David Wiltse - Into The Fire

"You'll need it," Pegeen said, pushing the flashlight back.

"No, I won't," Becker said and he rose and ran towards the point of light still coming from the tunnel. Pegeen followed him with her flashlight beam and saw him dive into the darkness of the rock before she turned the light back on herself and the young woman next to her.

Aural was sitting up and staring with amazement.

"Damn," she said.

"Are you all right?" Pegeen asked, wondering at the same time if she was all right herself. She had been stabbed in the hip and the armpit, she realized, but neither blow would kill her.

"Honey," Aural said, "I ain't felt this good in weeks.

Who was that?"

"A federal agent."

"Is he going to catch him?"

"Oh, yes," Pegeen said. "He'll catch him."

"Will he kill him?"

Pegeen let the question hang although she thought the answer was yes.

"Sure looked like he was going to kill him," Aural continued. "Prettiest sight I ever saw."

Pegeen hitched her way across the surface towards Aural, testing the extent of her injuries.

"You're all right. You're safe now," Pegeen said.

Pegeen played the light down onto Aural's legs and gasped. Aural began to laugh and continued, unable to stop herself, and peal after peal of released hysteria echoed through the cavern.

Swann knew that Becker was behind him, but there was nothing he could do. The tunnel was too narrow to turn around; there was no way to bring the knife into play.

Every once in a while Becker would grab at Swann's foot and Swann would gasp and crawl with renewed panic.

Becker would laugh.

"Don't look back," Becker taunted. "Something's behind you."

Swann would burst forward with increased effort, and then when he slowed again, giving in to exhaustion, Becker's voice would whisper at him again like a parent teasing a child. "Going to… get you," he would say, then touch Swann on the foot.

As Swann jerked forward desperately, Becker's laughter filled the tunnel, so loud Swann could feel it pressing on him.

When they finally emerged into the bat chamber, Swann stumbled towards the mat of guano, then turned, slashing with the knife, but Becker was standing well back, out of range of the weapon, mocking Swann's futile attempts with a cruel grin.

"Go %away!" Swann cried, his voice cracking with tears. "Go away!"

Becker grinned, waiting.

Swann slashed the air again, lunging forward, and Becker glided away like a gymnast, at ease, enjoying the exercise.:'I'll kill you," Swann said.

'Do you think so?" He sounded calm, genuinely interested. "Or will I kill you?"

The blood from Becker's wound ran down the side of his face, giving his features a ghoulish cast in the yellow light of the lamp.

Swann didn't understand why Becker didn't attack. He could take away the knife in an instant, they both knew it.:'What do you want?" he demanded.

"There's no rush," Becker said. "It will all come clear to you in time."

Swann realized then that Becker would kill him, wanted to kill him, and was savoring the anticipation.

"I surrender," Swann said.

Becker only grinned and shook his head.

"I give up," Swann insisted. He threw the knife into the guano.

"Not an option," said Becker.

"you're an FBI agent. I give myself up to you. You have to take me into custody."

Becker's eyes danced with pleasure. Swann began to whimper.

"What do you want?" he cried.

"What did you want, Swann? What did you come down here for?":'Please," Swann begged. "Please." 'You said I had a reputation, remember? That's the reason you got in touch with me, that's the reason you pulled me into this in the first place. What did I have a reputation for, Swann?"

"They said you were-"

"What? They said I was what? Don't say 'fair,' nobody told you I was fair. What did they really say about me, Swann?"

"They said you were… worse."

"Worse?"

"Worse than they were."

"Worse than they were? Worse than the psychos like you? Well, if I were, they wouldn't be able to tell you, would they? They'd be dead.

But they weren't all dead, were they?"

Swann inched back towards the path through the guano.

"Were they?" Becker screamed. The bats roused at the noise and sent forth a squeal of their own. Several clumps and clusters broke loose from their roosts and swooped in panicked flight around the chamber before replanting themselves among the others.

Swann bent, cringing from the bats.

"No, they weren't all dead," he whimpered, trying to placate Becker with his voice.

"No," said Becker. "I didn't kill all of them. Just some of them…

Some dead; some not dead… Which one are you, Swann?"

"Not dead. Not dead."

"I warned you, Swann. I told you I never wanted to hear about you again … but here you are." Becker grinned wolfishly. He spoke in a taunting singsong. "Here we are together. Alone at last."

Becker slowly turned his palms upward, flexing his fingers. "Aren't you glad you brought me out of retirement?"

"Sweet Jesus," Swann prayed. "Put mercy in his heart."

Becker stepped towards Swann. "Are you ready?" His voice was a whisper.

Swann turned and ran towards the path in the guano.

He was several yards in before Becker hit him, lifting him with the force of the assault and plunging him face first into the shit. Swann struggled but Becker forced him down and down, his weight on Swann's back, his hands pushing his face deeper and deeper into the ooze.

Swann struggled because his body demanded it but his mind knew he was already dead. At the end he thought he was back in his cell with Cooper, the giant's body forcing itself upon him.

Pegeen found Becker sitting on the floor of the bat chamber with Swann's body lying at his feet. Pegeen had seen her cat look like that, a dead bird between its paws, looking to her for approval and feeling proud of itself.

As Aural crawled out of the golf sack in which Pegeen had dragged her through the tunnel, the dead bird twitched-Swann groaned and shifted his leg.

"I thought he was dead," said Pegeen.

"So did he," said Becker.

Aural struggled to her feet and looked down at Swann's prostrate form.

"Thought sure you'd kill him," she said to Becker, disappointed.

Becker shrugged. "Thought I would, too. If he would have died a little easier, I guess I would have."

"Are you all right?" Pegeen asked.

Becker grinned and in the light of the flashlight Pegeen could see that his spirits had lifted and his mood had changed completely. Where during the past several days he had been a man sunk into the darkness of his soul, he was now boyish, charming, a man at peace with himself For how long? she wondered. When will he turn into the werewolf again? What will trigger it? Will there be a warning? Thank God, she thought, surprising herself with the sudden understanding and relief she felt, thank God I won't be with him to find out. He says he loves Deputy Assistant Director Crist? Let her deal with him, and she has my sympathy.

As Pegeen and Becker conferred about the best way to get both Aural and Swann above ground, they heard a sudden whoosh of energy behind them. A brilliant light flared up in the cavern and they turned to see Swann ablaze. Aural stood over him, the can of lighter fluid still in one hand, the cigarette lighter in the other.

Pegeen moved forward to extinguish the flames, but Becker grabbed her and held her back.

"You'll only burn yourself," he said, his voice whispering in her ear.

Pegeen struggled until she noticed the look on Aural's face. The tortured woman regarded the fire at her feet with the beatific smile of a saint. Aural's lips moved, and it took Pegeen a moment to realize that she was singing, her voice barely audible over the roar of the flames and the squeals of the bats.