Dance with the Devil

forward on its hind feet, watching her intently, watching…
        She tried to mutter a prayer, but she could not get the words out-as if something were preventing her from praying.
        The wolf howled and-
        Everything came to a sudden, unexpected halt as a shotgun blast exploded in the trees and echoed deafeningly through the thick trunks of the pine trees. The moment the echo died sufficiently for him to be heard, Alex Boland shouted: “Don't move!”

CHAPTER 18
        
        The fire continued to burn, though it did not leap quite so high or sputter nearly as bright as before, providing a properly eerie, flickering orange-yellow illumination for the final act of this unconventional drama. In its soft glow, the cultists stood with their hands at their sides, their faces slack, shoulders stooped forward as if they were weighted down with burdens that no one but themselves could see. They were physically exhausted from the long dance, emotionally exhausted by the frenzy that had so completely possessed them, and mentally disconcerted by the abrupt termination of the ritual which they had intellectually anticipated would reach a satisfying conclusion. Not a one of them made a move toward Alex where he stood directly behind Michael with a two-barrel shotgun slung across his arm and his finger on the trigger. It was not so much that they were afraid of him or of the gun, but more as if they did not even believe he was there. They had not caught up with the present, not mentally and emotionally, and they were still several minutes in the past, living through the colored flames, the heat that poured from the bonfire, the chants, the dance, the wolf…
        The wolf.
        Katherine looked quickly around, stepped to the right to peer beyond the flames, but she could not see the wolf anywhere. Had it really been there in the first place, she wondered, or had it been nothing more than a figment of her imagination, generated by her fatigue?
        “Are you all right, Katherine?” Alex asked.
        She nodded.
        Apparently, Alex did not see the slight movement of her head, for he asked the same question again, his voice much more strained than it had been the first time. “Katherine, are you feeling all right?”
        “Yes,” she said.
        She knew that she should walk over there and stand beside Alex, but she did not have the energy right now. Besides, she was depressed at the prospect of having nowhere else to turn except to the pessimistic, always-brooding Boland boy. What had happened to the world these last few days? What had happened to the happy people she had always found wherever she went?
        “You weren't asked here,” Michael said, slowly turning to face Alex who stood only a couple of feet away from him.
        “Was she?” Alex asked, indicating Katherine with an abrupt nod of his head.
        “Yes.”
        “In full knowledge of what was going to happen here?” Alex asked, clearly disbelieving.
        “In full knowledge,” Michael said. He turned to face Katherine and smiled. His eyes were bright blue again, his face in an easy pose, his smile broad and winning. But in his eyes still, no longer shielded from her, was that fanatic gleam. “Isn't that so, Katherine? Didn't you come here to join the family?”
        “No,” she said.
        “Katherine, you knew all along that-”
        “You're lying, Michael,” Katherine said.
        He took a step towards her.
        “Stop right there,” Alex said.
        Michael stopped.
        When Katherine spoke again, her voice sounded faint, very distant and weary, almost as if it were someone else's voice issuing from her throat. “I know that you're lying, and Alex knows it. It can't do you any good now.”
        “ I am not lying!” He spoke slowly, enunciating each word with care, clearly on the brink of complete insanity. His plans had been brought down around his shoulders, his schemes demolished in one penultimate moment, and he could not cope.
        “Yes,” Katherine said gently, as if she were talking to a child. “Yes, Michael, you are.”
        His face suddenly twisted into the ugly lines that she had seen earlier in the evening, during the ceremony. He turned to look at Alex and then began to shout at him. Unexpectedly, he tossed the Satanic bible into Alex's face and simultaneously dived forward.
        “Alex, look out!” Katherine shouted, too late to warn