“The next day a woman came and got us. She was tall with greyish white hair, wearing a Victorian dress buttoned all the way up to the neck. Very graceful and elegant. She said she knew we were scared and that she was sorry for that and that no one wanted to hurt us, but we would have to do as they say or that they might have to. She led us up and out of the store and took us to a cabin a block or so away that looked like it had been abandoned for a while. That’s where we’ve been staying, locked in some hidden back room without windows. Trying my best to keep Rox calm, but the whole time I’ve been on pins and needles wondering what they planned to do and what had happened to you.

“And then, finally, the woman came back and said you were here too and told me where to go to find you, but I said I wouldn’t leave without Rox. But she said I had to. So I told her Rox could hurt himself if I left him alone. And she said Rox would be fine, that she’d take care of him. I told her she couldn’t, and she approached Rox, and he didn’t shy away like he normally would, and she bent down and whispered something into his ear. But I swear it sounded more like she was doing bird calls or something rather than saying anything, like an alien language or some strange code.”

Tough as Cassie may be, she couldn’t hold it back any longer. She covered her face and sobbed into her hands and spoke through her palms, her shoulders convulsing. “He smiled at her. Rox, he actually smiled. His eyes fluttered like he was hearing the most beautiful music ever played. Like he was feeling pleasure for the first time. He was nodding his head and he actually reached out to her like he wanted to be picked up, and she took his hand and held it and he looked at me and smiled like he does when he finally figures something out for the first time. And she told me she would take good care of Rox and that I had to go and find you and bring you back. That men in the woods would show me where to go. Those, like, animal-men.”