Her eyes glowed with the light of one hundred billion stars. Her voice boomed.
“GET AWAY FROM MY SON!”
Chapter 126
When I was a little girl, I was so angry I thought I could close my eyes and destroy the world.
Kate ran at hiM.
Her instinct had taken over, like the women she heard about who turned over cars that trapped their children. But what she felt was more than adrenaline.
This was omnipotence.
She launched herself through the air. Their bodies collided. The nice man fell back, dropping Christopher.
“Mom!” he yelled out.
“Run!” she commanded.
The nice man tackled her to the street. They fell down into the river of blood. Scratching. Clawing. All the fury of a mother lion surged through her. A lifetime of bastards. Beating her. Leaving her. Everyone who ever put her down. Everyone who left her behind. They all had one face now.
“Come on, fucker,” she said. “Pick on someone who KNOWS who you are.”
She threw her body at him. There were no words anymore. Only instinct. She opened her hands, nails sharp as knives, and tore through his face like a farmer plowing a field. The nice man screamed. Blood gushing down his neck. He moved back to her, swinging wildly. His fist landed on her jaw, knocking teeth loose. But she had learned to take a punch a long time ago.
Now she was learning how to throw one.
*
Christopher moved to help the hissing lady just as a terrible whisper ran through the streets like a leaf floating on a breeze. It was the nice man. His body was fighting Christopher’s mother. But a little piece of hiS voice whispered through the wind.
wakE uP…
Christopher looked as the man in the Girl Scout uniform stopped stabbing himself.
wakE uP, everyonE…
The couple stopped kissing. The little children put down their ice cream and deer legs. The man stood at the door, having just learned about his dead child. A woman looked down at her watch, waiting for her blind date. The clock had only moved a second in seventy-five years.
dO yoU wanT iT tO stoP?
“YES!” they cried.
Christopher tore at the ropes binding the hissing lady’s hands. She was terrified.
“You’re on the street!” she warned.
dO yoU wanT thE tormenT tO stoP?!
“YES! PLEASE!” they begged.
dO yoU seE thaT littlE boY oveR therE?
Every eye turned to Christopher. The hissing lady cried out, pulling at the rope frantically.
“Get off the street!” she commanded.
hE iS thE onE whO tortureS yoU.
“Run, Christopher!” his mother screamed.
Christopher’s mother jumped on the nice man. She put her hand over his mouth to silence him. He bit into the flesh of her hand.
hE iS thE onE whO won’T leT yoU leavE.
Christopher saw the adulterous couple turn to him.
“hI, christopheR,” they said.
Christopher’s mother wrapped her legs around the nice man and squeezed. The nice man screamed, blood pouring out of his mouth. But the whisper kept coming.
becausE goD iS a murdereR!
The man in the Girl Scout uniform came out of the bushes. Knife raised.
“hI, christopheR,” he said.
sO yoU havE tO kilL hiM noW!
Christopher loosened the knot around the hissing lady’s hands. She tore herself free and went to the ropes around her feet.
thE firsT onE whO killS goD iS freE!
The man in the Girl Scout uniform pushed the cheating couple out of the way.
“coMe hEre, christopheR. i wanT tO shoW yoU soMething.”
The nice man looked Christopher’s mother dead in the eye. His whisper was gone. He opened his mouth and howled so loudly the ground shook.
“kilL goD anD you’rE freE!”
With a wave of his hand, the nice man turned the blue moon a fire red. The street boiled over with blood. The frogs jumped out of the pot and turned to Christopher, their eyes furious. Screams came from inside the houses. Hands shattered windows. The doors of the houses opened. All of the damned rushed outside.
“hI, christopheR,” the voices said. “caN wE talK tO yoU?”
They started running at him. Fighting each other to be first.
Christopher’s mother raced to save her son. The nice man tackled her to the ground. She turned and bit a chunk out of his shoulder. The nice man yelled in pain and ecstasy. The deer poured out of the woods. The damned ran at Christopher. There was only one group not moving.
The mailbox people.
They stood still like a fence surrounding the street. Their eyes sewn shut. Their mouths frozen. Each holding the string that kept the next in place. The street was completely blocked in.
Christopher was surrounded.
The hissing lady finally ripped the ropes from her body. She