The Witch of the Wood
Page 23
Both women were staring at each other in bald hatred, and the one on the left with the bleeding nostril suddenly surrendered to a look glazed over with realization.
“Rudy,” she said. “The riddle can’t be solved here like this, don’t you see? Even the fear of guns is a shared aspect between us. We’re so terrified to miss we can’t take the initial shot. And we’re dead equal in our passions for you, at the same time lost together in the darkness of your betrayals. We could go on like this forever. In effect, we’re the same woman now.”
She took the gun covering Rudy and brought it beneath her chin.
“I think I can conquer this fear of pulling the trigger, Rudy. And this way, I won’t miss.”
“No!” he shouted, and the report of the pistol cut his plea to the quick. The bullet burst through the back of Caroline’s head in a red plume that spattered the gun lockers, and Rudy promptly fired at the woman on the right. It shattered her breastplate in a bloody implosion and she fell hard on her bottom, skidding from the weighty import, her face coming back to true form—blooming rounder and wider. By the time she banged against the steel doors she’d fully transformed back to Patricia, double chin, head lolling, eyes fluttering. Rudy stepped in and stood over her, guns aimed and ready. She focused on him then and managed,
“I always just wanted you to love me, Rudy.”
Her lashes did their final flamenco, then fell wide open on eyes rolled back showing all their whites.
The Lord doth not kill directly. Unless he has to.
Rudy moved off. He wanted to cry, but couldn’t. He wanted to shake with emotion, scream with it, but didn’t. He was cold and dry and something looked odd, familiar, a blurred context from before brought to sudden perspective. It was a crack in the basement floor, a long one in a squiggle shape, the two women lying dead across the top side of it. He went over to Caroline’s body and lifted her shirt, exposing the hip. There on her skin, the tattoo with the squiggled line was raised on her skin, highlighting the two dots above it. Slowly, they canceled each other out, fading, disappearing, this time for good.
Chapter 4: Wanderer
Citizens:
There is a man named Rudy Barnes who wanders by night in the company of wolves. He is wanted by the unified authorities, but has so far evaded capture. Some believe he has been given temporary shelter (and asylum) by renegade groups of Ancient Sisters, those who assimilated before the identification and tagging laws went into effect, and others insist that he lives in the wild. Regardless, there is no other malignant entity at work in the tri-state area, residing in the underground piping system, exercising some kind of hazardous control over rodents. It is believed by Washington experts and Harvard sociologists that this demon-myth was created by Professor Barnes as a way to rationalize his own actions through tainted comparison, therefore altering (and lowering) the standard of ethics formed in this great and powerful land. It is important for us to recognize such dangerous propaganda and to rest assured that there is no, repeat, no monster living in the sewers.
Professor Rudolph Benjamin Barnes, however, is a dangerous fugitive who wears a mask and cloak, and during this time of rebuilding he has been reported to have come upon groups of militia, ritualistic cults bent on the continued purification of the human bloodline. Similar to the Massacre at Runnemede Meadow, this criminal has met these extremists with deadly force. This coincides with a lethal wave of copycats, lone gunmen who have recently surfaced nationwide, claiming when incarcerated to be prophets following the path and word of the Fluttering Cross.
Please know that this brand of reciprocal violence is considered terroristic on both sides and will not be tolerated.
Please know that all temporary camps and mobile developments have been deemed humane by the U.S. Department of Housing, and all Ancient Sisters are hereby required by federal law to register at one such county facility by the end of the work week at midnight.
Please know that any natural-born citizen who escorts an Ancient Sister to one such facility will receive a three percent tax credit retroactive to this fiscal year. Any natural-born citizen who reports criminal activity in the form of communal gatherings of Ancient Sisters outside the boundaries of state-legislated space will receive a month’s worth of food credits, and wood chipper vouchers.
Please know that any Ancient Sister masquerading as a natural-born citizen will be immediately arrested for treason.
Please know that even though there is anatomical evidence suggesting that the Ancient Sisters once possessed abnormally rapid birth cycles, we have determined that their abrupt divorce from the grain has triggered a sort of counter-evolutionary trait indicating a more standard nine-month gestation period. Nevertheless, physical contact between Ancient Sisters and natural-born citizens will be considered a felony (until our scientists have completed the above-mentioned studies), and all Ancient Sisters must undergo pregnancy tests on the third of each month. In conjunction with the former, all citizens must register according to Social Security number for a routine physical on the tenth of each month at appointed sites listed on our web page by state and township. For more details about various post-test treatments and patient rights, see section 49I43 of the Federal Fertility Code, Hall of Records, Washington D.C., by appointment only.
Please know that in the time of this great crisis, cooperation, order, and subservience are of the utmost importance. After the winter, when the roads and properties have been cleared and the damages assessed, financial recovery plans will be instituted and restitutions made. It is projected that by mid-May, funds allocated for national infrastructure will be freed up for the purpose of constructing a settlement province for the Ancient Sisters consisting of vast landscape areas in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and the Dakotas. Mandatory relocation will begin in the latter part of the summer.
In all, we wish to extend our appreciation in advance for your patience, your kindness, your willingness to sacrifice what had been your well-deserved and expected comforts, and especially your ability to remain calm and rational within a paradigm of national, patriotic obedience.
And finally, if you happen to see the man with his mask of gauze and cloak of canvas, please do not approach him. Immediately inform your nearest agency of law enforcement and rest assured that the authorities will prevail.
For Rudy Barnes is dangerous, but he is not any sort of a god.
And for all his guns and dogs and video clips, he’s just a man in the end, bound to the night, and destined to walk at the fringe on his own.