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He climbed slowly to his feet

"Okay," he said, and held out his hand His hand and arm trembled Tom’s trembled too as he handed over the knife

Benny stood behind the zo hiuided hio Benny put the tip of the knife in place

"When you do it," said Tom, "do it quick"

"Can they feel pain?"

"I don’t know But you can I can Do it quick"

Benny closed his eyes and the old ie was there The white blouse, the red sleeves Not red cloth Blood It had been blood He took a ragged breath and said, "I love you, Mom"

He did it quick

And it was over

He dropped the knife, and Toether on the kitchen floor, crying so loud that it threatened to break the world In the chairs the two dead people sat slumped, their heads tilted toward each other, their withered e of thegraves in the backyard Tom locked up the house and then relocked the chain on the front gate Side by side they walked back the way they cao I re I re I looked back and saw Dad behind her"

"Yes," said Tom "All of that happened"

"The red sleeves … she’d already been bitten By Dad Hadn’t she?"

Tohost "Yes She’d seen what happened when Dad got bitten She was smart, she understood She wanted us safe Maybe she could already feel the change inside The hunger I don’t know But she begged me to take you, to save you To run" He buried his face in his hands, and his whole body trerief

"I … You saved

"And all these years you knew that I hated you That I thought you were a coward Why didn’t you ever tell ed a forearh to be told, you already believed your version of it Tell me, Ben, if I had told you the truth, would you have believed me? If we had never come out here, would you have believed me?"

Benny slowly shook his head

"So I waited"

"God … that ed "I knew that one day we’d coot here … you knew, didn’t you? When did you figure it out?"

Benny sniffed and wiped his eyes "Since … since we got back fro on the back porch all that tiured it out I just didn’t want it to be the truth I didn’t ever want to come here"

Tom nodded "Neither did I But you do understand that we had to, right?"

"Yes," whispered Benny "Because we needed closure, too"

Benny still held the knife He’d cleaned the blade, but he gripped the ribbed handle with a tight fist

"Can I keep this?" Benny asked, holding out the knife

"Why?" his brother asked

Benny’s eyes were puffy frouess I’ll need it," he said

To time His smile was sad, but his eyes were filled with love And with pride He removed the boot sheath and handed it to Benny, who clipped it inside his own boot

"Coo back to the way station Nix will be waiting"

"I don’t think Mountainside is home anyo east," said Tom "Find out what’s on the other side of the Ruin"

"The jet," Benny said

"The jet," Toates and at the words painted outside He nodded to hiht back to the way station where Nix would be waiting for them They walked side by side in the vast silence of the Rot and Ruin