Before Tobi could further spew forth her madness, a second fly dropped. Then, a third… and a fourth… until an avalanche of flies poured down where she sat as if she were caught in a sudden November storm.

Each individual one, heavy from feasting, peddled its spindly legs… probing for more flesh to fill its belly.

Tess looked on, solidified by indecision and shock, as Tobi straightened her balled fists and raised her hands to form a shelter over her head. What the girl did next frightened Tess… perhaps more than the savagery of the entire collection of the events of the evening.

In what seemed like slow motion… Tobi stood to her feet, stretched out her arms in the universal signal of embrace and rocked her chin to the sky from where the insects fell.

At that, Tess sprang forward from where she sat and barreled at her muse, her angel. The force with which their bodies collided drove the breath from her body and blacked out her vision.

All she felt was wind and skin. Then… she felt nothing.

To be continued…