as Ann Hawkins have been accused and found guilty of witchcraft and demonic practices."
"Who accuses?"
"Bring the girl forward!" Lazarus ordered.
They pulled her, a man on each arm. She was a slight girl, barely six and ten by Giles's calculation. Her face was wax white with fear, her eyes drenched with it. Her hair had been shorn.
"Hester Deale, is this the witch who seduced you?"
"He and the one he calls wife laid hands on me." She spoke as if in a trance. "They performed ungodly acts upon my body. They came to my window as ravens, flew into my room in the night. They stilled my throat so I could not speak or call for help."
"Child," Giles said gently, "what has been done to you?"
Those fear-swamped eyes stared through him. "They called to Satan as their god, and cut the throat of a cock in sacrifice. And drank its blood. They forced its blood on me. I could not stop them."
"Hester Deale, do you renounce Satan?"
"I do renounce him."
"Hester Deale, do you renounce Giles Dent and the woman Ann Hawkins as witches and heretics?"
"I do." Tears spilled down her cheeks. "I do renounce them, and pray to God to save me. Pray to God to forgive me."
"He will," Giles whispered. "You are not to blame."
"Where is the woman Ann Hawkins?" Lazarus demanded, and Giles turned his clear gray eyes to him.
"You will not find her."
"Stand aside. I will enter this house of the devil."
"You will not find her," Giles repeated. For a moment he looked beyond Lazarus to the men and the handful of women who stood in his glade.
He saw death in their eyes, and more, the hunger for it. This was the demon's power, and his work.
Only in Hester's did Giles see fear or sorrow. So he used what he had to give, pushed his mind toward hers. Run!
He saw her jolt, stumble back, then he turned to Lazarus.
"We know each other, you and I. Dispatch them, release them, and it will be between us alone."
For an instant he saw the gleam of red in Lazarus's eyes. "You are done. Burn the witch!" he shouted. "Burn the devil house and all within it!"
They came with torches, and with clubs. Giles felt the blows rain on him, and the fury of the hate that was the demon's sharpest weapon.
They drove him to his knees, and the wood of the hut began to flame and smoke. Screams rang in his head, the madness of them.
With the last of his power he reached out toward the demon inside the man, with red rimming its dark eyes as it fed on the hate, the fear, the violence. He felt it gloat, he felt it rising, so sure of its victory, and the feast to follow.
And he ripped it to him, through the smoking air. He heard it scream in fury and pain as the flames bit into flesh. And he held it to him, close as a lover as the fire consumed them.
And with that union the fire burst, spread, destroyed every living thing in the glade.
It burned for a day and a night, like the belly of hell.
Chapter One
Chapter One
Hawkins Hollow
Maryland
July 6, 1987
INSIDE THE PRETTY KITCHEN OF THE PRETTY house on Pleasant Avenue, Caleb Hawkins struggled not to squirm as his mother packed her version of campout provisions.
In his mother's world, ten-year-old boys required fresh fruit, homemade oatmeal cookies (they weren't so bad), half a dozen hard-boiled eggs, a bag of Ritz crackers made into sandwiches with Jif peanut butter for filling, some celery and carrot sticks (yuck!), and hearty ham-and-cheese sandwiches.
Then there was the thermos of lemonade, the stack of paper napkins, and the two boxes of Pop-Tarts she wedged into the basket for breakfast.
"Mom, we're not going to starve to death," he complained as she stood deliberating in front of an open cupboard. "We're going to be right in Fox's backyard."
Which was a lie, and kinda hurt his tongue. But she'd never let him go if he told her the truth. And, sheesh, he was ten. Or would be the very next day.
Frannie Hawkins put her hands on her hips. She was a pert, attractive blonde with summer blue eyes and a stylish curly perm. She was the mother of three, and Cal was her baby and only boy. "Now, let me check that backpack."
"Mom!"
"Honey, I just want to be sure you didn't forget anything." Ruthless in her own sunny way, Frannie unzipped Cal 's navy blue pack. "Change