So it would have to be one at a time. I taped the knife to the butt of the shovel handle. I probably used more tape than necessary, but I didn’t want it to fall into the void.
Then I took a handful of dirty rags out of a bucket. I was ready, even though I really, really wasn’t.
I laid my makeshift spear on the ground outside the circle. Then I found Potato’s body and felt around for his throat. Once I had that, I laid one of the dirty rags near it, pointing away like a beam of light from a kindergartener’s drawing of the sun.
Then I went outside the circle and hefted the shovel. The first time I’d killed someone in cold blood, Annalise had been standing over me. This time, I couldn’t even see the guy’s face. It didn’t make things easier.
I slid the knife forward just above the ground. I suddenly felt resistance and shoved forward, sawing back and forth. I hoped I was hitting him just below the ear—that’s where I pointed with the towel, at least. But I couldn’t see blood. I couldn’t see anything.
There were no sounds, either. I yanked the shovel handle back, pulling it outside the circle. The blade was clean, but …
A portal suddenly opened. There was no buzzing or cracking noise this time. The entire floor inside the red circle just vanished. The shop rag fluttered down into the Empty Spaces.
A swarm of drapes flooded up through the hole, swirling at the edges of the circle but unable to cross it. I stepped back to see how high they could go. It looked to be about twelve feet, well below the ceiling above.
I stepped back farther. It was like looking at a giant aquarium filled with drapes instead of water—minus the aquarium. I didn’t want to be anywhere near it.
With my ghost knife in hand, I watched them swarm, hoping the circle could hold them all and knowing there was little I could do if it didn’t. It held, and after a few seconds, the drapes dropped out of our world and the floor reappeared. From off in the corner, a man sang in Spanish about love and death, with accordion and sax accompanying him.
The next man wasn’t easier, but it was quicker. I made sure to turn him the other way so the knife would enter below his left ear rather than his right. I had the idea that that would make it quicker, and I was right.
When the drapes swarmed in again, I turned my back on them and went for the third man, because fuck them. They scared the crap out of me, and I was tired of being afraid.
My hands were itching badly. The watercooler was just across the room, but I didn’t wash the slime away. It seemed right that I should suffer during this job. These men were. Somewhere, somehow, I’d acquired a taste for penance.
Once the last man had vanished into the Empty Spaces, I walked to the back of the room toward the watercooler. It was half full. I dribbled the water over my hands and forearms; the slime the drapes left behind vanished at the water’s touch, but my skin was still raw. Sweat ran down my back. The radio played another song with lyrics I couldn’t understand. I felt terribly, painfully lonely and, at the same time, grateful to be alone while I worked.
“Is that what you plan for us?”
I yelped and jumped to the side, backing against the wall. A push broom and other long-handled wooden tools clattered to the floor.
It was Fidel. He was three feet from me, scratching furiously at his neck. He’d stripped down to a sleeveless undershirt and those fancy green linen suit pants. I didn’t like the bitter, desperate smile on his face.
Summer and Ty appeared beside him. Summer’s expression was fierce, but her eyes were red, as though she’d been crying. Ty gaped at me.
“Let me ask again, Ray.” Fidel’s voice was quiet. “Is that what you planned for us all along?”
“We could see them,” Ty said. He held his injured shoulder high and his arm close to his chest. The burn must have been bothering him badly. “Mostly. We know what they were.”
“And you killed them,” Fidel said. He scratched furiously at his arm. Summer did the same. “I didn’t think you had it in you, baby. But why did you put them in that summoning circle, hey? You calling up more of these creatures?”
“That’s not what the circle is for,” I said, but Summer didn’t let me continue.
“You tried to stop that woman from hurting Bud, but you weren’t trying to save his life. Right? You just wanted to kill him here so you could call up more of these things.”
“Summer—”
“I’m right, Ray. Just admit that I’m right.”
“You don’t understand,” I said. “As soon as that symbol wears off, you’re going to be like those guys I pulled out of the SUV. How long have you been itching?” Summer stopped scratching her arm.
Ty glanced at Fidel. “He said they would start eating us.”
“What bullshit,” Fidel said.
“Once you’re dead, they carry you away and let more into our world. If you die outside the circle—”
“This is bullshit, Ray!”
“They get loose!” I shouted at him. “And they do this to other people!”
“Fuck other people!” Fidel leaned into my face. “I got to watch out for myself!”
I almost said: There’s nothing left of you to see, but I didn’t. He’d backed himself into a dangerous spot, and he couldn’t see a way out. I sympathized.
Ty’s expression was uncertain. I thought I’d had him convinced that the drape was killing him, but it was pretty clear he wanted to be unconvinced. He was still looking for a way out. “Did Arne tell you to say that?”
“Where is Arne?”
Fidel and Summer rolled their eyes. Ty said: “He said we should meet him up here. He said he could make things right.”
Arne had brought them running to him by giving them false hope. Maybe I should have done the same thing. Maybe I should have lied. It would have been easier than this.
But what had I expected? They weren’t going to line up inside the circle like victims of a firing squad.
“Ray.” Fidel’s voice was low and urgent. “Did your good friend Wally make you bulletproof?”
“No,” I blurted out with more anger than I’d intended.
“It wouldn’t work anyway,” Ty said.
“What wouldn’t work?” I asked.
“Ain’t nobody else offering another plan, so why not?” Fidel said. “Where did you get that magic, Raymundo? Hey? How did you get so well protected? Who hooked you up?”
Damn. He wanted a closed-way spell to protect him from the drape. “It won’t work, believe me.”
Fidel sighed and turned to Summer. “He don’t know how to answer a question.”
Summer glared at me. “Maybe we should raise our voices.”
“Guys, these creatures are in your mouths and down your—”
“I got a better idea,” Fidel said, raising his voice to talk over me. “Ray might be bulletproof, but we can all see he’ll still take a beating, hey?” He stepped over to the table and picked up a hammer.
Oh, shit. He snatched a screwdriver off the workbench and tossed it to Summer. She caught it, and they both vanished.
Ty gave me a helpless look, and he vanished, too.
I grabbed a tool from the wall behind me—it was a curved metal piece at the end of a twenty-foot wooden handle—and swung it. The metal tip struck something soft, and I backed along the wall. I swung the handle again, this time not hitting anything except wall.
The radio at the far end of the room suddenly switched off.
In the silence, I listened for footsteps. Nothing. I moved toward the middle of the floor, which maybe wasn’t a good idea, but it was the only way to get to the Hummer.
I swung the handle again. They were keeping their distance. Good. I glanced at the metal piece and realized it was used to open and close the transom windows at the top of the wall.
Not that it mattered. I swung again, struck something at two o’clock, then swung overhand at that spot.