"There's nothing wrong with flannel." His comment is flat and dismissive of the thing in front of them. He refused to give it power the way he did when he was young. This was the fire and the demons on the wall. If you ignored it you wouldn't have the power to affect you.

The question hardly took him by surprise. Of course, she'd ask that. She'd always ask that. Instead of answering yes or no he simply brushed her further behind him. "There's probably some sort of hallucinogenic plant that grows this deep in the forest."

That was when the clapping started. Slow and methodical and, somehow, sarcastic.