The library door shutting behind Mal had the finality of a death knell. Tom stayed where he was, knees aching and tears flowing down his cheeks behind his hands to gather in the dip of his collarbones. Time passed, hours perhaps. The house lay in absolute quiet, but it was the claustrophobic hush of grief and fear bottled up until the pressure became almost a sound of its own. The sun had come out during the morning and it slanted across Tom’s face, shining in his eyes for a little while and then fading away as it passed him by. Tom came back to himself with a start to the sound of wheels on the drive and knelt bolt upright, heart pounding like a kettledrum and sweat pooling horridly along his spine. He gazed around him dully, the familiar furnishings of the library alien and distant. The
