Inside the car Thorn fumbled for the keys, while outside the dog went wild, leaping upon the hood and flinging himself against the windshield with tremendous force; the glass shuddered with each impact. Thorn's trembling hands found the keys but they fell from his grip and he groped desperately to find them while beside him the child began to moan and the dog continued to hurl itself at the now-cracking windshield. Finding the keys, Thorn reinserted them, but as he glanced through the windshield he froze with horror at what he saw. It was the woman, still alive, lumbering forward from the kitchen with Jier last ounce of strength, painfully raising a sledgehammer as she neared the car. Thorn turned the ignition, but the moment the car started, the sledgehammer came down, breaking a large hole in the windshield; the dog's head immediately came forcing through. Its teeth snapped and saliva spewed; Thorn strained back as the animal's face pushed ever closer. He was pinned in his seat, the teeth snapping within inches as his hand edged inside his coat and seized one of the stilettos. Pulling it out, he raised it high overhead, smacking it down firmly and directly between the animal's close-set eyes. It went in to the hilt. The dog's mouth flew open, emitting a roar of pain more like a leopard's than a dog's, as it writhed backward and slid off the hood, dancing on two feet as it tried with its paws to pull at the knife in its forehead. Its scream of agony seemed to shake the garage, and Thorn hit the gearshift, gunning the car backward. Mrs. Baylock staggered alongside the window, banging on it and pleading, her face a mass of pink pulp.

"My baby..." she sobbed, "my baby .. ."

The car sped in reverse beyond her, and she ran into the driveway and held up her hands in a last attempt to block its escape. It halted, then lurched forward; throwing gravel as it bore directly down. Thorn could have swerved to avoid her, but he did not. Gritting his teeth, he floored the accelerator; her desperate face was caught in the glare of headlights as the car smashed into her, its front end crumpling as she flew high into the air. As he neared the end of the driveway, Thorn stopped, glancing just once into his rear-view mirror. There he saw the woman's body, a lifeless mound of flesh grotesquely twisted in the driveway, and on the lawn the body of the dog, silently convulsing beneath the light of the moon.