Shelly was not screaming either. She was not panicking, not afraid, and while she was probably just in shock, Sam’s murder was not the horrifyingly cataclysmic event that it should have been. Indeed, she felt detached from it, the scene next to her in the room as distant, flat, and removed as something on television, the reflection in the mirror only slightly more immediate because of the frightening visage of Mary Worth.

Mary Worth.

Even the monster was not as terrifying as she had been. Shelly was getting used to the crone, and she thought that perhaps she had summoned the hag, had subconsciously wanted her to do just what she was doing.

No.

She and Sam might have drifted apart. Maybe she didn’t even love him anymore. But never in her most vicious fantasies had she ever wished him dead. This was all Mary Worth’s doing, not hers.

But she would be blamed for it.

The knowledge hit her all of a sudden. She once again faced the bed, saw her husband’s bloody body, his chest cavity hacked open so wide that portions of organs were visible through the rent skin and muscle.

She turned back toward the mirror.

In the glass, Mary Worth was once again standing in her place on the other side of the dresser, looking back at her.

And she was smiling.

PART I

OUTSIDE

ONE

Daniel

“Wake up.”

Daniel heard his wife’s voice, felt her hands gently shaking him awake, but it had been a long time since he’d gotten up this early and his body resisted. He moaned, turned over, dug deeper into the blankets.

“Your interview’s at ten,” she said, and there was a no-nonsense undercurrent to the surface pleasantry of her voice that made him suck in a deep breath, throw off the blankets, and sit up.

Margot was already dressed, ready for work, and she stood next to the bed, looking down at him. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I’m leaving and I’m dropping off Tony, and I want to make sure you’re up before I go. Otherwise, you’ll never make it.”

“I’m up,” he said, standing. He tried to kiss her, but she wrinkled her nose and pulled away.

“Scope,” she said.

“That’s romantic.”

“Tell me about it.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Give me a call at the office after your interview. I want to know how it goes.”

He picked up his pants from the floor next to the bed. “I can take Tony, you know.”

“It’s out of your way. Besides, I have a little extra time.” She started down the hall. “I’m serious about that Scope. Nothing’ll lose you a job faster than B.O. or bad breath.”