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anaheim—california

John Palisano

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!e author would like to thank: Ann Palisano, Leo Palisano, Lou Palisano, Michael Palisano, Bryan Gage, Michael Louis Calvillo for the introduction, John Everson, Lisa Morton, Del & Sue Howison, !e Dark Delicacies Writing Group, Gene O’ Neill, Roy Robbins and Liz Scott at Bad Moon Books for taking a chance, Steve Souza, César Puch, Poppy Z. Brite, Scott Nicholson, Alexandra Sokolo", Deborah LeBlanc and Sarah Langan.

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J!"#$%’" &'()'" "%!* +(!, %#" +#&-'(*#.". T%'/ 0!#1'2 "')-eral feet over his head and hovered, an e3ect that looked very much like a hypnotized basket of barbed-wire snakes. At their tips the 4bers split several times.

“What are you?” Ogam crawled backward on the desert sand. 5e witch, the bringer of darkness, was now cornered. 5is was magic unlike any he’d ever imagined.

“I am Divine,” Josiah said. “I’m new. Re-made.” He dan-gled the nerves closer to Ogam. Josiah was a prophet of pain, newly sancti4ed.

Raising his hands against the slithering 4bers, Ogam re-treated several steps. How could he 4ght Josiah? What powers could he summon to counter the nerves? Ogam didn’t know.

“I didn’t make your mother hate you,” Ogam said.5e tip of a razor-sharp nerve hovered just over Ogam’s

cheek. He made to step away, tripped on a small rock outcrop-ping, and fell on his back.

Josiah stepped closer. “You didn’t have to wake her dark-ness. She was 4ne as she was.”

“She was awake when I got there.”

(

JOHN PALISANO

10

“Lies.”“I had to do it,” Ogam said. “To get to you. To !nd Hor-

ace. Tell me where he’s gone!”“For what?” “Your brother owes me.” “No one owes you anything. Especially not my mother.”

Josiah stepped closer. “But now I owe you one, don’t I?” Josiah shot out his arms and the nerves snapped into Ogam like a dozen cobras.

Ogam didn’t scream or move. "e ends of the nerves were !ne and needle-sharp, and the #uid that coated them numbed like a bite from a tick. Josiah knew Ogam wouldn’t feel any-thing until after he withdrew them. Only after the witch felt the burning pain would Josiah be able to hear the honest truth from Ogam. Only then.

“Have you seen Horace? Where is he now?” Josiah shoved the nerves in farther. "ey’d grazed Ogam’s

bones, and he grit his teeth. “No. No. No,” Ogam said, his voice pleaded and rose to a

higher pitch. “"at’s why I asked you to meet me way out here. I’m looking for him, remember? He owes me. All the women I brought him. All the earthly pleasure.”

“What’re you going to do?” “I need him to visit Michael Leyke with me.”“You’re still hanging around Leyke? You want Horace to

kill him?”“His time’s up.” Ogam half-grinned. “Horace won’t have to

lay a !nger on him.” Josiah considered what he’d just heard. It made no sense for

Ogam to bring Horace just to visit Leyke. Unless…“Lies!” Josiah withdrew the nerves and then re-shot them,

NERVES

11

sending them deeper inside Ogam’s body. !e witch screamed at the top of his lungs. !e nerves’s numbing "uid was used up, and so the witch’s holler #lled the sun-drenched valley.

Josiah curled more of his nerves around Ogam’s body and dragged the witch behind him along the desert bed.

“You came to talk,” Ogam said, whimpering. “Not #ght.”“Shouldn’t have lied to me.” Josiah twisted the nerves tight-

er. Ogam winced as the tips found their way deeper inside. “Should have left my mother out of this.” Josiah stopped walk-ing and turned to Ogam. He wanted to kill him.

A pleasant itching sensation made its way from Josiah’s el-bows, past his wrists, and all the way through the tips of his nerves. He could taste Ogam’s blood.

!e witch had given them their gifts and wanted to collect his fee: murder. Death exchanged for death. His mother had fallen into darkness because of Ogam. Josiah knew her descent triggered their family’s prophecy. !e brothers would become Divine. One brother would give life, the other death. Josiah knew he’d have to warn Horace: his very presence among the living could kill.

Josiah’s #ngers tingled and split wider. !e nerves slithered and moved across Ogam’s "esh. He would destroy the witch with the very gifts he’d granted.

“Josiah?” Ogam tried to say something more, but several of Josiah’s nerves shot into his mouth and cut him o$. His throat wouldn’t work.

Several more of the thick, grey, #brous strands stuck into Ogam’s face. !e nerves were inside! One went right through his eye and into his brain. Others ripped through his chest and penetrated his heart. Still more tore and shredded Ogam’s lungs.

JOHN PALISANO

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Josiah could taste with each nerve’s tip as they slid through the softness of Ogam’s brain. !e nerves felt to him like thin tongues plunged into a squishy wet pile of jelly"sh. !ey wig-gled under Ogam’s skin and tasted the hot, salty meat inside. Josiah absorbed small electric charges going o# as the witch’s neurons died and surged.

Ogam’s dark, handsome face buckled. His nostrils split. One side of his mouth tore. He jerked and wiggled, putting his hands up to the nerves to try and get them out.

Josiah drank it all in. Ogam raised his right hand and spread his "ngers. A tick-

ling sensation "lled the front of Josiah’s hand. “No more of your magic,” Josiah said. “No more manipulating.” Ogam’s "n-gers wiggled and Josiah could feel them simultaneously reach-ing into his mind. He felt Ogam’s anger.

“No more tricks,” Josiah said. “!is ends here.” !en Ogam stopped moving; Josiah knew he’d killed the

witch. !e $ow of electrical nourishment slowed. Josiah’s nerves had drunk all they could handle. He tugged them, try-ing to pull them back in. Some stuck inside Ogam, catching on slivers of bone. Josiah pulled again, jarring his nerves loose, and withdrawing as many of them back into his "ngertips as he could. Several dangled. Blood dripped from the strands and splattered.

Josiah caught his breath and stared at his dead enemy. He kicked the witch three times to make sure he was dead. Satis-"ed, he turned toward the road.

It was time to leave the simple life he’d known. He had to "nd Horace. Together they had to "nd their mother, he knew, before she slipped too far into the darkness the witch had brought. Together, their gifts might save her. Just as the

NERVES

13

nerves took life, Josiah hoped they might also give it. He knew his nerves could bring the dead back to life, or just as easily pierce any man’s beating heart. He thought harder and sensed more fully through his nerves, even when they dragged along beside him.

Josiah rushed out of the valley. His nerves gouged long trenches in the sand. He could sense the dry heat through them; he tasted the dirty sand. Josiah closed his eyes for a mo-ment and raised his chin. !e world was small. !e world was huge. !e world was his for the plucking.

He stared at his split "ngertips, which were healing over and pulsating. Five "ngers. Five nerves per "nger. Five probing extensions ready to telegraph whatever they sensed directly to his brain. He stared at the little fatty "bers hanging from the nerve cylinders; they reminded him of the #eshy strands that were left after one scraped out the insides of a pumpkin, only these strands happened to be his own #esh and blood. In a blink, the biological tools he used to measure the world were no longer private, but visible to all.

His "ngertips split farther apart as the remaining long grey nerves slithered back inside. It had taken more strength than he’d expected to become Divine. His skin had lightened over the past few days, growing paler and paler until it was nearly clear. He’d camou#aged himself by liberally applying make-up. !en, when his eyes went from blue to pale to blood-red, he’d covered them with the darkest sunglasses he could "nd.

!is is not the right place at all for me, he thought. Time to move on and "nd someplace new. Better.

Josiah watched the beads of his tainted, acidic blood dry in the sun and fade into the earth, leaving small, dark stains.

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.

JOHN PALISANO

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He couldn’t believe he’d just killed Ogam. Shouldn’t have poked his nose where it didn’t belong. Shouldn’t have tried to lie to me.

Even though they were now back inside, the nerves de-tected something chemical. !ey sensed light and felt footfalls.

Temperature. Electricity. Warning signs. Someone was coming. Someone would see him. It was a

wide-open space, after all, and there was a dead man on the sand. Josiah rushed away from the scene as fast as he could, knowing he’d have to act quickly, before anyone saw him.

Josiah’s mind raced. Stretch the nerves. Exercise them. Move them outward. Try again. And again. Keep trying until you get it right, until you don’t have to think. Build up your motor skills.

More people are going to get in the way. Engage them. Watch for their pupils to see if they dilate too much or too little. Wait for the foul smells the liars give o!. Prod them to tell the truth and savor their nervous secretions. Drink their thoughts like milk on a "ery throat. Smile. Tell them it’s okay. Count down until you can pounce on them and overpower them and whittle them to their marrow. Make them inhuman. Turn them into gooey, sticky masses of meat. Steal their life and turn them to rot.

Use the nerves to sense the sky before it changes. Use them for change and healing, not to kill. Countdown. Twenty-four hours. Eighteen. Seventeen. #ir-

teen hours. #irty seconds. Four seconds. Change comes. How long have I been here waiting for them to come out? Who knows?

He saw images in his head.He saw his brother, Horace. More images.

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!e sack bursts and the kittens mew. !ey want to crawl back inside and cause their mother pain. !ey want to wiggle up into her ribcage and rest their heads on her beating heart. Why come out into the dry hot world when there’s nutrition and rest and comfort? Why at all?

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drop. !ere it goes. Still bleeding. Still cleaning out what’s left in

there. Blood. Overrated. Overused. Over-symbolized. Symbol of primal life. Symbol of primal ideals and philosophies. Josiah had time for neither.

Drip. Drip. Drip. On the run. Where is Horace?Josiah hurried to Zzyzx road. His red Jeep Cherokee was

just where he’d left it, which was a relief. A part of him thought it might have gotten stolen. How or by whom, especially in the middle of the desert, he didn’t know, but he’d had a nag-ging fear he’d have to walk home. He was glad his instinct was wrong.

A layer of sand covered the entire front of the car. He hadn’t felt any winds while he fought with Ogam. He stood in front of the Jeep for a moment, thinking it might be some kind of trap. He walked around the vehicle slowly, inspecting it carefully for signs of tampering. He couldn’t see anything. He reasoned that he must have been so deeply involved in the moment he hadn’t sensed the wind. He reached into his pocket. !e tips of his "ngers were split and sore; taking his keys out hurt.

Pain pulsed through his nerves and persisted all the way up to his shoulders. At last he’d managed to curl his split "ngertips around the keys in his pocket. He worked as fast as he could to get them out, then brushed o# the sand with the arm of his

JOHN PALISANO

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shirt, opened the door, and climbed inside. He took a moment to catch his breath.

With one seamless gesture, he put the key in the ignition and turned it. He was relieved to !nd the car hadn’t been tam-pered with. He had almost expected it to explode. He looked out his driver’s-side window and saw the dark mound in the sand a few yards away: Ogam’s body baked in the desert heat.

“So much for you,” he said, and locked the door with his elbow. Ogam had plagued his family for three generations. Ogam had given his family their powers in exchange for their friendship. "at friendship would cost them in blood. "e witch’s curse had sickened their mother’s mind. Her personality had devolved. She now spoke gibberish and barely left her bed.

"e witch had tricked his parents, bestowing gifts on their children without telling them. "en the witch had made their mother crazy. No one knew what had happened when Ogam visited her, but when the witch left, their mother as they’d known her was gone. Had he !nally rid them of the witch’s curse? He hoped so.

Josiah clicked the windshield wipers on. After they had cleared enough sand from the windshield, he put the car in drive and raced onto the deserted road.

"ere was someone he needed to see a few thousand miles away. He had to get there before word that the witch was dead got to them.

"e nerves had brought death to Ogam, but they also brought life.

As Ogam’s body baked in the desert heat, his wounds be-gan healing themselves, #esh and tissue weaving back together, the witch’s blood remaking and healing what was lost.

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