Carlo nodded, began walking towards the stairs to his studio, then paused, turned to look back at her. “What about this…job? Do you think you’ll have any trouble getting somebody else?”
Persephone considered the question for only an instant, her gold-green eyes flashing a look first to the window which had become an oblong of shiny obsidian, then back to him. “No, I will be a little more careful with the questions I ask.”
Carlo paused. “Meaning…?”
“I will ask them if they are chasing any dreams.”
Despite the swirled-palette of emotions he currently felt, Carlo couldn’t keep from smiling. “Most of them won’t know what you’re talking about…you’ll have plenty of unimaginative pinheads to choose from.”
Persephone chuckled. “I’ll take that as both a curse and a blessing.”
As Carlo put some miles between himself and the lighthouse, he could feel his mortality seeping back into him, invading the molecular structures of his cells like the metaphysical disease that it was. And it felt good. He slipped his Disraeli Gears CD into the deck; and sang along with Clapton, Bruce, and Baker as they rattled through “Tales of Brave Ulysses”—a fittingly Hellenistic reference to the latest chapter in his own life-saga. By the time the song had ended, he noted the farther he drove, the less real the whole experience was becoming. In fact, the more he tried to concentrate on specifics, the more foggy and less distinct his mind-images became.
Weird. Very weird.
His thoughts kept him from paying close attention to his driving; and more than a couple of times he’d kind of snap hack to attention with his hands gripping the wheel on autopilot. He felt like an idiot, looking down the shafts of his headlights as they tried to find the tortured two-lane “tar-road.” It made him wonder how the hell he’d gotten to this point without realizing it. Had he passed that quaint bastion of socialism they called the Vermont Law School yet?
Where was he?
State Route 4 through this rural part of Vermont twisted through endless curves as it struggled to follow the course of the White River. It was a bad road in daylight, and downright treacherous at night. Everything tended to look the same until you were right on top of it.
It was just after he’d seen the signs for the town of Sharon and the Interstate, that it started to rain.
Drops as big and heavy as bullfrogs. They spattered on the window like little bodies exploding with the suddenness of a mortar attack. Carlo kicked in the wipers, but not quick enough. As he leaned close to the steering wheel, trying to see what lay beyond the smeared glass, he felt the Blazer’s big tires lose purchase on an upcoming curve. Power-sliding towards the riverbank to his right, Carlo yanked the gearshift downward into second and buried the gas-pedal.
It was a brilliant maneuver, which saved him from a launch into the dark water, but Carlo couldn’t stop the lurching SUV from crossing the center-line at the blindest point of the next curve. That’s why the driver of the Peterbilt truck and trailer didn’t see him until the dark hull of the Blazer literally exploded over the grill and hood of the giant tractor.
Carlo vaguely remembered the shockwave of the impact, but could recall no sound. Nor did he have any memory of being thrown clear of the wreckage…but he must have been, because he was now picking himself up, pulling himself out of the soft cloying mud of the riverbank. A cold nightwind laced through him as he turned away from it…
…to see the stark tower looming up before him. Its silhouette against the darker tapestry of the sky was hideously familiar, and its recognition vibrated deep into his soul like the idiot-hum of oblivion.
The sweeping beam of light passed over him, and as he acceded to Charon’s gesture to come aboard, Carlo paused to look up for a last glance at the lighthouse lamp. He wondered who might be the “unimaginative pinhead” staring down at him from beyond the fortress of its glass.
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
“Identity Crisis” originally appeared in Terrors edited by Charles L. Grant, Playboy Press, 1982. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Spare the Child” originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January, 1982. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“The Mechanical Boy” originally appeared in Chrysalis 10 edited by Roy Torgeson, Doubleday & Co., 1983. Copyright © 1983 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“The Night is Freezing Fast” originally appeared in Masques II edited by J. N. Williamson, Maclay Publishers, 1987. Copyright © 1987 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Yesterday’s Child” originally appeared in Grue #5, Summer, 1987. Copyright © 1987 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“In the Fast Lane” originally appeared in Grue #7, Spring, 1988. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas F. Monteleone. Copyright © 1988 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Nobody’s Perfect” originally appeared in Pulphouse edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, 1988. Copyright © 1988 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“No Pain, No Gain” originally appeared in Greystone Bay: The Seaharp Hotel edited by Charles L. Grant, Tor Books, 1989. Copyright © 1989 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“The Ring of Truth” originally appeared in Post Mortem edited by Paul F. Olson and David B. Silva, St Martin’s Press, 1989. Copyright © 1989 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“The Cutty Black Sow” originally appeared in Cemetery Dance, Summer, 1990. Copyright © 1990 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Love Letters” originally appeared in Cold Blood edited by Richard T. Chizmar, Ziesing Books 1991. Copyright © 1991 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“The Pleasure of Her Company” originally appeared in Obsessions edited by Gary Raisor, Dark Harvest Press, 1991. Copyright © 1991 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Prodigal Sun” originally appeared in Under the Fang edited by Robert R. McCammon, Borderlands Press, 1991. Copyright © 1991 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Carmella and the Missing Piece” originally appeared as “Oyster Bay, New York” in Freak Show edited by F. Paul Wilson, Borderlands Press, 1992. Copyright © 1992 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“The Roadside Scalpel” originally appeared in Predators edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, Pocket Books, 1993. Copyright © 1993 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“The Newspaper Man” originally appeared in Voices in the Night edited by John Maclay, Maclay & Associates, 1994. Copyright © 1994 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“The Wager” originally appeared in Narrow Houses 2 edited by Peter Crowther, Little Brown, 1994. Copyright © 1994 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Time Enough for Sleep” originally appeared in Fear Itself edited by Jeff Gelb, Pocket Books, 1994. Copyright © 1994 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Triptych di Amore” originally appeared in Love In Vein edited by Poppy Z. Brite, Harper Collins, 1994. Copyright © 1994 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Looking for Mr. Flip” originally appeared in Ghosts edited by Peter Straub, Borderlands Press, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Between Floors” originally appeared as a Limited Chapbook, Subterranean Press, 1997. Copyright © 1997 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“A Mind is a Terrible Thing” originally appeared in The Conspiracy Files edited by Scott Urban, DAW Books, 1998. Copyright © 1998 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Under Your Skin” originally appeared in Imagination: Fully Dilated edited by Alan Clark and Betsy Engstrom, CD Publications, 1998. Copyright © 1998 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Rehearsals” originally appeared in 999 edited by Al Sarrantonio, Avon Books, 1999. Copyright © 1999 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Yog Sothoth, Superstar” originally appeared in Song of Cthulhu edited Stephen Mark Rainey, Chaosium Books, 2001. Copyright © 2001 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
“Lux et Veritas” originally appeared in Lighthouse Hauntings edited by Martin II. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh, Down East Press, 2002. Copyright © 2002 by Thomas F. Monteleone.
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