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I OPEN MY EYES again, and this ti against the , and the water in the corner is trickling constantly now, no longer just dripping I tilt o and see that the board over the glass has been moved Mallon must have done it when he was last here It&039;s only been shifted slightly, but it&039;s enough to let dull shards of light slope across the opposite wall, stretching almost halfway from theover to the lopsided crucifix I must have been asleep

Wish I&039;d never spoken Feel like a traitor, like I&039;ve betrayed myself and my kind, like I&039;m someho less of a man because I spoke to Mallon But if I hadn&039;t done it I&039;d probably still be in total darkness with ht and ive anything away (not that I have anything to tell) and I haven&039;t compromised anyone but myself It&039;s survival of the fittest now, and if I stay stuck here like this I&039;ll be fucked when the next fight begins And there will be another fight

I can hear so on the other side of the door Suddenly it&039;s unlocked and thrown open and Mallon barges in, the loud noise startlinghe was close Can&039;t afford to lethere I&039;m vulnerable and exposed If he decides to turn on me I&039;m dead

He puts a fresh bottle of water down on the chair, then locks the door

"How are you this , Danny?"

I won&039;t answer He leans over etting the chains that still holdshoulders feeling like they&039;ve been pulled out of their sockets Mallon, standing a little farther back, is unfazed Fucker I want to see fear and hate on his face, but there&039;s nothing More gaet soht in here so we can see each other," he says, walking over to theHe moves the board completely, and for the first tiular roorubby and well used, with dirty handprints all over the door like soet out And the walls are pink, for Christ&039;s sake! Christ knohat this place really is I know it&039;s not a prison (there are no bars on the ), but this roo me with caution, Mallon crouches down at the side of the bed and reaches underneath it He&039;s pulling on the chains, probably tightening theets up and moves away, and I find that I can now move my left hand with a little more freedom than before He tosses me the water I&039;m just barely able to catch it, open the lid with my teeth, hold it to my lips, and drain it dry I crush the empty bottle and throw it back at hi bastard just sinally closer, carefully positioning it as if there&039;s a specific mark on the floor at the point where he&039;s safe He sits down and looks long and hard into aze, determined I won&039;t be the first one to break He makes it easy for me when he&039;s the one who looks away

"You&039;ve been here for almost two days now, Danny," he says, "and you haven&039;t had any answers to those questions of yours, have you? I&039; like the rest of your people I&039;ve gone through this with, you&039;re probably not ready to start asking yet In fact, if I was to loosen your chains just a little bit et off that bed and killI want to do more than wrap these chains around his windpipe and choke the life out of this vile, pathetic bastard But I know it&039;s not going to happen Not yet, anyway

"Nohat I want this ly calm, "is just for you to lie still and listen toyou haven&039;t heard a hundred times already Well, maybe you won&039;t have heard a story like this, but I&039;s Hell, I&039;s yourself than what I&039; to tell you You see, Danny, you and your kind ripped a hole inbecause of you You tore my world apart"

What the hell&039;s he expecting froood to know that we&039;ve made him suffer, and I want to hear more I want every detail I want to know exactly hoe hurt him and e did

"Picture the scene, Danny," he begins, his voice alot home from work I won&039;t bore you with the details about where I lived and what I used to do for a living before all this because, if I&039; is, it was my life and my routine and I was happy with it And you and your kind took it all away from me"

He re just under the surface Is he going to crack? I want to see this bastard&039;s pain, want to see hi, closes his eyes, takes a breath, and then continues

"It was pretty early on, I suppose You reht there wasn&039;t really a problehting just because everyone else was? Before we knew that people like you were actually changing? Back in the days before we all got too scared to even look at each other? Remember?"

He autoet one

"Anyway, like I said, it was a Friday night We&039;d just finished eating, and I atching the news on TV, hearing about how bad everything was starting to get My as in the kitchen, arguing with Keisha, our seventeen-year-old, about going out She was going through the whole protectiveher how she didn&039;t like her going into town on weekends anyway, but especially not then with all the trouble going on you get the picture Now I&039; to block out the noise and concentrate on the TV, but it&039;s getting louder and louder in there Keisha&039;s shouting at Jess, Jess is shouting at Keisha, then Keisha&039;s shouting back again, and I&039; they&039;d both shut up"

His voice trails off again, and in the sudden silence I rerind me down in my dead-end for with this fucker? Maybe that&039;s what he wants? This is probably just et ets louder and louder," he says, "and I hear the back door swing open, then slam shut I think that&039;s it, that Keisha&039;s stormed out, but then I realize I can still hear both their voices Then I hear a crash and one of the, then a thu stops"

He looks straight atdown his cheeks He wipes theet up and start walking toward the kitchen, and there&039;s this guy just standing there in theat his feet I know they&039;re dead as soon as I see theot a baseball bat in his hand, and there&039;s blood dripping off the end of it I can only see Keisha&039;s legs, but Jess is lying on her back, her head just a yard or so fro, and her face Christ, there&039;s nothing left of it, like her whole skull&039;s been caved in Just a dark, bloody hole where that beautiful face used to be

"Now our house was just a small, modest place-narrow,away froonna seeroom when he starts to move We had a closet under the stairs with one of those slatted louver doors I drop down to my hands and knees, crawl behind the sofa to the closet, then shut et in there I&039;ve still got a clear view of everything I see theroo like a baby I can&039;t even re and sobbing like it was hie had just hit hi what he&039;d done, like he was trying to work out what he was and come to terms with it Tell me, Danny, was it like that for you?"

I think about the nervous panic and confusion I felt i Harry, but I don&039;t tell hiain and continues