Xander groaned, thinking back on all that Spider had said. “The man in the moon...” he mumbled, stroking his chin.
“What?” Mike asked, squinting his frustration into his bedridden friend.
Xander looked up, as if suddenly realizing that Mike was still there. “Something Spider said. She said that he’s watching. Watching the girls, watching us... watching everything. He doesn’t speak, he just listens... and watches.”
“Who?”
“The third rapist. He knows these girls somehow. He knows us. We need to find a common link, a thread that can bind them... tie it all together... before he gets into our heads too, like he did poor Julie Peterson.”
Mike nodded, not fully understanding how the dead bride of Adam Genblade had managed to tell him all of this, but deciding that now was not the best time to ask. “What else did Spider say?”
Xander looked thoughtful then, trying to remember the exact wording. “She said that ‘those we count amongst our allies today will have betrayed us yesterday, and themselves in the morrow.’” He stopped, mouthing the words again to try and comprehend them better. “Does that make any sense at all?”
Mike shook his head. “Not really. But she’s crazy and she’s dead and I’m not entirely sure it isn’t all in your head, so I’ll hold off on passing judgement just yet.”
Xander looked as though he were about to object, then began to nod. It was true, all of it. Even if the vision of Spider had been real, she was a less than reliable source.
Suddenly, his bedroom door swung open and Xander jumped to shield his wounds from the eyes of his parents... Instead he saw Cathy, clothes ripped and blood seeping slowly from her left hip.
Her hair was matted, mascara running and lipstick smudged. Forcing herself not to cry for once today, she held herself up until both of her men rushed to her side as one, taking her into their arms.
“Something bad happened at school today,” she whispered, collapsing onto the floor. She laughed at her own little joke, and it chilled both boys to the bone. For it was a hollow laugh, devoid of humor or emotion, as they feared she might now be.
She cried herself the sleep on Xander’s bed, not letting either of them cuddle up next to her or even touch her. Gazing at her one last time, Mike closed the door and left her to hopefully sleep it off in the darkness. Some things didn’t fade so easily. Her body convulsed with fear as she dreamt and he was tempted to rush in and wake her, to hold her in his arms and tell her that everything is all right. But he knew that that wouldn’t help, knew that he had to give her time... And in that time, he could make things right.
As soon as the door closed, his expression changed. He was no longer hurt or scared for the woman he loved, but was now something to be scared of. The transformation was every bit as real and opposite as Xander to the Black Womb, his eyes narrowing and becoming evil. Bloodlust entered his every feature, and a thirst for vengeance made his lips bone dry.
“Come on,” Xander said from behind him, rubbing one of his shoulders. “We’ve got some work to do.”
Mike nodded, both of them starting down the stairs towards the living room.
The old couch had a pattern on it that spoke of its age, and cigarette burns that told of its use. The entire room was a decorator’s nightmare, with colours that clashed no matter what direction you turned your head in. It made Mike almost glad that at the moment his eyes were almost too swollen to notice, otherwise this vertigo-inducing room might have pushed his nausea to the edge. Or beyond. He feared that if he vomited in here, it might blend in and they’d never find it. He sat all the same, leaning his head back onto the cushions and rubbing his bruised eyelids gently. Xander sat in the loveseat across from him, his hands folding together at his lip as his eyes bulged with fear, aimed down at some unknown direction.
“Phillips,” Xander cursed himself softly. He’d been there. He’d been next to him and not realized it. “There must have been a thousand and one ways I could have taken him out, if only I’d--”
“None of us saw it,” Mike cut him off, staring at the ceiling. “None of us could see it,” he mumbled near the end, sighing once more.
Xander nodded, but not in agreement. Suddenly, he came to an understanding. “This is what Spider meant. The person that listens to us, watches us... It’s Phillips. He waits for girls that he thinks are unstable... vulnerable...” Their minds filled in the gap, every dirty little possibility they were trying desperately to contain leaping in.
“Gets Al and Raine to cover his tracks, while he covers theirs.” Mike shook his head in consternation.
“That’s why we couldn’t find the old files on those two low-lifes... Phillips destroyed them all when he started here... probably his own, too. I find it hard to believe that he just woke up last week and decided that he was going to be a serial rapist.”
Mike was still shaking his head. “Man... These guys are exactly what you refer to when you say ‘a real piece of work.’”
All was silent for a long time then, as both boys struggled to assimilate this new information into their systems. Xander seemed to be having more trouble with it than Mike. Up until now, everyone he’d fought had been bad because they were... well, evil. Genblade, Spider, Alpha... They all just seemed to be
