Sam’s light burned.
His mother’s face, all the faces, all of them screaming soundlessly. No! Noooo!
The little girl’s hair caught fire. It flamed magnificently, for she had her mother’s
lush dark hair.
Sam fired again and the little girl’s flesh burned at last.
But all the while the girl, the gaiaphage, its face turned away from onlookers,
stared at Sam in undiminished fury. The blue eyes never looked away. Her angelic
mouth leered in a knowing grin even as it burned.
Until at last, the gaiaphage was a pillar of flame, all features obscured.
Sam stopped firing.
The baby, the child, the monster, the devil, turned and ran back down the highway.

Fear, Chapter 38