“Stay here,” Lonnie said. They had been watching Chazz weep on the steps for several minutes, frozen in place, before any of them spoke. “I'm going to go talk to her.”

Both Melody and Bernie nodded, dumbfounded as Lonnie left the house. Melody watched her mother walk across the street and approach the other woman cautiously.

After their last adventure with the Woman in White ¹, things had finally started to return to normal. Chazz, however, had not been quite the same. Obsessed, she had made a weekly vigil across the street, often spending the night sitting on the steps. The rest of her time was spent in a fruitless attempt to track down the two mysterious men who had also been present during the phenomenon.

Lonnie approached Chazz cautiously. She sat down next to her, and placed an arm around her shoulder. After some time talking, the larger woman fell into her arms. Though Chazz sobbed loudly, Melody couldn't make out any of the words of the conversation that followed.

“Maybe we can finally get an update from her,” Melody said, referring to the fact that Chazz had been incommunicado and inconsolable for the past month.

“Maybe,” Bernie said, clutching the curtain in a death grip. “And maybe one of us should turn around and see what Jimmy's doing behind us.”

“One, two, three, that person's not going to be me,” Melody said.

“Fine,” Bernie said. “I guess I'll have to be the adult here.”

“You are the adult here,” Melody informed him.

Melody watched her father's eyes as he turned around. He seemed both relieved and worried at the same time. However, his fingers finally relaxed from the curtain long enough for him to give his daughter a thumbs up. “Still playing his game,” he said.

“That's not entirely reassuring,” Melody said, and then gasped as a horrible thought occurred to her. “The door was open,” she said.

“I know,” Bernie said. “I'm pretty sure I mentioned that a couple of times.”

“No,” Melody said. “Don't you get it. The door was probably also open when Jimmy started howling.”

“So?” Bernie seemed confused momentarily and then his brow began to knit itself a sweater of realization. “Something came out.”

Melody nodded, and in a raspy whisper said, “The Hound from Hell.