But he’d gone through so many of the girls. They didn’t all end up dead, but none of them came out of it whole.
“She wanted to go to film school,” Pandora says. “She wanted to make stupid indie movies with lots of long pauses and meaningful imagery.” She reaches forward and pulls on Allers’ flesh, exposing his innards. His blood stains her gloves.
I kiss the back of Pandora’s neck.
“She never got the chance to do anything. She was an easy target, an easy victim,” River says, his voice as hard as his expression. “Butyou didn’t know she was PandoraPavone’s best friend. Would that have changed anything?”
Allers can’t respond.
He’s too focused on the pain as Pandora pulls out his intestines and piles them onto his chest.
That’s a sight.
There’s something wrong with me, too, if I’m not even slightly nauseated.
“Do you need this body part?” Pandora asks, reaching in. “What about this one? I’ve been dying to get to the dissection portion of my classes.” Her laugh rings out in the concrete room. “I skipped ahead. I’m a teacher’s pet like that.”
River snorts.
We all know she’s not a teacher’s pet by any means, but she’ll shine when itdoescome to the dissection parts of her classes.
She has plenty of experience, after all.
“Do you think there’s a heart inside his chest?” I ask.
Pandora’s hands still. “It would be ironic, wouldn’t it? If he has a heart, and I don’t.”
I raise my hand up to her chest and kiss the back of her neck again. “You have a heart, Pandora. That’s why you feel so strongly. That’s why you’ve been fighting to protect all these women. That’s why?—”
The door to our theater slams open.
I’m hoping for Asch.
It’s my father, though, with Isaac at his heels. No Sven.
“I wasn’t done with our conversation,” George says. His face is contorted into an ugly sneer. “But you’ve led me straight to the source of all our troubles.”
Pandora waves. A few drops of blood fly from her gloves onto my cheek. “Hi, Mr. Bouchard! Or George? You’re my sort of father-in-law. I should call you George.”
I let go of Pandora and get between her and my father. “No. The source of our problems isyou, Dad.”
River moves to stand beside me, both of us shielding Pandora from view… and from easy attack. I don’t know if my father will try anything, but I’m not willing to risk it. Apparently, River isn’t either.
Allers makes a gurgling sound that almost sounds likeGeorge.
As if my father can help him.
As if anyone can. Even if help arrived in the next few moments, I don’t think they’d be able to place his internal organs back where they belong.
He’s a dead man.
My father extends his arm and aims his gun.
Not at River, not at Pandora, but at me.
“Move, son,” George says. “I’m not going to let you destroy everything I’ve worked for.”
I guess that’s his answer.
