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Reviews and Excerpts        THE LEGEND OF THE VAMPIRE KHUFU ---------------------------------------------- Raymond Mayotte has intrigued me with his style and choice of writing. His ability to bring characters into my life so as to seem indeed real and a part of my own life was fascinating. Picking up "The Legend of The Vampire Khufu," I really did not know what I was getting myself into, but within the first chapter I considered it a keeper. I was spellbound and entertained throughout this amazing view into the life of Khufu. I think that Ray has found a way to entertain everyone by creating a book that can be read by all because of the diversity involved. There is Compassion, Evil, Good, Hatred, History, Intrigue, Love, Murder, Romance, and Terror. His mind and style was able to bring all these ingredients together into one of my favorite Vampire books of all time! Superbly well done! Five Star Rating C.J. Wilkes Author of "Daddy, I Forgive You" http://www.cjwilkes.com      The Legend of the Vampire Khufu By: Raymond    Mayotte From the sands of Ancient Egypt to the muddied streets of a California mining town the Vampire Khufu moves like a silent shadow through the ages. Once a mighty Pharaoh and the builder of the Great Pyramid he stalks the night fleeing from the memory of his dead wife and vowing to never fall in love again. Until he meets Karen. Believing her to be the reincarnation of his lost love Khufu gives himself to the young schoolteacher only to find that the ancient evil that once hunted him has returned - and will settle for nothing less than his 'life'. A must have for the collector of Vampiric novels; Raymond Mayotte combines the lore of ancient civilizations with an intriguing new look at the world of Vampires. Joining the ranks of such authors as Count Stenbock and George R. R. Martin, Mayotte and The Legend of the Vampire Khufu provide a fresh look at immortality through the eyes of one who has lived for more than 4000 years. Karen _________________ "Reading is an escape from life, one that fills the empty spaces within the soul." "Eternally Yours" ISBN# 1-4137-6339-1 Coming Soon - "The Betrayal of Cerridwen" E-mail - josie2517@hotmail.com Review for "The Legend of the Vampire Khufu" by Raymond Mayotte The Pharaohs of Egypt prepared for their after-life by ritualistic mummification and elaborate burial ceremonies. But, there was one who broke with tradition and found a new way to achieve eternal life. The Vampire, Khufu! This young prince of Egypt became a magnificent Pharaoh and the builder of the Great Pyramid, but this splendid burial chamber, surrounded by treasure, was never to hold his mummified body. After saving the life of his friend, Ural, Khufu is offered eternal life as a reward. A reward he accepts as an old man at the end of his human life. Only later does he find he must fight another vampire to keep his immortally. Add a love story to this intriguing tale and you have entered a world that spans history from the glory days of Egypt to the present time. The Legend of the Vampire Khufu is a very different spin on an old legend and I recommend it to all you lovers of vampirism and horror. Saundra Julian _________________ Goldie ISBN# 1-4137-6968-3 www.Goldie2005.com Three page excerpt THE LEGEND OF THE VAMPIRE KHUFU By Raymond Mayotte Chapter one Karen Ashley awakes to the gloom of early morning, as through windows naked of curtains or shades a soft light is filtering into the bedroom outlining odd shapes in the surrounding shadows. For a moment she lays unmoving in the unnatural stillness, the silence making her a bit apprehensive until she remembers where she is. Tugging the blankets close she snuggles deeper into her pillow, the memories of the last few years of her life, and how she ended up here in Vermont, flooding her mind. It’s been a long journey from the busy streets of New York to this, my first morning here in Vermont and this little Cape I lease. After all the years of school and hard work I have finally become a bona fide teacher, and in a few months time I’ll be facing my first class of second grade pupils and the thought of it both scares and thrills me. With these happy thoughts in mind she slips from the bed into her floppy slippers and a robe, before moving to one of the second floor bedroom windows to peer out. The sky above is filled with dawns pale light while below white trailers of cotton like mist floats close to the ground. The mist drifting lazily over a stone wall from a small cemetery beyond, a place where grave markers are poking up through it to create a strange, alien looking, landscape. Above it all two huge weeping willow trees stand majestically, their boughs hanging low to the ground as if paying homage to the dead lying there. To the left of the cemetery a narrow blacktop road, with a single yellow line down its center, comes along past the front of the house to disappear from her view. Midway down the field, accompanied by a young fawn, a huge doe browses peacefully under two small apple trees, her slow deliberate movements giving an unrealistic air to the picturesque scene it all creates. By now the silver tide of morning has moved across the sky to meld into gold as the sun begins to slip up over the horizon. For a few seconds more the scene below seems to freeze in time, then, in one quick movement the doe lifts her head and listens intently. A few seconds later, after glancing around nervously, she moves off into the woods with the young long legged fawn following close behind. The sound of tires humming along the highway reach Karen ears now as she watches the doe and fawn disappear into the woods behind the house, then with a sigh, and the thought of breakfast in mind, she begins to turn away from the window. However, before she can move, the steady hum of the automobiles tires change pitch and the vehicle comes to a stop by the stone wall of the cemetery. Curiously she watches a young man, possibly in his late twenties, step from the passenger side of the automobile and wave goodbye to whoever is driving. Then becomes even more entranced when the vehicle drives off down the highway leaving the young man to turn and hurry into the cemetery. For some unknown reason a cold shiver passes along her spine as she watches him move swiftly along the wall to the rear of the cemetery, the chill remaining until he is lost from her view behind some trees and brush. How odd, she thinks, remembering the day she signed the lease to rent the cape, how she and Nancy Ward, the young woman about her own age that runs the real estate office in town, had taken a walk up through the fields to the cemetery. She had found the cemetery very old and quaint with row upon row of old slate headstones, some of the headstones dating back as far as the seventeen hundreds. At the rear of the cemetery, beyond some brush and trees, the ground dropped off sharply before continuing on to another wall ten or twelve feet further on. There heavy dense woods crowded up to the wall on the far side, stopping abruptly as if held back by some unseen barrier, while on this side of the wall a few old graves laid unattended and forgotten. Set into the hillside, which dropped off from the cemetery above, hung two metal doors of an old tomb, the doors hinges and locks rusted shut. What could he be doing back there? She muses, when twenty minutes pass and there is still no sign of the young man. Finally with a shrug of her shoulders, she pulled her robe tight and moves away from the window thinking to put the incident from her mind. She arrived at the cape early the day before, so she could open the door for the moving men and at the same air the house out. After opening all of the windows and making sure the screens were in place, she sat on the front porch swing watching patiently down the road for the moving van to come along. To her dismay the van never arrived until six o'clock that evening and by that time she was so upset she hardly spoke to the driver or his helper, who quickly unloaded the van and drove off. Much later, after milling through piles of cardboard cartons and wrapping paper, she succeeded in getting most of the kitchen cartons unpacked. Then hungry and tired after her trying day, she fixed herself something to eat and went upstairs to bed early. Hardly able to keep her heavy eyelids open, she climbed into her pajamas and was soon in a deep exhausted sleep. Now, this next morning when she came into the little kitchen, she found bright sunlight streaming in through the huge windows, and after making coffee sat for a time sipping it among piles of empty cartons there. Try as she may she couldn’t keep her mind from the young man she saw enter the cemetery the morning before, or wonder what he was doing there. Nancy told her the first fifteen miles of road, this side of the little town of Mapleton, was mostly heavy woodland, and there were only three other homesteads along the road near her. Two half way to the town, the other a couple of miles further on down the road in the other direction. Oh well, she thought, busying her self with making breakfast. Then after breakfast she managed to empty more of the cartons and began to set the house in some kind of order. Her older sister El, who was going to move in with her and help with the expenses, would be arriving Saturday morning so she wanted to make sure the house was in order when she arrived. Then by noontime she had the kitchen finished and the pantry neatly stacked with dishes, cups, and saucers. A job well done, she mused, glancing around at the neat little kitchen, then a short time later, after carrying the cartons she had emptied out to the barn, she drove herself into town for lunch. The quaint little town of Mapleton consisted of a large oblong park surrounded on three sides by a few low buildings. On a pedestal high in the park stands a huge, granite statue of a civil war soldier, the soldier’s granite eyes staring out over a small white gazebo sitting in the park’s center. On one side, across the street from the park, woodland brush extends down to the edge of the narrow paved road before circling around to end up back where it enters into town. A few small stores and business's line the sidewalk across the street, on the other side of the park, where an American flag waves from a tall white flagpole in front of a small, red brick, post office building. Next to the post office is a white two story wooden building, with the words "TOWN HALL" printed in black letters across the front it. While at the far corner, in front of a small gray building, a fancy scrolled sign reads "Mapleton Hotel Bar & Grill". Further down, at the far end of the park, stands a small white church, its tall steeple reaching high into the blue Vermont sky. Easing her Jeep Cherokee into one of the diagonal parking places in front of a small restaurant, Karen slips out of the driver’s seat and closes the door behind her before glancing around. To the right of the restaurant a green and white striped canvas awning hangs out over the front of a small market, the awning shading fruit and vegetables on a stand below it. On the left of the restaurant, through a huge plate glass window, which has the words "WARDS REAL ESTATE" printed neatly across the top in large gold and black letters, she can see a man and a woman sitting at desks in a neat narrow office. Approaching and opening the door to this office, she leans her head and shoulders in. "How about some lunch Nancy?" She asks of the woman sitting at one of the desks. "Hi! Karen," the woman replies, a smile brightening her face. she assures Karen, shuffling together the papers she was working on and turning to the man at the other desk. "Ted, I'll be back after lunch, if you need me for anything before that I'll be next door at the restaurant with Karen," she tells him, and then taking her purse from one of the desk drawers she joins Karen. "Well how are things going out at the house?" She asks, once they are comfortably seated in the restaurant and had given their orders to the waitress. "Everything was moved in yesterday and now I'm swamped w"Lunch sounds great, just hang on and I'll be right with you," ith wall to wall cartons to unpack," Karen replied. "I guess it's going to take me a few days to get through it," she ended with a sigh. "Of course the fact the moving guys, who were suppose to be there at nine yesterday morning, never showed up until six o'clock last night, didn't help at all," she added, an exasperated tone in her voice. "I was so mad when they showed up I just had them set the furniture and cartons where I wanted them and told them to leave. However I did manage to get up early this morning and get the kitchen and pantry unpacked and straightened out somewhat, so if you feel like stopping by for tea your more than welcome," she offered. "I'll do better than that," Nancy said, patting the top of Karen's hand in a friendly gesture. "I'll come by for a while tonight and give you a hand if you'll have me." "Oh thanks Nancy, but you really don’t have to do that," Karen said, an unmistakable sound of appreciation in her voice. "I'm sure after working all day you won’t feel much like unpacking boxes, but I do want you to know how much I appreciate the offer," she ended. "Listen." Nancy said, leaning across the table so she could speak softly. "Most of my evenings I spend at home alone, either watching television or reading, except of course for the nights that my boyfriend Aleck comes by; which is not very often. He's one of our fearless deputy sheriffs you know," she said, a smile playing across her lips. "He always works the night shift and sleeps through the day, so I really don't get to see very much of him except on his one night a week off. So if you can use a hand it’ll be my pleasure to come out and help. It’ll also be nice to visit and chat with someone my own age for a change," she finished, a pleading note in her voice. "Well if that's the case then I'll be more than happy to have you," Karen assured her, thanking her again for her kindness. "I've got to tell you though, I'm still a little uneasy about some guy I saw around the cemetery early this morning," she told Nancy, and then went on to tell her about the incident of the man in the cemetery. "I know for certain there's nothing back there but woodland," Nancy mused, when Karen finished telling her story. "Maybe he was doing some poaching, you know, doing a little hunting out of season." "No he wasn't hunting," Karen assured her, shaking her head from side to side and seeing in her mind the vivid image of the young man walking through the cemetery. "The guy I saw didn't have a gun and wasn't dressed like a hunter. As a matter of fact he had on dark dress pants and a dark sports coat, and from what I could see in the early morning light he looked to be about twenty-five or thirty years of age. I would guess he was about six feet tall, had dark curly hair and maybe weighed about two hundred pounds." "Humm." Nancy mused, a playful lust in her voice, "sounds like someone I'd like sneaking up on me," she chuckled. "Under different circumstances I’d know what you mean," Karen agreed, glancing up to thank the waitress who just served their food. "Maybe I'm just being a little paranoid," she continued, after the waitress moved away from the table and they began to eat. "Still I don’t know, there was just something about the guy," she mused softly, gazing off across the restaurant in thought. After lunch Karen stopped at the little market to pick up a few groceries, before sliding back into the driver’s seat of her Jeep and starting the engine. Through the windshield she could see Nancy, who had returned to her office and was now waving good-bye to her through the plate glass window. Returning the wave she backed the Jeep from the parking place at the curb and drove away out of town. "I'll go right home and change clothes after work, pick up a pizza and some refreshments, and be out to your place in plenty of time for dinner," Nancy had insisted, after making Karen promise not to fix anything for dinner. A soft smile crossed Karen's lips now, the thought of Nancy’s friendship and warmness filling her heart, knowing she found a new friend. A few minutes later, as the jeep cruised along the narrow wooded road of route fourteen, she could see the little white Cape beyond the cemetery. The Cape’s silver metal roof gleaming in the summer sun between two fields, reminding her of a picture post card. Turning into the driveway to the right of the house, she parked the jeep under the carport, which connected the house to a small barn. Then, a bag of groceries tucked under each arm, she hurried up the few steps to a small porch under the roof of the carport. Here she struggled to find the right key to unlock the door, while inside the phone ringing incessantly. At long last the door swung open and she hurried into the small kitchen to set the bags on the table and grabbed for the phone, expecting after all this time to only hear a dial tone. "Hi honey," the voice of her older sister El sounded in the ear-piece, "how are things going up there?" "Hi El," Karen exclaimed joyfully, happy to hear her sister’s voice. "Things are going pretty good considering I had to wait all day yesterday for the moving men. They didn't show up until six o'clock last night," she added, a sigh of disgust in her voice. "I just had them leave the furniture and cartons and I'm unpacking them myself, believe it or not things are slowly starting to get squared away," she boasted, then went on to tell El about her new friend Nancy. "She sounds like a nice person I can't wait to meet her," El said, when Karen told her how Nancy offered to help. "That was sweet of her," El said, "I'm sorry I can't be there sooner to help, but I won't be able to get there before Saturday morning," she explained, a note of sorrow sounding in her voice. "Its okay El, I understand, and I really don't mind," Karen assured her. "I kind of enjoy fixing the place up and I should be finished by tonight." "Okay then Hon," El finally said, "I don't know what time I'll be there Saturday, so you'll have to watch for the moving men for me. They’re supposed to deliver my bedroom set in the morning and I'll be along as soon as I can," she promised, before hanging up. At five thirty Nancy was knocking at Karen's door juggling a pizza in one hand and a large bag in the other. Laughing and taking the bag from Nancy, Karen let her in and for the next hour they sat eating pizza, sipping wine, and getting better acquainted. "My boyfriend Aleck stopped by the office this afternoon after you left," Nancy told Karen, a little later after they finished unpacking more of the box's and sat having tea. "I told him about the guy you saw around the cemetery and he couldn't imagine what anyone would be doing around there at that time of the morning. He said to make sure to let the sheriff's department know if you see him again and they'll come out and take care of it," she said. "I don't know, maybe I'm letting this get the better of me. The guy probably was just visiting someone's grave or something like that," she shrugged, trying in her mind to come up with some sort of a logical answer. "Who knows? I may never see him around here again." "Well no matter, I've brought something I want to loan you," Nancy said, sliding a black leather holster across the table towards her. "It's a thirty-two pistol Aleck gave me when I was going to night school," she explained. "He said he didn't want me traveling around at night without protection, and although I never had a reason to use the pistol I always felt better knowing it was there in my purse. Please take it, and if you don't know how to use it I'll show you," she pleaded. "Thanks Nancy," Karen started, laying her hand on the black leather case. "I will borrow it, and I do know how to use it, I have one of my own but El has it in with her things. I'm sure I’ll sleep better tonight knowing it's handy," she assured Nancy. Later, after enjoying another cup of tea and chatting for a while longer, Karen stood watching the taillights of Nancy's car disappear down the highway, before switching off the outside floodlights that illuminated the carport and driveway. Cleaning and putting away the few dishes they dirtied, she picked up the leather holster from the table and stared at it. Then with a practiced skill she drew the pistol from the holster, flipped open the cylinder to check the shells, the action of doing so flooding her mind with many past memories. While she was going to college in New York, she had lived with her sister El and her husband Ned for a while. Ned was a New York City Police officer, a real fun-loving guy who always treated Karen more like a kid sister rather than a sister in law. Anytime he bought a gift for his wife El he always bought something for Karen. One evening he brought home a package for each of them and stood by with a smile on his face while they opened them, the packages each contained a revolver and a box of shells. "It's not safe to be walking the streets around here without protection," he told them in a serious voice, a demeanor that was unusual for him. "I'm going to teach you both how to handle and shoot those pistols," he promised. "I've already put your names in for a permit to carry them," he finished, glancing from El to Karen with a smug look on his face. Then sure enough every Thursday night he took them to the police firing range to practice. In a few months time Karen became a pretty fair shot, while El became an expert. Ned often bragged about El's shooting to the other officers along the firing range, often going from booth to booth proudly showing off her target. CHAPTER TWO By Friday morning Karen finished unpacking and washed all of the windows and hung curtains, El would be arriving the next morning and she wanted everything to be just perfect when she arrived. Later, after fixing herself a late dinner, she filled the tub with hot water and bubble bath and slipped out of her clothes and down into the hot water. Relaxing with a sigh, she closed her dark blue eyes and laid her head back on the edge of the tub, a look of contentment washing over her pretty oval face. A face framed by long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, which she now let loose to fall over her shoulders. After thirty minutes of this bliss she climbed from the tub and toweled her self off, then slipping into a robe and slippers she grabbed a diet Coke from the refrigerator and climbed the stairs to her bedroom. Here she curled up snug and content on the foot of her bed and made ready to read a book. Out through the bedroom window the huge fireball of the sun was getting ready to set behind the western horizon, and as she watched mesmerized it slowly begin to sink out of sight. Instantly the rays from the vanishing orb causing the horizon to blaze into red and orange like the sky itself was on fire. Suddenly a movement below caught the corner of her eye, causing her to glance out across the field towards the cemetery. Then with a gasp she jumped back from the window startled, as a dark figure detached itself from the shadows at the rear of the cemetery and moved slowly along the wall towards the road. She knew immediately it was the same man of the morning before and once again coldness filled her heart, and thankful she had not put on any lights in the house and it would look dark and empty. However she gasped again when the figure stopped halfway to the road and stared directly up into the dark bedroom window where she sat. Hands clasped tightly over her mouth now, she fought to hold back a scream that was building there and trying to escape. Then from somewhere in the distance a dull, roaring sound, drew near until, with a furious crash, it exploded into her eardrums. Now an indescribable terror envelope her, causing her heart muscles to tense and force the blood, which was already gushing wildly through her veins, to pound even harder with unrelenting pressure. The pressure creating an unnatural throbbing as it beat with unbearable pain against her rib cage. For what seemed like an eternity her body remained in this torturous state, along with a fuzzy tingling sensation grating against the edges of her mind, while, unknown to her the dark figure in the cemetery continued to stare up at the window. Then, like a giant fist holding her heart in its grasp, the pressure released and the dark figure turned and walked on out of the cemetery. Karen’s breath, which she was holding unknowingly, rushed to escape from her lungs and she felt herself falling backwards onto the bed in a weakened swoon. Convulsing in shivers, she yanked the bedclothes loose from the bed to pull them tightly around her trying to quell the frigid ache racking her tortured body. Then eventually the roaring in her ears began to subside and the beating of her heart returned to normal. Never in her lifetime could she remember ever being so exhausted, and now, as a dark foreboding cloud seemed to hover near and threaten to envelope her confused mind, she mercifully drifted off to sleep. The bell in the small church’s steeple began striking noon as a ninety-two Buick station wagon turned off the highway into the little town of Mapelton. The Buick moving around to the far end of the park to pull up to the curb in front of the few buildings there, and seconds later a pretty young woman slid from the driver’s seat and closed the door. Nancy Ward, who was in the process of locking the door to her office before going to lunch, was standing on the sidewalk when the gray station wagon pulled into the diagonal parking place behind her. In the reflection of the window glass she saw the young woman get out of the car and look around before stepping up onto the sidewalk. "Hi! Karen," Nancy greeted, turning to face the young woman. The woman, who was not Karen, stopping to look at Nancy with a knowing smile curling her lips. "Oh! I am sorry," Nancy stammered embarrassed," I thought you were someone I knew." "I'll bet your Nancy," the woman replied, stepping closer to offer her hand. "I'm El, Karen's older sister," she explained. "Karen mentioned you yesterday when we talked on the phone." "The two of you could pass as twins," Nancy said, studying El's face and accepting her handshake. "I've been driving most of the morning to get here and I thought I might pick up a few groceries while I was passing through town," El explained. "Then you haven't seen Karen yet?" Nancy asked, in more of a statement than a question. "She'll be so glad to see you," she went on. "I know because I was out to the house last night and Karen told me how excited she was you were going to move in with her, the two of you should love it out there." "To tell you the truth I've been like a lost soul since I lost my husband," El confided in Nancy. "I think this is going to be good for the both of us." "Well I’ll sure be out to visit the both of you whenever I can," Nancy assured her, and after a few more pleasantries the two women said good-bye. Bang! Bang! Bang! The sound echoed deep in the darkness of Karen's awareness as she awoke and moved up through a swirling grayness to light. When she finally open her eyes, she found herself wrapped in the bedclothes on top of her bed with the bright noontime sun streaming in through the windows. For a fleeting moment she remembered the terrors of the night before that all seemed so far away now, and she wondered if it all had only been a bad dream. But the banging sound returned and broke her reverie and she realized the noise was someone banging on the door. "It must be El," she mumbled to herself, jumping from the bed and grabbing for her housecoat before hurrying down the stairs to open the door. "I didn't think you were going to let me in," El teased, when Karen finally opened the door and they stood in the hallway hugging. "It's past noon how come you're still in bed?" "It's a weird story El," Karen told her, as she led the way into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. "I'll tell you all about it later when your settled and comfortable," she promised. "I can't believe this place," El exclaimed in an excited voice, turning and waving her hands around to express it all, "It's just all so wonderful. When I ever came down the road past the cemetery and saw the house I immediately fell in love with it," El continued, "I just know were going to love it here." It is beautiful all right, Karen agreed, at least it will be if I don't have anymore nights like I had last night, she thought, hoping in her mind that wouldn't have to move away from here like she had to move from her apartment in New York. The hustle and bustle of people from all walks of life, along with the noise and smell of automobiles and buses, were among some of Karen's happiest memories of when she lived with her parents and El in a borough of New York City. There as a little girl, she and El played hide and seek among the racks of clothes in the dry cleaners run by their parents. Even as little girls, when their mother let them walk to the corner store to buy ice cream, El was always there to watch over her protectively, always making sure she didn't run into the street or get lost. El had no desire to go on to college after high school and was content to stay and help out in the cleaners with their parents. By the time Karen finished high school El met and fell in love with Ned Carey, a young New York police officer, and only a week before Karen started college they were married. Things went well for Karen during the first six months at a nearby college, the drive less than an hour from home making it very convenient. During that period her parents put the dry cleaning business up for sale and some large dry cleaning establishment made them an offer they accepted. When the deal was finally competed and the business sold, it was decided Karen would find a small apartment for herself near the college. All of her collage tuition was to be paid out of the money from the sale of the business, plus she would receive a small living allowance to last her through college if she were careful. Best of all her parents could live out their life long dream and move to sunny Florida. With El and Ned's help Karen moved into a small two-room apartment a few blocks from the collage. The rooms each having a large window looking out onto a black metal fire escape, which came down from the floors above and led down three more flights to a narrow alleyway below. The rooms were large with high ceilings covered with a design embossed metal, and in a small alcove was a small kitchenette. With her own furniture, and a little fixing up, she was quite comfortable and proud of her little place. It was on the fourth night in, the new apartment, the trouble began, when a wild noisy party was held, buy the tenant upstairs, which lasted until the early hours of the morning. At times throughout the night she heard people yelling and fighting in the hallways, and more than once she heard someone moving about outside on the fire escape near her window. The following afternoon when she returned to her apartment after classes, she found a young man, a scraggly beard hanging from his chin, and a young woman sitting on the top step of the landing near her door. The man hand was under the young woman's sweater fondling her breast, while in his other hand he held a half-empty bottle of beer taken from a six-pack sitting on the landing next to him. "Hi ya Babe!" The scraggly bearded man slurred, as he watched Karen fumbled with her key to open her door. "I'm the guy upstairs," he informed her, tilting his head back to drain the bottle he held. "Welcome to the neighborhood honey," he then continued, pointed with the empty beer bottle towards the obviously intoxicated young woman beside him. "I'm kind’a busy right now, but don't worry I'll be around to see you later," he promised, clicking his tongue at Karen before she could get the door closed behind her. It took her all evening to settle down after the incident in the hallway, and more than once she wished her phone was already connected. Later that evening she was awakened by a tapping noise against her windowpane, so terrified she slipped into her robe and slippers and moved to peek around the edge of the window shade. There on the fire escape clad only in a pair of jockey shorts, with a six-pack of beer under his arm, was the scraggly bearded man from the hallway. "Come on baby I've got a full six pack and some good smoke, unlock the window and let me in and we'll have us a good time," he offered. While at the same time continued to rap sharply on the windowpane with a key. Finally, after half an hour, he gave up and stumbled back up the fire escape and disappeared from view, and for the rest of the night Karen sat in a chair armed with a frying pan. The next morning, between classes, she called El and told her about her experience with the young man, then was surprised when she returned to her rooms and found El and Ned waiting for her. Without taking, no, for an answer, they insisted she move into the spare room of their own apartment. Time passed, and with the pay from a part time job she took at the local library, and money she saved from her allowance, El and Ned not excepting any board from her while she lived with them, Karen was able to save a nice little nest egg. Shortly after graduation from collage she secured the teaching position in Vermont and was able to find and lease the little cape. The sound of a truck slowing to a stop on the road in front of the cape brought Karen's mind back to the present, and both she and El hurried out to the side porch under the carport to watch a huge red van back into the driveway and stop. Large gold letters on the sides of the van read "Interstate Moving & Transport," then in smaller letters under it, "You tell us where and we'll deliver." "It's my bedroom set and things," El exclaimed, hurrying down the few steps of the porch and out to meet the moving men. "Everything is going upstairs to the room on the right," she informed the driver and his helper, as they climbed down from the cab of the truck. "The best way will be through the front door and straight up the stairs," she ended excitedly, showing the men around to the front door of the little cape. Later, after everything was moved in, and after she tipped the moving men before they climbed back into their van to drive away, the girls returned to what was to be El's room she could unpack. "Do you remember these?" El asked of Karen, who now sat on the edge of the bed chatting with her while she unpacked her suitcases into bureau drawers. In her hands holding three leather holsters with revolvers in them. "One is yours and the other is mine," then in a sad voice she added, " the other was Ned’s service pistol, which I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of," she confessed, a tear welling in her eye. Living with El and Ned while she went to collage was great for Karen, not only were they fun to be with but always there when she needed them. During Karen's last year of college El become pregnant and when she told Ned she was expecting a baby, he was so excited he hurried out and bought an expensive bottle of champagne to celebrate. It seemed to Karen every time she saw them after, they were either trying to pick out a name for the baby or figure what college the baby should go to. Each morning they marked off another day from the calendar, each mark bringing them closer to the baby's due date, and almost every weekend they were out to the malls buying something new for the baby's room. Karen was happy for them knowing how excited and happy they were, and knowing when the baby was born it would have all the love and care it would need. But all the happiness ended a few months later when Ned was fatally shot in the line of duty. With a serious outbreak of flu around the city many of the regular police officers were out sick, so to keep the rosters full in the face of the epidemic many officers who were not sick were called on to work extra shifts. It was during one of these shifts that Ned, and another officer, was called on to assist in breaking up a fight between to rival street gangs. In the fracas following a thirteen-year-old member of a gang shot Ned twice in the stomach. It was two o'clock in the morning when a kind old policeman came by to inform El and Karen Ned had been shot, then drove them to the hospital. At the hospital the doctor informed El the bullets damaged some of Ned’s vital organs and his condition was very critical. Through the long hours of the night they prayed by his bedside, talking to him and trying to give him the strength he needed to live, but not once through the long night did he regain consciousness and by the early light of dawn Ned passed away. In the following weeks El would only sit in her room grieving and refusing to eat or talk to anyone. Their parents, who came up from Florida to attend Ned's funeral, stayed on to help Karen care for El, then only a couple of weeks later El had a miscarriage and lost her baby. Three weeks later Karen and her parents persuade El to return to Florida with them where they could look after her and she could rest and forget. "You may as well have yours," El was saying, holding one of the holstered pistols out to Karen. "Oh thanks El," Karen mumbled, "now I can give Nancy's back to her," she went on, then bit her tongue wishing she hadn't said that. El stopped what she was doing to stared at Karen, the hand-full of sweaters she was transferring from an open carton to the bureau draw forgotten "Why would Nancy give you a gun?" she asked, a sudden note of alarm in her voice. "Well," Karen started, looking up at her sister sheepishly; "I wasn't going to tell you about it right away, I kind of wanted you to get to like the house and get settled in first, but now that you ask I guess I’ll have to tell you. "The only thing I'm really sure of," she began, after a pause to get her thoughts in order, "is that I saw a man in the cemetery before sun up on the first morning I stayed here. I mentioned seeing him to Nancy and the next day she loaned me the pistol so I could protect myself if need be, I think she thought it would make me feel better knowing it was handy. On top of everything else I had such a bad dream last night, God I hope it was only a dream," she muttered, a shiver running up her spine, as the memory of the experience flashed before her eyes and a dark foreboding shadow seemed to engulf her mind. "This meat-loaf is great," El exclaims, sometime later as they sat eating in the small restaurant in Mapleton, "we’ll have to come back and try the pot roast sometime," she went on, nodding her head in approval of the food. "Oh yeah the pot roast is great," Karen replied. "I had it the other day when I was here with Nancy, then she let her eyes wander towards the door hoping Nancy might stop by for lunch. "I'm really glad you like the house El, I know we could be very happy there," she said. "Then as an after thought, "all we have to do is find out what that guy was doing around the cemetery and what he wants, I know it’ll make me feel a lot better." "Don't worry Hon, we'll find out what's going on and fix it," El assured her, glancing around the restaurant to study the pictures hanging on the walls. Suddenly a sharp rap caused them to glance up to see Nancy standing outside of the window tapping on the glass with her car keys, her arms full of books and papers she was trying to juggle, while at the same time wave to Karen and El. Finally she pointed to her office next door. "I'll drop these papers off and be right back," she said, her silent lips over pronouncing the words as she mouthed them off before hurrying away out of sight. Then for the next two hours the three of them sat at the restaurant eating and chatting, Karen eventually getting around to telling Nancy about the ordeal the night before. "If it didn't happen it was the most realistic dream or hallucination I've ever heard of," she assured them, holding her hand over her heart like she could still feel the pain, the gesture of her doing so causing El and Nancy to glance at each other. Suddenly a strange look came over Karen’s face and she looked from El to Nancy. "How strange," she murmured, "all of a sudden the memory of the experience seems so distant and vague, and she looked around shaking her head as if trying to clear her memory. "I have a feeling if I don't keep reminding myself what happened the other night I'll just forget the whole incident, every time I try to bring it to my mind it seems to move further away like in a far off dream somewhere. I'm so confused," she ended with puzzled look on her face. "Well I'm going to stop by the sheriff's office after my appointment this afternoon to see Aleck," Nancy promised, her voice rising with a bit of anger and indignation. "Someone from the sheriff's department has to go out there and have a good look around, if they don' find anything at least you'll feel better," she finished, patting the back of Karen's hand in consolation. Later, after saying their good-byes to Nancy on the sidewalk in front of her office, Karen and El climbed into the jeep and drove away from town down route fourteen. The low hum of the Jeeps engine the only sound disturbing the warm summer quiet, as they drove along the narrow tarmac road each deep in their own thoughts. On a warm beautiful afternoon like this, with all the signs and smells of spring around them, it was easy for Karen to push the bad thoughts from her mind and think of more pleasant things. "Maybe we can plant some flowers along the front of the house and around the porch," she suggested to El, her voice breaking the silence. "We could also plant some... Oh! God!" She mumbled in a sorrowful moan as the Jeep moved along the road beside the cemetery. "What's the matter Hon?" El asked in alarm, a deep sound of concern in her voice. "I don't really know," Karen stammered, a shudder passing through her body. "It may sound crazy, but all of a sudden I'm freezing cold." "It was probably just a reaction from your bad dream," El offered later, as they sat sunning themselves in the warm sunshine behind the house. "Maybe!" Karen agreed, feeling better now the frigid feeling, which had only lasted a few minutes, was gone. "I feel pretty stupid letting everything upset me so much lately, I'm going to have to get to the bottom of this problem one way or another," she vowed, a strong sound of determination in her voice. Minutes later they were interrupted by the sound of an automobile turning off the pavement into their driveway. Hurrying around to the front of the house they were surprised to see one of the towns two police cruisers, with the red and blue lights across the top of it, parked in the driveway near the carport. Expectantly they stood and watched as two huge uniformed deputies stepped from the cruiser and turned to them. "Afternoon ladies," one of deputies said, touching a finger to his hat brim in lieu of a tilt. "I'm Deputy Aleck Johnson and this is my partner Deputy Phillip Taylor," he went on waving his hand towards his partner. "Nancy has asked us to come by and see you and maybe have a look around," the big deputy said, glancing around casually. "Would you mind telling us everything you can remember about the guy you saw near the cemetery the other morning" he asked, while at the same time taking a small writing tablet and pen from his shirt pocket. "Remember any little thing you can think of can help us in our investigation even if you don't think it's important, he added." Then he began taking notes while Karen told her story, when she was finished he returned the tablet and pen back to his shirt pocket. "Well if you don’t mind we’ll have a little look around," he deputy informed them, once again touched his finger to his hat brim before he and the other deputy turned and walked off through the field in the direction of the cemetery. "I wonder what they expect to find?" El mumbled, as she watched the deputies walk off down through the field. "Who knows?" Karen sighed, glancing down at the deputies now disappearing behind the trees and brush at the rear of the cemetery. "Nancy's boyfriend seems to take his work seriously doesn't he?" El chuckled, as she and Karen returned to their seats behind the house to layback and bask in the sun again. "We couldn't find anything back there," the deputies reported back to the girls, when they returned about a half an hour later. "We checked far back into the woods on the chance someone may be camping out there, but it doesn't look like anyone's been up through there for some time. We'll write the incident up as a vagrant and leave word with the dispatcher to send a deputy out to investigate if you see him again. Remember, it doesn't matter what time it is, if you see this guy again make sure you give us a call, okay?" Then when Karen and El both nodded their heads to show they understood, he and his partner climbed back into the cruiser. With another touch of his finger to his hat brim, and a nod from the deputy, the cruiser backed out of the driveway and drove off down the highway. CHAPTER THREE "I think we've walked far enough for today Hon," El said, as she and Karen turned back towards the house from the after dinner walk. "Okay then we're agreed," she went on in more of a statement than a question. "We’ll keep an eye on the cemetery to see if we can find out what that character is doing around there, right?" "Right," Karen agreed, bolstered now by El's strength and determination they would begin their vigil watching the cemetery from Karen's bedroom window each evening. Late that afternoon El sat in a chair by the window, while Karen sat on the foot of her bed, from where they could see out across the field to the cemetery. It seemed in no time the light faded to dusk, and night followed quickly, and there was no movement to be seen in the cemetery. In the darkness of the bedroom El arose from her chair and put the binoculars she had been using on the bureau. "Well there’s nothing out there tonight," she said, straining her eyes to see the dim outline of Karen rising from the end of the bed where she was sitting. "I know it El, but we'll give it another try in the morning, okay?" She asked, flipping the light switch on and flooding the room with light. Outside in the still darkness of the cemetery a shadowy figure stirs, a figure that has been watching up into the dark bedroom window since the first shadows of evening had fallen. Now the figure emerges from the deep shadows of the trees and for a few seconds longer stares up into the window before turning away and moving off among the gravestones. The soft ringing of distant bells comes to Karen's awareness, the sound growing louder as the darkness of sleep falls away. Opening her eyes she bolts to a sitting position in the darkness her senses alert and waiting, but for what she doesn’t know. Then in the next instant she realizes the ringing comes from El's old wind up alarm clock in her bedroom across the hall. Then while she gropes for her bathrobe and slippers in the dark, a small beam of light, from a penlight that El is carrying, comes across the hall and through the door. "Are you awake yet Hon?" El asked in a soft voice, flashing the light over Karen, who is struggling to get into her robe. "Not really," she replies, her mouth stretching open after failing to stifle a yawn. "It will be dawn in about half an hour," El tells her softly, "you wait here and I'll go down and make some coffee and bring it up," she finishes, then before Karen can answer El and the light disappear down the stairway. In the darkness Karen nods her head in agreement wrapping her robe closer to her. Heavy rain dripping from the eaves of the cape told them what kind of a day it was going to be, long before it was light enough to see the gray drizzle of morning clouds. El sat in the same chair by the window from where she could look out across the field to the cemetery, occasionally scanning the area through her binoculars. "I haven't seen a thing moving out there all morning," El mumbles, as the night sky starts to turn to silver gray and the sun makes ready to rise behind the thick clouds. "I know," Karen agrees, "there hasn’t even been a car that’s gone by this morning, we may be just wasting our time and ... El, what just came over the wall on the far side of the cemetery just now?" "I see it," El said, scanning the area through the binoculars. "It looks like a big dog running among the gravestones," then after a few minutes she lowers the binoculars and stares out towards the rear of the cemetery hidden from their view. "The dog came over the wall and raced through the cemetery like something was chasing it, but when it made a turn, at this end of a row of gravestones, it scraped hard against one of them," she said, lifting the binoculars to scan the area again. However after the incident with the dog and the exception of a few cars along the road, nothing else moved in the field or the cemetery below. "Well I guess that blows my stupid theory," Karen mumbled, shaking her head. "It was pretty wild anyhow," she continued, moving away from the window she had been staring out of. "Tell me about your theory anyway," El insisted, a little later as she skillfully cracked a few eggs into a frying pan for their breakfast. "Well if it wasn't a bad dream I had the other night, and I'm not sure it was, then something cold and evil grabbed on to me the other night and twisted and manipulated my body to it's will. I have the feeling it could have easily killed me but for some unknown reason it relented, why I don't know. I also have a dreaded feeling of pressure around me that seems to hang just outside of the edge of my perception. It's as if I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now don't laugh at me El, but in my mind I keep thinking... Vampire!" El turned and looked deep into Karen’s eyes now, in her heart knowing she was not one to make statements like this casually. "I didn't know it was bothering you this much," El cooed, hurrying around the table to give Karen a sisterly hug and hold her close. By mid afternoon the dark clouds scudded away and a warm summer sun filled the green mountains with dry air. Deciding to take a walk up through the fields to the cemetery and have a look around, they slipped into comfortable summer shorts and shirts before strolling across the field towards the cemetery. "I’m sure there’s nothing out here for us to find." El commented, as they moved along the wall towards the rear of the cemetery. "That thought alone should make you feel better," she finished, turning to look back at Karen who had stopped by the wall and was staring back towards the house. Its impossible for anyone to see into my bedroom window from here, Karen was thinking, anyone normal that is, and with this she shivered as a chill passed up her spine. Along the wall, about where the trees blocked the view of the house, the ground sloped down sharply to a wide-open area where another wall continued on across the rear of the cemetery. Here, hidden from above and almost from view by a hanging weeping willow tree, was an old tomb, the tombs two huge, iron doors and hinges rusted shut and set deeply into heavy solid granite casings. "Well no one’s been in or out of these doors for some time," El stated, standing before the doors studying the huge rusted lock and hasp. The only opening visible around the doors a small wedge shaped triangle, about ten or twelve inches long, at the top of one of the doors, which looked like it had been caused by the settling of the heavy granite casings. "Look at this," Karen exclaimed, pointing to a perfect animal’s footprint in the dried dirt at the bottom of the door. "Probably from that dog we saw this morning," El offered, studying the footprint closer. "Big son of a gun wasn't he?" she murmured, turning away to continue around and up though the cemetery. "This is the gravestone the dog scraped against this morning," El said, stooping down to study it. "Look there are some of the dogs hair caught in the chipped edge of the stone," she continued. Then standing again, she glance towards the place where the dog had come over the wall and then back to where it had disappeared towards the rear of the cemetery. After a few minutes of thought she carefully picked the hair from the stone and wrapped them in her handkerchief. "I'm thinking of what you said this morning," she explained to Karen, who was watching El with a questioning look as she slipped the handkerchief into her pocket. "I've got a friend that teaches science over at the college in New Hampshire," El offered, "I think I'm going pay him a visit and have him take a look at this hair." With this, and without another word about the hair or the dog, the girls continued the walked around the wall to the field and then back to the house. For the next two weeks the girls kept a constant vigil watching the cemetery every morning, twice again seeing the big dog race through the cemetery but nothing else. Two weeks stretched into three, then four, and the incident began to fade away like a distant memory. Still, one afternoon, El took a ride over to the college in New Hampshire to see her professor friend and have him look at the hair she took from the gravestone. Professor Donald Kersley, a young man only a few months older than El, was more than happy to see her. More than once, back in New York where they had gone to high school together, he asked El out on a date, but it wasn't until they reached the end of their high school years she finally agreed. When they did graduate from high school Donald went on to college and soon became one of the youngest professors in New England. Whenever he had occasion to go back home to New York he always stopped in at the dry cleaners to visit El and, if possible, take her out to dinner. He was hurt when El met and married Ned but he wished them both all luck and happiness. "Where did you get these?" the professor asked, studying the hair, after they talked for a while and she agreed to have dinner with him the following weekend. "I'd like you to tell me what they are before I answer that, when you do I'll tell you where and how I came by them," she promised. "Well there does seem to be something very strange about them," he replied, studying the hair closer. "I'll take them to the lab with me in the morning and run some tests and I promise to get back to you as soon as possible, It will give me a good excuse to call you," he told her, a playful grin lighting up his face. "I'll probably be gone for most of the afternoon," Karen told El, the next day as she got ready to take a shower. "One of the teachers from the school I'm going to teach at called and invited me to an informal meeting at her house," she explained. "It's nothing official, just a friendly get together they have a couple of times a month, but she thought it would be a great time for me to meet some of my co-workers," Karen ended, a touch of excitement in her voice. "That's great Hon, you go ahead and have yourself a good time," El urged, "me, I planned to lay out in the sun and work on my tan." After lunch, and clad in her bathing suit, El lay out on the lawn behind the house. No sooner had she settled down and got comfortable, when Karen, who had just finished her shower and was getting dressed for her meeting, called out through the window to tell her she had a phone call. "It's a man," she had added. "Hi El," an excited man's voice came over the phone when El hurried in to answer it. "I'm sorry to bother you but I just had to call." "Don?" El asked, sure she recognized his voice. "Yes El, it’s me. I know I said I wouldn't call you until tomorrow, but you've presented me with quite a mystery. Three professor friends and I have been working in a frenzy all morning trying to figure out where the hair you gave me comes from, El you've got to tell me where you got it." "Why? What did you find out about it?" El asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. "El, the DNA of that hair is impossible. It seems to be that of a wolf, or I should say an Old World jackal. Alone that is strange enough, but the age of the hair boggles the mind. I know this sounds crazy, but according to all the tests we have done so far the hair is more than five thousand years old," Don finished, his voice rising with excitement. "El ... are you there?" he asked, when she didn't answer right away. "Yes I'm still here Don," El said quietly, before going on. "Don I have to talk to you as soon as possible, it's really important, when can I see you?" "I have classes tonight but I'm off tomorrow afternoon, just give me the directions to your place and I'll come by as early as I can," he promised. "Thanks a lot Don I really appreciate it, and..." she started to say. "No, no," he interrupted, "I want to come out to see you anyhow, but it won’t be just socially, I have a million questions to ask about this hair, so for sure I'll see you tomorrow." "Okay Don that will be fine, I'll see you then," El said, slowly hanging up the phone. "Anyone I should know about?" Karen teased, as she came down the stairs into the kitchen and saw El hanging up the phone. "You don't know how much," El told her, and then explained who it was and what he had found. "Geez El, what the hell is going on? All we want to do is live here and be happy," Karen said, shaking her head in disgust and visibly shaken. "I sure hope he can help us figure out what the heck’s going on here," she continued, then glancing at her watch kissed El good-bye on the cheek and left. So do I Hon, El thought, as she watched Karen back the Jeep out of the driveway and move off down the road, so do I. "What you've told us doesn't even make sense," Karen said to the professor, the next afternoon when he explained to them what he found. Karen, El, and Don were sitting on the small screened in porch, at the front of the house, having ice tea and trying to ignore the hot humid air of the early July heat wave. "I can't help it, "Don replied defensively. "The tests don't lie, that hair is from an animal that was alive more than five thousand years ago. "Listen," he told them, "every once and a while the remains of some animal, or sometimes even a human, are found preserved frozen in the arctic ice. From the hair of these specimens we can tell through tests, their age, what the climate was like when they died, and some times even where they came from. The tests give us solid facts with almost no room for error, believe me when I say the hair you gave me dates back that far. I don't know what else to say," he ended, glancing from Karen to El. "Now will you please tell me where you got the hair?" he asked again, with a plea in his voice. "Well that just makes it an even deeper mystery," Don said, shaking his head, after El told him about Karen and how they came by the hair. Then coming to his feet he walked to the end of the porch and stood silently staring out towards the cemetery his mind deep in thought. "There's something else I didn't tell you," he said, turning back to look down at the girls where they sat at the table, his face now a little blanched and pale. Everything that lives needs nourishment to exist, and of course hair is nourished through its roots. The one big thing that disturbed us most about that hair was the presence of a human blood strain in the roots. The blood we found was relatively fresh, and if that wasn't bad enough the tests prove beyond a doubt that it was a mixture of cells from several different young humans. We have no idea of how, or why, this is possible," he finished, turning back to stare out off the porch again. "Wow!" Karen exclaimed, "Now I'm really scared, do you know what you’re implying?" she said softly, glancing out towards the cemetery. "Is it possible," El asked of him, when he turned again to look at them. "I've read a lot of books about things like this," she told him, "you know? Wolf's, Vampires, Shape Changers and such, but they were all supposed to be fantasy." "No one really knows," Don replied, as he sat back down at the table. "Stories of things like this go back into history further than man can trace, and almost every religion has stories of flesh eating and blood drinking. Even the modern day Christians believe that to live forever they must eat and drink the body and blood of the Son of God, who am I to say it's not possible?" "What's a Shape Changer?" Karen asked, glancing from El to Don to see which would answer first. "It's supposed to be a mythical creature that can change into any form or size it chooses," El explained, "a wolf or a bat are among the ones most talked about in Vampire stories." "But it's still all hard to believe," Don added, getting up from the table again and making ready to leave. "Would either of you mind if I kept the hair you gave me?" he asked. "Please keep it, we don't even want them in the house," Karen exclaimed, a slight tremor in her voice. "Listen you two," Don said, as they walked him out to his car parked in the driveway, "don't let this bother you to much, remember it's all just wild speculation. You've been here at the cape for over a month now and nothing has bothered you with the exception of a few bad dreams. "You have my number and I'm only half an hour away, if you need me for anything please call me anytime. Meanwhile I'll study up on all the things we've discussed, but I really don't believe anything will come of it. Somewhere there has to be some scientific explanation to all of this," he finished turning to El. "I do hope to hear from you one way or another," he told her, taking her hand in both of his and giving it a gentle squeeze. "He's still got a thing for you," Karen teased, a short time later as they stood in the driveway watching Don's car disappear down the road. "I know, he has asked me out to dinner next weekend," El said, giving Karen a quick sideways glance. Karen and El were surprised to see Don's car pull into the driveway early the next Saturday morning. "I borrowed some visual equipment from the college," he explained to them excitedly, as he opened the trunk of his car and took out a large black suitcase. "If it's okay with you I'd like to set this thing up in the bedroom window overlooking the cemetery. It's a very small camera that will sit on the windowsill and not take up much room, and the beauty of it is it's equipped with a timer we can set to run for an hour around sunrise and again at sunset. With this we should be able to catch anything moving in the cemetery during that time, what do you think?" he said, looking from Karen to El with a smug look on his face. For two weeks the little camera sat on the windowsill in Karen's bedroom clicking on a half-hour before dawn and then again before sunset. Each morning after breakfast the girls removed the videocassette and watched the evening and morning taping. In all the time the little camera sat in the window nothing ever showed up on the tapes, with the exception of a few early mornings deer passing through the cemetery or browsing in the field under the apple trees. After the second week Don had to return the camera back to the college, by then most of the girl’s fears and radical ideas had pretty much faded away. It appeared that the gray dog would remain a mystery. Don continued to come by to see the girls almost every other day on the pretext of making sure they were all right, but of course all his attention at these times was focused on El. It was plain enough to see what his intentions were and this made Karen very happy. Weeks passed with El and Don seeing a lot of each other, during that time Karen and El often made arrangements with Nancy and the three of them would get together to go shopping at the malls down in West Lebanon, New Hampshire. The three of them often taking in a movie then stopping somewhere for dinner and a few drinks. During this time Karen and El had become happy and content in the little house, the thought of the cemetery or Karen's earlier fears and dreams distant. Never again did they see the dark figure in the cemetery watching the house for a time each evening, before moving away to be lost in the darkness among the gravestones.

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