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The kid blinked at hiistered He said, "Huh?"

"Christ, I’ht? Jesus, that was stupid! Da?"

"You…uh, what?" was all the kid could ripped the kid’s upper arms and peered at him Both of them were shadows in the darkness, featureless in the blackness "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, kid, tell ht"

"Uh, yeah," the kid said "Sure"

"Oh, thank God!" Relief flooded up through Crow, nearlylevel of his coave the kid a kind of reassuring shake and froze as the kid winced in real and obvious pain

"Jeez…what’s wrong? Did I hurt you? Did the car--"

"No," the kid hissed, gritting his teeth "It wasn’t you It was the tow-​truck"

Crow just looked at the boy’s shadow-​shrouded face, trying to understand why the kid’s statement didn’t make any sense Crow blinked a couple of times "The, uht that be, son?" Crow said, looking around briefly, assuring himself that no tow-​truck loomed nearby

"The one that tried to kill ue ser

They looked at each other’s silhouette for a moment, the conversation stalled by the co on both parts Above the the kid’s face in a clear, revealing brightness

"Mike!" Crow said with real astonish

"Yeah," agreed Iron Mike Sweeney

2

The Bone Man walked out of Dark Hollow and stepped onto a hill on A-32, not threesloith a lanky gait that s with no meat at all, he strolled to the center of the road and then stopped, turning to lift his face to the brilliant s and keys of his guitar A cloud of bats whirled and danced above hi like torn scraps of shadow in the flickering light from the distant stor up a thin hand as if anxious to join their carefree gavotte The bats knew hiht knew him, knew the pale shadow of a man who cast no shadow of his own

All of them knew the Bone Man, the sad-​eyed wanderer, the boneyard refugee After a while the bats flitted off into the night and he stood alone in a cold wind

Then a night bird with a bloody beak ca out of the east and circled hi off into the west, where a lonely farmhouse stood amid a sea of corn From where he stood on the hill, the Bone Man could see the tiny squares of yellow light dotting two sides of the distant house

He considered the house, looking far and long and into it, reading its fortune in the call of the crickets and the rustle of the corn He smelled blood on the wind, and some of it, he kneas not yet spilled There was still so ht left

The Bone Man turned his rake-​handle-​thin body to the east and listened to the wind There were sounds on it Laughter, the cries and gasps of young lovers, the screech of tires, the lonely and distant drone of a tractor-​trailer whining along the back stretch of the highway, the call of owls, the deep barking of a dog The high, sharp wail of a man in absolute terror and unbearable pain, a sound that faded and then abruptly stopped with a wet, guttural gurgle<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>