– 8 –

Someone is screaming.

Who is he? He can’t remember. He is someone, who is screaming.

There is a transparent dog that is panting. It is calling him to the paths where only bad dogs go.

Something is missing.

His stomach rumbles. There was a mop. There was a squeegee —

He closes his eyes. He staggers towards the Lethal Magnet School for Wayward Youth. He can’t find it.

“I am Linus Evans,” he says. Wrong.

“Friedman.”

Wrong.

“I am —”

He can’t find it.

He is bleeding heavily. A bomb has gone off in his stomach. It is leaking from his orifices. He is leaking from his orifices.

He cannot really understand why it is he remains alive.

Oh God, he thinks, and at least that thought still hurts him. He clings to that, like a thin film of antichrist atop the emptiness. It hurts him. He is still blasphemous, at least. He is still unholy. Oh, God.

He is empty.

He is somebody’s enemy. He clings to that. He is somebody’s enemy.

He is Mr. Enemy.

He is lost.

<< – 7 –

Chapter 15: The Saint of Hunger >>