“No!” Rose thinks she screams, but she emits only a pathetic bleat. Cheek on the concrete, she can see the bottoms of Mel’s running shoes and one knee, scraped and oozing blood. Grabbing the armrest, she drags herself up. Despite the blow to her head and the shredding of her own knees, there is no physical pain, no bodily sensation at all. Vision narrows to a long tunnel. As Rose peers over the bottom edge of the car’s window, only Mel is visible in her eyes. Mel, looking no bigger than a cat, curls in the only sunlight in the world.

Rose tries to get to her feet. Her legs are as unresponsive as the cloth legs of a rag doll. Letting go of the door, she falls to her side, blackness beating in great raven’s wings against her eyes. Rolling to all fours, she holds her neck rigid, her head still, trying to make sense of the images. Her eyes find Mel. Rose starts to crawl.

Groaning and clanging, as if all the ghosts who’ve ever trod the boards are having a jamboree, fracture the air. Behind Mel, the earth moves. Rose shakes her head. This time there is pain, sharp where the pistol struck, dull behind her eyes, flickering in her skull as the scattered cerebral matter falls back into place.

The earth is not moving. The garage door is opening. Stella, using the rusty old pulley-and-chain the original owner installed, hauls it up. The racket is short-lived. When the door is a foot and a half from the concrete, Stella lets go of the chain and starts shoving, then kicking Mel’s body under the door into the garage.

Mind and body stunned, Rose is paralyzed. She can’t even draw breath.

Then Mel whimpers. A mewl, scarcely louder than the whine of a mosquito, but Rose hears it. Mel has not been silenced. Mel is alive.

The toes of Izzy’s ballet flats find the concrete; Rose launches herself at Stella. Her shoulder slams into the younger woman’s knees. Stella reels back. Rose hears her hit the door and hopes she’s cracked her skull. She hasn’t. A fist strikes Rose on the side of the face. Holding tightly to Stella’s bare legs, Rose tucks her chin down and sinks her teeth into a ropey calf. Fists hammer at Rose’s cheek and neck. She focuses on one fact: The jaw muscles are the strongest muscles in the body. Rose hangs on like a puppy with a sock, biting and shoving, hoping to knock Stella off her feet so she can sink her teeth into her jugular.

Blood bubbles around her nostrils. A little trickles into her mouth. If she swallows, she really will be a cannibal, finger or no finger.