Odessa rolled away at the very last second. Solomon collapsed on top of her, fists flailing, kidney punches pummeling her torso and sides. She covered up defensively at first, but Solomon’s possessed body had stamina to burn, and she realized he would beat her to death if she let him.

She kicked herself over, throwing him off her and scrambling away. Separated from him again, she responded to the image of Earl Solomon, a man she respected, a person she liked. “No!” she implored him.

But it wasn’t him. It wasn’t Earl Solomon.

The Hollow One sprang to its feet, preternaturally agile for an elderly body, and ran at her wildly, arms waving over its head. Odessa got up but stayed low, using her weight to duck him and throw him off her hip. The Hollow One went sprawling over the bare stone ground with an ugly scraping noise.

Odessa was crying, tears of anger, tears of despair. “Don’t,” she said, pleading with it as it got up from the ground and started back at her. “Don’t make me do this!” she said, but it came at her in a run, and she couldn’t sidestep it cleanly. Their bodies collided, both of them falling away.

“Stop!” she screamed.

It wouldn’t. She saw that. It was rabid dog and psychopath and Terminator all in one. It got to its stocking feet—and Odessa saw the pile of loose boards and tools beyond it.

The Hollow One came flailing at her, one hand catching her face, fingers digging deep into her cheek and temple, trying to blind her. Odessa let it spin her around, then kicked out at its knee, pulling free and staggering backward, landing on the boards.

She felt around for a weapon, unable to take her eyes from the Hollow One. She gripped the handle of a hammer. She rose to her knees as the Hollow One came at her, low—kicking the hammer from her arm. She rocked backward, grasping at the toolbox as the Hollow One grasped at her, feeling a familiar bulbous wooden handle in her fingers.

It rolled her around and bared its teeth, trying to get at the soft tissue of her face. Like a mad dog, it snapped at her, and Odessa dug her left forearm up under its chin, into its throat, to no avail. It bore down on her.

Through gritted teeth, Odessa said, “God forgive me.” And then: “Solomon…forgive me—”

Her right hand dug the steel end of the awl into the base of the Hollow One’s skull and drove it downward. With all her strength, she pierced the muscle of the upper neck, finding  the brain.

The Hollow One’s eyes went wide. Its tongue lolled out of its mouth, swelling, inches from her face. With a yell and a heave, she shoved it off her and crabbed away from the twitching form.