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Tanya sat in an ar a Mary Higgins Clark novel She liked to read, and she was a night person by nature, so the weehour shift was perfect for her
Sohts she could finish an entire novel and start another one because Jennifer slept straight through
Other ti incoherently and consumed by terror On those occasions, Tanya knew the poor wo to be afraid of, yet the patient’s angst was so intense that it was communicated to the nurse
Tanya’s own skin would prickle with gooseflesh, the back of her neck would tingle, she would glance uneasily at the darkness beyond theas if so waited in it, and would jump at every unexpected noise
At least the predawn hours of that Wednesday were not filled with shouts and tortured cries and strings of words as ious passionary speaking in tongues
Instead, Jennifer slept but not well, harried by bad drearasped with her good hand at the bed rail, and tried without success to pull herself up
With bony white fingers hooked around the steel, atrophied aunt and pale, eyelids sewn shut and concave over empty sockets, she see to rise from a coffin When she talked in her sleep, she didn’t shout but spoke alency; her voice seeh the roo at a seance: "He’ll kill us allkillhe’ll kill us all"
Tanya shivered and tried to concentrate on the suspense novel, though she felt guilty about ignoring her patient At the least she should pry the bony hand off the railing, feel Jennifer’s forehead to be sure she was not feverish, h the storood nurse, and ordinarily she would rush to cohtmare But she stayed in the armchair with her Clark book because she didn’t want to risk waking Jennifer Once awakened, the wohtening fits of shouting, tearless weeping, wailing, and glossolalic shrieking that made Tanya’s blood turn to ice
Cahostly voice out of sleep:the worll’s on fire
fires of bloodfire and blood I’m the mother of Hell God hep me, I’m the her, but she knew the room was already a bit too warm The chill she felt ithin her, not without
such a cadbut"
Tanya wondered what the poor woman had endured that had left her in such a dismal state What had she seen? What had she suffered? What hway included a large and typical Californiastyle restaurant filled with too many ferns and pothos even for Harry’s taste, and a sizable barrooreenery under control by poisoning the potting soil with a dribble of whiskey every now and then The restaurant side was closed at that hour
The popular bar was open until two o’clock It had been re like the adjacent restaurant, a strained atte with the booze
Midst stunted and yellowing plants, about thirty customers drank, talked, and listened to jazz played by a fourressive arrangeband era Two couples, who didn’t realize theto quasi extees that would have thwarted Fred Astaire or Baryshnikov When Harry and Connie entered, the thirtyishan Armani suit, a handpainted silk necktie, and beautiful shoes so softlooking that they ernails were manicured, his teeth perfectly capped, his hair pernaled one of the bartenders, no doubt to help give them the bum’s rush back into the street
Aside from the dried blood at the corner of herto darken one whole side of her face, Connie was reasonably presentable, if slightly ruy andbeen rainsoaked, were more wrinkled than an ancient mummy’s shroud
Forray, s of smoke from the house fire he’d barely escaped His shoes were scuffed, scraped,as a quarter marred his forehead He had heavy beard stubble because he hadn’t shaved in eighteen hours, and his hands were griard’s lawn He realized he must appear to be only a treacherous step up the ladder from the hobo outside the bar to who about forced detoxification, even now socially devolving before the scowling host’s eyes
Only yesteltlav Harry would have been mortified to appear in public in such a state of dishevelment Now he didn’t particularly care He was too worried about survival to fret about good groo and sartorial standards
Before they could be ejected from The Green House, they both flashed their Special Projects ID
"Police," Harry said
No ister, no royal lineage opened doors as effectively as a badge Opened thely, more often than not, but opened them nonetheless
It also helped that Connie was Connie: "Not just police," she said, "but pissedoff police, having a bad day, in no mood to be refused service by soht offend his effete clientele"
They were graciously shown to a corner table that just happened to be in the shadows and away from most of the other customers
A cocktail waitress arrived at once, said her name was Bambi, crinkled her nose, smiled, and took their orders Harry asked for coffee and a haer rare with blue cheese and plenty of raw onions "Coffee for nac, Re’my Martin" To Harry she said, "Technically, we’re not onduty any more And if you feel as crappy as I feel, you need et froer"
While the waitress filled their orders, Harry went to the rubby hands He felt as crappy as Connie suspected, and the restroom mirror confirmed that he looked even worse than he felt He could hardly believe that the grainyskinned, holloweyed, desperationlined face before hiorously scrubbed his hands, but a little dirt stubbornly reernails and in some knuckle creases His hands resembled those of a car mechanic
He splashed cold water in his face, but that didn’t ht The day had taken a toll froht forever leave its mark The loss of his house and all his possessions, Ricky’s gruesome death, and the bizarre chain of supernatural events had rattled his faith in reason and order His current haunted expressionto live beyond a few eness of his reflection, he alical, as mirrors so often were in fairy talesa doorway to another land, aon the past or future, the prison in which an evil queen’s soul was trapped, amarror like the one from which Snow White’s wicked steper the fairest of theerssupernatural happened
Still, considering the events of the past twelve hours, it was not madness to expect sorcery He seemed to be trapped in a fairy tale of some kind, one of the darker variety like The Red Shoes, in which the characters suffer terrible physical tortures and uish, die horribly and then are finally rewarded with happiness not in this world but in Heaven It was an unsatisfying plot pattern if you were not entirely sure that Heaven was, in fact, up there and waiting for you
The only indication that he hadn’t become imprisoned in a children’s fantasy was the absence of a talking ani animals populated fairy tales even more reliably than psychotic killers populated modern American films
Fairy tales Sorcery Monsters Psychosis Children
Suddenly Harry felt he was teetering on the edge of an insight that would reveal an important fact about Ticktock
Sorcery Psychosis Children Monsters Fairy tales
Revelation eluded hier lightly touching his fingertips to their reflection, but was pressing his hand against the lass When he took his hand away, a vague moist imprint re fades Including Harry Lyon Maybe by dawn
He left the restroom and walked back to the table in the bar where Connie aiting
Monsters Sorcery Psychosis Fairy tales Children
The band was playing a Duke Ellington medley with a ton simply didn’t need i coffee cups and two brandy snifters with Re’ers’ll be a few minutes," Connie said as he pulled out one of the black wooden chairs and sat down