***

Deborah moved slowly through the shadows between the pines. It was the day after the man tried to kill her. Despite that, she was calm, safe. She had always felt that way when she was among the trees. When the other children had been terrified by the darkness that gathered under the boughs, she had been intrigued.

Deborah’s pious mother had worried such fascination was the influence of the Devil. Her father had chuckled at the notion the first time his wife gave voice to that fear.

“Satan would cower at the brightness of your smile,” he had said to her once. “And would cover his ears at the onslaught of your never-ceasing questions!”

She wrapped herself in the memory of that moment as she slipped between the trees. Deborah’s eyes made a prac...

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