Part 13 (2/2)

to be sharp. I'm still trying to reconcile what I saw. That a boy

could rise-”

”It's not Charlie.”

She got them into the living room, prodding them along as

if they were the children. ”I went inside to see him.Whoever-

whatever-is inside Charlie, it's not him. Or he's wrong. Very

wrong. He didn't know me at all.”

Preacher lowered himself into a chair. ”Eleazar said he'd be

exhausted-”

”It was more than that. He had no idea who I was. He didn't

recognize a feather that he wore in his cap for half a year. He

didn't care to try to recognize it. Or me. It was not Charlie.” ”But that's . . .” Sophia trailed off and shook her head. ”I'm

not sure if that's more or less incredible. How would it not be

him? Who would it be?”

”What would it be,” Addie said, correcting her. ”Eleazar has

summoned a demon into Charlie's body. He is possessed.” Preacher and Sophia didn't much like Addie's possession notion. It seemed quite reasonable to her. She'd grown up in a world where monstrous things happened, and rather than run from the idea, she'd always embraced it. Nothing thrilled her so much

as stories of hags and squonks, loup-garous and wampus cats. She knew all about possession. It was right there in the Bible.

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