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“THEY POISON THE HEART”
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Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE1THEY PARKED IN the cover of the trees and made their way across Jasper Park, out over its baseball diamond, through the foreboding shadows on the other side. There was scant light here, a few lampposts lining the bike path, some safety lights on at the red-brick shelters. Dark of the new moon, no illumination visible through the cloud cover in the sky, no pulse of stars.On edge, Tommy and Richard milled about. The wooden bat hovered in Franklin’s two-handed grip.Tree frogs were croaking in the river birches overhanging the water—the exfoliating bark on the trees looked like peeling skin at this distance. Besides frogs, a chorus of crickets could be heard chirring in the dewy grass, their evensong waning, getting weaker with the cold. That sound alone was heartbreaking to Richard, signified the inescapable death of summer, an oncoming winter.Tommy noticed the way his friend throttled the bat, the way he stared to the left, the right.“Come on,” Rich murmur
Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX1THEY SWUNG TO witness Chip Priewe’s demented features, to see him pointing with the pistol and backing away. Soon everyone was looking, gazes upturned. The high wind which buffeted the trees and tore across the shadowed ground had caught Michelle’s cremains up, and up, keeping them aloft. Lifting and throwing them around with leaves and other bits of debris. Denying them respite—Out of this blizzard of swirled grit and ash, uncannily, shapes were forming.“The trees!” Priewe screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. His lunatic eyes shone moon-bright. “Oh, Christ. Hanging . . . in the trees. Can’t you fucking see them?”They did: apparitions in the night-dark limbs of the cottonwood. Something glimmering in the sleety rain. Thunder crashed and everyone jumped, lightning skittering throughout the clouds. The police chief howled.Shadows were coming to life in the tree branches, undulating with an inner light. Changing particle and position, reconfiguring. But
Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN1SALT BRACED HIMSELF, centered his weight, and began to clamber to his feet. Slowly. First one, then the other. He looked toward the treeline as he did, saw the front end of the Chevy Blazer glinting there like silvery, lupine fangs, its chrome-plated steel grille guard catching light. A shudder wrenched through him. Still he rose, forcing himself erect, the war ax in his left hand.The others were drawing closer.Glee snatched at Katie fearfully, nestled her to her side. Croom glared into their faces. He bent, retrieved something near Dr. Mint’s fingers: the hypodermic syringe. He held it before him, flicked the plastic tube like he was testing it. “Gyaa . . . ?” his disfigured mouth emitted, a bad-natured grin forming. He thumbed the needle’s plunger, had placed one foot on the shovel handle. They wavered in uncertainty.Julian had gone quiet, head back, maimed arms and legs dangling as he levitated higher. Eyeballs rolled to white. He appeared to be in a t
Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT1“YOU NEED TO say goodbye,” Katie said, and Richard pulled off the road. Cornfields surrounded them on both sides here at the outskirts of town. The first snow of the season was melting, drifts of white caught between the rows.Reports were breaking over the radio about the previous night’s horrors. A spate of deaths in and around Blackwater Valley, and missing townspeople. Structures burnt to the ground. Palm Clemency had had a lot of questions, but Richard never faltered.Now it was time to leave.After they’d showered and eaten a little, recovered somewhat, Richard had gone to the Deadmond place first thing, found the door unlocked. Found George under the drop cloth in the basement where he and Tom had left him.Moving fast, Richard gathered up Blondie’s things: some toys, bowls, her memory-foam bed, loose cans of pet food and a large bag of dry nuggets, pills prescribed by the veterinarian for her arthritis pain—although he suspected she wouldn’t be need
Blackwater Val EPILOGUE
EPILOGUETHE COLD HANGS on, and on. Sinks in deeper. Lost within it, forsaken, the duped and the defiled wander the streets of the Val in a haze. Wondering what’s happened.One of them, Syd Cholke, enters her Regan Street apartment and drops onto the sofa. Slumps alone in the dark. Much later she hears the front door open and close, hears footsteps enter sheepishly. Then delicate, auburn-haired Alice Granberg sits down. No words are spoken between them. After a time Sydney goes to her and kneels and places her ear against the small hill of Alice’s belly, feels the baby roll lazily there. Soon both are dozing in this position, an empty birdcage on the end table nearby.Mrs. Wintermute shrieks inside her narrow prison below ground, breath hitching in and out. She begs and she wails . . . screaming, screaming . . . and eventually becomes quiet at long last. Meg Bilobran sits propped in her theater balcony seat, draped in sheet plastic, eyes flung wide and staring, as if waiting for the
Blackwater Val PROLOGUE
PROLOGUESomewhere in Germany1945THE MANIAC, MARENBACH thinks within the unyielding darkness, partly in contempt, partly in fear.Mostly in fear.He squints in the musty gloom of his secluded shop at the small man before him, at the slicked-down hair and the dead, terribly vacant eyes. A bit of mustache set above a mouth of bad teeth, the nervous tic in one corner of that mouth. At the large German shepherd heeled by the man’s side.At the armed squadron of SS guards gathered in tight behind him.Marenbach blinks and proceeds Deutsch zu sprechen: “When would you wish it done, my leader?”“As soon as possible,” the little man says with vehemence. He also speaks in German, but the Austrian dialect is unmistakable. “The glory is coming to a close. It is almost over, I’m afraid.” The eyes seem to sadden.“May I see it?” Marenbach asks, holding out his hand. He prays that he doesn’t tremble; the dog is watching his every move.“By all means.” The man reaches inside his long leat
Blackwater Val CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE1BECAUSE OF THE skunk, they were marked from the beginning. It’d run out into the highway so suddenly that Richard Franklin had, in turn, run over it before he ever had a chance to brake. Startled, he jerked his foot off the gas pedal, feeling first the resistance and next the sickening give beneath his Bridgestone Firestones, and then the smell had hit. Richard and Katie glanced at each other, noses wrinkling. Franklin had resumed his speed, trying to get away from the invisible pungent wave as fast as he could. But it was already too late.With nothing else that could be done, really, he continued to cruise, approaching an overpass and keying up the power windows on the Chevy Blazer. He shook his head, teeth clenched grimly at the irony of it, letting out a disheartened sigh.“You okay?” he asked his only daughter.Katie nodded, looking down at her activity books. “Yes,” she said. “What was that, Daddy?” She pulled a magenta crayon with slow precision from its box.
Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER TWO1RICHARD DECIDED THEY should probably check into a motel before heading to the house, just in case. No telling what might happen later in the remains of this day, so, ‘better safe than sorry’ became his instant mantra. He drove back out to the rural fringes of town and got them a double room, at a place called the Nightlight Inn, not far from Illinois 72 and the old Penfield Monument Works—where most of the region’s grave markers were still made. Richard carried their luggage in, and sat two leather bags on the beds, opting to leave the third suitcase containing Michelle’s ashes and their emergency cell phone outside, in the vehicle. Then, after pondering a moment, he turned a light on and the television on low, and locked the unit up behind them before pulling away from the cheerless L-shaped motel. He couldn’t explain why, but Richard felt the need to keep his dead wife’s remains nearby for right now. It was just an unseen urge to stay close to her, he guessed, to keep
Latest chapter
- Blackwater Val EPILOGUE
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
- Blackwater Val “THEY POISON THE HEART”
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
- Blackwater Val CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
