LOUIS

OK, Mom ... now ... now we ... wait.

The lightning flashes soundlessly. Behind and above Louis, high on the wall, the head and shoulders of a cancer vampire emerge from the solid wall like a predator press-ing its way through its own amniotic sac. Louis can not see it behind him. The thing makes no noise as it pulls its arms through, finds purchase on the wall with its impossi-bly long fingers, and pulls itself out like a swimmer emerging from a pool. The cancer vampire slides down the wall, as silent as a lizard, and disappears behind the hunched-over Louis. Louis's mother moans in her sleep and Louis stands, whirls, and knocks the chair aside.

LOUIS

(to the thing, his voice tremulous)

Hey! Here ... here I am ... damn you.

The cancer vampire was crouching over Louis's mother but now it rises, lifts long fingers and its funneled face to-ward the glow that is Louis.

LOUIS

Here ... that's right ... food.

Louis extends his hands in the motion that is, once again, vaguely sacramental. The cancer vampire flows toward him, lowers its terrible face toward the outstretched, glow-ing hands.

LOUIS

That's right ... take ... eat.

The thing's proboscis seems to extend right into the flesh of Louis's open palms. Louis's forearms writhe with the motion of tumor slugs. We hear the SLURPING, SLID-ING. Finished, the thing suddenly pulls its head back and begins jerking, spasming.

LOUIS

(triumphantly but in a whisper)

Tonight, Death, ... you die.

The cancer vampire spasms and convulses. The violet glow increases as the radiation spreads. There is a HISS-ING, BURNING sound as of acid burning through thick paper. The cancer vampire collapses, curls into itself, and seems to shrivel while the HISSING continues. Its long fingers close slowly ... like the legs of a dying spider. Louis staggers to his mother's bed, collapses on the edge of it, and pulls on the heavy gloves.