He'd been watching out the window silently, unable to respond to Jen's questions about Karen. What could he tell her? That Mom had decided she preferred to be with the new neighbor?
"She's over at Lorelle's," Robby finally said.
Jen stared at him in silent horror, shaking her head. “No,” she whispered. "We have to get her. Did you hear me? We have to get her, Daddy!"
George put his arm around her and said, "We're going to try, honey." To Robby: "I'm going outside to talk with Pastor Quillerman."
"I'll come with you," Robby said.
Jen said "Me, too."
George looked from Robby to Jen and was about to protest and tell them to stay in the house. But he saw their determination and said nothing. They followed him out.
As they headed down the front walk, they saw the others nearing Quillerman from both directions, coming out of the darkness in small groups, some with flashlights, a couple carrying kerosene lanterns with golden light that flickered over shadowy faces.
"Hello, George," Pastor Quillerman said quietly as George approached.
"What's going on?" George asked.
"My prayers have been answered. They're coming to talk. I think we might make some progress now."
Footsteps scritched to a halt on the pavement as people gathered around the pickup. Flashlight beams crisscrossed in the darkness and the people behind them were reduced to murky, faceless shadows.
George squinted against the lights and searched for a familiar face or figure, but could not make out enough details in the dark to recognize anyone.
"My husband is gone," a woman said in a voice soggy with tears.
"Our daughter is missing," a man said.
A woman beside him added, "One minute she was in the house and the next she was gone."
A man stammered, "I truh-tried to… to suh-strangle my w-wife today and… and I -" His words dissolved into sobs.
"It's all right, honey," a woman whispered reassuringly, "that's over now."
Others spoke up and their words overlapped:
"I can't find my wife."
"What has that woman done to us?"
"We had a fight with our son today and I-I… hit him… for the first time ever, and now he's disappeared." "We're coming apart, our whole family is just coming apart."
"My husband said he'd kill me if I came out here. I had to sneak out of the house."
Pastor Quillerman raised his arms to quiet them down. "I know what you're going through," he said. "I understand your fear and your feelings of guilt. I realize those of you with loved ones missing are especially upset right now. But please listen to me for just a few minutes."
George listened as Quillerman told them the truth about Lorelle Dupree. He told them everything that Robby had told George that morning, all the things that George wouldn't listen to then. They listened silently as Quillerman spoke in his best pulpit voice. Then:
"Thanks to young Robby here, we think she’s trapped in her own house right now.” He stepped over to Robby's side and put an arm around his shoulders. "Unfortunately, some of your family members are in there with her. They are there of their own free will, just as many of you gave in to her of your own free will. But you might be able to change that. With words of encouragement to your sons and daughters and spouses, you might be able to draw them out of her house. If we all resist her, reject her, there will be nothing to keep her here. She will have no choice but to go.”
“Why can't we kill the bitch?" Mr. LaBianco asked.
Quillerman hesitated. “To be honest, I don’t know how to kill her.”
“She seduced my husband!" a woman shouted. "In just a few days, that bitch destroyed my marriage!"
"Please!" Quillerman said, raising his arms again. "I know you're angry and you have every reason to be, but you must let go of that anger. It will only weaken you. It demeans you, and that is precisely what she wants. She feeds on it. It’s important to let go of that anger and hatred. We’re all human, we are weak. We must pray to god for – “
”I don't pray," a man said coldly.
"Yes, I understand that some of you may not have any religious beliefs. Perhaps many of you. But you can still let go of the anger and hatred you feel toward her. You can – “
”I'm not so sure I believe what you say about her," another man said.
Quillerman turned to George in desperation.
George's mouth opened and closed as he searched frantically for something to say.
"Some of you probably know George Pritchard, here," Quillerman said. "He has been going through many of the same things you have." He looked at George again, nodding encouragingly.
George said, "My family and I… well, like all of you, I'm sure… we got involved with Lorelle and we became uh… my wife Karen is, um, she's over their right now, and -"
"I don't give a damn, Pritchard," Mr. Weyland barked. "All I want to know is how to get my daughter out of there and how to get rid of that cunt."
Quillerman sighed. "Please listen to yourself. That kind of attitude is what she wants! You must have compassion for your neighbors, think of the pain they're going through, too, and don't -"
"I'm thinking of my husband right now," a woman said.
A man shouted, "And we're thinking of our son!"
"I thought you wanted to help us," another man said. "You're a man of god. Wouldn't god want us to stop that slut?"
“Yeah!" Mrs. LaBianco shouted. "Christ kicked the moneychangers out of the temple, why shouldn't we kick that twat off our block?"
“How the hell're we supposed to do that?" Mr. Parker asked.
"Drag her out by the hair if we have to!" Mrs. LaBianco replied.
"No, no, please listen!" Pastor Quillerman shouted.
"We are listening," Mr. Weyland growled, "But you're not telling us anything!"
"I'm trying to tell you something," Quillerman said, his voice lower now, more calm than before. "I have been through the exact same thing you're going through! I wish someone had come along and tried to help -" His voice broke and he cleared his throat, then lowered his voice a bit. " – tried to help my family. But no one did. So I haven't had a family for many years, thanks to a creature just like the one in there," he said, pointing at Lorelle's house. "But that doesn't have to happen to you."
"It's already happened to us!" a woman shouted. George recognized the voice as that of Trish Mason. She and her husband lived at the end of the street with their three kids. "My husband is gone and I want to get him back before it's too late. You're not telling me how to get him back."
"He has to make that choice himself," Quillerman answered.
"What if we make the choice for them?" Weyland asked.
"Fine," Quillerman said. "Then why aren't you storming the place? Why aren't you bursting in there and rescuing those people? I think it's because deep down inside, even if you don't admit it to yourself, you're afraid of Lorelle Dupree. But I'm trying to tell you that you don't need to be afraid of her! You have a much greater power at your disposal. Your love for your sons and daughters and husbands and wives could bring them back to you if you'd just let it. But you mustn't give in to the dark, angry part of yourselves that she's trying so hard to bring out! She wants you to -"
“He's a madman!" a woman's voice shouted from a distance.
Everyone turned and shined their flashlights in that direction.