H8

H8

"Kim Zinter," the doctor  said when he  saw the  bloody corpse. "Heartbreaking. And her  father died  only last  year. I  can't "imagine how Clara is going to take this."

The sheriff looked inward and frowned deeply, knowing he must be the one to tell her.

Dr. Wahkan donned a pair of rubber gloves. "I have never carried out this protocol for you before, Sheriff, and for your father I only had to do so three times. That alone tells you how, in the main, Headwater really is a good place."

"How did you know her name, Doctor?"

"I saw this girl last spring when her mother brought her in. And I also saw another girl  who is the  same age, one  named Sofie Krause. They both had the same symptoms."

"Symptoms?"

Dr. Wahkan pulled Kim's headdress away, but the two white horns remained in place. Removing the jewelry and  holding out  the jewelry, he said, "No doubt you have seen  something similar to this before."

Roddy nodded. "I know it is a Kuwapi thing.  My first guess was Kim was wearing it because it was  starting to catch on as a fad among  the white  kids in  town.  Sort of  like their  so-called music."

Wahkan reached down to grabbed  one on the horns  on Kimberly's head and shook it. This caused her whole head to shake as well. "Actually, they wear the jewelry to cover up the fact that these horns are real."

"I'll be damned," Roddy said. "I never guessed!"

Dr, Wahkan lifted Kim's hair so the sheriff could  see the skin of her scalp where the horns emerged from her skull. There was a smooth transition. The skin simply hardened and merged with the horns, yet the horns themselves were not mere a  feature of the skin, like calluses. They were rooted to the bone.

"We call this the Change," the doctor told him. "Naturally both girls and  particularly  their  parents were  alarmed  when  it started to  happen to them,  but they were actually  quite safe. The  Change is  known among  the  Kuwapi people.  It spreads  by sexual contact."