There was a lot to take in. The white tablecloth was painted so perfectly and a glass jug too, the liquid in it catching the light, the glass itself gleaming softly. Stephen was fascinated. He didn’t want to look at any more paintings, but just stand and drink this one in. It was the most lifelike picture he had ever looked at and he felt drawn into it, inquisitive about what was going on within its frame. But then he saw it. There on the table was some kind of a roasted bird. The way it was arranged on the plate, its legs were sticking up: black legs with yellow talon-like claws reaching upwards. Claws. Dead claws. Stephen felt the foreboding rush into his whole body. It was like a tidal wave, choking him, coming over his head. He felt as if his skeleton was an empty cave and the dread and fear was like a tide, slapping and sucking its way into him. Of course. He’d known this was going to happen. This was what he’d envisioned after the henhouse had been ransacked by the fox. Claws. Upside-down claws, dead claws. But what did it mean? Obviously it was a sign; but a sign of what? How was he to interpret this by himself? Was the answer in the painting? Was that what had brought him here, in front of it? Claws. They were waiting for him. Waiting to bring him bad news. He turned to Glen and started to talk, but the talk didn’t come out right. It didn’t seem to sound like words. It was too loud. He grabbed at Glen’s shirt, at his shoulder. He needed to explain what was going on. It was urgent. The other people in the gallery were coming towards him. But they mustn’t. They needed to keep away. He was too powerful for them, they could get hurt if they got too close. But Glen, Glen would be all right: Glen was part of it. But he didn’t seem to be understanding what Stephen was saying. He looked terrified. Stephen heard screaming, but he didn’t comprehend that it was coming out of him. He felt so hot now he thought he might explode or combust. Spontaneous combustion: that was a thing, wasn’t it? A thing that happened. An unexplained phenomenon. Was that what was going to happen to him? Was it to do with hell, with flames? Was he actually evil?