“Look, look!” Sue Jean said, clapping her hands. “Now do the Ferris wheel!”
Earl smiled, and the Ferris wheel began to turn faster. The screams of the riders were drowned out by the creaking of the wheel, the roar of the airplanes, the whir of the carousel, the high-pitched whine of the generator, and the screams of everyone else.
Matt didn’t want to kill Sue Jean and Earl. But they were as good as dead already, puppets of Mr. Dark now. They’d lost any humanity they’d once possessed.
Earl’s attention turned from the Ferris wheel back to Matt and Gloria. It was as if he knew that Matt was about to make a move. If he did, he wasn’t bothered. Instead of killing Gloria, he started to fire his pistol at random into the crowd.
Matt charged forward. He felt rather than saw Gloria move too. He didn’t know what she was up to, and he didn’t have time to worry about it.
Earl had saved one bullet for him, but as his finger tightened on the trigger, Matt swung the ax in a short arc and knocked the pistol from his hand.
Earl smiled and raised his arms. The Ferris wheel spun so fast that it was almost a blur. Still smiling, Earl lowered his arms and started to say something to Matt.
Whatever it might have been, he didn’t get it out. Matt swung the ax again and took Earl’s head right off his shoulders.
The head bounced across the ground and stopped near the carousel. Because of the confusion and destruction there, no one even noticed it.
Earl’s torso fell forward and lay still. Matt looked around for Sue Jean.
She was struggling across the muddy ground, reaching for the pistol. Her progress was slowed by the fact that Gloria was on her back, pulling her head up by the hair.
It was a convenient pose, and Matt didn’t waste it. Sue Jean looked up as Matt reached her. He swung the ax like a baseball bat, hitting her in the center of her forehead with the butt. Her forehead caved in like cardboard, shoving splinters of bone into her brain.
Gloria jumped aside and stood up, a horrified look on her face as she brushed brain matter off her robes.
Matt kept right on going. Earl’s death hadn’t changed anything as far as the rides were concerned. They still spun wildly out of control, and Matt had to stop them. All four were connected to one large generator, which was now howling with the strain. Matt’s plan was to cut the cables.
The cables were as thick as Matt’s arm, but he knew his ax would cut them, dull though it might be when the job was done.
He chopped through the first cable. Sparks flew and the carousel music died. The smell of burning insulation filled the air. The second stroke stopped the Ferris wheel, the third stopped the airplanes, and the fourth took care of the bumper cars. Most people rushed to rescue their children and to help with the injured. A few yelled into their cell phones.
Matt threw the switch on the generator, and the noise level decreased further.
It was over.
He looked at Gloria for confirmation of what he was feeling and she nodded. He trusted her senses.
Matt could now hear the sirens of police cars in the distance, drawing near. He wasn’t inclined to stick around and see what happened when the police arrived. There would be too much explaining to do, too many corpses.
He took her hand and headed for the trailers.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
When they got inside his trailer, he closed the door and grabbed his duffel bag.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Changing out of these bloody clothes, getting what little I’ve got, and leaving,” he said, and stripped off his shirt.
“You saved the carnival, Matt, and countless lives. You’re a hero. You don’t have to run.”
“You don’t get it,” he said, tossing the bloody shirt and putting on a new one from his duffel bag. “When I’m around, people die. And they don’t die easy. If I stay, this is only the beginning. There will be more death. It’s better if I leave and draw Mr. Dark away from here before that happens.”
“What if he wants you to leave?”
Matt looked at her and thought about what Mr. Dark had said to him in that short, frozen moment.
It’d be no fun without you, Matt.
He hadn’t had time to stop and think about it before.
But now…he got the message.
It was Matt being there that had brought the carnage upon the carnival.
And Mr. Dark was offering to go if Matt would too.
A truce, of sorts.
But why?
“Because of what you being here has brought out in me,” Gloria said as if reading his thoughts. Then again, she probably was. “Maybe this gift of mine scares him.”
“It’s not a gift,” Matt said. “It’s a curse.”
It was now painfully clear to Matt that Mr. Dark had set out to destroy the carnival and kill as many people as he could…just to show Matt what it would cost him to stay with Gloria, to continue to imbue her with powers with his presence.
He’d given Matt a vision of the future.
And it was soaked with blood.
And it would be Matt’s fault.
Oh, look what’s happened. My fingers are all sticky…and so are yours.
“If you stay, between your sight and mine, you’d be twice as powerful against him,” Gloria said. “Together we might be able to beat him.”
“Or I can go,” Matt said, “and perhaps your visions will go away too.”
He could save her from his fight, from his fate.
And Mr. Dark gets what he wants…
“Or I can go with you,” she said, but without much conviction.
But Matt had made his decision, not one based on winning or losing.
“What you saw today, what you experienced, I’ve gone through before. Again and again. I’ve killed so many people I’ve lost count. I carry that with me every day.” Matt wiped the blood off his blade with his dirty shirt and shoved the ax into his bag. “That’s the curse. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
“It’s my choice,” she said.
“No, it’s not,” Matt said and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry I brought this horror into your life. I hope now that it’s gone for good. Take care of yourself.”
He picked up the bag and walked out the door. She stood in the doorway of his trailer and looked after him.
And as he walked away, she felt the darkness lifting and she whispered her gratitude to him for leaving her behind.
Matt stuck to the side streets and, over the next few hours, made his way to the edge of town. There was a truck stop just inside the town limits, but he walked on past and down the moonlit, two-lane highway. He wasn’t looking for company or even for a ride.
But he felt a presence beside him nonetheless.
“I’m going to beat you,” Matt said, staring at the seemingly endless ribbon of road ahead.
“How are you going to do that if you fold your hand before all the cards are dealt?” Mr. Dark asked.
“By changing the rules of the game.”
Mr. Dark laughed. “You don’t even know what game you’re playing.”
“So tell me,” Matt said.
But he didn’t get an answer.
He knew he wouldn’t get it from Mr. Dark. But it was out there, somewhere.
And he would find it.
About the Author
Bill Crider was born in Mexia, Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he received a PhD in English. After teaching in public schools and at the college level for many years, he retired to write full time. The author of over seventy-five novels and an equal number of short stories, Bill is credited by Dead Man creators Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin as a major influence on their series.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
&
nbsp; CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Carnival of Death Page 7