"I…I don't get it," Joe said, his voice rising with astonishment. "They're gone. Where that thing clawed me, the scratches are gone!"  He pulled back the sweater to show perfectly unmarred skin. "It's like they were never there.  Weird."   

Looking around the deserted graveyard and burnt-out house, Frank could only shake his head. "It's like none of it was ever here."  He reached for the handle to the car door and squinted against the sun's bright light to where his brother stood.  "You ready to go home?"  

"You have to ask?  Let's get out of here."  Sliding into the passenger seat, Joe waited for his brother to buckle in and start the rental before speaking.  "Think Mom and Dad'll believe any of this?  I'm not sure I believe it and I was there."   

"I don't know, but one thing's for sure.  We're going to have to get someone to listen to us before next year. That town's gotta be stopped."  Frank's hands squeezed the steering wheel.  

"Don't worry," Joe said quietly, "we will.  No more kids'll be disappearing in Castle Rock."  He leaned forward to search through the stack of CDs.  Picking one, he shoved it into the player and adjusted the volume. Smiling wickedly, he looked over at his brother. "So, Frank, I think it's time you told me about this new girlfriend of yours."  

Turning onto the main highway, Frank spared his brother a quick glance.  "Girlfriend?!  What're you talking about?"  

"Ellen," Joe laughed. "I know she's a little older than most of the girls you date, but I wanna hear all about this mystery woman."  

Frank rolled his eyes at his brother and chuckled.  Now that they had put some distance between them and Castle Rock it felt all right to laugh again.  "Mystery woman is right. I still don't know where she came from. It's funny, you thinking she was Aunt Gertrude when you first saw her. It was bugging me, since I thought she seemed familiar and I couldn't figure out where I'd seen her before. That must have been it."  

"She sure did look like her from a distance.  Up close, too. So what do you know about her?  I'd like to try and find her to thank her for saving our skins."  

Frank nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. All I know is that her name's Ellen Watkins, she used to live around Boothbay Harbour and she's got an older brother named…"  

"Frank," Joe choked out.    

"Yes?"   

"No, I mean, she had an older brother named Frank."  Joe felt the colour drain from his face.  "Oh, man."  

Checking his rear view to make sure that the road was still empty behind him, Frank slowed the car to a safe speed to look at his brother.  "Yes, she had a brother named Frank. What's wrong?"  He felt a chill start to trail up his spine.   

"You weren't there the other night at dinner when Aunt Gertrude was telling us about a great-aunt of ours that was gravely ill."  

"The one she's gone to visit in Long Island. Go on.  What about it?" Frank asked the question but he was sure he already knew the answer.  

"Aunt Gertrude wasn't going there to visit her, Frank.   She was going to our great-aunt's funeral.  Our Aunt Ellen.  Ellen Hardy-Watkins."

The End

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