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Kale stared uncoly

Another Jake Johnson entered The one that lacked flesh along his flank Beyond the exposed rib cage, the bloody heart throbbed; the lungs expanded; yet, soaps between the fibs Such a thing was impossible Except that this was an apparition, a Hell-born presence that had swarmed up from the Pit-just s was possible

Kale believed now

The only alternative to belief wasfour Johnson lookalikes entered, glanced at Kale, then were absorbed by the oozing, rippling sli

The jellied flesh of the netherworld visitor began to sprout black, terrible wings

The hissing of the lantern echoed sibilantly off the stone walls The half-forenerated into the colu Insecticide liht have been in a trance except that there was a lively sparkle in his eyes "We couys, two or maybe three times a year You know? What it is… this here’s a perfect place for a fck an’ waste party Nobody to hear nothin’ Nobody to see You know?"

At last Jeeter looked away from the creature and met Kale’s eyes Kale said, "What the hell’s a… a fck and waste party?"

"Oh, every couple months, sometimes more often, a chick shows up and wants to join the Chrome, wants to be somebody’s old lady, you know, doesn’t care whose, or maybe she’ll settle for bein’ an all-purpose bitch that all the guys can hack at when they want a little variety in their pussy You know?" Jeeter sat with his legs crossed in a yoga position His hands lay un in his lap He looked like an evil Buddha "Sometimes, one of us happens to be lookin’ for a new main squeeze, or maybe the chick is really foxy, so we make room for her But it don’t happen like that very often Most of the time we tell them to beat it"

In the center of the cave, the insecticide legscolu like petals of strange blossoms

Jeeter said, "But then once in a while, a chick shows up, and she’s daood-lookin’, but we don’t happen to need or want her with us, and ant instead is to have fun with her Or maybe we see a kid who’s run away from home, you knoeet sixteen, some hitchhiker, and we pick her up, no ive her so her up here where it’s real remote, and e do is we fck her brains out for a couple days, turn her inside out, and then when none of us can get it up any more, aste her in really interestin’ ways"

The deain Thethe dark length of it, every one filled with razor-edged fangs

Gene Teer glanced at this latest htened In fact, Jeeter smiled at it

"Waste them?" Kale said, "You kill them?"

"Yeah," Jeeter said, "In interestin’ ways We bury ’eonna find the bodies in the middle of nowhere like this? It’s always a kick Thrills Until Sunday Sunday afternoon late, as out there in the grass by the cabin, drinkin’ and gangin’ a chick, and all of a sudden Jake Johnson coured on fuckin’ the bitch, too At first I thought we’d have soured, well, we’ll waste hiet rid of the witness, you know, but before we can grab him, another Jake comes out of the woods, then a third"

"Just like what happened to me," Kale said

"-and another one and another We shot ’em, hit ’eo down, didn’t even pause, just kept comin’ So Little Willie, one of my main men, rushes the nearest one and uses a knife, but it doesn’t do no good Instead, that Johnson grabs Willie, and he can’t break loose, and then all of a sudden like… well… Johnson isn’t Johnson anywithout no shape at all The thing eats Willie… eats into him like… well, hell, it just sort of dissolves Willie, er, and then it turns into the craziest daest wolf you ever saw, and then the other Jakes turn into other things, like big lizards with the nastiest jaws, but one of them wasn’t a lizard or a wolf but somethin’ I just can’t describe, and they all coet to our bikes, s are between us and theuys, and then they start to herd us up the hill"

"Toward the caves," Kale said "That’s what they did to me"

"We never even knew about these caves," Teer said, "So we get in here, way in here in the dark, and the things start killin’ -filled mouths vanished

’-and there’s all this screamin’, you know, and I couldn’t see where I was, so I crawled into a corner to hide, hoped they wouldn’t sured for sure they would"

The blood-streaked tissue pulsed, rippled

"-and after a while the screamin’ stops Everyone’s dead It’s real quiet… and then I hear so to Teer but staring at the column of sliht see on an exotic fish It sucked greedily at the air, as if seeking flesh

Kale shuddered Teer san to for, Jeeter said, "So I’m there in the dark, and I hear ht cohter It’s one of the Jakes, lighten’ a Coleo He grabsHe won’t let go,up out of the floor, and I never seen anythin’ like that before; never, nowhere I almost shit He makes me sit down, lets the lantern with me, then just walks into the oozin’ crud over there, , which starts right away going’ through all kinds of changes"

It was still going through changes, Kale saw The suckerlikethe churning flanks of the creature; dozens of horns, barbed and unbarbed, in a variety of textures and colors, rising froelatinous mass

"So for about a day and a half now," Teer said, "I’ve been sittin’ here, watchin’ it, except when I doze off or go into the other room for somethin’ to eat Now and then it talks to me, you know It seems to know als that only my closest brother bikers ever knew It knows all about the bodies buried up here, and it knows about the Mex bastards asted e took the drug business away from them, and it knows about the cop we chopped to pieces two years ago, and like, see, not even the other cops suspect we had anythin’ to do with that one This thing here, this beautiful strange thing, it knows all my little secrets, man And what it doesn’t know about, it asks to hear, and it listens real good It approves of ht I’d really ht I would I been worshippin’ it for years,used to hold these black ht it would ever really appear to iven it sacrifices, even huht chants, but we never were able to conjure up anythin’ So this here’s a hed "I been doin’ its work all my life, man Prayin’ to it all my life, prayin’ to the Beast Now here it is It’s a fuckin’ miracle"

Kale didn’t want to understand "You’ve lost me"

Teer stared at him "No, I haven’t You knohat I’

"You’ve been thinkin’ this must be a demon, somethin’ It-from Hell And it is from Hell, man But it’s no de the dozens of sharply pointed horns, small red eyes opened in the tenebrous flesh A lowed crie

Tell motioned for Kale to coo on livin’ because He knows I’m His true disciple"

Kale didn’t move His heart boomed It wasn’t fear that loosed the adrenalin in him Not fear alone There was another emotion that shook him, overwhelmed him, an emotion he couldn’t quite identify…

"He let me live," Jeeter repeated, "because He knows I always do His work Some of the others… maybe they weren’t as purely devoted to His work as I am, so He destroyed them But me… I’m different He’s lettin’ me live to do His work Maybe He’ll let me live forever, man"

Kale blinked

"And he’s lettin’ you live for the same reason, you know," Jeeter said, "Sure Must be Sure Because you do His work"

Kale shook his head "I’ve never been a… a Devil worshiper I never believed"

"Don’t matter You still do His work, and you enjoy it"