Greg huddled in the corner of the clinically white room. His straitjacket was stained with patches of blood and sweat. Droplets of sweat had accumulated on his bangs and glistened under the fluorescent lights. A reddened bandage on his forehead was losing its grip on his saturated skin. His face was crisscrossed with scratches and abrasions. His eyes stared blankly at the wall as he whispered "I don't want to die," over and over in a tremulous, fragile voice. A window to the night outside stood in stark contrast against the white wall. The only other feature in the bleached room was a table with two chairs on opposite sides.

The sound of footsteps began to echo down the hall. His head spun toward the door, scattering perspiration. He began to shake. "Oh God, no," he said weakly. The steps stopped outside the door to his room. "No..." he whispered, his face twisting as his fear pushed him to tears. He heard the jingling of keys and the turning of the lock. The door opened.

"No!" he shouted. He turned his face toward the wall and shut his eyes tight. Through clenched teeth he recited what he could remember from the Lord's Prayer.

A slim young woman in a cream-colored skirt and sports coat walked into the room. Her dark hair was pulled into a tight bun and she carried a clipboard. She looked at Greg through thin wire-rimmed glasses.

"If you need anything, Dr. Banks, just shout," the guard said as he closed the door behind her.

She gave him a friendly smile. "Thanks, Johnny." She turned back to the man trying to squeeze himself into the corner. She could barely hear his murmured prayers. "Mister Gates?"

His body spasmed when he heard his name. He began praying harder.

"Mister Gates?" the woman repeated softly as she approached him. She squatted a couple of yards away from the quivering man, the skirt pulling back slightly to reveal her well-crafted knees. "Greg?"

At the mention of his given name, Greg's tremors subsided.

"Greg," the woman said, gently but firmly, "I'm not going to hurt you. My name's Evelyn Banks and I want to help you."

Still breathing hard, Greg slowly turned his face, wet from tears and sweat, away from the wall. His brown fear-dulled eyes darted around the room and then met her eyes. She moved to touch the wound on his forehead but he pulled away with a whimper.

"How did you get hurt, Greg?" she asked, withdrawing her hand.

Greg's mouth moved soundlessly. He swallowed hard and tried again. "I...fell."

"I heard you were almost run over by a police cruiser," she said.

"Yeah..." Greg said, his eyes drifting down to her knees. "Yeah, that's right."

"You were lucky you weren't killed."

Greg whimpered and tried to cover his face with his constrained arms.

"What's the matter?"

"I wish...I was killed!" He said tearfully.

"That's not a good thing to say, Greg."

"It would be better than what's going to happen to me," he said, his voice rising. "They're going to rip me to shreds! They're going to tear off my head just like Rob's!"

"Calm down," Evelyn said softly. "No one's going to hurt you here."

Greg looked directly at her. "You don't know," he hissed. "You don't know what they are. You don't know what they can do."

"Then why don't you tell me?"

Greg's gaze wandered. "You won't believe me. Nobody will. Not until it's too late."

"I will," Evelyn said. "I promise."

Greg looked at her through red, swollen eyes.

Evelyn stood up and Greg jumped slightly. She walked over to the table and pulled out one of the chairs.

"Please?"

Greg hesitated. Then he slowly slid up the wall and walked unsteadily toward the chair. Evelyn moved to the other side of the table and sat down. *elab***His eyes moving all over the room, Greg cautiously took the seat across from her.

"Where do you want to begin?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he said as he wiped his nose on his sleeve.

"Here," Evelyn said, holding up a tissue to his face.

Greg recoiled slightly, watching her with intense suspicion. Then he slowly placed his nose into the tissue and blew. Evelyn balled up the tissue and put it on the table.

"The police said that you were screaming about something in a cave," Evelyn said, looking at her clipboard. She looked back up at him. "What was that all about?"

"That's where they are. That's where they killed Rob and Jerry and Fr-"

"Hold on," Evelyn said. "Maybe you should just start at the beginning. Take a minute to collect your thoughts and tell me what happened from the beginning."

Greg looked down at the uniform white of the table, his roving eyes eventually fixing on the balled tissue. He was silent for almost five minutes. ***what is she doing

"It was Rob's idea, I guess. I remember he called me yest---this afternoon and told me he needed me to drive him somewhere. I knew he had is own car and wondered why he needed me to do it. He just told me that it was real important and told me not to argue. He sounded real serious so I went along with it."

"Who is Rob?" Evelyn asked.

"He works with me in the factory. Sometimes we all go hunting together."

"Okay, go on."

"So then...uh...I went by his house that evening. I picked him up. He brought his shotgun and a flashlight. I thought at first that we were supposed to be going on another hunting trip, but it became real clear that we weren't."

"Why not?"

"He just looked real serious. He wasn't talking or anything and looked like he had a lot on his mind. I knew something was definitely wrong. He made me pick up Jerry, Fred, and Roger, too."

"Who are they?"

"They go hunting with us, too, sometimes. And they all had guns. My car was getting real crowded and I was getting real scared because of this. They all looked grim like something real serious was going on. So--"

The rumble of thunder stopped Greg mid-sentence. He stared out the window without moving a muscle.

"Greg?" Evelyn said. "It's only thunder."

"Yeah," Greg said quietly, "only thunder."

"So you and your friends are driving. Then what?"

Greg tried to shake the cobwebs out of his head. "So they had me take them out to this back road in the middle of nowhere and got out. They started walking toward a field the had those big rolls of hay on it. They wanted me to stay in my truck but--" Another roll of thunder made him stop and glance nervously at the window. When the thunder passed he resumed. "--I went anyway. They weren't talking much and I told them I wanted to know what was going on. Rob and I got into an argument over that 'cause he said I didn't want to know. **HOW I finally got him to tell me that we were going to get the guy who stole Rog's kid."

"What about Roge's child?" Evelyn asked, looking up from her note-taking.

"Oh yeah, about a week ago his son disappeared. He got home from work and found out that his son never made it back from school."**What kind of abduction

"How was he handling it?"

"Well, he didn't come to work that whole week before tonight and the cops didn't find jack shit. So when they told me that they found out where the guy whole stole his kid was at, I didn't argue. I'm all for blowing away kid-stealers. So after a lot of walking we came to this cave or mine or something--" Another peel of thunder silenced him.

"You found a cave and...?" Evelyn prompted.

"I shouldn't be talking about this," Greg whispered, staring at the window.

"Greg, no one's going to hurt you here. Now please, go on with your story."

"Yeah...so we found a cave or something. The guys seemed real nervous and double checked their guns. Before they went in, Rob told me that if they didn't come back out to run like hell."

"Why didn't you go with them?"

"Don't know. I guess 'cause I didn't have a gun. Anyway, they went into the cave and I watched them go quite a distance before I couldn't see their flashlights or anything. I was feeling real creepy and scared since I was standing all by myself in the dark with just the flashlight they gave me. It was cold, too. Then--"

A loud crash of thunder made Greg stand in alarm. "Fuck," he said quietly.

"Calm down, Greg." Evelyn said evenly. "Now you said that it was cold? It was rather mild tonight, wasn't it?"

Greg sat back down slowly, clenching his fists nervously under the fabric of his straitjacket. Fear had begun to creep back into his voice. "Yeah, it was warm everywhere but there. So anyway, all of the sudden I hear shouts and gunshots coming from the cave. There were a lot of gunshots. Then I heard this really loud scream that just...quit." Beads of sweat began to reappear on his forehead.

"Then what happened, Greg?" Evelyn asked.

"So then...then I heard someone--something calling me. It was calling my name, telling me to come into the cave."

"Did it sound like any of your friends?"

"Yeah, it sounded like Rob's voice. Then I heard another voice. It sounded like Fred's. I kept hearing more voices."

"So why didn't you go in?"

"There were--" A blast of thunder shook the room. "Jesus!" Greg shouted as he bolted to a standing position, sending the chair flying.

"What happened next, Greg?" Evelyn asked.

Greg stared at the window, sweat beginning to drip down his face. "There...there were too many voices. There were dozens of them calling me, telling me to join them. I just stood there--" Another crash of thunder. Greg's voice rose to a near shout. "They were getting closer and there was this...this clittering noise that came with them. I could see--" A flash of lightning lit up the room and was immediately followed by ear-splitting thunder. Greg was screaming now. "I could see their shapes! I could see them crawling toward me in the darkness! Then something came flying at me from the cave and hit me in the chest and knocked me down!" More thunder. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Greg screamed, backing toward the corner as he tried to cover his ears with his shoulders.

Evelyn stood up, shouting over his screams. "What was it, Greg? What hit you?"

Tears were streaming down Greg's face now. "It was his head!" he shrieked. "It was Rob's head! And it looked right at me! And it said...it said 'we're gonna get you, Greg!'"

Then the lights went out. Greg's scream nearly drowned out the thunder. He flew back into his corner and huddled into a fetal position. "Oh God, oh God, oh God," he repeated.

"Now Greg," Evelyn said chidingly. "The storm can't hurt you, and neither can the dark."

Greg opened his eyes. Now it was the indigo window that was the bright spot in a sea of black. He could vaguely make out Evelyn's shape. She was still standing next to the table. Then he heard the sound of the tearing fabric. Then he heard the sound of something else tearing. He heard a clittering noise as spider-like arms unfolded from the sides of Evelyn's shape.

"I, however, can," the thing that was Evelyn said in a buzzing voice.

"No," Greg said desperately as he struggled against the straitjacket.

The thing advanced toward him. "We can't have you giving away our hiding place. You should learn to respect people's privacy."

"No!" Greg screamed.

"Don't worry, I'll be quick."

This time it was the thunder's turn to drown out Greg.