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I said, "I have to go"

"Why?"

"I just have to run hootta check on the brownies Can you get loves while you’re at it?"

"Okay"

He opened the library door again and said, "Where’d you go, asshole?" then once more closed himself inside the roo on the windshield, ice crystals lass, swept aside by the wiper blade a second later Wheels floating under me, no traction in the ice The roads all to myself

If there’s a body in your toolshed, say, of a skinny, retarded redheaded girl, just come clean To John first Tell him exactly what happened No need to plan beyond that Gotta see what’s there first Gotta see

I turned on the radio, looking for so the httiround through static and static and static, then recoiled at the shrill, choking sound of a h a crushed larynx After a roup Limp Bizkit--Shitload’s favorite band They’re the ones who invented the eneric rap phrases to a goat, then reading its turds into a"Rollin’," judging by the fact that the chorus was Fred saying that word several dozen times Perfect Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

Just tell the truth, that’s all I had to do Just tell the truth If I did it, I did it I blanked and found a dead girl No cover-up, no hiding the body or any of that Just face the consequences

Sure Your "dad" will fly up and he’ll tell you not to talk to anybody and he’ll make noise about your record of et off, because he’s daet a stay in an institution s of a to the feces on the walls It ork It worked for the Hitchcock thing No, don’t think about that Keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

From the darkness behind me, a very cold and very bony hand reached up and closed aroundmy head back

I expected a blade onand cold and wet and twitching slid across my neck and down my shirt

I cranked the wheel and clawed at the hand The truck skidded in the snow, jumped a curb and slass With a jolt, the front tires blasted through a snowdrift and landed back on the street, wheels spinning, grabbing, then spinning again

The thing on my neck snaked acrosswith the texture of a slug or a leech but long, its tail snaking up fro weight on h an intersection blinking yellow lights, I stomped around with my feet until I found the brake and went into a powerslide, the rear of the truck trading places with the front

"No, no Keep driving," said a soft voice in "

Fuck that Fuck that idea like the fucking captain of the Thai Fuck Tea Tour de Fuck I stomped the brake and cranked the wheel We skidded to a stop and--

I screa pain piercedrazor blades I screarabbed at the monster on my chest A hand reached around and snatched my wrist with a quick, clean move

"Be calm," said the voice "Drive Just drive She will leave you alone If you drive"

I didn’t even hear this, not really I got my other hand into htorn in half It crippled me All of my limbs stopped in protest

The hand reached up from the backseat and very slowly took the Smith Once asps of breath tore in and out of ain, and eased my foot onto the accelerator I tried to look down at the thing that hadout of the neck ofits back, each ending in what looked like a small black eye Several of the stalks tickled my chin as it wor over ently back and forth on the leather of ure behindback in the seat I drove into the night, desperately trying to re I felt a drop of some kind of liquid cranso like, "WANNA YOU WANNA WEENIE ME?" The end kind of trailed off in a shrill, choking warble

"Just be cal before I made myself known"

"Who--who the fuck are you?"

"My naratulations Noho are you and what’s this fucking thing you--"

"Please answerin such a hurry?"

"Hoht?"

I reached up and adjusted the rearview mirror to see in the backseat It was just a y eyes and a beak-like nose Looked sort of En glish, but noaccent He spoke robotically, with difficulty It’s the way some deaf people talk, not able to hear their own inflection He earing a white, furry woman’s hat, what looked like a blue Wal-Mart vest with a little plastic toy sheriff’s badge tacked to the breast

He nodded toward the rear of the vehicle, where the stereo speakers were "That man, in your, whatever you call it, your communicator Does he need help?"