“Go to hell.”
Cyclops laughed. “You’re kind of late to be saying that little girl …”
“What do you want from me?”
“I think it’s pretty clear … And if you think about it you’ve only got two options: The other side of that cliff behind you, or me. But it’s really just an illusion, don’t you think? Ann dead and Ann dead…”
Ann pounded the head of the flashlight against the side of her good leg. It burst on long enough to see that Cyclops was naked down to his waist. His chest was covered by tattoos and wormy white scars. She noticed his arm was bleeding where she’d shot him but it looked like she’d only grazed him and the blood was drying.
The light in her hands died and everything fell back into shadow.
“Why am I hearing dogs but not seeing any?”
“Because they’re ghosts, Ann. My ghosts. People I killed for business and people I killed because they looked tasty to them I guess.”
“I still don’t understand why you want me.”
“I’m just trying to survive the only way I know how.”
“By killing people.”
“It’s not something I enjoy.”
“Yeah. It shows.”
“You don’t understand. I have no choice anymore.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true. I admit that I have killed a lot of people. And they’re angry at me at first. But then most start to accept what’s happened to them and they leave me alone. It wasn’t until I took down the really bad ones that things started happening. Murderers worse than me-rich men who paid big money to satisfy their bloodlust and ruthless drug lords. These dogs-these bad ones got together and decided what the hell, if they could use me as their instrument then they might as well start having fun.”
Ann tried to knock the flashlight back to life again but it refused to come on. She tossed it into the brush and gripped the.38 in both hands. Y
“Sounds like some more of your hobo-psycho bullshit to me.”
“Bullshit?”
“You heard me.”
“I could have left you on that rock to die, Ann. It would have been so easy.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
Cyclops edged forward and so did the pool of shadow.
“Because the dogs weren’t interested. They needed to see your fear and you were only semi- conscious.”
“Drop the knife.”
“Come on Ann…”
“For your information I’m pointing a gun at that big greasy head of yours.”
“You and I can keep debating the truth for a while longer. But why must you insult me?”
“Because you smell bad… Like a vulture just pissed on you.”
“I know what you’re doing, Ann. And it won’t work.”
“Why do you have to do this?”
“I loved your mother. If you must know, this is all her fault.”
“Drop the knife.
“You must understand. I had to do it. I never planned to let her live the day she left with me to California.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Chapter 57
Cyclops still hadn’t let go of the knife. She watched him raise the blade and gaze at it in the phantom light. He was still too far away from her. She began to wonder if she would ever be able to find a clean shot at all.
And then something happened she couldn’t explain. The black cloud drifting around Cyclops began to break apart and turn into the shapes of dogs. With human faces.
Ann wanted to scream and run. But there was no where else she could go. He had her backed up against the cliff edge.
She pressed her back against a rock and tried to steady her pounding heart. What was she going to do?
Something moved next to her legs. She knew it was stupid to look away from him but she did anyway. One of the dog-shadows had broken away from the others and was approaching her. She saw a whitish form hovering where its head should have been. A woman’s face framed by a fluid sheet of protoplasm. She smiled when Ann looked at her. Ann thought she was beautiful.
“Who is she?”
“You don’t recognize her?”
“No…”
“It’s your mother Ann.”
“It can’t be. You’re lying.”
“Then take out your locket and you’ll see.”
How did he know I had it with me? And then Ann recalled how she’d awakened on the beach without her clothes.
She reached down the neck of her damp sweater and pulled out her mother’s silver locket with a trembling hand. It felt like ice against her palm. She pressed the tiny clasp on the side and it clicked open and she held it up close. Inside she saw a cutout picture of her mother as she remembered her, smiling, with the sea behind her.
Ann looked back at the image floating in the night mist.
“What did you do to her?”
Cyclops had moved several steps closer. “I ended her suffering, Ann.”
“No…”
Chapter 58
“She knew she would probably never see you again. That Duane would surely come after her. And then one night I made the decision to go through with it… I came back to the motel to find she’d been drinking again and taking pills. She was angry and talking shit. It was our fault that she couldn’t be with you. She told me everything she knew about the business I had going with the sheriff and Duane-enough, I thought, to get us into some real trouble. Instead of taking them away, I gave her more pills and vodka. And after she calmed down and stopped screaming at me, I waited until it was late and took her down to the pool. We talked and I told her the last week
