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"Are you talking about killing yourself?"

"Nah I’et to pick ht not be so bad That was the probleet to pick the moment I could this ti your own violent death, whether it’s yousomeone else do it, is still suicide"

"You think so?" I shake noreI’m tired My only friends narced et up close to death, I think about Alice"

"You know she’s not down below You let yourself be killed and you’ll be farther away from her than ever, and it will be forever"

"Point taken Truth is, enough people wantto have toup already"

"Let’s see if my cab’s here yet"

I WAKE IN the early afternoon, wander into the bathrooht Aelita’s sword has given me one of my best scars It looks like a rattler set itself on fire and did a GG Allin stage dive into my chest This scar is a work of art It deserves an Oscar and a star on Hollywood Boulevard It deserves its oer ballad Now I sort of kno Lucifer must have felt when that last thunderbolt hit and he fell out of Heaven’s cotton candy clouds and into the deep, deep dark

Aelita see else, too Back in Hell, each new scar was a gift Protection against a new attack That attack in Aelita’s chapel see besides a new scar She’s given elic vision Or maybe she just tore openother people’s moods and heartbeats Whatever it is, I see with different eyes now and I see what she was trying to tell raffiti on the alley wall behind Max Overdrive It’s painted on the buildings and street corners Store s and telephone poles The e I know, but I can alue that just won’t cons for eldritch hicks

The Kissi wander the streets ghosting the holidayto fill soets the to talk to each other In some of those families, Moirl follows her parents, holding her big brother’s hand, literally draining the life fro LED wreath outside a Burmese restaurant

There are Kissi as pale and tenuous as vapor from a car exhaust They whisper lies into people’s ears Slip hotel receipts into a husband’s wallet A phone number into a wife’s jacket pocket They row like a melanoma, because what’s hter?

I have to get off the street I can’t stand looking at this Regular people are bad enough, but regular people beingI can’t take right now

What’s going on in the street doesn’t look much like a detente to ht be right about the Kissi breaking the treaty, but they don’t see about it

There are plenty of cops out, too Unis and plainclothes More than I’d expect around Christ off on tryptophan, eggnog, and fascist Santa’s order to bethe rest of us don’t know Maybe they just feel the undercurrent of craziness in the air They try to blend in with the holiday wanderers, but they’re as inconspicuous as spiders on a birthday cake

I just want quiet, a cup of coffee, and no one talking to enius has installed a TV on the wall behind the doughnut counter Those of us stupid enough to want to sit and drink our coffee inside get a complienocide with our glazed old-fashioneds When the local report comes on, it confirms more of what Aelita toldup and out of control The local politicos and law dogs don’t have a clue why or what to do about it Sounds like soot to tell the rest of us to duck and cover

The green-haired pixie counter girl I’ve seen before is working today She’s good at her job Chats up the custo fake or like a mental patient At another tiht and leave it in the parking lot with the keys in the ignition But here and now I can’t keep falling in instant love like this It’s e If Vidocq was around, I’d ask hi to get h the holidays, and maybe kill off this idiot nineteen-year-old who still lives inhouses in East LA Cryingkids There’s blood in the water, so the TV reporters swim up with blank eyes and a mouthful of shark’s teeth They stick microphones in the faces of nes and ask, "How does it s have always been this way Are the Kissi the devils on our shoulders? Or do they just like us because our devils are so loud and hard to miss? I see why Heaven and Hell want to control the Kissi They can’t ever let regular people hear about them After the panic, it’d be too easy to pin all of humanity’s bad habits on them Plus, someone would have to explain where they ca out that God is a fuckup and the devil doesn’t matter Neither side wants that

I wonder if the Kissi are strong enough to jack an angel? Maybe If they really are anti-angels Muninn said soels up the hill to Avila That sounds like urban-myth bullshit to me Like that kid down the street who made a funny face and it stayed that way, so his faels, it’s probably the Kissi I don’t think even Mason couldlot I can feel the Their hearts are going off like ray suit A junior high boy with a skateboard under his arhnuts I can’t get a look at their faces They order a few dozen A whole box full The green-haired girl rings theuy in the suit pulls a 44 fro her He has to lean all the way over the counter to get off the last few rounds

I’irl Junior drops his deck, pulls his own piece, and aims it at ood tiht now and they know it They laugh at hty boy"

"You stole our na’at," says the kid

"And after we invited you into our home so nicely and politely"

"Some people have no ht We’ll do you a trade" The man points to his chest, then mine "Hold on to whatever that is in there for us We’ll be back with a doggy bag"

"Happy holidays," says the kid There’s blood all over the box of doughnuts The kid opens it and takes out an apple fritter "You really ought to try these They "

They stroll out the door like they just won the lottery

Behindas people fuers hit 911 I look over the counter at the green-haired girl She’s dead As dead as anyone I’ve ever seen

Is that what Alice looked like?

Good-bye, green-haired girl Howto save?

THERE’S A GOLD Lexus parked around the corner Ten seconds later, it’s as station and buy a pack of cigarettes, two plastic gas cans, and a T-shirt with allons of gas in advance, fill the two cans, and get back in the car I’ve always been pretty good with directions HellFifteen minutes later, I’m parked down the block from the furniture warehouse where the skinheads party