluded. Great boughs of pine sheltered the eves. It had Gothic arches and aging windowpanes and tall, swooping rooftops. There was a huge front porch and a large backyard leading down to a ravine.

Scott’s company, a start-up tech firm for which he would work as an engineer, was responsible for finding the house and hooking them up with their real estate agent. Scott said his bosses had sprung into action as soon as they’d learned he had an infant at home.

“They’re being really nice about it,” Scott told Kelly. “And the lender they put me in touch with has an insane interest rate — 2 freaking percent. I mean, that’s unheard of.”

Kelly cradled their infant, whom they’d named Sophia after Kelly’s grandmother, and smiled at her new husband.

“It’s all coming together,” she said.

A small voice in the back of her mind told her if it was too good to be true, it probably was. It was the voice of her mother. She shook it away.

This was an incredible deal. They needed to get out of the one bedroom apartment they’d been sharing. They needed to start their real lives.

First they’d gotten married, then she’d gotten pregnant, then Sophia had been born. Almost simultaneously Scott had found the new job, and the job had led to this house.

The Temples were both twenty-five, wholesome young Caucasian American Millennials. They were well aware that their life paths were a bit archaic for people their age; to have a marriage and a newborn and a mortgage a mere two years out of college. Kelly had given up her job working at Guess in the mall to care for Sophia full time. Scott’s paychecks made that possible. They both felt very lucky and conscious of their privilege.

But this house was almost too much. It was bigger than either of the houses Scott or Kelly had grown up in. When the two of them walked inside for the first time, their voices echoed off the high walls, and the place was chilly and imposing. To Kelly, it felt and smelled like a museum. Interesting and aged, but musty and full of dark corners and sharp edges.

Just the same, she was excited. So much could be done with the space. This was a house in which you could easily spend the rest of your life.

It had four bedrooms, a huge kitchen and an even bigger living room. A spacious dining room with an ancient brass chandelier dangling over the center. There were three bathrooms, a laundry room, several walk in closets, a pantry, a sitting room, and a finished basement that ran the length of the entire house.

Thanks to the extra bedrooms, Scott would get a study and Kelly would get a sewing room to work on her projects.

Behind the house was a large backyard where several old oak trees stood, and there was an old tire swing hanging from the boughs of a lonely old willow.

Forest stretched for miles beyond the backyard. They were ten minutes from the nearest sub division, and almost half an hour from the nearest suburban mecca.

“It looks like a postcard,” said Kelly, looking at the backyard. For some reason, the backyard reminded her of the Babysitter’s Club books she’d read as child. She could almost see troops of little girls playing out there like some Renaissance painting. She was giddy with happiness, and Sophia gurgled contentedly against her chest.

“We can take pictures of the backyard during the different seasons and send them out at Christmas,” said Scott.

The two of them were delighted at their good fortune. Scott’s company had been a true savior — they’d even offered to help with the down payment.

“They must really want you to work for them,” said Kelly. “To get us this house at this rate, and at this price. I mean, this is a rich person’s house. We’re not rich.”

“No, but with my salary the mortgage payments will be easy,” said Scott. “And you can always go back to work once Sophia’s old enough for daycare or something. If you have to.”

Kelly nodded, smiling widely in spite of her mother’s quiet reservations whispered at the back of her mind. Her mother had never let her have too much fun, always telling her to watch out for this or watch out for that. She bounced between a bright white happiness and a certain, crawling caution.

Scott came over and took Sophia from Kelly. Sophia gave a peal of baby giggles as Scott swung her around.

“You’re gonna become fully conscious in this place,” Scott said to the infant, walking with her through the foyer and into the dining room. “Lucky you.”

========================================

Kelly put Sophia in her high chair and gave her a handful of Cheerios to munch on. She played Death Cab for Cutie off her phone as she fixed the kitchen up.

How exciting to have her own place. She’d lived with her parents her whole life up until she’d moved out with Scott, right after he’d asked her to marry him on a walk in the state park one autumn evening.

It had been two weeks since they’d moved in. All of their parents and Scott’s brother and sister and Kelly’s brothers had helped out, plus Scott’s frat buddy Thomas.

The house still echoed even with all their furniture and possessions moved in. Two rooms — Scott’s study and Kelly’s sewing room — were still empty with only wood floors and blank walls. Kelly kept those doors closed.

Sophia got the bedroom closest to Scott and Kelly’s master bedroom. The large master bedroom was the size of their entire previous apartment.

While Scott’s company had shown some unconventional generosity, in return they appeared to expect every last minute of his time. Scott worked constantly. 12 hour days, seven days a week. It would be like this for the first month or so, then he’d start getting more normal hours. Or so he had been told. He’d also be traveling soon, gone for a couple days a week at a time.

So with the exception of the move-in day, Kelly was alone with their baby daughter. She spent her time unpacking everything and rearranging the furniture the way she wanted, toting and doting on Sophia along the way.

And all this gave time for Kelly to think. She got anxious when she thought too much.

She missed Scott dearly, way more than she thought she would. She hadn’t ever spent this much time away from him. She missed his chest and his eyes and his smile.

Scott was tall and handsome. Kelly was small and frail and fragile and she thought her chin was too narrow and her eyes too big and her hair too straight and her limbs too skinny and her waist too gawkish, which was a word her mother used to describe her as soon as she was old enough to understand what it meant. She also had a weak complexion, breaking out in unsightly clusters of acne on her chin and forehead whenever stressed out.

Scott’s status and looks made him popular with other women. Every time another girl gave Scott the eyes, or subtly reached out to tap his shoulder or brush his arm, it stirred a flame inside Kelly that made her shake with anger. She told herself it was ridiculous. Scott was always faithful. He was a practicing Catholic, like Kelly, and he got along with his parents and siblings, and that was enough for Kelly to tell herself it was only her silly head.

Kelly had most of everything unboxed and put away. She broke all the empty boxes down and stacked them the empty garage, next to her old Saturn that sat in its parking spot like a mouse in a cave.

She saved the kitchen for last, as it was the place she was looking forward to setting up the most.

The pantry was the size of a walk-in closet, with a naked yellow bulb caked with dust giving light to every corner. Kelly wiped the shelves down with Pledge and paper towel and pictured where she’d organize her flour and sugar and spices.

Kelly had only just begun to unpack and put away the first of the dishes when she heard a knock at the front door. The knocks echoed through the house, one after the other, slow and deliberate, like someone was swinging a hammer against the door.

Kelly looked up and listened. She waited a moment.

“Who was that?” she asked Sophia, playing in her high chair with a tray full of chew toys.

Sophia babbled, already starting to talk. She had bright brown eyes and a fluff of brown hair on her otherwise bald head.

Kelly put the plates she was holding in the cupboard and headed for the front door. The walk spanned the size of the house she’d grown up in.

Kelly was nervous about spending so much money on this place. Her hand had shook as she’d signed the mortgage. What if Scott’s new job didn’t work out? She pushed the thoughts away, focused on the chores she had yet to do after she answered the door.

There was no silhouette in the frosted glass of the front door. Maybe it was FedEx, dropping something off for Scott.

Kelly opened the door. There was no one there. The day was grey and mild, a dingy mid- April day with winter’s chill still hanging about.

Kelly looked down the driveway to the dirt road beyond. The house was the last one on a dead end road. The driveway was long and winding. There was no way someone could’ve walked up and rang the doorbell and disappeared like this, even the FedEx guy who seemed to have a knack for that sort of thing at their apartment.

There was a bouquet of flowers on the doorstep. They looked like tulips or roses, but they were a bright shiny gold, almost as if they’d been spray painted. They were tied with a big gold ribbon in a bow.

Kelly looked at the gold flowers lying there on the smooth cement of the porch, on top of the black mat she’d laid down the day before. She bent down and picked them up. They were cool and damp.

She took the flowers inside and lay them on the counter. Right away, something about them made her uneasy. Where had they come from? Who would just leave them there? And they looked unnatural — like they were made of some cheap tin foil or something.

She couldn’t smell them, either. She brought the bouquet to her nose instinctively upon picking it up, and there was no scent, not even the vague greenish smell of fresh-cut vegetation.

Kelly looked at the flowers on the counter and then picked them up again.

“Just a second, honey,” she said to Sophia.

She went out to the garage and opened the garage door. It groaned like an old man getting up from his chair as it swung open.

Kelly walked outside and promptly dumped the flowers in their new garbage bin. They flopped to the bottom where they rested against the clean brown plastic, and lay there, looking forlorn and rejected.

Kelly shut the lid, and forgot about the flowers.

=======================================

Kelly didn’t think about the the flowers again until the next day, when there was another knock at the door.

The flowers were back. Same spot.

And this time, Kelly could hear the faint dulcet tones of a violin playing, not far off. Somewhere just inside the treeline, from the sound of it. A mournful melody, slow and sweeping. She quickly scooped up the flowers and went back inside.

Kelly hung onto the bouquet this time, wrapping it in a paper bag and hiding it in the mud room.

“Is someone from work trying to give us flowers?” she asked Scott that evening. “You know, as like a housewarming gift?”

Scott had circles under his eyes. He’d been sluggish ever since he’d started working. Only two weeks at this job and he was no longer the chipper young man Kelly had fallen in love with in college, the star of the tennis team and a diligent jogger. He looked drained, and he was getting moody.

“What?” he said, not looking at her.

“There’s been these golden flowers on the doorstep for the past two days. Someone rings the doorbell and nothing’s there, and then there’s these flowers on the doorstep. They leave these weird-looking flowers.”

“What?” said Scott again. He was looking at his phone. He always looked at his phone these days.

They were sitting around the dinner table. Kelly had made them their first meal in the house together — spaghetti and salad. Scott had only eaten half his plate. Sophia had been fussy, too, refusing to eat her baby food and making quite the mess as Kelly tried to get the spoon into her mouth.

“Do you think someone from your work gave them to us?” Kelly said again. “I don’t know who else would. And our friends would tell us about it. There’s no card, nothing. Just these weird gold flowers with a ribbon around them.”

“No,” Scott said, turning his phone off and shaking his head. “No, no one from work. No one’s mentioned it to me anyway.”

His phone buzzed again as soon as he set it down.

“Jesus Christ,” he said.

He picked it up.

“I knew it, I gotta be in early tomorrow,” he said, shaking his head. “Again. And I’ll probably work the weekend.”

“Are they ever going to let up?” Kelly said. “Even give you a day to get some sleep? You look tired.”

“I am tired. I gotta go to bed.”

He stood from the table and rubbed his eyes and groaned.

“Can’t wait for that first paycheck, though,” he said. He grinned at her. “All the month’s bills paid off with one freaking check.”

He bent down and kissed Kelly. She held onto him for a moment, breathing him in. She’d stay up with Sophia for awhile longer, watching another Disney animated classic and letting Sophia fall asleep in her lap.

“Love you, baby girl,” Scott said, kissing her.

He bent and kissed Sophia on the forehead. He made for the bedroom, yawning, then stopped and turned.

“What kind of flowers are they?” he asked, rubbing the back of his head and yawning some more.

“They look like roses,” said Kelly. “Or tulips. But they’re this bright gold. That’s why I thought they’d be from your company. They look like something a hipster tech start-up would send as a housewarming gift. I still have them. They’re in the mud room.”

“Why would you put them in there?”

Kelly felt silly.

“Because they creep me out. Just the fact that, you know, they’ve been there two days in a row now and I don’t know who’s leaving them. And then I thought I heard music in the woods today, too.”

“Oh,” said Scott, shaking his head. “You’re probably thinking too much.”

“I can show them to you,” said Kelly, getting up to go to the closet. “I threw the first ones out, and then the second ones showed up.”

“No, it’s all right,” said Scott, shaking his head some more. “They’re not from work. They would’ve sent them back with me, not dropped them off. And them helping us get the house and helping with the down payment was the housewarming gift. But Niles says he’s sending a coffee basket home with me this Friday. So there’s that.”

“I saved them,” said Kelly. “Really, I can show them to you, if you want.”

“Tomorrow,” said Scott. “When I get back. I might not have to stay so late tomorrow if I’m coming in early.”

“But who’s sending them, Scott? We don’t have any real neighbors.”

“I don’t know, Kelly,” said Scott. “But they’re just flowers. It’s all right. I gotta get some sleep.”

Scott walked off to bed, tossing a “Love you both,” over his shoulder and then it was just Kelly and Sophia again.

========================================

To Kelly’s relief, new flowers weren’t there on the doorstep the next day, and there were no knocks at the door.

She finished organizing the kitchen and the house was officially done being put together. She felt very refreshed and sank down on the couch. Sophia rolled on her blankie on the living room floor in front of the TV.

Kelly sat there. It was getting to be late afternoon, and she wanted to have something cooked for Scott when he got home.

A few of Kelly’s friends acted like she was committing some atrocity by playing housewife, but she didn’t mind it at all. She liked cooking. She loved Scott and liked it when he enjoyed a meal and groaned and unbuttoned his pants to give his full belly more freedom after one of her meals. She liked not having to work and spending time with her baby daughter and not having to worry about paying for daycare. As her mother always used to say, this was the way it was meant to be.

Kelly watched Sophia roll about on her blankie and reflected on the thought of Scott enjoying one of her meals when she heard them.

It was laughter. High and tittering. At first, Kelly thought Sophia had made the noise.

She snapped out of her daze. She listened hard.

There was a rustling, and more of the high, tittering laughter. It sounded fiendish, rodent-like. It was unmistakable.

It was coming from under the living room window.

Kelly quietly got up, walked over and looked out the window.

There was another scurrying sound, and Kelly thought she caught a glimpse of something flitting around the corner of the house. Something gold.

She got a very cold feeling, and went to pick up Sophia off her blanket.

She listened and didn’t hear anything.

Very carefully, she walked to the garage and put Sophia in her car seat and got in the car. She stood by her open car door and listened again. Still nothing.

Kelly’s nerves seemed frozen. She didn’t open the garage door until she was in the car and the doors were locked.

Her eyes darted to every corner in the yard as she reversed out. Sophia was blissfully oblivious to everything, calmly babbling to herself and playing with her chubby hands.

Kelly reached the end of the driveway and sped down the dirt road, and didn’t know where she intended to go. She just accelerated. Away.

She was nearly to town when she decided to go grocery shopping. She bought a rotisserie chicken for dinner and rolls and bottled water and told herself everything would be fine, that she’d imagined it all.

Her mother’s voice told her to be cautious. She’d certainly seen and heard something.

She texted Scott, “I heard someone in the bushes outside the living room window today. I heard them laughing. It sounded like children.”

She waited for his reply. It didn’t come until an hour later.

“I’ll be home at 6 tonight. I’ll check the yard for any strange children.”

Kelly drove around, finding things to do. She went to the library, to the bank, to the post office. She visited their new church — St. Michael’s, a brick building that looked more like an office than a church — but the doors were locked and she couldn’t get inside. She didn’t come home until Scott was back, pulling up at 6:30. Relief flooded her as she saw his car in the garage.

“I want to show you these flowers,” she told him as they sat there chewing on their chicken. “That laughter creeped me out.”

“I didn’t see anyone,” said Scott. “I took the ax and walked around. But I mean, they would’ve been long gone.”

“I swear I heard them laughing,” said Kelly.

“This is a big place,” said Scott. “Are you sure you’re not just letting it get to you?”

She glared at him. “What do you mean, ‘Get to me?’”

Scott got another text. He picked up his phone but Kelly took ahold of his wrist.

“He sees you twelve hours a day,” she said. “He can wait for five freaking minutes while you discuss with your young wife about the possible intruders on the new property that contains your infant daughter.”

Scott relented. “You’re right,” he said. “Let me see those flowers.”

Kelly went to the closet where she’d put them two days before. She opened the doors and grabbed the paper bag.

“I swear, they look like they’re spray-painted,” she said, walking back into the kitchen and reaching into the folded bag for the flowers. “I swear, they — “

She stopped. She felt around in the bag.

The bag was empty.

“What the…?”

Kelly shook the bag upside down.

“What?”

“They’re freaking gone,” said Kelly. “I put them in this bag two days ago!”

“Is it in another bag?” Scott said, getting up. Kelly saw with a flash of anger that he was finishing up a reply text to his boss.

“No, there was no other bag,” said Kelly.

She went back to the closet. It was completely empty, an old wood floor and an empty shelf and nothing else.

“Did you put them somewhere else?”

“No,” said Kelly, exasperated and now starting to get upset. “I put them here so I’d remember.”

“Well, they’re not here now,” said Scott, looking in the closet.

Out in the kitchen, Sophia began to cry. It was her ‘I’m frustrated because you’re not giving me attention’ cry.

“It’s scary,” said Kelly, getting emotional. “It’s freaking scary without you around here.”

Scott looked at her incredulously.

“I miss you,” she said. “It’s only been like two weeks but you’re there all the time and I miss you.”

Scott saw her getting upset, and snapped into husband mode, embracing her. She wrapped her arms up around his shoulders and felt security course through her. Sophia still cried out in the kitchen.

“It’s probably nothing,” said Scott. “You probably threw them out, too, and just forgot. You’ve been putting this place together all by yourself.”

“The trash bin,” said Kelly. “That’s right, they should still be in the trash bin! The first ones!”

He let her go and as she darted out to the garage.

The brown garbage bin was empty, as well. Not so much as a stray leaf.

“I fucking threw it in here!” Kelly said.

“Kelly, come inside,” said Scott. Kelly slammed the lid down and joined him.

Back in the kitchen, Kelly took Sophia out of her chair and sniffed her diaper. She was clean. Sophia clung to her.

“Look,” said Scott. “I’m only forty-five minutes away, an hour with traffic.”

“It’s not like I can just go to my parents’ house,” said Kelly. “We live in another state now! Another part of the country!”

“I know, I know,” said Scott. “It’s all right. Look, I’ll let them know what’s going on. If anything happens, just let me know. But I can’t stay home. I have to be there.”

Kelly was conflicted. But she knew there was nothing she could do.

“Okay,” she relented. “I still don’t feel good, but I understand. Okay.”

“And if anything weird happens, just text me. And if anything really weird happens, just call the cops.”

“I know,” said Kelly. “I just don’t want this to get complicated.”

“It will,” said Scott. “We’re just nervous. This is new. But we can handle it. I’m not going anywhere.”

“But what about when you travel?”

Scott hesitated.

“That’s not going to happen for awhile.”

========================================

The next morning, Scott was gone before Kelly woke up and came home after she’d gone to bed.

“You’re just getting used to being alone,” said her mother, her voice echoing out of Kelly’s phone and into the high kitchen ceiling. “You’re such a silly-head. You could never be by yourself. You always had to have me around…”

Kelly rolled her eyes as her mother went on and on. She had told her about the flowers and her mother had immediately gone berserk with paranoia before shifting the blame onto Kelly’s nervous disposition.

“Mom, you never take what I say seriously.”

“You just moved hours away from the only place you’ve ever called home,” said her mother, a complete three-sixty from where she’d been fifteen minutes before. “You’ll get used to it.”

“I know,” said Kelly. She didn’t know why she’d called her mother. It only stressed her out. But it was better than talking to no one.

“That said, though, if it happens again I would call the police and file a report. Last thing I need to is to hear you and that sweet baby girl have been butchered. It would kill me.”

Kelly could practically hear her mother shaking her head like an agitated elephant. She always did that when she thought Kelly wasn’t capable.

“I’m going to worry about this now,” she said, her voice getting high and keening.

“Don’t,” said Kelly, now wanting to end the conversation. “It’s fine.”

“I think you’re going to be fine,” said her mother. “Your father would be proud of you.”

They talked a little more, then her mother had to go to work at the sewing shop where she worked. They said “I love you” and hung up.

Kelly had made herself some toast and was feeding Sophia when she saw them dancing in the yard.

She froze, the spoon poised in front of Sophia’s face.

They were in the backyard. They were all female, dark-skinned, with long, dark hair. Their eyes were cat-like. They wore rags of gold, like gypsy dresses.

They were off by the edge of the woods, dancing and twirling. Several held tambourines. One played a fiddle. They all had yellow ribbons tied to their instruments. The same kind of ribbons the flowers were tied with.

Kelly immediately called Scott.

“Yes, dear?”

“They’re in the yard,” she said.

“I’m going to have to leave,” he said. “They’re sending me to Toronto later today. I can’t get out of it.”

“Scott, they’re in the fucking yard,” she said, watching them and starting to panic. “I think they want Sophia!”

Scott’s tone changed. He heard the panic in Kelly’s voice.

“Call the police,” he said.

Kelly dialed 911 and held it to her ear.

There was only a strange, scratchy singing on the other end. A melody that sounded both Celtic and Arabic. Kelly didn’t recognize the words.

Ett-oo-way, ett — too-way

Darling, dah-doo

Ett-too-way, eta-too-way

Handsy fro-froo

Kelly ended the call and tried to call Scott again.

It went right to voicemail.

She looked out the window.

The yellow women were gone.

========================================

Kelly locked all the doors. She locked all the windows. She put Sophia to bed and slept next to her in a chair.

They didn’t have a gun, but she kept the fire poker with her, the only weapon she could find.

Scott never came home. She tried calling him and it went to voicemail every time. She cried herself to sleep. It was a long night.

Morning dawned cold and damp.

Kelly’s bladder was screaming. She toddled over to the bathroom and relieved herself as fast as she could.

When she returned to Sophia’s room, they were crouched at the foot of her crib. They were smaller than they’d appeared to be while dancing in the yard, the size of middle schoolers.

“She is the work of our Lord’s hand, to be sure,” she heard one of them whisper.

Sophia was sleeping peacefully in her crib, and a golden ribbon was tied around her throat.

Seeing them up close, Kelly’s veins ran empty. They were not entirely human.

Their hands were spindly, their faces skeletal. Their horrible eyes were like bulging globs of melted gold with the black slits of their pupils slashed down the center. Their dresses hung in rags off their emaciated limbs and shoulders. Their clutching fingers were laced together across their chests. Their hair, like thatch, ran down their backs in pony tails that bristled like steel wool. They turned and saw her.

She could smell them. They smelled sweet, like flowers should.

“The mother,” the one at the foot of the crib hissed.

The one at the head of the crib extended her fingers down into the crib, spreading them like a spider’s legs over Sophia’s sleeping face.

“DON’T TOUCH HER!” screamed Kelly, unable to walk any further. “DON’T TOUCH HER!”

“Aye, thy shant be ‘fraid, young lass,” said the head creature, and she took one of her long nails and drew a circle on Sophia’s forehead.

A golden circle appeared on Sophia’s skin, glowing.

“Such a tender bosom thy has, to make up such a sweetling for the offering.”

“The work of our Lord’s hand, to be sure,” said the others, staring at her. They were all smiling now, and their teeth were all sharp.

“STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY!” shrieked Kelly, horrifed at both her own shrill voice and how ineffective it was on the intruders.

“Aye, ye can’t force back what thou hast seen with thine own eyes, me womb-ey poppet,” said the leader, grinning her sharp-toothed grin at her. “Accepted the gift, ye did.”

“Accepted the gift, she did,” whispered the others.

Kelly charged at them, adrenaline-high, screaming, waving the fire poker. They disappeared out the window, quick as cats, moving like twisted little monkeys.

Sophia woke up, Kelly’s screams startling her awake. Kelly gathered her up and inspected every inch of her. Sophia bawled at her mother’s fear and being roughly handled but appeared otherwise unharmed.

The golden circle on her forehead didn’t come off no matter how Kelly washed it.

Kelly called Scott. It went right to voicemail again. She called him repeatedly for ten minutes. Always to voicemail. And his mailbox was full.

She took a picture of Sophia’s forehead, the golden circle right above her eyes. She tried to send it. It wouldn’t send.

Kelly was crying now, weeping pitifully, getting Sophia wet with her tears.

She held Sophia close, refusing to put her down even when she squirmed.

She could hear violins playing, fiddles. She could hear the rat-tat-tat of tamborines. She could hear them singing in those scratchy voices.

They were at the windows now, looking in with their melted gold eyes.

Kelly dialed 911 and was confronted with strange voices singing. She dialed it again and again. Always the same voices.

“Sometimes things just happen,” she heard her mother say. “And you can’t do anything about it.”

Kelly cried some more, and now Sophia was crying in her arms, too, wailing, and she tried calling Scott again. Voicemail.

Kelly threw the phone against the wall in a rage.

She heard glass shatter, and a voice announce, “Come to collect the offering, we has!”

Kelly could hear the singing, the fiddle-playing, coming from down the hallway now. It was so loud.

She ran, Sophia in her arms.

She saw them at every window, at every door, their faces, their eyes.

She backed into the pantry, clutching Sophia to her chest.

She heard them scritching across the floor on their nails and feet.

They threw the pantry door open, all of them looking down.

Kelly squeezed Sophia to her chest, refusing to let them see her.

“Release the offering,” they said. “Release the offering.”

They reached for her with clutching fingers.

“GO AWAY,” screamed Kelly.

She squeezed Sophia tightly, refusing.

“Release her,” they chanted, reaching for Sophia.

Kelly screamed. Sophia was silent.

Suddenly, it was over. The chanting and the music stopped.

Scott was in the doorway.

He bent to hold Kelly, and his face was white.

“What did you do?” he whispered.

Kelly looked down at Sophia. She was blue and motionless.