The Outsider (Holly Gibney #1)

by Stephen King

“Just promise me you’ll stop every once in a while and acknowledge the day, honey. It’s the only one you’ll have until tomorrow.”

“I would like to believe in God,” she said, “because I don’t want to believe we just end, even though it balances the equation—since we came from blackness, it seems logical to assume that it’s to blackness we return. But I believe in the stars, and the infinity of the universe. That’s the great Out There. Down here, I believe there are more universes in every fistful of sand, because infinity is a two-way street.

“She was awake last night with more stupid nightmares about the man with straws for eyes.

“You really don’t believe Terry killed the Peterson boy?” “No more than I think Heath Holmes killed those two girls,” she said. “I think it was someone else. I think it was an outsider.”

Chills

Ralph turned to Holly. “If this outsider exists, and if he was close to Bolton, could Bolton feel his presence?” Instead of protesting again about being asked to guess, she answered in a voice that was soft but very firm. “I’m sure of it.”

“We thought that someone who looked like Terry killed the Peterson boy and tried to frame him for it. We called this person the outsider.”