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My vision starts to tunnel. Everything’s black, then it’s white, brightening like film lighting on fire, like a projector gone mad. I can’t feel my hands or my toes anymore. I can’t feel a thing.
This is going to kill Grandpop. Lanzo’s going to lose his mind. My friends are going to sit at my funeral and wonder how I got myself strangled to death by a stranger at a carnival.
All my life’s been one long, empty struggle. I never did anything that felt good. I never had anything worth fighting for.
Now my pathetic, worthless existence is going to end.
Until abruptly, there’s air.
I’m gasping, choking.
Struggling onto my side, rolling away.
I gag, nearly throwing up into a puddle. I pull my knees to my chest, hardly aware of anything except the whoosh of my pounding heart in my ears.
Then arms around me. “You’re okay.” Lanzo’s voice. I blink rapidly, his face coming into focus. “You’re okay, you’re okay.” He’s hugging me tight to his chest. “I got you, Ren, I got you now. Just breathe.”
“What happened?” I gasp out, my hands finding his face.
“I stopped him.” His expression is twisted in rage and agony. Something red’s splattered on his clothes. “You’re okay now. You’re safe.”
I turn my face and there he is, the man in the golden top hat, unmoving on the ground. Face-down, blood pooling around his sunken skull. A white brick, splattered with brain matter, on the ground beside him.
“Oh my god,” I groan when I realize Lanzo bashed his head in.
“Come on.” He stands, gets me to my feet. I’m unsteady, but with his help, I can move. “We have to get out of here.”
“He knows,” I say, leaning on Lanzo. “Burian. He knows who I am. He knows you’re involved.”
“What happened?”
“The top hat, he attacked me.” I cough, trying to clear my throat. It feels like ants are eating my esophagus. “Said something about… about his partner… and having to do it. To save his partner.”
Lanzo’s expression clouds. “Fucking Burian. Playing his games.”
“What is it?”
“We’ll talk when we’re out of here.”
The crowds appear again. The kaleidoscopic whirl of shouting, lights, colors, laughter, it overwhelms my dizzy head. I can barely breathe, let alone think. But as Lanzo steers me toward the parking lot, I stop dead, yanking away.
There, standing near the bumper cars, is a bald man.
He’s pale, square jaw, thin lips. Wearing all black. Staring back at me.
He smiles.
“Lanzo,” I croak, turning away. “Lanzo, it’s him.”
“Where?” Lanzo appears at my side again, grabbing on. “Where is he?”
“There.” I point—but the bald man is gone. “He was right there.”
“Stay here.” He takes a few steps forward, as if he’s about to go off in pursuit—but stops himself. He looks back, staring at me. I’m leaning against a trash can to stay upright. He glances toward where Burian must be running away, and I can tell it kills him, but he only curses and comes back to me. A strange glow fills my chest. He made his choice, and he chose me. “We’ll get him another time. I have to get you somewhere safe.”
I grunt in reply and let him lead me to the truck.
Chapter26
