Winter Moon

what it wants," Toby replied. "What does it want?"
        "It wants me to let it in, just let it in."
        "Oh, Jesus," Heather said, and reached for the Off switch again. Jack stopped her hand as he'd done before.
        Her fingers were pale and frigid. "What's wrong?" he asked, though he was afraid he knew. The words "let it in" had jolted him with an impact almost as great as one of Anson Oliver's bullets. "Last night,"
        Heather said, staring in horror at the screen. "In a dream." Maybe his own hand turned cold. Or maybe she felt him tremble. She blinked.
        "You've had it too, the dream!"
        "Just tonight. Woke me."
        "The door," she said. "It wants you to find a door in yourself, open the door and let it in. Jack, damn it, what's going on here, what the hell's going on?".He wished he knew. Or maybe he didn't. He was more scared of this thing than of anyone he'd confronted as a cop. He had killed Anson Oliver, but he didn't know if he could touch this enemy, didn't know if it could even be found or seen.
        "No," Toby said to the screen. Falstaff whined and retreated to a corner, stood there, tense and watchful. "No. No." Jack crouched beside his son.
        "Toby, right now you can hear it and me, both of us?"
        "Yes."
        "You're not completely under its influence."
        "Only a little."
        "You're… in between somewhere."
        "Between," the boy confirmed. "Do you remember yesterday in the graveyard?"
        "Yes."
        "You remember this thing… speaking through you."
        "Yes."
        "What?" Heather asked, surprised. "What about the graveyard?" On the screen: undulant black, bursting boils of yellow, seeping spots of kidney red. "Jack," Heather said, angrily, "you said nothing was wrong when you went up to the cemetery. You said Toby was daydreaming-just standing up there daydreaming."
        To Toby, Jack said, "But you didn't remember anything about the graveyard right after it happened."
        "No."
        "Remember what?" Heather demanded. "What the hell was there to remember?"
        "Toby," Jack said, "are you able to remember now because..
        . because you're half under its spell again but only half… neither here nor there?"
        "Between," the boy acknowledged. "Tell me about this 'it' you're talking to," Jack said. "Jack, don't," Heather said. She looked haunted. He knew how she felt. But he said, "We have to learn about it."
        "Why?"
        "Maybe to survive." He didn't have to explain. She knew what he.meant. She had endured some degree of contact in her sleep. The hostility of the thing. Its inhuman rage. To Toby, he said, "Tell me about it."
        "What do you want to know?" -On the screen: blues of every shade, spreading like Japanese fans but without the sharp folds, one blue over the other, through the other.
        "Where does it come from, Toby?"
        "Outside."
        "What do you mean?"
        "Beyond."..
        "Beyond what?"
        "This world." Is it… extraterrestrial?" - Heather said, "Oh, my God." "Yes," Toby said. "No."
        "Which, Toby?"
        "Not as simple as… E.T. Yes.
        And no."
        "What is it doing here?"
        "Becoming."
        "Becoming what?"
        "Everything." Jack shook his head. "I don't understand."
        "Neither do I," the boy said, riveted to the display on the computer monitor. Heather stood with her hands fisted against her breast.
        Jack said, Toby, yesterday in the graveyard, you weren't just between. like now."
        "Gone."
        "Yes, you were gone all the way."
        "Gone."
        "I couldn't reach you."
        "Shit," Heather said furiously, and Jack didn't look up at her because he knew she was glaring at him. "What happened yesterday, Jack? Why didn't you tell me, for Christ's sake? Something like this, why didn't you tell me?" Without meeting her eyes, he said, "I will, I'll tell you, just let me finish this."."What else haven't you told me," she demanded. "What in God's name's happening, Jack?"
        To Toby, he said, "When you were gone yesterday. son, where were you?"
        "Gone."
        "Gone where?"
        "Under."
        "Under? Under what?"
        "Under it."
        "Under…?"
        "Controlled."
        "Under this thing? Under its mind?"
        "Yeah. In a dark place."
        Toby's voice quavered with fear at the memory. "A dark place,