There was no pretence this time, no counting, just shear power in the vicious strokes the leather wrapping itself round the fat body at buttock or bre...ast in a fast sequence red lines two on the butt and two on the sagging breasts marked the strokes, as the leather rested and Muriel felt Barry releasing her. her legs felt weak after the ordeal, but another stiff drink restored her and she was soon stood before her lover belt at the ready, her son telling her, “it was time to get her own revenge. The man knew the twins shared a secret language, and listened intently as mysterious gestures were made, distorted on the far wall by intense moonlight. He tried to talk a few times, but was cut off like an answering machine click. It was as if they were children again, when his sisters had always done all the talking. But what had happened recently, in the last year? He was about to pose this question when he looked over their shoulders and saw his mother smiling at him. She looked so prim and. My eyes could just barely focus on a gaunt, bony specter standing behind where I was, and facing Merlin. Its body was formed of pure darkness, but it was shrouded in mist. It as if it were only the shadow of a far more sinister form which remained unseen. Its dull red eyes stared balefully into mine with a malevolence that had never been tempered by a human soul. This being - a psychic cancer which had formed around Merlin's curse like coral on a shipwreck, had drawn power from my centuries. "That was the best idea offered, so that was what they did. Ezra hitched his horse behind the wagon and drove to the relay station. They left the station agent to cope with the corpses, while they went toward the next station, this time with Sean riding point.They had gone about half way to the next relay station when Sean waved at Steve to stop the coach. There was a tree limb in the road and Sean moved toward it to pull it out of the way with his rope. Just as Sean had dropped his loop over.