Roberts looked at his friend in shock. Questions about the astral plane meant he was stumbling down the bramble-ridden path of the occult. Still, coming from Alan it must be important.

“I know enough to not get involved, but since you’re the one asking, I guess we can head down that road a little bit.”

“I’ve been working on a case lately. I can’t really go into … oh forget it. I’m not supposed to go into details, but I know you won’t betray my confidence.”

The minister was suddenly uncomfortable in his chair. His friend was breaking police confidentiality rules here. It must be important. At the same time, he suddenly wished he was somewhere else. That Alan would turn to someone else for such deep advice. Still, he was here, and he cared a great deal for Alan. Uncomfortable or not, he would help him in any way he could.

“We’d been tracking a pair of killers for some time now. Their M.O. was to case another couple, befriend them, case the inside of their house, then attack in a moment of weakness and kidnap the wife, almost always setting the husband up to take the fall. They’d torture and brutally murder her somewhere nearby by far enough away to avoid suspicion. Lastly, they’d make sure they’d chosen a place rigged for demolition so the city would cover their tracks. In reality, almost the perfect crime.

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“I know you know something, I just don’t know how I know that.”

“Yeah, like that’s not confusing,” Richard replied. Alan had obviously figured things out. He’d been hinting at an interrogation for weeks now, and Richard had been doing everything possible to avoid it – which only made Alan more suspicious. Now he’d finally cornered Richard in his house and was demanding answers.

The forensics were fairly damning, and Richard was shocked at the sheer volume of information Alan had been able to put together. Over the past two hours, Alan had walked Richard through a painstakingly detailed summary of his night at the warehouse. While he had no explanation for how Richard had entered the building, everything from his encounter with John and Cari through his nauseated reawakening was strikingly accurate.

Richard was afraid Alan had figured it out and was here to arrest him. Actually, arresting him would be a relief. If he was incarcerated, maybe he’d be far enough away from the public that no one else would get hurt. Still, IT might escape eventually. Fueled with the evils housed in a typical prison, Richard didn’t want to imagine what IT might do.

No, it would be better for everyone for Richard to not go to prison.

Alan was still standing there with his crime scene photos and investigative notes, waiting for an answer. Richard closed his eyes and took a few breaths.

“OK, but you’re not going to like it.”

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Richard was troubled. He’d fallen into a dark place and, like a child stranded at the bottom of a well, knew not how to save himself. He clawed in vain at the walls of his prison and wept openly when he realized how utterly lost and desolate he was. Until moments ago, his soul had been, for the most part, smooth and clear. Like any man his age, there were a few blemishes. He consoled himself with the belief that no one could live a completely blemish-free life.

A lie to his father about who’d broken a window here. A neglected dinner appointment there. Over time, Richard had built up more than a few dark acts on the rap sheet of his conscience, but they were nothing compared with what had happened. In a moment of passion, he’d opened his palette to a darkness so consuming that he’d lost his sense of right and wrong. In a moment, his conscience was completely squelched by his thirst for vengeance.

He’d reached out and ended the life of another. He’d thought himself God and taken a life as his own. Even as the last flicker of life had begun to fade in the other, he’d tried to take it back. Just as Richard had willed the man dead, he tried to will him back to life. His memories flashed back to a childhood friend’s broken arm and how he’d tried to will it back to some semblance of whole.

“It’ll be OK. Just don’t tell your Mom.”

In the here and now he had done more than just harm another, though. He’d wholly and completely destroyed them. Consumed their body with fire and ended its ability to go on living. As a last act of selflessness he’d opened himself. Trying to take back the act and unwittingly opening his own body as a host for the other’s cast aside soul.

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