Then the lights snapped out. Darkness shrank around my face, my skin. I couldn’t see him anymore, but I knew he was still there. The room did not seem as empty as it had before. He was probably thinking about all my questions. I might have overwhelmed him, but I couldn’t help it. I moved my fingers around in the blackness. Delicately touching the walls, the floor, the cold porcelain of the toilet. I couldn’t find him.

Next time I woke, the lights were on again. That was how Gloria did it, flicking the switch outside the door. No pattern to when or why. My centipede was near the yellow base of the toilet. His feathery legs were pulled inward. He wasn’t moving. He looked much, much smaller. I knew he was dead.

I hadn’t cried at all. But I cried then.

MAISY

Gloria did what she said. She stopped going to work at Stafford’s. They told her they didn’t mind because of what she went through, and now she could spend some time at home. All day long she watched me. If I went outside she watched me through the window or the sliding doors. If I read a book, she watched me from Telly’s chair. She even waited outside the bathroom when I was going. Seeing her there when I opened the door made me jump.

“People’re going to wonder, Bids, why you’re always so twitchy. Worse than a rabbit. Like you got bugs under your skin. You need to know Gloria’s got everything under control.”

One morning, Gloria told me to go into the basement for a can of tomatoes. She said being afraid was silly and there was no reason for it. She stood at the top of the steps and I went down the steps fast and yanked the string for the light bulb. The fan made its noise, so I couldn’t hear Rowan. My legs wiggled. I found the tomatoes and raced back up.

“Good girl,” she said. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

After I ate lunch I had to go get a dish. Square and glass. She didn’t watch this time. I couldn’t find it, so I had to poke around. Rowan still didn’t make no sound.

Before dinner, I went to get some beans. I found a can in the box at the bottom of the stairs. I took it out, but I stayed there. I closed my eyes and listened as hard as I could. I think I heard noises from behind the bathroom door. Maybe Rowan was singing. Or maybe he was growling. Like a wolf. Shakes went up my back. I ran up the stairs.