Lauren was dreading the end of her life, sitting in a parked car in the middle of nowhere. Night was heavy against the windows, oppressive darkness that crawled in and felt like it was going to smash the glass, drag her out in the woods and lop her damned head off just for being out in it. It was a paranoid feeling, sitting out here with a man she didn’t really know and didn’t really trust, but she was doing it anyway. Also, Belzer’s rental car smelled like … Cheetos? Belzer was looking through binoculars at the house. They’d parked with a bunch of other cars, in a lot paved here for events such as this. There were valets closer to the house, she saw. Fucking valets, with coats and tails and such. She wondered if they were demons or not and was about to voice this thought to Belzer when he spoke. “I think this is the real deal.” His voice had that excited, kid-like quality to it. Which was a little strange, coming from a grown man.
