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“What have you done?” he screams. “Kenny. Kill this fool.”
But Kenny is having fun showing Juliette around the House of Knives. Which gives me an idea.
“Dan, did you know that I was the first living mortal ever to set foot in Hell?”
“What?” he says. “Someone help me!”
“I made history, Dan. Everybody down there remembers me now. And you know what? Now they’re going to remember you and Juliette: the other two living humans in Hell. Enjoy your fame.”
I start to throw him into the spinning vortex of blades with Kenny and Juliette but get a better idea. I give Dan to Janet. They looked shocked, then smile.
“Am I allowed to do this?” they say.
I shrug.
“It’s your choice. If you want me to put Danny back together again, I’m fifty percent sure I can do it. But ask yourself this: Who’s he going to sacrifice next time?”
Janet looks at Dan’s confused, dumb animal face and says, “I want to say that I’m not doing this because you tried to kill me. I want to be bigger and better than that. But I’m not. I’m doing this because you tried to kill me.”
Holding Dan by the hair, Janet tosses him like a bowling ball into the House of Knives, where he’s gobbled by the blades that will puree him, Kenny, and Juliette forever. Or until the place falls apart. I mean, it’s a complicated contraption, and because of the war, nothing in Hell is getting a lot of maintenance. Still, for however long it is, Ken and the doom twins will have a cozy vacation house in the Land of the Dead. Just like they always wanted.
Nearby, Manimal Mike yells, “Maria!”
I look around and see Mike hunkered protectively over Vidocq as Samantha runs out of the cavern. Vidocq is still, with the phurba buried deep in his back.
Mike yells, “I’m sorry, man. I’m sorry.”
I curse and grab Vidocq, Janet, and Mike and drag them into a shadow.
We come out in Allegra’s clinic. A few civilians and Lurkers sit on plastic chairs in the waiting area, but I blow past them and straight into the exam room. Allegra is inside alone and at first laughs when she sees me.
“Do you ever knock, you drama queen?”
Then she sees Vidocq.
“Oh god. Get him on the table.”
I lay him facedown so Allegra gets a good look at his back and the phurba.
I say, “I left the blade in so he wouldn’t bleed out.”
Allegra grabs a pair of medical scissors and begins cutting off Vidocq’s coat.
“You did the right thing,” she says.
“What can I do to help?”
“What’s that in his back?”
“It’s called a phurba. A ritual knife.”
“What kind of rituals were people using it for?”
“Calling back the dead.”
As she cuts Vidocq’s shirt off she says, “Shit.”
With his shirt gone, the wound looks even worse. The skin around the blade looks shriveled and crisp. Less like a knife wound and more like someone shoved a red-hot poker into him. Blackened veins radiate out from the entry point and spread all over his back. More burns or a spreading poison from the blade?
