（外文电子版资料）Koontz, Dean - Darkfall.docVIP

DARKFALL by Dean R. Koontz Because the original door prize was too hard to accomplish, this book is dedicated to some good neighbors— Oliviero and Becky Migneco, Jeff and Bonnie Paymar —with the sincere hope that a mere dedication is an acceptable substitute. (At least this way, there’s much less chance of a lawsuit!) I owe special thanks to Mr. Owen West for giving me the opportunity to publish this variation on a theme under my by-line. PROLOGUE I Wednesday, December 8, 1:12 A.M. Penny Dawson woke and heard something moving furtively in the dark bedroom. At first she thought she was hearing a sound left over from her dream. She had been dreaming about horses and about going for long rides in the country, and it had been the most wonderful, special, thrilling dream she’d ever had in all of her eleven-and-a-half dream-filled years. When she began to wake up, she struggled against consciousness, tried to hold on to sleep and prevent the lovely fantasy from fading. But she heard an odd sound, and it scared her. She told herself it was only a horse sound or just the rustle of straw in the stable in her dream. Nothing to be alarmed about. But she couldn’t convince herself; she couldn’t tie the strange sound to her dream, and she woke up all the way. The peculiar noise was coming from the other side of the room, from Davey’s bed. But it wasn’t ordinary, middle-of-the-night, seven-year-old-boy, pizza-and-ice-cream-for-dinner noise. It was a sneaky sound. Definitely sneaky. What was he doing? What trick was he planning this time? Penny sat up in bed. She squinted into the impenetrable shadows, saw nothing, cocked her head, and listened intently. A rustling, sighing sound disturbed the stillness. Then silence. She held her breath and listened even harder. Hissing. Then a vague, shuffling, scraping noise. The room was virtually pitch-black. There was one window, and it was beside her bed; however, the drape was drawn shut, and the alleyway outside was especially dark tonigh