waist, his wicked teeth nigh brushing her nose, he uttered a single proclamation: “Mend thy neighbors like a broken fence . . . or within two lifetimes, I will snatch your descendant and theirs!”
Appalled, her lids slammed shut and reopened. He had departed with an odorous exhalation. Yet she knew, defying every rational objection or law, a century hence the monster would return.
It seemed inevitable.