In Phoenix…
The green mist formed in the corner.
A woman formed of the mist.
She was a knockout.
And he was totally buying more coke from that guy.
Still, he said, “What the fuck?”
“Your daughter married,” she announced.
“Hunh?”he asked.
“And your ex is the second wealthiest woman in the land.”
Okay, either that shit was laced with some serious othershit or maybe he should just lay off…well, everything for a while.
He shook his head like it’d clear her away, but it didn’t.
Instead, she kept talking whack.
“It is very good that the leaders of this world don’tbelieve in magic.They can’t put restrictions on it.”
“Okay, baby, if you’re gonna be a fantasy that sticksaround, how ’bout sucking my dick while you do it?”he suggested.
She smiled a cat’s smile.
And said, “As such, I curse you, Edgar Bradford Dawes.Icurse every woman who might have meaning to you, to spurn you.I curseeverything you touch to turn to dust, figuratively, of course.I curseeverything you desire, to be elusive.I curse you to living the rest of yourlife chasing dreams, and falling short.I curse you to misery, Edgar.Unrelenting.”
She took a step forward.
And Ed felt his balls shrivel up.
“And when you die, Edgar, you will remember your beautifuldaughter and the woman you used to love who you threw away, both you used andsent into peril.Maxine was beaten, Edgar, pressed to whore herself not of hervolition, and Corliss was imprisoned and starved.”
He felt his throat close.
“That guy said that they’d—” he pushed through it.
“He is you, thus,he lied.”
She lifted a hand and opened her fist.A puff of what lookedlike green chalk dust formed out of it and made its way to him.
“You are cursed,” she whispered as she began to fade away.
The dust grew as it got closer, and Edgar scrambled up,falling over the back of his chair to try to escape it, but it enveloped himall the same.
In the end, he’d spend decades trying to escape it, doingeverything he could, going insane in the effort.
But just as she promised he would, he always failed.
Two Hours Later
In another room in the Derryman housein Newton…
The green mist formed in the corner.
