Barbara leaned on her counter. The stuffed crow above her head cocked its wooden head.
“I don’t take payment from children,” she said. “Go home. Be good. And whatever you do tonight, don’t look out your window after midnight.” barbara devil
Leo ran home. That night, the stepfather, a man named Cole, came home drunk as a lord. He raised his hand to Leo’s mother. But before it could fall, the shadows in the corner of the room moved . They coalesced into a woman with iron-gray hair and eyes like polished jet. Barbara leaned on her counter
“Does he?” she said softly.
“Please,” he whispered.