They watched with their hearts on pause as the man walked through the front door. Addison gulped, fearing the worst.
“Well, I certainly didn’t see that coming,” Candy said.
“I gotta help him,” Addison said. “I gotta do something.”
“Like what?”
Addison hesitated. “I dunno. Something.”
She looked down at the snubnose in her open palm. It felt cold against her skin. The gleam of the short barrel temporarily blinded her. Her love was in danger. The time to act was now.
Addison opened the passenger door and stepped outside.
“Where are you going?” Candy asked from the backseat, but did not receive an answer.
Addison was halfway to the mansion when her foot connected with a huge patch of ice, sending her legs up in the air and throwing her violently across the pavement. She screamed as her back landed on the road, skull smashing against concrete. The hand holding the gun came down hard, causing her to make a fist, index finger squeezing down on the tough trigger. A loud bang filled the street, and the next thing she knew Desperation Manor was up in flames.
Chapter Forty-Four
This Isn’t How it Is in the Movies
His initial thought was he’d died and gone straight to Hell.
Then Maddox realized he was still inside the mansion, only now he was on his back and the walls were melting.
Unable to find the strength to rise, he lay there with his head spinning back and forth, embracing the scorched scenery. Somehow, the entire mansion was ablaze. Sparks rained from the ceiling. Fire consumed available free space. Smoke contaminated once breathable air. His pink ski mask had burnt away to nothing, leaving behind a set of very tan cheeks.
What the fuck happened?
In the movies, actions scenes were always slowed down and easy to comprehend. You were able to see each move before it even happened.
Why couldn’t real life be so predictable?
The sofa hostage rose from the flames, most of his body charcoaled, pointing the double-barreled shotgun at Maddox. He screamed as he leaped forward, but was soon gunned down by Benny, who’d managed to climb to his feet at the last second.
He raised a victory fist in the air, smiling. “That’s right, baby, I just saved your life,” Benny said. “You totally owe me a beer.”
And then a chunk of Benny’s skull sprung from the center of his forehead and he collapsed to the floor. Standing a few feet away, the kid, Connor, stumbled forward with a face blackened from ashes. Maddox raised the Desert Eagle and plugged a bullet in the kid’s gut, upped his aim, and shot the gun off again, a misty cloud of crimson spraying from the side of his neck.
He had barely fallen to the ground before Maddox heard a new scream—this one from a woman. He focused his vision across the room and spotted Ruth Desperation charging toward him, covered from head to toe with what looked like…chocolate? No, that couldn’t have been right. Either way, he emptied his clip into her.
Maddox dropped the gun and backed up, slowly finding his way to his feet. He was shaking, his mind on the verge of a total breakdown. Sirens were closing in. His brother was dead. Everyone was dead.
Maddox scanned the room, searching for the duffel bag but could not for the life of him find it. He burnt his hand on an overturned coffee table and decided escape was either now or never. Maddox looked at his brother one last time, then ran out of the mansion and leaped into the Hummer, speeding away from the inferno. He even thought he saw Addison out in the middle of the street, but quickly dismissed it as a trick of the imagination.
Chapter Forty-Five
Lovers Reunited
Candy watched it all from the backseat of Connor’s Ford Fiesta, unable to blink. She watched the fiery cloud exhaling from the top of the mansion. She could see Addison lying there on the ground, unconscious, but that didn’t seem to fully register yet. Her attention was too busy gazing over the beautiful flares bleeding into the morning sky.
It was like the Fourth of July.
What finally broke her dreamy state was the sudden roar of gunfire. She jumped back, blinking for the first time in ages. Holy hell, was that loud.
What had just happened? Addison fell, gun went off, and the mansion…what, exploded? Were the walls constructed of nothing but TNT?
Struggling to breathe, Candy tried opening the door, but her sweaty hand kept slipping off the handle. She could see Addison climbing to her feet and she wanted to go over and help her.
But then she saw something.
Stumbling from the side of the mansion, a tall figure led by Zooey Deschanel. The closer the person got, the clearer he became.
He was naked. Either he’d stripped, or his clothes had melted into his flesh, he was nude nonetheless. He moved like a zombie. From head to toe, burnt to a crisp. Layers of red, layers of black, charcoaled to death and back again, blood spilling onto the snow wherever he walked.
Candy watched in horror as the zombie strode toward her. He opened the driver’s door, allowed the dog to climb into the passenger’s seat, and sat down behind the wheel. No one said anything for a minute; Candy once again unable to blink, air drowning her lungs.
She flinched as he turned the key in the ignition.
“Johnny?” Candy Blossom said.
The zombie turned around and offered a crusty smile, revealing a set of teeth that glistened compared to the utter blackness of his face. The glow sent her crawling back against the backseat. She dived for the door but it was too late: locked.
She turned back, expecting the worst.
“Hello, darling,” he said, and stomped on the gas.
Chapter Forty-Six
A Choice of Freedom
Addison snapped, head pounding like a disco ball. She was on her back staring into the sky, which had now turned a mischievous black. A cloud of smoke. But from what?
She sat up.
Desperation Manor was burning to the ground.
“Connor,” she whispered.
She heard the Ford Fiesta starting up behind her. By the time she looked over her shoulder the car was halfway down the road, swerving between lanes recklessly.
A man barged out of the front door and broke for the Hummer. Addison had to give him a double take before realizing who it was.
“D-Dad?”
She watched him climb behind the wheel and start the engine. As he was pulling away their eyes managed to lock onto each other, both of their expressions twisted into oblivion.
Then he shook his head and made a screwed up face. He kept on going.
Addison sat on the pavement for a moment until her ears finally accepted the approaching howl of sirens.
Connor, she thought, shooting to her feet. She ran toward the mansion, leaving her snubnose back in the road, and charged headfirst into the inferno.
She started coughing. Everywhere she looked there were flames. The mansion didn’t have much longer before it all collapsed on top of them.
Addison moved further into the living room and spotted a pile of bodies. A small cry escaped her strangled lungs and she rushed forward. It was difficult to recognize them, but there were three men and a woman. She thought the woman was probably Johnny’s mother, but who knew for sure? And why did she smell chocolate?
A light cough from one of the corpses startled Addison back to her feet.
“Addy? That you?”
“Connor?” Addison crouched down, taking her boyfriend’s hand. Out of the rest of the corpses, he was the least burnt up. “Oh my God, are you shot?”
He nodded. “A little bit.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Connor said, risking a thin grin. One hand wrapped around hers, his other hand pressed tightly against his neck, where a river of blood appeared to be streaming out.
Addison lost it. “Oh God, oh God, oh God…”
“Come on, baby,” Connor said. “Please stop crying.”
She sniffled, making
an honest attempt to stabilize herself. “The police are on their way,” she told him. “We have to get out of here.”
“THIS IS THE LIBERTYVILLE POLICE. COME OUT AND SURRENDER WITH YOUR HANDS UP.”
Addison cried out at the blow horn from outside. “Shit!” she yelled.
“IN CASE YOU ARE NOT AWARE, THE HOUSEHOLD YOU ARE IN IS ON FIRE. I REPEAT, IT IS ON FIRE. SURRENDER NOW.”
“Shit! Shit! Shit!”
Connor giggled. “Such a dirty mouth you have.”
“It isn’t funny! We’re screwed! And you’re shot! Shit!”
Connor grunted, managing to sit up. “Shh, it’s all right. I have the money.”
“What?”
He nodded next to him at a duffel bag. “I fell on it when that guy shot me. He couldn’t find it because it was under me. We got the money, baby.”
“But the cops!”
He winked. “Let me take care of them.”
“What do you mean?” Addison asked, not liking the sound of this at all.
“I’m dying.”
“Shut up. You shut up right now.”
“Addy, it’s true.”
“No it’s not. Stop talking like that.”
“I was shot twice, Addy. Come on. Look at me. I don’t have much longer. You know it just as much as I do. Don’t let my death be a waste.”
“Connor!” Addison couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She wrapped her arms around him, careful not to squeeze too tight. “No!”
“Dammit, Addy, just listen to me. You still have a chance to get out of this. They don’t even know who’s here. You can escape. There’s a window over there. I don’t think we have long before that’s on fire, too. We gotta hurry. I’ll distract them.”
“No…”
Connor sighed and looked her in the eyes. “Please. Do this for me, okay? Take this money and go. Leave this goddamn town, leave this whole fucking state. It’s bad luck. Go to California. I want you to meet me in the ocean. I want you to breathe it all in, because that salty air you’ll smell, that’s me. I want you to live happily ever after, all right? Touch your heart and you’ll feel me there. You won’t ever be alone again, okay? Be free, Addy. Please. Your time is now.”
He kissed her one last time.
“I love you, Addy.”
“I love you, too…”
Retrieving the snubnose, Connor stumbled to his feet and headed out the front door. His words echoed in her head:
Don’t let my death be a waste.
Sobbing, Addison picked up the duffel bag and ran for the window, dodging the spots completely swallowed by fire. She had barely managed to step one foot out onto the snow before she heard the first gunshot. It startled her and it took everything she had in her not to scream. It was followed by another set of blasts. She knew what had happened and it damn near killed her right then and there.
Addison took off through the backyard with the duffel bag of cash slung over her shoulder, climbing over the fence and fleeing into the snowy forest beyond.
She did not look back.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Hey, Where’s the Cream Filling?
Maddox drove well over the designated speed limit. His hand was swollen and throbbing. He had burned it pretty badly. The pink cotton mask melted into his flesh felt like someone had tossed a cup of acid into his face. He had killed two people. He was broke. His brother was dead. His daughter was doomed.
All in all, he was having one hell of a day.
Maddox cranked up “Master of Puppets” on the radio as he raced into the city. The music vibrated him in his seat. He turned the volume louder. The light was red but he didn’t give a shit. He kept going. Fuck it, he thought, and then a semi-truck smashed into the side of him.
One second he was driving and the next there was a terrible loud bang and the Hummer was rolling across the road, smashing random automobiles. Maddox couldn’t see—just a quick blur that ended when the Hummer crashed through the large picture window of a Macy’s.
The Hummer finally came to a stop halfway inside the clothing store, flipped upside down. Maddox was sprawled out against the windshield, blood gushing from his nose.
He climbed out through the shattered passenger window. His back cracked with a jolt of thunder, sending pain shooting up his spine. Random shoppers cowered in the corner of the store, staring at the wrecked scene with a mixture of terror and fascination.
Maddox gave them all a once-over, brushed a few sheets of glass off his chest, and shrugged. “My bad,” he said, and walked around the Hummer and onto the sidewalk outside to inspect the damage.
He whistled and a glob of blood shot from his mouth. The semi-truck had managed to stop a few feet after colliding with the Hummer. The driver was walking around, dazed but seemingly uninjured. Maddox noted with some amusement that on the side of the trailer, in big red letters, it said: HOSTESS. To his utter delight, he saw a pile of Twinkies spilled out behind the truck. It was like waking up on Christmas morning.
The street was littered with the Hummer’s arsenal of weapons. The trunk had opened in mid-crash, vomiting out Winston’s private arsenal.
People were screaming and taking pictures with their cell phones. Maddox leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He rubbed his temple, attempting to fight off a sudden wave of vertigo. When he opened his eyes again he thought he was hallucinating.
A 1974 Cadillac Eldorado was slowly creeping down the road. With the BLUE23 license plate and everything.
Maddox blinked again. It was real. He recognized the driver’s bald head, too. Then she saw him as well, her jaw dropping. Numb as ice, Maddox pointed at her, silently ordering her to pull over. It was all he could do.
The lot lizard slammed her foot down on the pedal. And just as fast as the Cadillac appeared within vision, it was gone. Maddox could hear the evil bitch laughing even from where he stood.
He hurried out into the road and nearly tripped over a solid steel object. When he looked down to see what it was, he couldn’t help but smile. There was no time to go over the pros and cons of what he was thinking about doing, so he just said screw it and picked the weapon up.
He rested half the rocket launcher on his shoulder and peered through the sight. Once the aim was matched with the back of the absconding Cadillac, Maddox squeezed the trigger. A recoil of flames exploded from behind him as a heavy missile instantaneously shot out through the rocket launcher’s wide tube.
He followed the projectile’s journey with wonder. It whizzed through the air, coming within mere inches of bumping into multiple objects, until it finally connected with the bumper of his stolen car. He watched as a ball of fire blasted the back up in the air, sending it into a wild flip, the Cadillac skidding half a block with a series of metallic sparks shooting all over the place.
“Whoa,” Maddox muttered, and dropped the rocket launcher to his feet. He bent down, scooped up a handful of Twinkies from the immobile Hostess truck, then turned around and ran like hell, knowing anything in the Cadillac that was once living was now dead. Sadly, if there had been any of the money they’d stolen from him left, it was now burned to a humble pile of worthless ashes, too.
As he ran, he visualized his fist sinking into Vincent King’s fat face. He thought about beating him until there was nothing to beat. He’d find a can of that fucking Jericho and empty the whole canister down his throat. He would find his daughter and take her far away from here and they would finally be free to live life as it was meant to be lived.
As long as he didn’t screw it up, of course.
* * * * *
It didn’t take long for someone to spot a man covered from head to toe in blood running down a Chicago sidewalk.
The cop cruised alongside Maddox, matching his pace. He rolled down the passenger window. “Hey, you! Horror movie victim! Hey, I’m talking to you!”
Maddox glanced over his shoulder but refused to slow down. “Yeah?”
“Care to explain what the hell
happened to you?”
“I fell.”
“Is that so?”
“Basically.”
“You gotta name?”
“Probably!”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“You want to tell me your name?”
“Maddox Kane!” he shouted. “I was born April 7, 1977, opening day of Wrigley Field. We lost against the New York Mets, five to three.”
“Kane?” the officer asked, checking his computer. “Says here you have a warrant out for your arrest.”
“Tell me something I don’t know! Besides, they’re just Twinkies.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Says here you’re wanted for grand theft auto, that you stole a minivan…outside the prison where you’d just been released. Says they have the whole crime caught on tape. A certain Lionel Turner filed the report himself. Says here he’s very angry with you. Hey, man, watch it—we’re running out of road here.”
Maddox stopped with the police cruiser. He bent over, panting. “What about the other stuff?”
“What other stuff?”
“Uh, never mind.”
“Nice answer.”
“You going to arrest me?”
“Well, I am a cop. You gonna resist?”
Maddox straightened his back, thinking it over. He thought about Addison, he innocent little daughter. She was still at King’s. There was no way he was going to outrun this cop. He was at a lost. He could either try his odds at fighting the police, or talk them into working with him. Sure, he’d be going back to prison for a very long time, but at least there was a chance he could still save his little girl.
“Depends,” he said.
The cop stared at him curiously. “Depends on what?”
“Pick one—Sox or Cubs?”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Oh Yeah, Remember Him?
Toxicity Page 25
