He shrieked again.

Ralph rocked forward and spoke chummily into his ear.

[“Maybe I can’t kill you, but I can certainly fuck you up, can’t I?

And I don’t need to be loaded with psychic juice to do it, either.

This little honey will do just fine. “He used the scalpel to cross the first cut he’d made, making a lower-case t on the back of Atropos’s head. Atropos shrieked and began to flail wildly. Ralph was disgusted to discover that part of him-the capering gremlin-was enjoying this enormously. you want me to go on cutting you, go on struggling.

If you want me to stop, then you stop.”] Atropos became still at once.

[“Okay. Now I’m going to ask you a few questions. I think you’ll find it in your best interest to answer them.”] [Ask me anything Whatever you want! just don’t cut me anymore.”] [“That’s a pretty good attitude, pally, but I think there’s always room for improvement, don’t you? Let’s see. “Ralph sliced down again, this time opening a long gash in the side of Atropos’s skull. A flap of skin peeled loose like badly glued wallpaper. Atropos howled. Ralph felt a cramp of revulsion in the pit of his stomach and was actually relieved… but when he spoke/thought at Atropos, he took great pains not to let that feeling show.

[“Okay, that’s my motivational lecture, Doc. If I have to repeat it, you’ll need Krazy Glue to keep the top of your head from flying off in a high wind. Do you understand me?”]

[Yes! Yes!]

[“And do you believe me?”]

[Yes! Rotten old white-hair, YES!]

[“Okay, that’s good. Here’s my question, Mr. A.: If you make a promise, are you bound by it?”] Atropos was slow in answering, an encouraging sign. Ralph laid the flat of the scalpel’s blade against his cheek to hurry him up. He was rewarded with another scream and instant cooperation.

[Yes.” Yes.” Just don’t cut me again! Please don’t cut me again.”

Ralph took the scalpel away. The outline of the blade burned on the little creature’s unlined cheek like a birthmark.

[“Okay, sunshine, listen up. I want you to promise you’ll leave me and Lois alone until the rally at the Civic Center is over. No more chasing, no more slashing, no more bullshit. Promise me that.

[Fuck you.” Take your promise and shove it up your ass.”

Ralph was not put out of temper by this; his smile, in fact, widened.

Because Atropos hadn’t said I won’t, and even more important, Atropos hadn’t said I can’t. He had Just said no. just a little backsliding, in other words, and easily remedied.

Steeling himself, Ralph ran the scalpel straight down the middle of Atropos’s back. The slip split, the dirty white tunic beneath it split, and so did the flesh beneath the tunic. Blood poured out in a sickening flood, and Atropos’s tortured, wailing shriek beat at Ralph’s ears.

He leaned over and murmured into the small ear again, grimacing and avoiding the blood as best he could.

[“I don’t like doing this anymore, Chumley-in fact, about two more cuts and I’m going to throw up again-but I want you to know that I can do it and I’m going to keep on doing it until you either give me the promise I want or until the force that stopped me from choking you stops me again. I think if you wait for that to happen, you’re going to be one hurting unit. So what.do you say? Do you want to promise, or do you want me to peel you like a grape?”] Atropos was blubbering.

It was a nauseating, horrible sound.

[You don’t understand. If you succeed in stopping what’s been started-the chances are slim, but it’s possible that you might-I will be punished by the creature you call the Crimson King.”

Ralph clamped his teeth together and slashed down again, his lips pressed so tightly together that his mouth looked like a long-healed scar. There was a faint tug as the scalpel’s blade slid through gristle, and then Atropos’s left ear tumbled to the floor. Blood poured out of the hole on the side of his bald head, and his scream this time was loud enough to hurt Ralph’s ears.

They’re sure a long way from being gods, aren’t they? Ralph thought.

He felt sick with horror and dismay. The only real difference between them and us is that they live longer and the-v’re a little harder to see, And I guess I’m not much of a soldier-looking at all lhtil blood makes me feel like passing out. shit.

[All right, I promise.” just stop cutting me! No more.” Please, no more.”

[“That’s a start, but you’re going to have to be more specific. I want to hear you say that you promise to stay away from me and Lois an Ed, too, until the rally at the Civic Center is over.”] He expected more wiggling and weaseling, but Atropos surprised him.

[I promise I promise to stay away from You, and from the bitch you’re running around with-I [“Lois. Say her name. Lois.”

[Yeah, yeah, her-Lois Chasse I agree to stay away from her, and Deepneau, too. From all of you, just as long as you don’t cut me anymore. Are you satisfied? Is it good enough, God damn you?] Ralph decided he was satisfied… or as satisfied as any man can be when he is deeply sickened by his own methods and actions. He didn’t believe there were any trapdoors hidden in Atropos’s promise; the little bald man knew he might pay a high price later for giving in now, but in the end that hadn’t been able to offset the pain and terror Ralph had inflicted on him.

[“Yes, Mr. A I think it’s good enough.”]

Ralph sild off his small victim with his stomach rolling and a sensation-it had to be false, didn’t it?-that his throat was opening and closing like the valve of a clam. He looked at the blood-spattered scalpel for a moment, then cocked his arm back and threw it as hard as he could. it flew end-for-end through the arch and disappeared into the storeroom beyond.

Good riddance, Ralph thought. At least I didn’t get much on mlselfike crying.

There’s that. He no longer felt like vomiting. Now he felt I Atropos got slowly to his knees and looked around with the dazed eyes of a man who has survived a killer storm. He saw his ear lying on the floor and picked it up. He turned it over in his small hands and looked at the strands of gristle trailing out from the back side.

Then he looked up at Ralph. His eyes swam with tears of pain and humiliation, but there was something else in them as well-a rage so deep and deadly that Ralph recoiled from it. All his precautions seemed flimsy and foolish in the face of that rage. He took a blundering step backward and pointed at Atropos with an unsteady finger.

[“Remember your promise”] Atropos bared his teeth in a gruesome grin.

The dangling flap of skin on the side of his face swung back and forth like a slack sail, and the raw flesh beneath it oozed and trickled.

[Of course I’ll remember it-how could I forget? In fact, I’d like to make you another. Two for the price of one, you might say.] Atropos made a gesture Ralph remembered well from the hospital roof, spreading the first two fingers of his right hand in a V and then flicking them upward, creating a -red arc in the air. Within it, Ralph saw a human figure. Beyond it, dimly glimpsed, as if seen through a mist of blood, was the Red Apple Store. He started to ask who that was standing in the foreground, on the curb of Harris Avenue… and then, suddenly, he knew. He looked up at Atropos with shocked eyes.

[“Jesus, no.” No, you can’t."’] The grin on Atropos’s face continued to widen.

[You know, that’s what I kept thinking about you, Short-Time.

Only I was wrong. You are, too. Watch.] Atropos moved his spread fingers slightly wider. Ralph saw someone wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball cap come out of the Red Apple, and this time Ralph knew immediately whom he was looking at. This person called to the one across the street, and then something terrible began to happen. Ralph turned away, sickened, from the bloody arc of the future between Atropos’s small fingers.