Lee Goldberg - Ring of Knives

But Matt knew that he was who he chose to be. And who he chose to be was not that.

A light breeze blew through the fog, dispersing it for a moment and making the boughs lift and fall.

Rotting Jack took a step forward, away from the split pine, and Weston's head swayed like the lifeless appendage it was. The spell, if that's what it had been, was broken.

Matt blinked, his eyes watering at the stench.

Rotting Jack took another step, and another, pausing only to turn its torso this way and that, as if the carved face were capable of sight.

Then the moon began to slide back behind its cloud, and the headless corpse shambled into a darkness made of equal parts fog and shadow. But long after it vanished, Matt could hear the rustle of its relentless, dead feet softly crushing the ivy, needles, and pine cones that covered the forest floor.

It was the flashing blue and red lights that finally led them to the highway. Annica saw them first and pointed them out to Matt. Even then he had trouble focusing; his entire body ached, and his mind was going gray with fatigue. He stumbled twice, trying to hurry. In the end she took him by the arm to support him as they climbed over tree stumps and underbrush and finally came to the road.

The car had state trooper markings, and a trooper-wearing the Smokey the Bear hat-was on the other side of the highway, with a flashlight in hand, talking into a mobile phone. He was looking at a car that was upside down in a ditch, surrounded by smashed ferns. The macadam was littered with pieces of glass and red plastic. It was unclear what had caused the wreck.

"Wait here," Matt said. Halfway across the highway he started to get a tight feeling in his stomach. He saw that the flipped car was a red Toyota Corolla.

"Maloria? Maloria!" He ran painfully to the edge of the road, fell into a crouch. But it was too dark: he couldn't see if there was anyone trapped in the driver's seat. "The driver-is she still in there?"

"Sir," the trooper said, "I'm afraid she's gone to her reward."

"Oh my God," Matt said. "What happened?"

"Eyewitness testimony has it that she was leaving Carthage MHC at top speed with a flat tire in shreds, sparks flying off the rim. Apparently she was followed by an unidentified vehicle that drove her off the road."

Kneeling in the grass, Matt put a hand over his eyes. He couldn't believe it. After everything else: this. And he was the one who had sent her back to the parking lot, alone…

"Where was she taken?"

"Well, I don't rightly know, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was to that big Kanye West concert in the sky where all good little South Siders go."

Matt turned.

The trooper tipped his flashlight up, gruesomely highlighting his pointed chin, hook nose, emaciated cheeks, and deep-set eyes.

Mr. Dark grinned at him. "How's tricks, Matt?"

Matt rose quickly. Without even thinking, he whipped the carving knife from his belt and flung it.

The second before it hit him, Mr. Dark split into two Mr. Darks, and the knife sailed harmlessly between them.

"Asexual reproduction, Matt. Highly underrated."

"Get the fuck out of here."

"What'sa matter, handsome? Three's a crowd?"

Three . Matt flashed a look back to Annica. She was still standing there, arms crossed against her chest. He couldn't see her expression in the fog.

Mr. Dark's four eyes followed his. "Nice little morsel you've got there." He slid the flashlight farther under his chin, so that everything disappeared but his cruel, clown-slit mouth and the hook of his nose. He looked like the skull of Mr. Punch. "Tell you what," he whispered. "I know a nice little culvert near here. Lots of atmosphere. Whatta ya say we show her a night on the town, then split her fifty-fifty? Heads for me, tails for you." He gave Matt a whoremaster's grin. "Deal?"

"The only deal I'll make with you is this," Matt said. "Listen carefully: if you divide yourself into a cop and a construction worker and an Indian chief, and do the YMCA? I will give you fifty dollars, cash ."

Mr. Dark's red eyes got redder.

"You're pretty funny for a dead man, Matt."

"And you're pretty skinny for a windigo, or whatever the fuck you are." Matt took in Mr. Dark's hollow cheeks and his tight, white skin. Remembered Dindren saying, The Otherworld, Matt, has rules like ours. Under special circumstances, its citizens are required to answer truthfully .

Mr. Dark stared at him, the twin fires in his eyes glittering patiently. Like he's waiting for me to ask him something, Matt realized. But what?

The answer came to him immediately. Matt had to know if he was Mr. Dark's locus or his host. Had to. Dindren may have been batshit crazy, but if there was even one chance in a million that he was right, and there was a way to stop this carnage from happening, Matt had to take that chance-whatever the cost.

So… What was the question Dindren said should have been posed to the Grail? The one he'd have only one chance to ask?

Matt racked his brains. Jesus, of all the things to forget.

"I'm waiting." Mr. Dark's tongue flickered out. It was flat, black, and pointed. Matt glimpsed the back of his throat, which was lined with row upon row of sharp teeth, like a great white's.

Christ.

Suddenly it came to him, the Grail question: Whom do you serve?

He licked his lips.

"Got a question?" Mr. Dark asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do." Matt took a breath. "Who…?"

Matt paused a moment. Was he the locus or the host? A lot was riding on the answer. If locus, then he'd be condemned to a lifetime of wandering alone, trying to avert havoc in order to starve a parasitic demon that he couldn't ever hope to understand. If host…

"Who…?" he said.

If host, he'd have to kill himself. As soon as possible. Go find that carving knife, put it to his throat, and lose everything he knew, or would know, of the world. Including Janey. Because beat-up and crazy and frightened as he was, he was all that was left of her.

Feeling weaker now. The impossibility of not being weighing down his tongue.

"Who…?"

Mr. Dark raised a skeptical eyebrow. Lifted his hand and mimed knocking. In a deep purr: "Knock, knock, Matty-boy?" When Matt didn't answer, Mr. Dark answered for him, in a high, childish voice: "Who's there, Mr. Dark?"

One more chance. Matt, shaking, forced it out. "Who…?"

Mr. Dark, with a wide-eyed, exaggerated wink: "Who who ?"

Hoo-ooh, OOH-HOOH!

Hoo-ooh, OOH-HOOH!

Matt looked up. High above him: an owl in a tree, with glowing red eyes. It spread its black wings and took flight.

Matt looked back down. Mr. Dark was gone.

He turned slowly in a circle, staring into the foggy dark.

Nothing.

Dindren's words came to mind: Ask the right question … You will not get a second chance.

Matt's jaw tightened as he stared into the black void around him, and the highway that ran endlessly through it.

"All right, you fucker," he said. "We do it the hard way."

# # # # # #

"Who were you talking to?" Annica asked when he crossed back over the highway.

"You mean the trooper?"

"What trooper?"

He looked at her, then looked away. "Do me a favor, kid: just stick out your thumb."

# # # # # #

An eighteen-wheeler filled with Borden milk squealed to a stop five minutes later. The driver was delighted to see Annica waving him down. He was less delighted to see Matt trudge up behind her, looking like something that had crawled out of a crypt. But when Annica made it clear that they were a package deal, he finally relented.