Tall Guy blocks the tendril with his crowbar. The smoke-person compresses, spiraling downward in a funnel of angry smoke, and the jar swallows it whole.
Tall Guy slams the lid on. The scrape of metal screwing into glass is the most normal thing I’ve heard in the last five minutes, and it almost makes me laugh. Except I think if I start laughing, I won’t be able to stop.
Old Man turns off the shop vac, and detaches the pipe from the base of the jar. Inside the jar, the smoke undulates, pressing against the glass like it might smash its way out.
“Got him,” Tall Guy says, like he just finished taking out the trash. “That was easy.”
Easy?
My brain is trying to process what I just saw, reaching for explanations. Carbon monoxide poisoning? Hallucinogenic drugs in the water supply? Undiagnosed brain tumor?
I lower Bob onto the asphalt between my legs, keeping my hands on either side of his shoulders. The man who attacked me lies on the ground a few feet away. He looks normal now. As normal as a man wearing business casual clothes can look while sleeping on the ground in the middle of a parking lot. The rope that almost ended me is coiled beside him like a dead snake.
There was something inside him. Something that came out of his mouth.
Something that’s now trapped in a jar.
What the actual fuckingfuckis that thing?
Old Man moves past me, his boots crunching on scattered salt as he kneels beside Slimeball’s unconscious body. I watch him tilt the man’s head to the side and press his fingers to the guy’s neck.
“He’s not regaining consciousness,” Old Man announces, like we’re in an episode of ER and not a Walmart parking lot where I just watchedsmokepour out of someone’smouth. “We need to get him to a hospital.”
Tall Guy pulls his goggles up onto his forehead. Pink rings circle his eyes where the goggles pressed into his skin.
He walks toward me.
Bob wriggles out of my arms and lunges at the guy with his teeth bared, and I catch him just in time. I can barely keep hold of him as he tries to get free, making a gnawing, gurgling vocalization for a few seconds before he breaks into a coughing fit. I think he pukes a drop of bile.
Tall Guy crouches in front of me, keeping his hands open as he looks down at Bob.
“It’s okay,” he tells Bob. “I’m not going to hurt your mom.”
Bob does a full-body shake, then bares his teeth.
Tall Guy lifts his eyes to me. “How badly are you hurt?”
My mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Tall Guy’s eyes are too green to be real, like someone Photoshopped them onto his face. I catch some details: black hair falling across his forehead, pale skin flushed red from the cold, shoulders so broad they block out the streetlights behind him.
“We’ll take you to a hospital,” he says, reaching for me. “Come on, let’s get you up.”
The hand coming toward me flips a switch in my nervous system.
I swing.
My fist connects with his jaw hard enough that the impact reverberates up my arm. Pain explodes across my knuckles, buthe barely moves. Just rocks back on his heels, touching his jaw with the back of his hand.Oh no no no.
“I’m—” The word scrapes against my throat like I’m coughing up a shard of glass. I try to swallow it. Bob coils, ready to spring for the guy’s throat, and I hold him down just in time. “You just—And my brain—Are you okay?”
Tall Guy touches his jaw, working it side to side. Then his mouth sets in a hard line. Yep, he’s pissed. “You’re an angry thing, aren’t you?”
‘Thing’ rubs me wrong, but I’m in no position to argue with him, given I justpunched him in thefacelike some feral parking lot creature.I haven’t punched someone since ninth grade, when I overheard a girl at school spreading a rumor that I was the one who killed my family. I had to move foster homes after that.
“Goodness, it appears you’ve found someone who shares your temperament,” Old Man says.
Tall Guy cuts him a glare, then turns his attention back to me. “We’re not the ones who tried to kill you.”
“Yeah, well, you’re also the ones reenacting a scene fromThe Exorcistin a public parking lot, so forgive me if my threat assessment is alittlebroken right now.”
