Chapter 20
Charity had to blink repeatedly before she believed what she saw around her. It was the playground, but not as it was from the outside. The darkness within the playground was deeper than the darkness without. A single bright torch burned, lighting the inside unevenly. The torch was set into the sandbox, the bright flame dancing with an inner life. It did not burn the wood it surrounded, as if sustained from some other fuel. The girl who had met her at the edge of the park sat beside it, close enough that the heat should have burned her.
The flame did not cast her shadow.
“He got Jesse.” In here she had a voice. It was soft, sure, and emotionless.
Charity nodded her head. She didn’t know what to say.
“I guess he was too slow this time. I should have sent Toni.”
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