“Katie,” whispered Amy in a quivering voice, her fear lined with a little bit of hope. “Sneak out. Go down the stairs. Go quietly.”

“What about you?” whispered Katie.

“I’ll be fine,” Amy said, knowing it was a fib. “Go. Get Miss Dola.”

Katie crept around the edge of the mirror, toward the attic door.

Rover’s face snapped away from the reflection and he glared at Katie. Amy felt a sharp shock through her hands as the glass cracked.

“No!” she yelled.

Rover growled at Katie …

And then there was a scream.

Miss Dola rose up behind Rover, her mouth open in a war cry. She stabbed all three syringes down into the back of the dog’s neck and thumbed the plungers. Rover shrieked and twisted, trying to shake the older woman off as he’d done with the cats. The attic shook; the boxes around them jumped and smashed. The mirror shattered entirely, leaving a wooden frame in Amy’s grip.

Rover let out a horrible howl that sounded like three howls braided together … and then slumped to the floor, leaving the girls and Miss Dola in terrified silence.

“Thank you,” said Amy.

“All in a day’s work, sweetheart,” panted the woman, thumbing some sweat from her brow. “Come on, help me bring him downstairs. We’re not done yet.”

Chapter 27: Put to Sleep

They dragged Rover’s body down to the den. Amy felt her gag reflex spasm at the touch of his rough, pus-coated skin, but she managed to keep her cool until they got him downstairs.

Mom found a huge black duffel bag, and they stuffed Rover’s prone form inside. Then Miss Dola had Dad get rope from his workbench in the garage and tie Rover up in the bag. Amy remembered a time when she would have called this cruel, and Dad would have said it was unnecessary and ridiculous, but she watched silently as Dad did what he was told and tied Rover up. They knew what the dog was capable of—if Miss Dola said this was what was needed, they believed her.

When Dad was done, Rover looked like a dog-shaped package, black canvas and tightly knotted rope forming the outline of an animal.

“Do you have a trunk?” asked Miss Dola. “A big box. The heavier, the better.” Mom nodded and went up to the attic. A few minutes later, she dragged a heavy trunk downstairs—the one, Amy remembered, that she’d gotten from her great-aunt as a teenager. They put Rover’s body inside.

Then they put the trunk in the back of Miss Dola’s car, and Mom got in the SUV to follow her. She told Amy to stay behind with Dad and Katie, but Amy insisted.

“I’m going,” she said, climbing into the passenger seat. “I want to see it through.” Mom didn’t argue, just started the car.