Unhinged (35 page)

Authors: E. J. Findorff

“Jesus is going to send you to hell. But not tonight.” My words knocked phlegm loose in my throat. “I wanted to have this moment for so long, but I can't do it. You're going to die but not at my hands. Get up. You're coming out of this alive.”

Spider got up but took only a couple of steps before grabbing a full bottle of absinthe and pouring it all over his body.

I pointed my weapon out of habit, not caring about the irony of shooting someone to prevent suicide. “Stop.”

Before I could think of anything else to do, Spider had lit a match. He went up in flames along with the wood floor beneath him. He screamed and fell in a twitching mass of blackness inside a flaming ball.

I grabbed Jennifer, and we ran out of the camp, across the creaking and cracking planks of the pier to safety, only looking back to watch the glow quicken to a raging inferno.

In moments, we were sitting on the levee holding each other as the camp began breaking off into the lake water, burning up Dorrick and Gene together. For me, the fire was a cleansing of my soul. The demon of my past was gone. Gene Lotz was finally at peace. It was over.

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