Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner (the ebook reader .txt) 📕

the fucking metal. Eventually, I got lucky and found an exit. I made it back home, and the instant I did, the beetles came out to take what I owed them. They didn’t wait for me to park – goddamn impatient things – and I lost control of the vehicle. I guess I hit a telephone pole. I don’t know. I’d lost consciousness by then. Cops found me, called for an ambulance, and after the docs amputated what was left of my legs – which wasn’t much – I spent a few weeks in the hospital, after which I left with these.”

He reached down and tapped his right prosthesis. “All in all, it was the best deal I ever made.”

Lori wondered if she could ever become so desperate that she’d be willing to make such a sacrifice. Based on what the Cabal had done to her so far, she thought she might.

One thing about Edgar’s story was encouraging, though. It was good to know members of the Cabal – whatever they were – weren’t all-powerful. They could die just like anyone else.

“How did you end up back here?” she asked. “Did the Cabal bring you back?”

“Nope. Once you learn to navigate the Nightway on your own, it’s harder for the Cabal to pull you into it themselves. They can, however, keep harassing you in the real world, which is what happened to me. They continued changing people I knew and sending them after me. Finally, I couldn’t stand others getting hurt because of me, and I hopped in my van and started searching for an entrance to the Nightway. It took a while, but eventually I found one. I’ve been driving this road ever since.”

“Can’t the Cabal find you easier here? After all, this is where they live. You’d think it would be where they’re most powerful.”

“They’re still after me, all right, but they seem to have a harder time finding me on the Nightway. Don’t know why. Maybe something about the Nightway itself interferes with their senses? Whatever the reason, I’m just grateful for it. Gives me some breathing room, you know?”

Lori thought of the vibrations she’d felt beneath her bare feet when she’d stood on the Nightway’s surface. If Edgar was right, she’d be safe from the Cabal as long as she kept moving. She doubted things would prove to be that simple in the end, but for now she’d enjoy remaining hidden from the Cabal for however long it lasted.

“Are you still trying to figure out what you need to confess?” she asked.

“I’ve mostly given up at this point,” he admitted. “If I run across a new potential avenue of information, I check it out. Otherwise….” He let his voice trail off.

On one level, it was a comfort to meet someone who’d also had run-ins with the Cabal. But hearing that Edgar had never been able to discover what the Cabal wanted from him made her despair of ever being able to learn what they wanted from her. Would she end up like Edgar, wandering the Nightway for the rest of her life, trying to keep the Cabal from finding her? And what about what he’d said, about how the Cabal had transformed people he knew and set them against him? Had that happened to the people she knew and loved back home? Larry, Justin, Reeny…. The thought made her sick. She had to learn what transgression she’d committed that the Cabal wanted her to confess, then discover what she needed to do to make everything right again – if that was even possible at this point.

“It may take me a while, but I should be able to find an exit for you,” Edgar said. “It’ll let you out at the same place you left. It’s how they work.” He paused, then added, “Most of the time.”

They drove on in silence for a time after that, both lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, Lori spoke again. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you helping me? You could be putting yourself in danger by doing so – assuming the Cabal are looking for me.”

“They are, no doubt about that. And there are other reasons you might be dangerous to me. You could be one of them in disguise or something else pretending to be someone you’re not. Transformation and deception are a way of life on the Nightway. Way of death, too.”

“So why are you helping me?”

“I got friends.”

He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, displaying a cluster of beetles clinging to it. He closed his mouth, and when he spoke again, he did so normally. Lori had no idea how he could do so with those insects on his tongue. The thought made her shiver with disgust.

“After they took their payment from me, they decided to stick around. Don’t know why. Maybe I make a good home for them. Whatever the reason, they’re happy to help me out – especially if there’s a meal in it for them. So I got more protection than most folks who travel this road. I can afford to take a chance on you. Besides, if helping you means I get to fuck over the Cabal, so much the better. I’ll do anything to hurt those bastards.”

“Anything?”

He turned to look at her and gave her a frown. “Do you have something in mind?” He sounded half suspicious, half intrigued.

“You said you searched the Nightway for answers to what the Cabal thinks you did, but so far you haven’t had any luck.”

“That’s right.”

“Any place you haven’t tried yet?”

Edgar didn’t answer right way. He gripped the steering wheel tighter, and she could see conflicting emotions warring on his face.

“Just one,” he said. “I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard about it from people like us, stranded on the Nightway, running, searching….” He took a deep breath, then said, “They call it the Garden of Anguish.”

“Sounds like fun,” Lori said. She meant this sarcastically, but Edgar responded