The Final Reconciliation
All that remained was our congregation screeching, writhing, rocked with spasms of pain I can only fathom.
They had done as Johnny had bade them. They’d taken off their masks. One by one they had torn into their flesh and pulled off their faces like old, tattered wallpaper. Glistening red faces peered back at each other in wide-eyed panic, each face a look of shock and surprise, their lipless mouths frozen forever in toothy smiles.
I staggered toward Johnny’s place on the stage. He was leaning against the microphone stand, his shoulders rising and falling with deep, labored breaths. I don’t know if he was still caught in the trance of the music. He was still wearing his shades.
Bab Populer