The Kill Society (Sandman Slim)(68)

“Okay,” I croak. “I’ll try.”

“You must do more than that,” says the Magistrate. “Help me up. We will go to shore immediately.”

I help him onto the deck, where he uses Charon’s staff to steer the ships out of the deep water to shore.

Alice comes over.

“Nice trick back there,” she says.

“Thanks,” I rasp.

“Oh, you poor thing. You’ve ruined your voice. Let me see if I can help.”

She puts a hand on my throat and mumbles a few words.

“How’s that?”

The pain is gone.

I look around at the havoc. People seem happy that we’re heading to shore. Without me making half of them uncomfortable, the dog pack seems happy, too. Cherry lifts her respirator enough to sip a beer as she talks to the big blond angel.

I take Alice aside.

“Have you ever heard of Wormwood?”

“No. What is it?”

“Mortals. Very bad people. They make money on everybody else’s misery. They might be arranging these attacks.”

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. I need you to keep an eye on things. Angels are good snoops. If anyone acts strange—well, stranger than a bunch of idiots on a mission from God—let me know.”

“Okay. Do you know why we’re heading for shore?”

“I’m going bowling with Death.”

“No. I mean, do you really know?”

“Seriously—I’m going to meet Death. We’re sort of friends.”

“I’d like to think you’re lying, but I know you aren’t.”

“Nope.”

“Do I have to tell you to be careful?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Be careful anyway.”

We stand by the side of the ship watching the shore get closer.

She says, “Do you ever wonder what it would have been like if you didn’t go to Hell and I didn’t die?”

“Only a few thousand times.”

“We would have made funny old people.”

“We would have.”

“Candy is a lucky girl.”

“Not so lucky at the end.”

“No one is lucky at the end.”

Alice holds my hand until we reach shore. A lot of confusing feelings are coming back to me, but like my memories of Candy, this isn’t the time or place for them. I push them all away. For now.

When we reach shore I pick a tunnel at random and go inside to look for Death.



The passage is made of the same shiny black stone as the rest of the mountain. It reflects light from the opening a long way in. I don’t have to use a match until I come to a sharp right turn. By the time I use two more, the tunnel ends at a smooth wall. I light another match and look around. I suppose if I was looking to die, this might be a nice, dramatic location. I’m sure it would look great in a forensic photo and on the dust jacket of a bestselling true-crime exposé. But all that will have to wait. I’m not looking to die. I’m looking for the prick that makes people die. But this seriously doesn’t feel like the place. I’m about to back out the way I came when I look up and see a patch of dirt. Dry roots hang down a few inches. I stand on a rock outcropping and touch it. The dirt crumbles in my hand and a few inches of sky lights up the cave. Probing a little deeper, my hand lands on what feels like the lip of the hole. I jump from the outcrop and shove my other hand up until it finds the edge. Then I pull myself up.

I swear climbing out of the ground feels exactly like the first time I escaped from Hell. I half expect to come up in Hollywood Forever cemetery. But no such luck.

I’m back on that little slice of parched Heaven we call the Tenebrae. Right back where I started from again. The story of my life. I look around at where I came out.

I’m at the base of one of the spiked mountains that the Magistrate insists are rocks. There’s nothing between me and the next set of mountains but the remains of an old fifties-style gas station with a general store attached. The roof of the store has collapsed, but it’s better than nothing.

I use the golden blade to dig a big X in the ground so I can find my way back, then head for the store. Being back in the desert feels funny after being on the river just a few minutes ago. I can feel the water being squeezed out of my system with every step. My boots crunch on pulverized rock, so that each step sounds like I’m walking on snow. I wonder if it ever snowed in the Tenebrae. This place might not be so depressing with a few flurries coming down. I remember a funny little movie, CQ. There’s a scene toward the end where it’s snowing on the moon. It was weirdly pretty. If Mr. Muninn can make this place such a brain-numbing shit pit, he should be able to turn it into something a little less stifling. I’ll have to mention it the next time I see him.

I reach the general store in about twenty minutes, give or take a decade. I’ve given up trying to tell time out here. The X is good and clear from the front of the store, so I go in.

The place is as much of a wreck as it looked from the mountain. However, after just a few minutes of looking, I find an unbroken bottle of Moxie cola and a box of very stale chocolate donuts. I take them outside under the gas station’s carport and use the golden blade to draw a magic circle in the dirt. Nothing elaborate. Just some simple summoning hoodoo. Then I sit in the middle with my bounty and wait.