MoonQuill

_The Monster_ I stood frozen with horror; but as my brain cleared--awake at last to full rationality and consciousness--beneath the horror came a surging joy of the knowledge that at last Elza was near me. The scream was repeated; inactive no longer, I dashed the thicket branches apart with my arms and plunged forward through the darkness. Ahead of me the thickets opened into a sort of clearing. I saw the sky, the stars--paling stars with the first flush of dawn overpowering them. I stood at the edge of an open spa…