opened it, sprinting out into the snow. I was back in my turtleneck, coat and gloves…the only thing I was missing was a ridiculous hat to keep my head warm. And I was headed home.
I ran across the snow, heading toward the woods. I passed the dormitory building, giving it a wide berth, snow up to my knees but still moving fast, when the alarm klaxons began howling. They might have found my handiwork in the basement. All those guards beaten senseless.
I didn’t spare a thought for it, just ran faster. I was having to lift my legs high to clear the snow, but I was amazed at how fast I was moving. I went several hundred yards through two feet of snow in seconds. I reached the tree line and kept moving, trusting my reflexes to keep me from getting clotheslined by a low-hanging branch or plowing into a tree trunk.
Darkness appeared in front of me and I realized it was the wall. It stretched a good ten feet up and was made of solid block.
And I cleared it in a jump.
I landed on the other side with an inelegant roll, brushing off the snow as I got to my feet. I heard slow clapping coming from in front of me. Lit by the beams of headlights, Kurt Hannegan stood in front of his car. “Very nice. Now can we get out of here?”
I followed him, getting into the passenger side and shutting the door. He gunned the gas, wheels slipping on the wet pavement. “Where to?” he asked, hands gripping the wheel and his jaw clenched.
“Just drive me to my house,” I told him, brushing the snow off myself. He shot me an angry look as he watched it land on the upholstery. “I have to let Wolfe know where to find me.”
“Do it after I’m gone,” he said with a scowl.
“Fine,” I lied. “I’m going to sleep until we get there.”
“Don’t know why you’re bothering,” he shot back. “You’ll be getting plenty of that soon.”
I didn’t respond to his dig, instead leaning back in the seat, resting my head against the side of the car, close to the window. The steady thrum of the tires against the road gave off perfect white noise, and the motion of the vehicle rocked me to sleep.
Darkness encompassed me, enshrouded me, took me away from the road and the headlights and that asshole Hannegan, and deposited me right where I wanted to be. Blackness surrounded me, swirled me into its vortex, and then, in the distance, I saw a spot. Burrowing through the dark, it got clearer and clearer, coalescing into a shape – like a man, but with black eyes, horrific teeth and a face that gave me nothing but fear. He drew closer and closer, a smile lighting his terrible features. A smile that broadened when I spoke.
“Wolfe…it’s time to play.”
Twenty-three
I woke up, intentionally, a few minutes later to find myself rolling through the streets of my neighborhood. We’d left behind the wide open farmland, the stretches of suburbs and freeway, and entered the densely packed blocks of houses that had only a few feet between them. I lifted my head to find Hannegan looking around in all directions, as if he were expecting Wolfe to ambush.
“I don’t think he’s here yet,” I said with a hint of amusement. Not sure where that came from. Gallows humor, I assume.
“I don’t care; I’m not hanging around.” He kept up his searching pattern. “You may be ready to die but I’m not.”
“I’m not really ready to die,” I said. “But neither are any of the people he’s killing to get to me.”
Hannegan grunted in acknowledgment, but did it so neutrally I wondered if he’d heard a word of what I said. He came to a stop at the end of a driveway and I looked up at the house. Unlike last time, I was sure it was mine. I opened the door and pondered making a sarcastic comment to him or lingering for a moment, but I realized I was more scared of what was coming than vindictive about what had happened in the past.
I wordlessly shut the door and I watched him swallow heavily, the sort of action that might make a gulping sound had I been in the car to hear it. He looked at me with hollow eyes and I could see his fear at the thought of facing Wolfe. He looked away and stomped the accelerator, slinging