“Mrs. Dreskin, you're even lovelier than I thought."

The woman instantly flushed from her face to her ears.

A pain in Claudia's stomach jolted her up from her sleep that night. She sat up clumsily, rousing Bennett as well.

The night lamp cast a feeble glow over the room, but it was bright enough to make out Claudia's distorted, distressed face.

“What's wrong?" Bennett turned the main light on, and the room was suddenly bathed in a brilliant incandescent light, revealing her ghostly pale complexion. Even her normally rosy lips had turned white.