Lightning by Dean Koontz

story. They were afraid of the Ferret... but they also had this sick need for his approval. When Bowmaine and her staff interrogated Denny—”
    “They hammered at him,” Ruth said angrily, “with trick questions, trying to trip him up. He got confused, contradicted himself, so they said he was making it all up.”
    “And Fogel came back to work,” Thelma said.
    “He bided his time,” Ruth said, “and then he found ways to make Denny miserable. He tormented the boy relentlessly until one day... Denny just started screaming and couldn’t stop. The doctor had to give him a shot, and then they took him away. Emotionally disturbed, they said.” She was on the brink of tears. “We never saw him again.”
    Thelma put one hand on her sister’s shoulder. To Laura, she said, “Ruth was fond of Denny. He was a nice boy. Small, shy, sweet... he never had a chance. That’s why you’ve got to be tough with the White Eel. You can’t let him see that you’re afraid of him. If he tries anything, scream. And kick him in the crotch.”
    Tammy returned from the bathroom. She did not look at them but stepped out of her slippers and got under the covers.
    Although Laura was repulsed by the thought of Tammy submitting to Sheener, she regarded the frail blonde with less disgust than sympathy. No sight could be more pitiful than that small, lonely, defeated girl lying on her narrow, sagging bed.
    That night Laura dreamed of Sheener. He had his own human head, but his body was that of a white eel, and wherever Laura ran, Sheener slithered after her, wriggling under closed doors and other obstacles.

2
    Sickened by what he’d just seen, Stefan returned from the institute’s main lab to his third-floor office. He sat at his desk with his head in his hands, shaking with horror and anger and fear.
    That red-haired bastard, Willy Sheener, was going to rape Laura repeatedly, beat her half to death, and leave her so traumatized that she would never recover. That was not just a possibility; it would come to pass if Stefan did not move to prevent it. He had seen the aftermath: Laura’s bruised face, broken mouth. Her eyes had been the worst of it, so flat looking and half-dead, the eyes of a child who no longer had the capacity for joy or hope.
    Cold rain tapped on the office windows, and that hollow sound seemed to reverberate within him, as if the terrible things he had seen had left him burnt out, an empty shell.
    He had saved Laura from the junkie in her father’s grocery, but here was another pedophile already. One of the things he had learned from the experiments in the institute was that reshaping fate was not always easy. Destiny struggled to reassert the pattern that was meant to be. Perhaps being molested and psychologically destroyed was such an immutable part of Laura’s fate that Stefan could not prevent it from happening sooner or later. Perhaps he could not save her from Willy Sheener, or perhaps if he thwarted Sheener, another rapist would enter the girl’s life. But he had to try.
    Those half-dead, joyless eyes...

3
    Seventy-six children resided at the McIlroy Home, all twelve or younger; upon turning thirteen, they were transferred to Caswell Hall in Anaheim. Since the oak-paneled dining hall would hold only forty, meals were served in two shifts. Laura was on the second shift, as were the Ackerson twins.
    Standing in the cafeteria line between Thelma and Ruth on her first morning at the shelter, Laura saw that Willy Sheener was one of the four attendants serving from behind the counter. He monitored the milk supply and dispensed sweet rolls with a pair of tongs.
    As Laura moved along the line, the Eel spent more time looking at her than at the kids he was serving.
    “Don’t let him intimidate you,” Thelma whispered.
    Laura tried to meet Sheener’s gaze—and his challenge—boldly. But she was the one who always broke the staring match.
    When she reached his station, he said, “Good morning, Laura,” and put a