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Billy’s hair should already have co His vision blurred

The killer wanted to pull hih the brokenoutThe back of Billy’s skull rapped hard against thesill Another solid rap snapped his teeth together and knocked a hoarse cry fro wheel with his left hand, at the headrest on the driver’s seat with his right, resisting The hair would coreat handful The hair would come out, and he would be free

But the hair didn’t, and he wasn’t, and he thought of the horn If he blew the horn, pounded the horn, help would come, and the freak would run At once he realized that only the priest in the rectory would hear, and if the priest came, the killer wouldn’t flee No, he would shoot the priest in the face just as he had shot Lanny

Maybe ten seconds had elapsed since thehad shattered, and the back of Billy’s head was being drawn inexorably across thesill The pain had quickly grown so intense that the roots of his hair seeh the flesh of his face--for his face hurt as well, stung as if flame had seared it--and seemed to extend also into his shoulders and arth in those muscles The nape of his neck chilled on contact with thesill Crued his skin

His head was being bent backward no quickly his exposed throat could be slit, how easily his spinewheel He reached behind his back, fu for the door handle

If he could open the door and thrust with sufficient force, he ht unbalance his assailant, knock hirip or lose the hair at last

To reach the handle--slippery in his sweaty fingers--he had to twist his arm behind hile that he didn’t have the range ofBilly’s intent, the freak leaned all his weight against the door

Billy’s head was largely out of the car now, and a face suddenly appeared above him, upside-down to his face A countenance without features A hooded phantom

He blinked to clear his vision

Not a hood A dark ski aze that glistered fro sprayed the lower half of his face, froent yet sweet, a asped in shock, then tried to hold his breath, but the single gasp had undone hient fumes burned in his nostrils His mouth flooded with saliva

The masked face see down, the cratered eyes

Chapter 16

The sedative wore off Like a winch line turning on a druradually hoisted Billy from unconsciousness

His mouth tasted as if he’d drunk waffle syrup and chased it with bleach Sweet and bitter Life itself

For a while he didn’t knohere he was Initially he did not care Raised from a sea of torpor, he felt saturated with unnatural sleep and yearned to return to it

Eventually the unrelenting pain forced him to care, to keep his eyes open, to analyze sensation and to orient hi on his back on a hard surface--the church parking lot

He could sue nutty,overhead in the darkness His own sour perspiration

Licking his lips, he tasted blood

When he wiped his face, Billy found it slick with a viscous substance that was most likely a mixture of sweat and blood In the dark, he could not see what had been transferred to his hand

The pain waseffect of having had his hair nearly pulled out

A slow pulsing ache, punctuated by a series of sharper pangs, radiated across his head, not from the crown, however, where his hair had been severely tested, but from his brow

When he raised one hand and hesitantly explored the source, he found so froh his touch was gentle, it triggered a spasm of sharper pain that made him cry out Are you prepared for your first wound?

He left the exploration of the injury for later, until he could see the dae

The wound would not be mortal The freak had not intended to kill hi respect for his adversary had grown to the point that he did not expect the man to make mistakes, at least not ain when he got to his feet

He stood swaying, surveying the parking lot His assailant was gone High in the night, a cluster of roard On this route, it was probably a military transport headed for a war zone Another war zone different from the one down here He opened the driver’s door of the Explorer

Crulass littered the seat He plucked a Kleenex box from the console and used it to scrape the prickly debris off the upholstery He searched for the note that had been taped over the ignition Evidently the killer had taken it

He found the dropped key under the brake pedal Froer’s seat, he retrieved the revolver

He had been allowed to keep the gun for the game ahead The freak didn’t fear it

The substance hich Billy had been sprayed--chlorofor effect When he bent over, he grew dizzy Behind the wheel, with the door closed, with the engine running, he worried that he ht not be fit to drive

He turned on the air conditioner, angled two vents at his face As he assessed his transient dizziness, the interior lights went off automatically Billy turned them on once more

He tilted the rearview mirror to inspect his face He looked like a painted devil: dark red, but the teeth bright; dark red, and the whites of the eyes unnaturally white

When he adjusted thedid not i He preferred to think that the residual dizziness froht be accompanied by hallucination He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths He strove to clear the ie in the ain he would not see the saed Across his forehead, an inch below the hairline, three large fishhooks pierced his flesh

The point and the barb of each hook protruded from the skin The shank also protruded The bend of each hook lay under the thin meat of his brow He shuddered and looked away frohts, when even the devout wonder if they are heirs to a greater kingdom than this earth and if they will know mercy--or if instead they are only animals like any other, with no inheritance except the wind and the dark