A pair of enormous dark shadows, sinuous and primeval, glided slowly under the votive candle. Lorraine watched their eyes, mesmerized, while the fracture point under Mary Elizabeth's black shoes snaked in an iridescent arc over the pikes. The nun hopped agilely to the bank in her black skirts as Lorraine, sinking through the buckling surface, thrashed the few feet to the shore amongst shards of ice, driven by sheer instinct.

Martha Mezo, Matins