On the terrace, two additional three-globe lampposts shed more of the icy light that seemed, in this strange night, to reveal less than it should. The area was well enough illuminated, however, for the creature to ascertain, at a glance, that its prey was not hiding there. Nevertheless, it spent an inordinate amount of time studying the terrace, as if doubting its own eyes, as if it thought that Tommy and Del were able, chameleon-like, to assume the visual character of any background and effectively disappear.
Finally the beast looked west again along the promenade and then focused once more on the carousel. Its radiant gaze travelled over the shadowed horses only briefly before it turned to stare east, back the way that it had come, as if it suspected that it had passed their hiding place.
It seemed confused. Indeed, its frustration was almost palpable. The thing sensed that they were close, but it could not catch their scent – or whatever more exotic spoor it tracked.
Tommy realized that he was holding his breath. He let it out and inhaled slowly through his open mouth, half convinced that even a breath drawn too sharply would instantly attract the hunter’s attention.
Considering that the creature had tracked them many miles across the county to the New World Saigon Bakery and later had found them again at Del’s house, its current inability to detect them from only forty feet away was baffling.
The creature turned to the carousel.
Tommy held his breath again.
The serpent-eyed Samaritan raised its plump hands and moved its flattened palms in circles in the rain-filled air, as though wiping off a dirty pane of glass.
Seeking psychic impressions, some sign of us, trying to get a clearer view, Tommy thought.
He tightened his grip on the Mossberg.
Round and round, round and round, the pale hands moved, like radar dishes, seeking signals.
Tick.
Tock.
Tommy sensed that their time and luck were rapidly running out, that the demon’s inhuman senses would lock onto them at any second.
Sailing down from the night above the harbour, wings thrumming, as ethereal as an angel but as swift as a flash of light, a large seagull swooped past the demon’s pale hands and arced up into the darkness from which it had come.
The Samaritan-thing lowered its hands.
The gull plummeted once more, wings cleaving the chilled air and the rain in a breathtaking display of graceful aerobatics. As radiant as a haunting spirit in the frost-white light, it swept past the demon’s upraised hands again, and then rocketed heavenward in a spiral.
The Samaritan-thing peered up at the bird, turning to watch it as it wheeled across the sky.
Something important was happening, something mysterious and profound, which Tommy could not comprehend.
He glanced at Del for her reaction, but her attention remained riveted on the demon, and he could not see her face.
At Tommy’s side, flank pressed against his leg, the Labrador quivered.
The seagull circled back across the harbour and swooped down into the Fun Zone again. Flying only a few feet above the surface of the promenade, it sailed past the demon and disappeared between the shops and arcades to the east.
The serpent-eyed Samaritan stared intently after the gull, clearly intrigued. Its arms hung at its sides, and it repeatedly flexed and fisted its plump hands as though working off the excess energy of rage and frustration.
From overhead and west near the stilled Ferris wheel came the thrumming of many wings, as eight or ten seagulls descended in a flock.
The demon swung around to face them. Breaking out of their steep dive only a few feet above the ground, the gulls streaked after the first bird, swarming straight toward the demon and then parting. into two groups that swept around it, disappearing east on Edgewater Avenue. None of them cawed or shrieked in their characteristic manner; but for the air-cutting whoosh of their wings, they passed in eerie silence,
Captivated, curious, the Samaritan-thing faced east to watch them depart.
It took a step after them, another step, but then halted.
Through the wintry lamplight fell sleet-white rain. The demon took another step east. Stopped. Stood swaying.