I tore at my black hair. I wept; my nose ran. I shouted, “Who’s there? Hello! Where are you?”

No one answered me.

I called Darrell’s name, praying it was him. Or one of his girls. They’d come in and found me sleeping, and they were with you somewhere else in the house. That was it, right?

But no. I knew that was not it.

Like a madwoman, I ran to the front door, which was still bolted shut. I wrenched it open and ran out to the yard, but the street was empty and dark, and there were no cars nearby. Crazy with fear, I ran back inside and slammed the door so hard the walls trembled.

“Shelby!”

At that instant, I heard you crying. Wailing for me. The noise was muffled; you were upstairs in my bedroom. I sprinted for the stairs, and if I’d been running next to Jesse Owens, I would have beaten him. I took them two at a time and skidded breathlessly into the bedroom, which was lit only by the glow of the moonlight outside. But that was enough for me to see. There was a rocking chair by the window, where we’d spent hours together.

The Ursulina sat in the chair.

The beast had you in its lap, as you shrieked for your mother.

No, I wasn’t dreaming. This was real. The beast had furry legs, golden brown. The fur on its torso didn’t match; instead, it was shorter and more chocolate in color. The hands were wrapped in brown leather gloves. The beast had a strangely elongated neck, and above it, a large head made out of papier-mâché. Where the fur ended at its ankles, I saw dirty black combat boots.

A Halloween costume.

One of the gloved hands tugged at the cardboard neck. A little door opened below the false head, and I saw Ricky’s evil face.

“Boo,” he said.

I ran to get you back, but he put his hands around your little throat and warned me away. “Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh. Stay away, Bec.”

“Ricky, stop it. Give her back to me.”

“We’ll see. I don’t know, maybe I’ll keep her.”

“Give her back!” I shouted, adding in a long list of obscenities that I’d rarely used in my life.

Ricky laughed as I swore at him. He held you in the air, letting your tiny legs dangle. “She’s cute. That mop of dark hair. Just like you. The eyes, the nose. So small, too. Hard to believe we ever grow up when we start out as these puny little creatures. Any little mistake, any little accident, and that’s the end.”

“Don’t you hurt her,” I hissed. “Don’t you dare hurt her. If you do anything at all to her, I swear to God I—”

“What?” he retorted. “What will you do to me, Bec?”