“All those photos,” he said. “I know you faked them. I know because nobody is that good. It’s ridiculous, of course.”
Janus didn’t even process what he was talking about. He recognized his assailant, of course, but everything seemed different than the man he had known before. It was as if the man before and this one was not the same person. They only looked the same.
The man dragged Janus to the BMW.
“I bet you’ve been wishing for a car. I wouldn’t. Unless it was an army, I would just kill them too, you know. Say I found you after the accident, stab them in the back as they looked at you. Easy, you know. People just naturally trust me, always have.”
Janus decided then to give it all he had, before he was in that car and would never be heard from again. He lifted his head up and shouted as loud as he could, a cry into the wilderness he prayed someone would hear.
“PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME,” he yelled.
“Can you see anything else?” Quinn asked her. He could see her vision in his mind. When he tried to call something up, he got nothing.
“Someone was putting him into a car, Quinn, but I couldn’t see who. He looked bad. There is blood on his face.”
She picked up the cell phone.
“911,” a voice answered. “What is the emergency?”
“A friend of mine called,” she said. “He said someone was following him, trying to run him off the road. I lost contact with him. I think he could have been kidnapped.”
“Did he give you his location?”
Kate tried to think. In her mind, she could see a curve in a road. But she didn’t know the county that well. She tried to show the mental picture to Quinn.
“Tell them it’s off Reservoir Road,” he said. “Tell them that curve where a lot of accidents happen.”
Kate relayed the directions.
“What time did he call?” the 911 operator asked.
“A few moments ago,” Kate said, her voice completely calm. She knew how to impart information even while panicking on the inside.
“Did he see who his attacker was?”
Kate didn’t even look at Quinn. They knew nothing about the kidnapper, that was the worst part. She had a vague idea from the image of Janus that he had known who it was, but it was blurry.
“He didn’t know,” Kate said. “He only called quickly.”
“Was he armed?” she asked.
“I have no idea,” Kate said.
But the attacker would have been armed, of course. He would have had a knife.
“Okay,” the operator replied. “A unit is on its way. It should be there shortly. I need to get your name…”
Kate hung up. They could trace the cell phone, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t want to be on the phone. Instead, she looked at Quinn.
“Get out my gun,” she said.
He nodded and grabbed her purse and started looking through it. He pulled out the gun and looked at it as if it were an alien thing. In her mind, Kate showed him how to load it, which Quinn did even as they continued to tear through town.
They ran three red lights before she turned onto Reservoir Road. That distinctive curve was miles away-an eternity, he thought.
As she continued driving, she glanced in the rearview mirror.
“Fuck,” she said, and put her hand on Quinn’s thigh.
Quinn didn’t need to look behind him. He already saw it clearly in his mind.
They were no longer the only thing on the road. Behind them, the figure of the Headless Horseman had appeared. And he was gaining on them.
“Now, Janus,” the man said, and kicked Janus squarely in the stomach. “We don’t like it when people talk too loudly at the table.”
The man kicked him again.
“Goddamned boy,” the man said again. “I’m disappointed. I thought you would put up more of a fight. The last one, well, he was too easy. And you were too. Young kids. You guys these days are so soft.”
Janus said nothing. He thought his right leg was broken, it hurt so much.
And he had a feeling of time loss, so much so he wondered if there was internal bleeding. He felt himself slipping, like he might go unconscious at any moment.
Maybe that was a blessing.
“And shouting like that,” the man said, “Who did you think was going to hear you?”
The man picked Janus up and threw him into the back seat of the car.
He opened the front door, took another look around to see if anyone was watching and then got in the car. It was a clean operation, the man thought. He started the car and began to drive off.
“What do we do?” Kate asked.
“We ignore it and hope he goes away,” Quinn replied.
Kate looked in the rearview mirror and simultaneously sped up. How the hell the Horseman could be gaining on them in a car was insane. Didn’t this thing have to play by the rules? It was a horse after all. Horses cannot outrun cars.
“I don’t think that is a very good plan,” Kate said.
“Got a better one?” Quinn asked.
Kate nodded toward the gun on Quinn’s lap.
“Maybe,” she said.
“You are planning to shoot a headless phantom?” Quinn asked.
“We have to at least try, right?” she asked.
“But we will need that ammo if we catch up to Janus,” Quinn said. “We need something to fight off his attacker with.”
“I know, I know,” Kate said. “But we are going to have two problems at that point instead of one.”
Quinn looked at the speedometer. The car was at 75 miles an hour now. They would be at the curve in two or three more minutes.
“We have to do something,” Kate said. “He’s gaining on us.”
Quinn turned around in the seat and looked behind them. Even in broad daylight, the Horseman was a terrible apparition. If anything, he looked worse. You could see the decay on his cloak and the horse looked as if it was being tortured in an effort to make it move faster. The only difference from the last time Quinn had seen him was what was in his hand. It wasn’t a sword.
“He has a pumpkin,” Quinn said.
“Well, that’s better than a sword,” Kate shot back.
But this was not just a lump of orange vegetable. Instead the thing had a hideous grin carved on it-a demonic face-and it was on fire.
“It’s on fire,” Quinn said. “The pumpkin is on fire. I think he is trying to catch the car on fire.”
How the hell could the Headless Horseman know about flammable gasoline? It was absurd.
(He’s us, remember. He has our knowledge.) Kate thought.
Quinn looked in front of him. Just another minute or two down the road. But Quinn could see they were not going to make it. The Horseman appeared ready to throw and he was in good distance to do it.
(Take the wheel) Kate thought.
(Are you insane?) Quinn asked.
(Do it now, Quinn.)
Quinn grabbed the wheel and tried to keep the car steady. Kate rolled down the window and grabbed the gun
