Thing pushed and ripped at whatever was barring it from the warm, red, oozing food it craved; it must have; it would have.

And, in a sudden gust, the wind blew harder still. Somewhere in town, blocks away, a wire fell and blue sparks flashed and crackled in the dripping night. In Tommy's house the refrigerator went off, the electric clocks stopped. The street light blinked once and was gone and in Tommy's closet there was a sudden, mighty surge of effort, a break, and something, not a sound, but something, a harsh and bloody sense or feel of rending greed flowing outward from the closet in a wave.

Aunt Martha, in her sleep, said, "No. Oh, no!"

Daddy interrupted a snore with a strained grunt. Momma whimpered softly and hugged to herself her swollen stomach.

Tommy blinked and was awake. Soothingly, he patted Kokey and Old Rabbit. He squeezed Mr. Bear's paw. Then he slipped his hand into the opening in Mr. Bear's overalls and took out Daddy's cigarette lighter. He knew how to work it. But first he waited.

"Don't think about it," Daddy had told him and he didn't think about it, really. But he couldn't help feeling it. The Ugly Thing was out, clear out of the hole now, and moving. He could feel that and the awful hunger moving with it. Aunt Martha's room was closest and her door was open. Momma and Daddy's room was closed. The Ugly Thing moved fast, faster, and reached out, thirsting, hungering....

From Aunt Martha's room came the quavering wail and from the Thing there flowed a sense of vicious, evil joy.

There it was, but was it enough?

Tommy hugged Mr. Bear once, tightly, and slipped noiselessly from the bed. He wasn't thinking about it, he couldn't, he wouldn't think about it. But he knew what he had to do. He had the lighter. At the bedroom door he worked it. Opened the door a crack; thrust it out. And then, in a little rush, back to bed where he lay quietly, and he didn't think about it, he and Mr. Bear and Old Rabbit and Kokey Koala.

After a little, the sense of feeding hunger was gone and the feel of the Ugly Thing was gone, back into the hole in the closet, forced back by the flickering yellow light of the flames started by the cigarette lighter. Then, when the smell of smoke grew thick in the room and he could hear the crackling of the fire burning the house, Tommy shook Daddy awake.

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