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“Jesus, you should have been in the screaming contest,” said Ryan. “Woulda won.”

“Meg, you better let me drive, okay?”

“Yeah, let Tyler drive, for Christ’s sake.”

“I’m fine, I just can’t fucking believe it was a real head!”

“Why’d it look fake?” Ryan leaned back and pulled his legs up on the seat.

“Because you don’t expect somebody to like have a real head with them.”

“Not even when they give you a free car?”

“About this car, you know,” said Tyler, “we’d better take it to the cops. Like, now.” He leaned against Meg, touching her hand on the steering wheel.

“No way, I need a car,” said Meg, elbowing hard against him. “Quit it! I’m like, fine.”

CHAPTER 40

JAIME WATCHES A MOVIE

Jaime had banged his knee when he fell from the window to the floor into the darkened basement. He limped up the stairs, hoping to make it all the way up to his apartment, if he could avoid being noticed by those men up there on the wall. He had some stuff there he wanted to get, a box with some old family photos in it he’d found in the attic at home, and a toy robot he’d had as a kid and retained an odd fondness for. At first it seemed that no one was on the first floor, but then he heard some men talking some distance away and could somehow tell from their voices they were cops. He heard footsteps, too, coming his way, as the voices became louder. He ducked into the showing room to avoid them, but as soon as he did, he almost exited when he heard more voices but these voices were different and what they said didn’t make sense because they weren’t speaking English. He realized a movie was being shown, though, looking around, all the seats were empty. He hoped it wasn’t a scary one. He didn’t really like scary movies. Plus, he was really tired.

He sat down in the back, found a sack of popcorn on a nearby seat. Hungry, he picked it up and ate some. It was cold and the butter was greasy. On the screen were some anxious-looking Chinamen in suits and ties, standing under bright lights outside a building at night, kind of like what he’d seen outside, and jabbering away excitedly over something. He’d seen movies with Asians before, but not ones where they weren’t talking English, though what they said usually didn’t match the movements of their mouths. With this movie, words in English appeared at the bottom of the screen but went by too fast for him to read them. The music, though, was very dramatic, suggesting, he thought, the movie was almost over.

The image on the screen shifted to one of a young Chinaman digging in a woods with a shovel, frantically, finally throwing it down to grab handfuls of dirt and toss them aside, clearing off the lid of a coffin, a wooden box Jaime thought looked quite a bit like the outhouse in the woods. The young man, wild-eyed and with straight black hair standing on end, tore at the side of the box, trying to open it. As he did, a banging came from within and an eerie wailing was heard. He fell back, a terrified look on his face, and the coffin’s lid flew open.

A Chinese girl leaped out and rose upward, floating some feet off the ground before him. She wore a nearly transparent white gown that flowed with the wind. Her hair was very long and red, also flowing majestically, and her eyes had no whites but were totally black, wide and shining. With a stern expression, she tore open the front of her gown, exposing a fleshless ribcage and internal organs. She reached into her chest, yanking out her bloody pulsing heart and holding it aloft.

The heart became the close-up focus of the image on the screen. It quickly grew a mouth full of long, blood-drenched fangs, the source of the unending wail. She tossed the heart upward and, in a moment, it descended and its wail became a high-pitched scream. The young Chinaman, kneeling before the floating girl on his knees and elbows, screamed along with it as the heart fell and smacked into his upturned face. Its mouth opened wide and bit savagely into the young man’s cheeks, ripping the flesh off quickly and leaving more and more of his skull exposed as his own mouth continued to scream.

Fixed on the scene before him, with the music rising to a crescendo, Jaime felt a terrible pain in his chest, clutched at it as the screen and all around him went dark and silent.

CHAPTER 41

SHANNON AND DEWEY ARGUE

“Awright, awright, that’s beside the fuckin’ point,” said Shannon.

“The point is your wife’s not stupid, man. She knows more than you think she does, I bet. That’s why she’s pissed. She doesn’t want you to get in trouble, that’s all.”

“Yeah? How does she know, ’cause you told her?”

“What do you mean, I told her? When would I have told her?”

“I dunno. Sounds like something you’d do.”

“Aw, c’mon, when did I ever—”

“Here you are giving me advice about my marriage. When were you ever married? When did you even hang onto a chick for more than three months or some shit?”

“Jesus. Fuck you, man,” said Dewey.

“Fuck you too,” said Shannon. “It’s true and you know it.”

Dewey was very bruised by these words but kept it hidden. “Awright, man, awright, that’s enough, I’m done. I’m just saying, we’re not gonna find Jaime and the car tonight. Let’s give this up, awright?”

“I’m not gonna let fucking Jaime Tales make off with— What the fuck?! There it is!” The Thunderbird passed them going in the other direction. “Jesus fucking Christ!” yelled Shannon, making a u-turn and barreling after it. Dewey winced. God, why did he let Shannon drive? It was his grandma’s car!

CHAPTER 42

BENNY ON THE RUN

Benny was driving much faster than he realized, watching the road ahead of him as if it were a movie on a screen. He shouldn’t have done it, wished he hadn’t, was out of his head. Now he was really in trouble, worse than that time he sent that anonymous letter to Lionel’s mother about how Lionel had gotten involved with a dangerous criminal with a long police record and Lionel knew right away he had written it. A bomb threat, you could go to prison for doing that, couldn’t you? Maybe Roni didn’t recognize him. She didn’t say anything, but he had hung up before she could have. She probably did. He sounded like himself even to himself, but maybe she wouldn’t say anything anyway. She wouldn’t want to get him in trouble. They had gotten along fairly well though she could get exasperated quite easily. He could never decide whether she respected gay men or not, but Hobie seemed to like her very much. Then again, Hobie didn’t like gay men either. He was kind of a self-hater. Anyway, maybe she’d sympathize with him as an individual because she’d been through some heartache too with that slimy husband of hers. He didn’t know what she saw in him except he was kind of handsome in a scuzzy way. Not that that had ever appealed to Benny personally, but he could understand it. Besides, she knew how Hobie could be and how he was heading for real trouble putting that drug in those water coolers. He really should have called the police but then Hobie would have been arrested and in God knows how much trouble. Maybe calling in the bomb threat was the right thing to do to get the theater closed, not that Hobie would appreciate what he’d tried to do to help him but God knows he’d been through that before. My God, the way these people drive. Why don’t they watch where they’re going for heaven’s— What in the world is that? Todd Dewolf’s car coming right at— Stop! No! Please! Omigod—

CHAPTER 43

SKY HITCHES A RIDE