Sheriff Norton went over to where Benny Baxtor was hunched up in the library doorway, just feet away from the corpse.

“Benny.”

“Sheriff.” Benny nodded up at Norton.

“Dear god, Benny, what have you got yourself into?”

“It wasn't me, I swear.” Benny winced as he moved his legs to sit up more. “There. There was a man, clad in black. He. I don't know how but he got into the house somehow. He was here when I came home with, with Jenny..”

“Okay.” Norton took a deep breath. “Okay. Don't go over exerting yourself. I’m gonna call the E.A.T’s, they’ll get here as soon as possible.”

Norton went into the library and took a seat close to Benny as he pulled out his phone.

Opposite him, hanging above a large bay window, the head of a male deer loomed over Benny and Norton.

---------

Jack wondered if Micheal was still troubled by what he had shared at prayer group last week. He seemed off today, he was usually much more sociable. But, he thought as he climbed back up into the moving van, it would be nosy to speculate on such things.

He looked around the boxes for that filthy clump of hair, but it wasn't there. He stared at where he had known it to previously be. Well, he thought, i’ll be damned.

Jack moved the box closer to the wall of the van and hopped out, closing the door on his way out.

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---------

An EMT moved away from Benny’s now bandaged leg. “It's just a superficial flesh wound,” he told Benny and Norton, “but he should come into the hospital if it starts showing any signs of infection.”

Benny stared aimlessly as the EMT’s loaded Jenny’s body into a stretcher and covered it with a sheet.

“Benny? Benny? You there?” Sheriff Norton waved his hand in front of Benny’s face.

“Huh? Yeah.” The EMT’s carried the stretcher down the stairs carefully.

“Benny, I’m gonna have to take you down to the station, to take down a statement.”

“What?”

“It's nothing personal.”

“No, no, of course it isn't.”

“Ok. Can you walk on that?” He gestured to Benny’s leg.

“Yeah.”

---------

A knock at the door. Kyle got up from the kitchen table and opened the door.

“Mike.”

“Hey, sorry I'm late. I.. some stuff came up.”

“That's alright.”

Mile walked over to the kitchen table and Kyle shut the door.

“I can’t believe you're actually leaving.”

Kyle laughed. “Yes you can, you just can't believe that I'm leavin before you.”

Micheal looked over to the kitchen window. “True.”

“You want something to eat?” Kyle asked, clearing up his plate.

“Nah, I got something on the way here. How many boxes you got left to back.”

“About three.”

“Alrighty.” Micheal sniveled, rubbing his nose.

Kyle frowned. “You ok?”

“Yeah. Just allergies. Come on, let's get you moved outta this dump.”

-------

The sun was beginning to set once again on Asheton, and as Micheal drove back from Kyle’s apartment, he could see the pale moon starting to rise even as the sky maintained its bright blue hue. Soon the sun would slip under the horizon for a night of fun with countries on the other side of the globe, and the moon would rise high into the sky, as was its prerogative.

Micheal sighed as he stopped the car at a train track crossing. No full moon tonight. He was happy about that.