that his fever was warm enough to heal her. The mob kept coming. Christopher heard them loading their guns one bullet at a time.
“Don’t go,” he sobbed. “Please, don’t go.”
Suddenly the mob wrenched her body from him and stood him up against the tree. They weren’t people anymore. They were a hive. The rage pushed their fingers against the triggers. But they didn’t point their guns at Christopher. They pointed them at his mother. Christopher held up his hand and screamed,
“LEAVE MY MOTHER ALONE!”
Christopher’s voice boomed through the clearing. The mob froze, terrified. Their trigger fingers stopped for a moment. Then, Christopher felt a little prickle on his hair like static electricity from a balloon. He watched in horror as Mrs. Henderson spoke with a strange calmness, as if she were a ventriloquist’s dummy.
“What do you mean leave her alone, Christopher?” Mrs. Henderson said.
But it wasn’t Mrs. Henderson’s voice.
It was the nice man’s.
“Don’t you understand? This will never stop,” the nice man said through Jenny Hertzog.
“This is eternIty,” Brady Collins mimed. “I can make them do anything.”
Brady ran at Christopher’s mother, pulling the hammer back on his gun. Brady was about to pull the trigger when he froze. The whole group spoke at the same time. Every voice belonged to the nice man. The town was his conduit. A thousand stereo speakers.
“I will make them do this forEver,” he said. “I will kill your mother over and over and the world will never run out of bullets.”
Christopher felt his fever rise. He finally understood what it was. Hell bubbling under his skin. He saw Special Ed walk through the crowd with Mike and Matt. The three of them opened their mouths at once.
“I have all of your friends. I have your tree house. Watch what I can do with it now that it’s all mine,” the nice man said.
Special Ed walked over to the sheriff and helped him to his feet. The sheriff’s eyes never opened. But he looked in Christopher’s direction, trying to pry them open in absolute desperation.
“Please don’t let me sleep anymore, Christopher. Every time I go to sleep, she’s waiting for me, but I don’t save her. I’m late every time. Please make it stop. I can’t hear her say Daddy again.”
The sheriff fought against his own body, but he couldn’t stop it. He climbed the tree against his will. Little 2x4s returned at jagged angles like a broken smile.
“No! I don’t want to go!” the sheriff screamed.
Christopher moved to help him, but the crowd engulfed him.
“No! Stop!” Christopher yelled.
Invisible hands moved the sheriff’s limbs like a marionette. He climbed to the top of the ladder and opened the door to the tree house.
“Please! I can’t watch her die again!”
“Let him go! Wake up, Sheriff!” Christopher screamed.
But the sheriff was lost. The tree house glowed. The sheriff went inside and closed the door behind him. His screams began immediately.
And then there was silence.
The nice man spoke next. His voice buzzing in Christopher’s mind so sharply that he felt it in the fillings in his teeth.
now who iS going in next?
Christopher watched the town move toward his mother’s body. They picked her up like pallbearers and carried her toward the tree.
“NO!” Christopher yelled.
Christopher fought through the crowd to get to his mother. Mr. and Mrs. Collins each grabbed one of his hands. They hissed,
“Do you know what your mother will see when she wakeS up?”
“NO! YOU CAN’T! PLEASE!” Christopher screamed.
Christopher wrenched his hands free and ran toward his mother. Jerry tackled Christopher to the ground.
“She is going to wake up with Jerry. GuesS what happens next?”
Christopher scrambled back to his feet. He clawed to get to his mother. His fever rising.
“She will notice someone iS watching her from the bathtub. It’s your father. He will rise up from the bathtub with the knife.”
“YOU CAN’T. NOT MY MOM. PLEASE!”
“But he isn’t going to kill her with it. He iS going to kill you.”
The crowd dragged his mother up the ladder by the hair. She dangled like a pocket watch.
“She will watch you dIe and the next morning, she will wake up with Jerry. She will notice someone is watching her from the bathtub. It’s your father. He will riSe up from the bathtub with the knife. But he isn’t going to kill her with it. He iS going to kill you. She will watch you dIe and the next morning…”
“NO!”
Christopher ran to the tree and grabbed his mother’s legs. Trying to pull her down. Christopher dropped to his