Our laughter turned even more uproarious, threatening to really get us in trouble with the house mother if we didn’t rush inside, which we did. Yet now, when I think back to that night, I wonder if the laughter was not hollow. I think we were all terrified children attempting to shield ourselves from true horror, and that we recognized the indications of a great evil, a terrible darkness, stretching out like a gnarled, clawed hand that scratched the back of our necks.
