Page 14 (1/2)

Allegra finds a couple of paper napkins next to a half-eaten sandwich on a plate on the floor She presses the napkins hard against the hole innice for someone who thinks I’m crazy or a snake"

"Shut up Now I know you’re too dumb to be a snake You’re probably too stupid to be crazy I don’t knohat you are"

"I’ic," I say I pull the napkins away from my hand and wipe off the last of the blood The wound is already closed

She shrugs "That just makes you a freak, not the Wizard of Oz Or els’ Hideaway "Go get one of yours"

She goes to the kitchen, rattles some drawers, and co into the spirit of things

"Nohat?" she asks

"Try to stab ain"

"What is wrong with you? If you want a girl to hurt you, there’s professionals for that in the phone book"

I hold up the hand she just stabbed "One more ti enough to do this twice"

I don’t have to shout this tiht into hth of an inch into the skin There’s no blood at all She keeps trying to push the knife through Really starts leaning on it I have to take the knife out of her hand and set it on the floor She takesfor blood or a neound All she finds is a fresh red scar froo

"My whole body is kind of ic Once you attack ain"

"So, no one can ever stab you again?"

"I wish The new scar you gavestabbed like that"

"Is that what all those scars are fros Kasabian shot me when I walked into his store, so I have some new ones from him It’s not so bad Soraht in ic scars That’s not what I thoughta little pale right now and I don’t think it’s the concussion My little one too far too fast for her I root around inup I co I would have done at lunch in grade school I’ve always been lucky atpartial spells work, so I silently recite the words I re, careful to recite only hu to sneak out

Nothing happens Then I feel a fluttering in ic was flowing

I hold up ertips Five yellow flaers Candles made of flesh The fire is real, but it doesn’t burn ht one off ra glances fro She reaches over ertips and snatches her hand back a second later

"It’s hot"

"That’s why they call it fire Put up your hand," I tell her "Palht hand I touch my hand to hers and say a feords The flaertips and over to hers

"Blow on your fingers lightly"

She does it The flaain, only blow harder this tinite

"I can feel it It’s warm, but it doesn’t hurt"

"Blow really hard"

The flames flare, fro, they shrink back to birthday candles

"Is that h for you?"

"Yeah, I’d say that covers it"

I blow lightly on her fingertips and the flaot a little charm on your hand and you can do that fire trick anyti, you’ll know that what you’re seeing is real because part of you is ic, too"

She stares at her unburned hand for a minute

"Tell me about Mr Kasabian’s head Is he dead? Did you do that to him?"

"No to the first question, and yes to the second"

"Tell ht, I’ my sins This time it’s easier because it’s not just my bad moments, but also Mason’s, Kasabian’s, and the rest of the Circle’s Plus, I’ Just a little I tell her that Mason sold me out, sent me to a dark and rotten place I just leave out Hell and the hitirl?" she asks

"That’s what Kasabian said"

"Damn Was Mr Kasabian in on it?"

"He’s too much of a jellyfish for murder And he’s too afraid of me to lie about it But he was there for the rest of it"

"I’d have cut off more than his head if he’d done that to me or mine"

"Then you knohy I’m back"

"You’re Clint Eastwood in the Outlaw Josie Wales Max von Sydow in Virgin Spring"

"I don’t knoho that second one is, but if he was out to fuck up the people who fucked up someone he cared about, then, yeah, okay, I’iving up?"

"No I’ Max Overdrive I’ll crash with the erous to be around actual huht"

"No way No dara "I’irlie"

She crawls off the beanbag chair and sits besideextraordinaryI ended up in bad places with bad people, bad drugs, bad lovers, and a lot of other bad shit I don’t want to think about But this, right here, this is it You’re it The thing I’ve been looking for all h I didn’t couidance counselor"

"Yes, you did That’s exactly what you’re here for Maybe not the whole reason, but part of it"