House of Skin

ESCAPE

“Let’s go,” Cassandra said. “I haven’t much time.” She led Lisa to her car and gave her a few minutes to collect herself. “Can you drive?”

She nodded. She knew she was in a state somewhere near shock, but it would pass. Cassandra slid a cigarette between her lips and lit it. Lisa took great drags and began to cough. “My God,” she whimpered, “my God.”

When the tears had subsided, she drove them away.

“You know where I have to go, don’t you?” Cassandra asked.

Lisa did. Somehow she knew exactly where she had to go.

“We’ll be a long time in making sense of this,” Cassandra said. “But, time will pass as it always does, and reflection will soothe our souls.”

Lisa looked at her in disbelief.

“It will. In time, even the most horrible of events makes a certain sense.”

“Fenn’s dead. I don’t know how that makes sense.”

“He was tied up in this, too. His identity would’ve surfaced eventually. You didn’t kill him. The knowledge of who and what he really was did. Remember: he was Stadtler. He was a monster like Zero. And now you’ve put your past to rest. In the process you’ve healed a wound in this city that’s been open for far too long.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“I am. In time you’ll really believe that. The guilt will ease.”

Lisa slowed and pulled through the gates of the cemetery. “Good-bye,” she said.

Cassandra got out of the car. “Till we meet again,” she called out as Lisa drove off.

Lisa was alone again.

Just like at the beginning.

She cradled Zero’s book in her arms and went back to the hotel. She’d wanted to write about father and son, but now she had a more important task in life: keeping the book out of the hands of the unwary and driven. Maybe in time it would fall to dust, but until then she was its guardian. She had only tears now and black memories that would haunt her to the grave. She was alive and that was something. The whimsical turn of the wheel of fortune had spared her. She would watch and wait now, guard against their return. Because they would open the chasm again. It was only a matter of time.

But it wouldn’t be tonight and that was enough for now.