Graham Masterton - Death Mask

“Left,” she said, although she didn’t need to, because Deputy was already tugging Frank around to the left. He was straining even harder on his leash, so that he sounded as if he were strangling.

The corridor was lined with black-and-white framed photographs of thunderstorms and city skylines and women half concealed in shadow. At the very end of it, there was a black door marked “Darkroom.” Deputy rushed straight up to it and barked, and wouldn’t stop barking.

“Sissy?” said Frank.

“Victoria’s in there,” said Sissy. “She’s right on the other side of that door.”

Frank wound Deputy’s leash more tightly around his fist. “Trouble is, so is Red Mask.”

“What do we do now?” asked Molly. “We have to get her out of there! Victoria! Victoria! It’s Mommy!”

Frank touched his finger to his lips to quiet her. “All we can do is play it his way for now.”

Trevor said, “I think we should kick the goddamned door down and rush him. Come on, there are three of us, right? — and only one of him.”

“There were ten SWAT officers, Trevor, and two FBI agents, and only two of him.”

“Dad — that’s our daughter in there! And that’s your granddaughter, too! We can’t just leave her in there with that psycho!”

Abruptly, Deputy stopped barking and backed away from the darkroom door. Detective Bellman unholstered his gun and cocked it again.

“What is it, boy?” Frank asked him. “What’s wrong?”

They heard a key turning in the lock, and the darkroom door swung open. Deputy’s fur bristled and he lowered his head and growled. Inside the darkroom, only a red lamp was shining, so that at first they could see nothing more than a silhouette. A bulky silhouette, with a squarish head. But in front of this silhouette, there was a smaller, paler figure.

“Well, well, well,” said Red Mask, thickly. “So you came in force, Molly? You brought your own little army?”

“Give me back my daughter!” Molly screamed at him. She tried to lunge forward, but Trevor took hold of her arm and held her back. “Give me back my daughter, you monster!”

Detective Bellman said, “Hands on your head, mister! Drop whatever weapons you’re carrying, and down on your knees!”

“I don’t think so,” said Red Mask. With that, he stepped out of the darkroom into the corridor, pushing Victoria out in front of him. He was gripping her left shoulder and holding one of his butcher knives across her throat.

“Always such a waste, don’t you think, to spill a child’s blood? Think of all the years they might have had. But revenge is revenge, Molly. And justice is blind. No rest for the wicked, don’t you know. No mercy for the innocent, neither.”

“Let her go,” Molly whispered. “Please let her go.”

Victoria looked very pale, and her eyelashes were stuck together with dried tears. But Red Mask was holding his knife so close to her throat that she couldn’t lower her chin and she didn’t dare to speak.

“You created me, Molly. You drew me in the image of a real man. So I am that man, and a man is an independent being, sacred unto God, no matter how he was created. So you have no right — you have no right — to come hunting for me with this dog of yours, and these raggle-taggle friends of yours — seeking to destroy me.”

Red Mask was breathing deeply now and working himself up into a righteous rage . “What you are trying to do is kill your own creation! What you are trying to do is no less than abortion!”

Sissy said, gently, “Let the little girl go. She hasn’t done anything to you.”

“Oh, no? Why should she live, while I die? I’m one of God’s children, too.”

“Ah, but you’re not. You never were, and you never will be.”

“Get out of my way,” said Red Mask. He began to push Victoria toward them, so that they had to back off. “Today, I get justice. Today, I get revenge. Today, I get the respect that I deserve.”

“You don’t deserve any respect, you bastard,” Trevor told him. “You’re nothing but a butcher.”

Sissy said, “That’s truer than my son knows. You are a butcher. In fact, you’re — ”

“Shut up!” Red Mask roared at her. “Shut the fuck up! One more word from any of you and I’ll cut this kid’s throat right in front of you!”

He kept advancing along the corridor with Victoria in front of him, and they kept backing away, although Deputy kept snarling and pulling at his leash. Out of the side of his mouth, Detective Bellman murmured to Frank, “I could get a head shot, Frank. Right between the eyes.”

But Frank said, “No. No way. I don’t think even that would kill him. And he would only have to fall wrong, and — ” He made a slicing gesture across his Adam’s apple.

They retreated all the way along the corridor until they reached the elevators.

Molly said, “Please — if I promise not to come after you — ”

“Oh, you won’t be coming after me. I can guarantee that.”

“I’ll do anything you want. Just let her go, I’m begging you.”

Red Mask pushed the button for the left-hand elevator. The doors opened, and they saw that there was no elevator car there, only an empty shaft with greasy steel cables. A warm draft was blowing softly down it, whistling a sad, reflective tune.

“You want me to let your daughter go?” said Red Mask, hoarsely. “Sure, I’ll let your daughter go.”

Oh my God, thought Sissy. The card. The girl falling down the well, like Alice in Wonderland. The card predicted it. He’s going to drop her down the elevator shaft .

“No!” screamed Molly, but Red Mask forced Victoria right to the very edge of the elevator shaft, still holding the knife against her throat.

“Let her go, you bastard!” Trevor yelled at him, but Red Mask slid the knife across Victoria’s throat and drew a thin line of blood.

“I told you! Didn’t I tell you? Shut the fuck up! One more word from any of you, and it’s down she goes!”

Victoria made a pathetic squealing noise, but Red Mask snarled at her, “That goes for you, too, my darling. Not a word.”

Then he said, “ Molly created me. Molly can destroy me. Now, I can’t have somebody walking the world who has the power to destroy me, can I? But no creation has the power to destroy his creator, does he? — even me? I can’t destroy you, Molly, any more than you can destroy God. There’s only one person who can destroy you, Molly, and that’s you.

“So this is the choice. If you jump down this shaft here, Molly, your lovely young daughter will be spared. If you don’t, then it’s down she goes, and I won’t spare the rest of you, either.”

“You’re crazy!” Trevor screamed at him. “You’re completely and utterly crazy!”

Red Mask pushed Victoria until she was leaning even further over the elevator shaft. “I warned you! One more word and it’s down she goes!”

Molly stepped forward, with her head held high and both fists tightly clenched.

Trevor said, “No, Molly — No, you can’t!”

But Molly walked right up to Red Mask and stood in front of him and said, “If that’s what it’s going to take to save my daughter — all right, I’ll do it.”

Red Mask stared at her with his slitted eyes. His expression was unreadable, like a painted wooden figure by a desolate highway, far from anyplace at all.

He took a step back from the open elevator shaft. “There it is,” he told her. “That’s the way down. I have to tell you, this is almost like a religious experience. The fear. The elation.”