Mildred looked over her shoulder to see Maria standing behind her, wiping her now bloodied hands together in disgust. The 5'3'' woman looked over to Mildred before turning her eyes down to the carpet submissively and placing her hands behind her back. Mildred felt a sudden appreciation for her maid in her faithful servitude. The woman was too obedient to even look her in the eyes, how would she tell any of the townspeople about her son's condition? 
"Come here Maria, I have something to tell you." Mildred smiled, beckoning her maid over to the couch with a gentle pat of the cushion. In front of them, Mildred's son continued to ravage the corpse of the lamb, blood spraying all over his face. Still quite horrified, Maria shuffled across to the seat. 
"You do know, Maria, how grateful I am to you?" Mildred turned to her maid, her eyes tracing the woman's every facial movement. "So I think you should be the first to know. 
I've been making some progress." Mildred said, barely able to conceal her glee. 
".. What.. what do you mean, madam? What progress?" Maria replied, confused. She had a great feeling of unease building in her stomach. 
Mildred turned her eyes back to her son. She looked at his focused, milky white eyes. His partially decomposed face, his cuts and missing skin filled with dried congealed blood. 
"I looked into his mind a few days ago." Mildred said lowly, her eyes watering. "Like always. Like I always have done, every day. Every day since--" Mildred paused, searching for words. "I'm one of the most powerful of my kind. I can hear minds for miles. I could hear anybody in Barclay, I could hear [i]everybody[/i] in Barclay at once just as easy as you could.. switch a radio station.
But the undead, I've never been able to hear. From them, I've always just heard silence. But I was searching through Thomas' mind. So, so deep. I almost lost myself in the darkness..." Mildred paused, now looking at the darkness of the room in the fireplace, lost somewhere far beyond the room. A few seconds passed.
"What happened? What did you find?" Maria pressed, desperate to find out what happened. 

"I heard a thought." Mildred replied quietly, as if someone had their ear pressed to the lounge door. Suddenly, seven loud gunshots rang out into the night. 
Mildred and Maria both stood simultaneously and Mildred wiped away a tear. "What in the fucking world is that?" Mildred hissed.