Boyd held my wrists to my shoulders and looked down into my face. Again, in the midst of my fury, fear, and agony, I had that feeling about Boyd. I began to softly play the music for him while the boy cried and pounded, cursing, on the box. Boyd responded. He relaxed just the slightest bit, just enough.

The hasps came free and the boy threw open the lid.

“Don’t look in, Will,” Boyd said. But, of course, he did, and he began to moan. I lay quietly, panting from the exertion, just playing the music lightly for Boyd, keeping the touch feather-­light, letting the boy immobilize himself with his own stupid emotions.

“Help me lift her in, Will.”

Will looked back at Boyd with a flushed, perspiring, tear-stained face. “Amy,” he said.

“Help me put Angelina in the box, Will,” Boyd said, and I had to increase the music just a touch to counteract his emotional response to the boy.

Will reached his good arm into the box to pick up his sister, and I cast uncertainty into Boyd at just that time. He was torn between restraining Will and restraining me, and his balance shifted slightly.

I twisted violently and caught his forearm in my teeth. I clung to it with all my energy, feeling my teeth rip into the tendons and cords, sucking deeply, desperately, all his juices, blood flowing across my face, into my eyes, as I sucked his spirit, nursing his soul from the flesh.

I saw the blow coming, but heeded it not. I had tasted in Boyd something new, something so extraordinary that I needed every moment to ponder it. It brought me a new sound, a new music; it opened up new vistas, new arenas; I broke through to the next level in self-discovery. I clung with my life to his arm, drinking more, more; there could never be enough of this, it’s all so new, and the mysteries of the universe began to unfold.

And then the boy hit me and I retreated into the void, to rest, to heal, to wonder.

“I recognized her by her eyes. I knew by the eyes. She had changed so much over these years; she’d grown to be a monster, but the monster was definitely Angelina.

“It was strange to finally confront her in that basement. I’d lived for that moment, and it was finally upon me, and soon it would be over and that made me kind of sad. It had been quite an adventure. She had given me a lot, Angelina had.

“I can’t exactly say what happened down there, it all happened so fast. Parts seemed to be in slow motion, and parts seemed to be distorted, weird, as if I were drugged or something.

“Will was really upset over his sister, but his grief nearly got him killed. Angelina could have killed him with that cane, but she only got his shoulder.