Chapter 25: The Black Line and Ashes

Monday, July 20, 2009, 7:30 AM

BING-BONG “Doors opening,” said the familiar female voice.

Tricia was sitting on the concrete bench, holding her head between her legs, and staring at the comforting terracotta colored hexagonal tile floor that was ubiquitous in Metro. She carefully lifted her head, conscious of the fact that the last things she felt were her neck snapping and her skull breaking. There was no pain now, but her head felt loose, like it was just recently attached, and not very securely.

“Uhhhh...” she groaned, and looked up at the train waiting for her. She was back in an underground station. Desdemona, the fight, the pain, the blood ... it was all coming back, and she saw the LED sign on the side of the train. The sign alternated between “BLACK LINE” and “TO OBLIVION”.

“Subtle much?” she sneered at the train. The train waited for her.

She staggered into the waiting car and leaned against the Plexiglas divider. She felt dizzy. BING-BONG “Step back. Doors closing,” the woman’s voice said. The doors slid closed behind her and the train started moving. Tricia slumped against the Plexiglas and looked around the car.

One other woman was in the car with her. It was another Tricia. Her doppelganger looked at her darkly from her seat, and dropped her head down.

“Hola, mi hermana,” Tricia said. “I think ... I think my head was cracked open.”

The other Tricia nodded. “Probably was. I think I’m in a coma.”

Tricia held the seats as she walked up the aisle towards her sister. “What happened to you?”

She shrugged. “Same thing that happened to you. Desdemona tried to kill me. She threw me.”

“Me too. Did Snow Angel catch you?”

“I don’t think so. I think I blacked out before I hit anything. Did she catch you?”

Tricia thought. “I ... I don’t know. I thought I felt something.”

“You may still have a chance.”

“Why do you think you’re in a coma?”

The other Tricia sighed and nodded towards the door. “I missed my stop. The train stopped, and I knew it was my station, but I was too scared. I was alone, and ... so I stayed on the train, and now I keep riding. I don’t know how to get off.”

“Why can’t you get off the train?”

“It just feels wrong.”

Tricia sat down next to her sister. “How long have you been here?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea. Hours? Days? Weeks? Time doesn’t mean anything anymore.” The train started to slow down. “Is this yours?”

“My what?”

“You would know. Oh, god ... another one. They come in waves now.”

“What comes is waves?” Tricia asked, but the train entered a new underground station, and slowed gradually to a full stop.

BING-BONG “Stand back. Doors opening.” The doors opened, and a third Tricia collapsed onto the train. She was crying, sobbing, gasping, and clutching her throat. Tricia jumped up, ran to her, and knelt down next to her, taking her by the hand. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” she soothed her sister.

“She ... she TORE MY THROAT OPEN!” the newest Tricia wailed.

BING-BONG “Stand back. Doors closing.” The doors slid shut and the train started to move.

“I’M DEAD!” she cried out, and she fell into Tricia’s arms and sobbed.

“It’s all right ... It’s okay.” Tricia held her twin sister and caressed her head. “It’s over now.”

Tricia-in-a-coma watched and carefully moved up as the two other Tricia’s embraced each other.

“WHAT’S GOING ON?” screamed the sobbing Tricia. “WHAT’S HAPPENING? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?”

“I don’t know,” Tricia said, starting to cry herself.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN ME?”

“None of us were warned,” said Tricia-in-a-coma. “We all fight her. We all get hurt. I think a lot of us get killed.”

Tricia shot a look at her older sister. “Is this what you were talking about? Waves of alternate versions of me all coming in, holding our heads and throats, being killed off by Desdemona?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Waves of us. I’ve seen dozens, hundreds maybe. The injuries are all different, but the situation is always the same. They come in, they say how they got hurt, and they stay on the train for a couple stations, and then they leave.”

“And you just sit there and watch them?”

“What else can I do?”

“You can help.” Tricia took her sobbing younger sister by the arm and helped her up, and sat her down in a nearby seat. She looked at her sister’s throat. “I don’t see any damage.”

“This is just a dream, though,” she said, tears running down her face. “This isn’t real. What the hell kind of stupid afterlife is this, anyways? I want to go to the beach, or go to a hotel. I don’t want to be on this stupid train anymore.” She wiped her eyes and looked at Tricia. “What was I supposed to do? Fight a demon? How was I supposed to kill her? Nothing stops her!” She shuddered. “It doesn’t make any sense. What the fuck was all this time-travel for if it just leads to this? What the fuck was the whole purpose of my life if I was just leading myself to get killed by this demon?”

Tricia lowered her head and thought. She remembered the last words spoken to her, from Desdemona, right after the demon smelled her. “She told me my purpose in life was fulfilled.”

“Me too,” said the crying Tricia.

“Me too,” said the eldest Tricia.

Tricia thought. “That was too specific. She sensed something. And I think she didn’t understand it, but she was right.” She looked back up at her younger sister. “Maybe this prophecy, this destiny, this whole grand plan that we were following, maybe it wasn’t about us fighting Desdemona and beating her.”

“What do you mean?” asked the younger Tricia.

“I mean ... look, I’m just trying to trust my instincts here, but I was told that the only thing I needed to do was to make sure Joey loved me. That was it! Joey was everything. This wasn’t about fighting, or about getting super powers. It was about love. Joey needed to love me. And I needed to love Joey. Look, we’ve done stories about superheroes before. We all know that whenever there are superheroes in a story, it’s all about their powers, but maybe this time it’s not about powers. Maybe it’s just about love.”

The younger Tricia shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

“Look at what we’ve seen and what we’ve done. We fought off eight rapists at once. Quantum Knight teleported six thousand miles. Annie flew us two hundred and fifty miles over the desert, and killed two demons. Snow Angel repaired Joey’s heart, Bullwhip killed who knows how many demons, and we all fought Desdemona, and we flew over cities. These are exciting things, and difficult things, but compare that to finding someone and learning to love. Compare all that to looking at your life and completely changing yourself for one person. Loving someone is one of the hardest things to do. Every person can do it, but it’s just as hard as any super-feat. It just doesn’t get as much attention as demon-slaying does.” Tricia looked her younger self in the eye. “Did Joey love you?”

She hesitated, and nodded. “Yes. He loved me.” She smiled for the first time.

Tricia smiled back. “You had to become a completely different person for him to love you. And you did it. That’s all you needed to do.”

“But what does that accomplish? What good is it if we just get killed? If I’m dead, then he’s dead.”

The elder Tricia spoke. “Snow Angel said something to me. She said that death can’t hurt a soul. Maybe love is just the ultimate goal, and it just doesn’t matter how much life there is.”

Tricia held her younger sister’s hand. “Desdemona can’t kill that love.”

The youngest Tricia shook her head. “But WHY? Why this? Why does it have to end like this?”

The train at that moment came out of the tunnels. Light poured in from the glass windows, and Tricia could see the train as it followed the gently curving tracks. She gasped and stood up, looking out the window. The others looked out too and inhaled sharply at the sight.

The train stretched ahead of them for what appeared to be miles. It was an endless train of hundreds to thousands of cars all linked together and it stretched out to the horizon.

“I thought Metro trains only had six cars,” the eldest Tricia said.

“Me too,” Tricia answered. “But this is a dream. And look at it.” She turned to her younger sister. “Do you see it? This train. It’s not just some random dream imagery. It represents our life. It’s our destiny. Look how long it goes. There are not just miles ahead of us, there are years ahead of us. You, me, her ... we’re all just possibilities of the infinite set of all Tricia Sanchezes. And Joey has given us this gift to see it.

“Tricia Sanchez’s life doesn’t stop here. It keeps going. Some of us die here, and some of us survive and continue. But far up there, in the very first car, is the oldest Tricia, the first of us, and she’s driving this train. She’s carved out this path which goes through this very dangerous time.”

“Why did she do this?” the younger Tricia asked.

“I don’t know ... Maybe she’s reached that point in her life when she realized that love was more important than life, and she was willing to sacrifice her lives for Joey.” She thought for a moment. “You would do that. You jumped off a building to get to him. Look at what she does for him.”

The train started to slow down. They could see that they were approaching a station. The younger Tricia shook. “Oh no ... This is my stop. I don’t...”

“This is your time,” the older Tricia said. “You need to leave the train. You don’t want to stay here.”

The youngest Tricia nodded and slumped to the doors. The train stopped.

BING-BONG “Stand back. Doors opening.” The doors slid open. Tricia could see the brightly lit outside station, but the younger Tricia gasped and shuddered at what she saw, obviously seeing something different. She turned away from the door and looked at the other two Tricias.

“I...”

“Did Joey love you?” Tricia asked.

She nodded. “He loved me. And I loved him.”

“You did good. You did what you were supposed to do with your life.”

She smiled for the last time, tears rolling down her cheeks. “He loved me,” she whispered. She then turned back to the doorway, took one last shuddering breath and stepped off the train. As soon as her foot touched the platform, she vanished.

BING-BONG “Stand back. Doors closing.”

The doors slid closed and the train started moving again. The elder Tricia-in-a-coma stared at her. “You really believe all that? You didn’t just say that to make things easier for her?”

Tricia kept her eyes on the door. “If I said that to her to help her, I’m saying it to myself to help myself. I choose to believe it.” She turned to her elder self. “It’s all I’ve got left.”

The other Tricia nodded. “I understand. It’s all I’ve got too.”

The train immediately started slowing down again. Tricia felt something different about this stop. “Oh no ... This is it. This is my stop. Oh god...” She could see the station as they decelerated. “I don’t want...”

“Tricia, it’s your time.”

The train stopped. BING-BONG “Stand back. Doors opening.” The doors slid open, and Tricia saw that what was behind the doors was not a brightly lit station, but an all encompassing blackness. She shuddered and gasped. Shivers ran down her spine, and her heart started beating furiously.

She was terrified, yet compelled to come closer, and she stepped towards the blackness. It was nothing, pure nothing. “I ... I ... I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said, shaking. “I’m scared.”

“Tricia. One of two things will happen.”

“What?”

“Either you are going to go back, or you are going to go forward. Either way is pretty good.”

Tricia looked back at her older self. The coma Tricia looked at her lovingly and asked “Did Joey love you?”

Tears filled her eyes. “Yes,” Tricia whispered. “He loved me.”

“You did good.”

She smiled and her tears rolled down her cheeks. “You know what to do now.”

The other Tricia nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

Tricia looked back into the darkness, and took a nervous step forward.

“Tricia?” her sister said. “Um...” She looked nervous.

“Yes?”

“If you do make it back ... and you ever find your way back on the train again...” She gave a strange smile. “Can you bring me a magazine or something?”

Tricia nodded and let out a sobbing chuckle. “I will. Goodbye.” She turned back to the darkness. “He loved me. I loved him. That was all I needed to do.”

And she took her last steady breath, and stepped into the darkness.

“Oh, this is just pathetic,” Desdemona snarled, landing near Joey. The boy was on his knees, staring into the distance through the encircling flames around him at the still form of his first love. He was shaking his head, crying, gasping, and shivering.

“No ... No ... No...” he whispered in soft sobs.

She inhaled, sampling his thoughts. “Oh, this is what, the THIRD one you’ve killed? Both parents, and now your girlfriend. Tsk, tsk, tsk...” She took a few steps toward him, smelling his despair. “You know, you really need to find some more durable people in your life, someone that can actually survive being near you for any length of time. And we both know that slant-eyed crippled kyke isn’t going to last long. Maybe I should just put her out of her misery too.”

He looked at the demon in horror. She sniffed and smiled. “So, you can give powers to anyone you love. Interesting.” She inhaled again. “No ... Don’t even think about giving her powers to fight me. We both know how that would turn out. No, if your beaner-bitch couldn’t take me, what makes you think the hebe invalid would?” She cocked her head and looked at the crying boy. “But perhaps I’ve misjudged your worth. All this time I was thinking you just held a tremendous power which I could use to open a gate, but maybe I can find a better use for you.” She started walking in a wide circle around him. “You can give powers to others. Maybe you can give them to me as well?”

Joey shivered as she stalked around him.

“Consider the possibilities, Joey,” she said, shimmering as illusions rippled over her body. With each step she became a different beautiful woman. Lucy Liu, Elizabeth Banks, Drew Barrymore, Tia Carrere. “I can be any woman...” Angell Conwell, Kim Kardashian, Natalie Portman, Halle Berry. “Any age, any color, any shape, any time...” She shifted older, younger, black, white, slim, buxom. “You like this shape, don’t you?” she said, shifting into Tricia Sanchez. “Come with me, and you won’t miss it. Or how about this one?” She shifted into Annie. “You’ll like me as her. At least I can spread my legs by myself. Or perhaps you like the truly exotic? Perhaps you would want me as I am?” She shifted back to her normal red-skinned demonic form, complete with wings.

“Whatever you want, I can be it. Whatever you desire, I can give it to you, and more.” She stepped closer to the boy. He turned his head away in terror, looking down at the ground. “I can fulfill your wildest dreams, and give you unimaginable pleasures.” She leaned over, reached down, and hooked one finger under his chin and waited for him to lift his face upward. “You will soon learn that those sluts you have been with are nothing. Come to me if you truly want to learn the pleasures of love.”

Joey kept his face pointed at the ground. He shook, and he slowly clenched his hands into fists. His fear turned into rage.

“Love?” he whispered, and then growled “What ... do you ... know ... about love?”

Desdemona blinked. Something had changed, and she looked nervous.

Joey’s hands rippled with energy. Black sparks flowed from his fists. He lifted his head up to the demon and stared at her through obsidian eyes. “You ... KILLED my love!”

The demon gasped and her knees suddenly buckled underneath her. She fell to the ground and in a panic tried to crawl away from him. “No! NO! What are you doing? STOP!” she pleaded. The flames around him extinguished.

Joey struggled and got to his feet, while Desdemona flapped her wings, trying to lift off. The bones in her wings snapped under the strain, and the large leathery folds dragged on the ground as she tried to pull herself away from the boy. He stood over her, his fists erupting in black fire and his eyes smoked with an onyx power, and he pointed a single finger at her accusingly. “You have been on this planet for three thousand years,” he growled at her. “ ... and you have learned NOTHING about love! What a waste!”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP! PLEASE, STOP!” she begged him, still trying to crawl away from him.

Joey looked at his hands and saw the black sparks for the first time. “What is this?...” He looked at the demon, and then at his hands. He smiled. “So. You think you’re hot shit, sniffing and reading my mind to learn what my powers and weaknesses are? Well guess what? I’m still learning too! And you can’t pull an answer out of my mind if I don’t know it yet!”

“NO!” She screamed in frenzied terror, weakly pulling herself away from him. “GET AWAY FROM ME! STOP!!”

He took a couple limping steps closer to her, closing the distance between them. “Well here’s an update of what Omega Boy can do!” he shouted at the demon. “If I love someone, I can give them powers!” He took another step closer, holding his blazing fists high into the air.

“BUT IF I HATE...” he roared at the hell-spawn, “ ... I CAN SUCK YOU DRY!”

“NOOOO!!!” Desdemona screamed in horror, and she frantically clawed and scratched at the ground, feebly and weakly pulling herself across the blood-stained concrete. “MERCY! PLEASE! DON’T!”

“Mercy? You want mercy? The only reason you know that word is because it’s the last thing your victims say before you kill them. Well now that will be the last thing you will ever say! You have terrorized this planet for far too long,” he said to the demon. “And now it’s time for you to die!”

Desdemona was delirious with panic as she clawed and pulled at the ground, dragging her limp body. She screamed and turned to Joey. “YOU! NO! You don’t kill! You’re not a killer!”

Joey stopped in his strides towards her. The black sparks from his hands died down a bit.

“I can smell it on you,” she continued, shaking madly. “You don’t kill. You made a promise.”

He looked at his fiery hands and thought. His shoulders slumped, and his head dropped. “You’re right. I’m not a killer,” he said dejectedly.

Desdemona covered one hand with the remnants of her wing. Her claws extended, and she started building the mystic energies in her fist.

“I made a promise to her,” he continued, tears running down his face. “I am good for her. I don’t kill.” The black sparks started to fade.

Her hand ignited under her wing.

Joey saw the flames illuminating through her wing, and drew himself up straight. “I am an artist,” he said proudly, and he pulled his fists back up. The black sparks erupted again.

Desdemona’s eyes went wide as the fire went out in her hand. Joey raised his hand up over her. He stared her down and passed judgment on the hell-spawn.

“And sometimes it takes an artist to erase a mistake!”

Joey slammed his hand down and grabbed the top of her head, and Desdemona let out an unholy, and unearthly scream of agony. An explosion of thunder erupted from his hands as he drained the mystical energies from her body. Desdemona shook and convulsed, screamed, and howled.

She desperately reached out one hand towards a nearby lamppost. An arc of electricity exploded from it and hit her hand. Joey could feel her reaching for new power sources, and he ripped the electricity from her soul, sending it into the abyss inside him. The lamppost pulled and ripped from the ground, and the electrical bolt was severed.

She scrambled, and reached out around her. Her hands glowed green, and Joey could see her reaching for a new power source. Spirits, ghostly figures rose from the ground and swirled into her body. Ectoplasm. Annie was wrong. It does exist. But not for her. He mentally grabbed the incoming spiritual energies and sucked them into the spiraling vortex of power.

Desdemona, panicking and screeching, then reached high, and he could feel her pulling energy from the sky. A ley line, a normally invisible mystical band of power arched in the sky above them, and was pulled and stretched down, vibrating in a loud, deep strum and becoming visible from the strain. She tried to feed on that power, but Joey cut it off, ripping the ley line from the sky and devouring it whole into the void he created.

The demon’s screams turned rasping, and she held her hand up, shaking, trying to extend her claws. Joey pushed the power, sucking everything out of her. Her skin started to change color. Red to pink, and then to white, and then to gray. Her skin dried and cracked. He could see her eyes drying out, and cracks forming over her horrified face. Pieces started to fall. Fingers dropped and shattered on the ground.

“DIE!” he screamed, and with one final push Joey plunged his hand into her head, crushing her completely as she collapsed into a pile of dust and ash. He fell to his knees and pounded his onyx-fire covered fists into the chunks of dust and dirt that was once the demon Desdemona, and he screamed and roared and cried as he smashed the dust, breaking the chunks into smaller and smaller clumps of dirt. “DIE! DIE! DIE!” he screamed in his sobs.

He grabbed handfuls of dust and violently threw them in his tantrum, The black fire on his hands raged and burned with each handful of ash. “DIE! DIE!” he continued to scream, and pounded his fists into the piles of ash. He collapsed down into the debris and sobbed loudly. “Die ... die ... die...”

He wept. He cried. He sobbed. There was nothing left to drain, and the black fire on his hands dissolved into smoke.

Over in the distance, Quantum Knight had recovered slightly and had watched the final battle. She slowly pushed herself to her knees, summoned her battle-staff, and used it as a crutch to pull herself up. She was bruised, battered, burnt, and her costume was ripped and torn in places. She stumbled and leaned on the battle-staff, and teleported next to Joey.

She dropped her staff, fell to her knees next to him, grabbed him and hugged him. “It’s okay. It’s all right now. It’s over,” she consoled him. Joey screamed and cried in her arms, and she held him tight and rocked him.

“SHE’S DEAD!” he screamed.

“I know.” Quantum Knight shuddered and sobbed with him.

She held him and rocked him as he cried, looking up to see Snow Angel watching them with a horrified look on her face. She turned and saw the police and paramedics in the background watching in sorrow as well.

Then she heard a sound. A thunder was growing, building in volume and power. She looked up into the sky and saw the bright lights.

“Oh great ... NOW he shows up.”

The bright light turned into flames as it approached, and the Hyperion descended, decelerating on huge jets of fire. The air shimmered around the form, rippling from the heat of re-entry. The hero hovered over the plaza next to Quantum Knight and Joey, and scanned the surroundings.

“Query(status);” it spoke.

Quantum Knight looked out at the reporters, emergency crew, and various onlookers. “Situation is now under control. Desdemona has been killed.”

“I concur,” Snow Angel said, calling out from the building, and still laying next to Tricia’s still body. “I detect no demonic energies. She is gone.”

“Acknowledge();” said the Hyperion.

“Full report pending,” said Quantum Knight. “Point of contact, Quantum Knight.”

“Acknowledge(); File.update(); Query(self, assistance, method);”

Quantum Knight looked around at the scores of bodies, both demons and Multiplex. “You can help with cleanup.”

“Acknowledge();” The Hyperion paused. “Suggest(Counseling(boy));”

“We’ll take care of him. You handle clean up.” She looked around some more. Bullwhip had gotten to his feet shakily, and a team of paramedics was running towards him. A couple Multiplex bodies were still moving, and she breathed a sigh of relief. The Hyperion hovered higher, and began survey work.

“Quantum,” Snow Angel called. “Bring Joey over here please.”

Joey was still crying in her arms, and he looked over at Snow Angel and Tricia’s body. “No ... No, please...” he begged.

“Bring him over here, please,” Snow Angel repeated.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Iowa!” Quantum Knight barked. “Leave him alone!”

She shook her head. “I need him over here. I need to readjust the spell that’s holding his heart together, and...”

A decidedly Hispanic-sounding groan emanated from the body next to her. Joey’s head snapped up and his mouth dropped open. He could see her moving.

“ ... and I need him to hold her head,” she completed.

“TRICIA!” he yelled, and Joey scrambled up and stumbled, trying to run. His eyes were fixed on her as he frantically tripped and limped towards her. Quantum Knight teleported next to him, took him by the arm, and helped him the rest of the way. They entered the office through the shattered window. Broken glass lay everywhere, and Tricia lay next to Snow Angel, her head supported in her hand. They were both bloodied and cut, and Joey could see a broken bone protruding from Snow Angel’s leg. It didn’t seem to bother her. He dropped to his knees in the broken glass and cradled Tricia’s head.

“Easy ... easy...” Snow Angel whispered. “Her skull has been fractured, and there is a fractured vertebrae high in her neck. But I don’t detect any nerve damage. I’ve been working on both. Hold her head gently ... Like this.” She guided Joey on how her head was to be held, and then she touched his chest. “Now let me work on your heart for a moment.”

Joey looked down at Tricia. She was breathing, and her eyes were blinking, and her arms and legs moved slightly. “What ... what happened?” he asked.

“Yeah,” agreed Quantum Knight. “What happened? You said she was dead.”

“I know,” Snow Angel said. She smiled with pride.

“You brought her back to life!” Joey said.

“No.” Snow Angel beamed. “I didn’t do that.”

“Did HE do that? Just now?” Quantum Knight asked.

She shook her head again, smiling. “No.”

“Then what happened?” Joey asked in astonishment. “How did she come back to life?”

“She didn’t!” Snow Angel grinned from ear to ear. “I lied!”

“What?” Quantum Knight said.

“I did it! I lied!” Snow Angel laughed excitedly. “I didn’t think I could do it, but it worked! I haven’t lied since nineteen seventy-eight! I told a guy I was a virgin. And, well, I still think it wasn’t a lie because technically I should be, cause the damned thing keeps growing back!”

“Hold it, hold it!” Quantum Knight held up a hand. “You can’t lie.”

“No, I can lie.”

“No! You always said you can’t lie!”

“I never!”

“Yes, you DID!”

“No!” Snow Angel shook her head. “I said I DON’T lie. The magic doesn’t let me. I never said I CAN’T lie. Everyone else says I CAN’T lie. It’s one of those things that people attribute falsely. You know, Al Gore never said he invented the Internet. Carl Sagan didn’t say ‘Billions and Billions’ until he wrote a book pointing it out. Sarah Palin never said she could see Russia from her house. No, never happened. But I can lie if I have to!” She paused and thought about it. “Hurts like a mother-fuck though!”

“You’re pulling my leg,” said Quantum Knight.

“No, but I really wish you would pull mine.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, pull my leg. Really! Look at this.” She gestured to her broken leg.

“Ew!” Quantum Knight yelped. “I’m not touching that!”

“Come on! Would you pull my leg? I need you to reset the bone.”

“No! I ... Ick!”

“Oh, grow a pair of ovaries will you, and pull my leg!”

“No!”

“I don’t want it to heal like that!”

“No! I don’t know how to set that!”

“Well, just wiggle it around a bit then! Keep it from setting like that.”

“No! Ew!”

Joey was caressing Tricia’s face as he gently held her head. Their eyes met, and she tried to mouth some words to him, but he couldn’t hear her. “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s all over. She’s gone now,” he told her reassuringly. He looked up at Snow Angel. “Why?” he asked.

“What?” Snow Angel asked.

“Why did you lie to me?” he asked. “Why did you say she was dead?”

Snow Angel looked at him with sympathy. “I’m sorry that I hurt you, but I had to do it. Tricia told me this would happen, and she asked me to lie to you, to tell you that she was dead.”

“What?” He blinked in confusion, and turned to look at Tricia. She blinked also, looking confused. Joey looked back at Snow Angel. “But ... when did this happen? I didn’t see her say anything to you.”

“Oh, she told me about this about two weeks ago,” said Snow Angel.