“And now we wait,” Brother Al said.
The gramophone’s jaunty tune crescendoed as each of the Hardestys vomited big black bugs and human flesh onto the table in turns.And then they started wailing.
“Yes,” Brother Al.“Do you feel that?That regret?That terror?That horror at the atrocities you were compelled to commit?”
Patti screamed, loudly, as if her soul were breaking, and I thought it would never stop…
9.
“You look real nice,”I said, to Brother Al, shifting the cloth-covered lump I was holding in the crook of my arm.
“Thank you,” he said.“Would you like to know how I recovered?Why I was not beholden to your golden vitae as it was passed around?”
“I have a feeling you’re going to tell me no matter what my answer is,” I said.
“Patti tore my ribcage out and splayed me in the butcher room,” he said.“While there, I feasted on the human remains.Being in a deep freeze, they were still fresh.Farm to table, something along those lines.The boys were right.I just needed to feed again.I was only so driven for your blood before because of my abstinence.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”I asked.
“You’re normally so interested in our tales,” Brother Al said.
“I’m serious,” I said.“I could have died here.This whole thing.This is stupid.I don’t mind going up against bad guys.But when they asked me what the difference was between them butchering people and you all eating people.You know what?I couldn’t answer them.All I could say was ‘It’s not like that.’But it is like that, Al.And I keep trying not to think about it.”
“There is a difference, Stacey,” Brother Al said.“We hunt the hunters.”
“Is that so different?”I asked.
“I could have killed them, but I saved their lives,” Brother Al said.
“Not killing someone is not the same thing as saving their life,” I said.“Look.Let’s just.Get all this cleaned up.Get back on the road and go home.You’re obviously feeling better, so mission fucking accomplished I guess.”
“Stacey,” Brother Al said.“I’m finally back to normal.”
“Normal?”I asked.I pulled the cloth off of Eddie’s head.His lips were still moving soundlessly.“Is any of this fucking normal?I’m done, Al.I can’t take this.I have exceeded my limit as a human being of being able to deal with this.This is messed up.”
“I understand,” Brother Al said, voice filled with resignation.“Let’s find the boys.Pull them together again, I suppose.We’ll leave soon.”
“What about the Hardestys?”I asked.“Leaving them here such a good idea?There’s more than enough evidence to call the cops.”
“Don’t be stupid.Our DNA is everywhere here.I’ve got my saliva all over a rack of human meat, keep in mind.If officials get involved, it’ll be a mess and we’ll all go down.Besides.I can’t think of a better punishment than having someone live with the memories of the lives they’ve cut short.”
“I just wish things could be simple for once,” I said.
“You knew that wasn’t what you signed up for,” Brother Al said.
I just walked on, Eddie’s head in my hands.
Eddie and Nagiwere easy enough to find.Eddie had been strung up and spread out over the entire barn.His lungs and heart were beating separately as they dangled on viscera from the eaves.I looped him up, together, and sat his head close to his body.
He gasped when his neck and head met again.
“I would vomit if my trachea were attached,” he whispered.
“Can you take it from here?”
“I don’t know,” he said.“Might need.Blood.To heal up.”
I rolled my eyes.
