Lonnie patted her husband on the back. “Do you need me to hold your hair?"

Bernie stood up and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “You are funny,” he told her.

“Not to completely disparage your memories, Dad,” Melody jumped in, “but you have said at least something along the lines of ‘I remember it all now’ a couple of times now, and it hasn’t always been true.”

“I would think a memory strong enough to trigger my stomach to leave my body would constitute a traumatic one.”

“So, what do you remember?”

“In the jar that Chuck showed me that day in the basement. It wasn’t a moth. It was a little person with wings.”

Melody and Lonnie stared at each other for at least a full minute, and then finally Melody continued her line of questioning. “You mean a fairy? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Maybe? I guess.” Bernie shook his head. “I don’t know what else it could be. When I ran out of there, I remember now that his sister was...” He swallowed hard. “Cutting their wings off with a pair of shears. It was like they were running some bizarre underground business. And maybe they were. Now that I think about it...maybe they were.” He had trailed off to a whisper by this point.”

“So, those skeletons were real.”

“Yeah.”

Lieutenant Tom appeared to be stunned. “Well, here’s the thing,” he said. “There’s actually more to the story. Gerty freaked out when she saw these things, and ran up the stairs. A few minutes later there was a loud explosive noise from the basement, and her little brother called me. Her parents hadn’t even come home yet, and after the explosion, the two of then ran out of the house and were too afraid to go back in.”

“When was this?” Lonnie asked him.

“Last night. Around ten. It was already dark out. Their parents work the graveyard shift. Anyway, my squad and I searched the house, and we saw that the small hole where these little people, for the sake of argument, had shown themselves was now exponentially larger – big enough for a small vehicle to escape. We could see that there was a tunnel beyond, but didn’t investigate. The simple reason being that we didn’t know what we would be getting into to make a safe assessment. You see, the debris in the room indicated that it had been blown out from the other side. They also have one of those basements with the swinging exit doors to the yard. The lock on this door and one of the hinges was broken as though it had been opened by great force.”

The Jacksons were silent for a while. Then Bernie spoke up.

“Was there any indication that this may have been a Hound from Hell?”

“No sir,” said the Lieutenant. “There were no footprints to speak of or any clue pointing to the cause of the damage. I am just now coming from the location, and wanted to warn you and to also let you know of a possible access point. Though, I wouldn’t recommend going in there without armed escorts.

“What if Gerty’s parents wander in there?” Bernie asked, “Curious about a giant hole in the basement.”

“We cleaned up the debris, pushed the washer and dryer back into place, and re-tacked the posters that were there before. The hole is hardly noticeable unless you know where to look. We also fixed the broken hinge and replaced the lock. Everything is as it once was. However there’s quite possibly a very big something prowling the streets of Lafayette or Rhone, and I have no clue what that might be or how dangerous it is.”

Nothing further to report, the Lieutenant saluted the Jackson family and told them only that he was to retire for the morning and suggested that they too get some rest.

“Like fun, young man. Not very likely now,” Bernie told him, but the Lieutenant was already walking down the street.

Lonnie held herself, and shivered. “Is it cold out,” she said. “Or is it just me.”

Melody nodded. “Nothing feels right anymore,” she said.

Bernie grabbed both his wife and daughter by the arms, and suggested that they get inside. “I suddenly get the feeling like we’re being watched.”

Out of the corner of her eye, through the bushes just to the side of the porch, Lonnie caught sight of something bulbous and wet. It had a pink hue, and seemed spherical, and definitely had no reason to exist where it was. By the time she realized what the foreign object was, it closed like an aperture. This was followed by some rustling of the foliage, some creaking of wood, and a deep grunt. Whatever belonged to that great eye was gone.

“Did anyone else see that?” Lonnie asked.

Melody and Bernie shook their heads.

“Good,” Lonnie said. “I’m going to tell myself that I didn’t either.”

Melody pushed her parents through the front door, knowing deep down that a wooden door, let alone a flimsy screen door, couldn't really keep them safe from whatever that was.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep ever again,” she admitted.

“Good,” her mother said. “At least I’ll have some company.”