31. Maggie in the Dark (D1)

__ Not satisfied that Munson's rapidly-cooling and breathless body was beyond reviving, Todd Namer straddled him and brought the barrel of the .22 down to his staring lifeless eye.
__ A shot, then another, crack-echoed through Palley's Woods. They weren't loud shots, the .22 being smaller than the .357, but the woods were quiet enough that they may as well have been cannon fire.
__ Todd tilted his head, admiring his handy work. Even if this guy somehow survived three shots to the neck and two to the skull, he wouldn't be able to see without any eyes. "Good enough," he smiled.
__ Turning his attention to the idling vehicle and its bulleted windshield, Todd thought of the Gypsy girl inside, bleeding to death -- or dead -- from the two shots he had fired through the glass. The shooting out of the eyes, he decided, would be his "calling card." Everybody needs one, he smiled, especially in this new dark age with no daylight.
__ He approached the passenger side and tugged at the handle. The door came open easily but not because it was pushed by a lifeless body within. In fact there was no body to be found at all. The two shots ripped ragged holes through the car's passenger seat and into the back seat as well, but there was no body to slow down the slugs. Climbing into the warm car interior, Todd looked under the seats, in the back. Nothing. No sign of the Gypsy.
__ Todd was now a slick and oily combination of excited and disappointed. He was disappointed because the fortune teller who insulted him last night was missing. He was excited because the anticipation of their final and deadly meeting gave him a charge.
__ "Besides," he muttered to himself, "I didn't want it to be this quick anyway."
__ Leaving the eyeless guy and the filthy hard corpse to lie together until they were covered by snow, Todd got behind the wheel of Munson's car, put it in reverse, and left the woods behind.

__ From behind the seclusion of a thick oak, Maggie watched, shivering. As the car's headlights bobbed and faded from sight, a deep blackness closed in around her.
__ Leaving her alone with the two dead men.
__ She smiled.

__ Ardy drove the Datsun slowly along the icy road while Doug whimpered curled in a ball in the passenger seat. Like Munson the night before, he could only cry uncontrollably and repeat "No, no, no," or "Why? Oh, Lord, why?"
__ She knew the anguish he had experienced, though she couldn't understand why Doug had been in hell after his death. His life had been a righteous one -- or at least as righteous as a mortal life can be. Perhaps, she thought, it had something to do with the dark specter that had possessed him.
__ "Doug, honey," she tried.
__ His response was a brief noise that could have been an acknowledgment or a jolt of surprise at her sudden address.
__ "Doug, I know what you were through. I was there myself, remember? With Munson."
__ Doug's tears refreshed and he shook with sobs, "Oh, Ardelene, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you went through that."
__ "I know, honey, I know. But I'm out of it now, and so are you. We both are."
__ She let another forty or fifty feet of road pass beneath them before pushing further. "Doug. What can you tell me about the thing that had possessed you?"
__ To Ardy's surprise, Doug spoke right up without hesitation. He said, "It was an Alterling."
__ "Alterling? What's that?"
__ "I don't know. I just know that's what it called itself inside my head." His tone dropped and he said, "It gripped my soul with its teeth."
__ "What?"
__ Doug shook himself out of a trance. "W-Where are we?"
__ Ardy squinted out the window. Streaks of snow flashed in the headlights. The woods around them were growing white between the shadows as the snow stuck. The time on the Datsun's dashboard clock read five minutes to noon, but it may as well have been midnight. "I'm sorry. I have no clue."
__ "Stop at the next cross street so we can get our bearings."
__ "Okay." Then, "Are you all right?" She risked a glance in his direction. He was sitting up, staring straight ahead, and had a look of determination in the corner of his eye. Ardy had never seen Doug look so.... Fierce.

[** HOLD: The Munson Chapters will continue next month after I've had time to do some outlining. In the meantime, stay up-to-date with my 'blog: "Baby Blue Spider" at www.babybluespider.blogspot.com. Later! **]