DODGSON

    

    …they sat inside at the bar because there was room there now and the terrace was too public after what had happened. They were joking with Xenia, who was still pretty shaken but whose sense of humor had returned enough to allow her to wonder who would be first to ask her if she’d cut herself shaving. Fingering the Band-Aid on her chin.

    All but Billie had their backs to the door and she must have come gliding up behind them like a ghost. It was still poor Xenia she was after-was it just that kiss she’d seen? that one small gesture?- because all at once they saw Billie’s face go white with fear and by the time he turned she’d put a handful of cigarettes into Xenia’s face-she was going for the eyes-but Xenia jerked away and he saw them sink into her cheek as though it were butter, the smoke and flesh bubbling up liquid like teardrops.

    And then he was on her with Eduardo and Danny, and Michelle was clawing air to get at her, Billie still recoiling, and Danny reached out and hit her openhanded in the face while Dodgson and Eduardo grappled for the hands that were reaching for the women, a wild wiry strength lashing out for them. She was tossing her head and spitting, eyes shot red, head whipping up and down and back and forth and she didn’t even seem to feel Danny hit her except that the mouth began to froth and drool, white froth flying off the bared clenched teeth, spraying them all as her body jerked and slammed against them.

    Then somehow they got her to the door. He heard Eduardo screaming dammit! goddammit! and Xenia, who seemed to be gasping and moaning and sobbing all at once, and worst of all he heard Lelia growling and snapping at them, the growl set deep in her throat, her voice as deep as a man’s, a big man’s if you could believe it was human at all and not some animal’s, the teeth snapping shut and spittle flying at him. He felt her fingernails rake his forehead as she reached for him and as he looked into her eyes he saw something reaching for him there too and he turned away from her as though afraid he’d turn to stone while they propelled her out the back door to the terrace. And he thought, Who is she?

    The eyes had not been human.

    And suddenly he was afraid, more afraid than he’d ever been in his life because they were pushing her back and he could tell it was coming, he could feel it, see it even with his back to them, as though it had to be. He turned and knew he was right and that she could see it too.

    The hand clawed out for him, the eyes pleaded-no, they commanded him to - what? help her? join her? - yet he was frozen there unable to do anything but watch her driven back between Danny and Eduardo and then watch Eduardo let her go, as though he sensed the danger as well now, a danger that was more than her own physical peril but was immutable and final for all of them.

    For a moment it seemed as though all that would happen from this time forward stretched out before him in one clear terrifying vista and he yelled No! and Billie was yelling too behind him but it was too late now as he’d somehow known it would be, it was going to happen and nothing and no one would dare to stop it happening.

    He saw Danny take her one step backward. And then she was falling and Danny was reaching for her, realizing finally, a look of anguish on his face-that strange mad smile on hers-lurching wildly toward her and nearly falling too. They heard the crack that was loud as a gunshot in the still night air as she fell the three steps down and her neck snapped at the impact, saw the mouth blurt blood and foam into the astonished milling remains of the crowd, the head lolling slowly to the side so that he could see the bloody spill growing fast like an ink stain behind it, spreading, the eyes flickering once and then settling into something cold and composed and utterly, monstrously empty.

    For a moment no one moved.

    A man stepped out of the crowd and reached down for her wrist and someone behind him darted back as though he’d stepped into a nest of spiders, her blood spackled all across his trouser leg.

    Dodgson looked down at the one taking her pulse. It was the big man, the Frenchman. His eyes nearly as blank as hers.

    “Dead.” He shrugged.

    Danny looked frantic.

    “Easy,” said Dodgson.

    “I didn’t…I didn’t know…”

    “Nobody knew,” he lied. “Easy.”

    Eduardo was behind them. “I’ve walked these stairs a thousand times,” he said. “And I never saw it coming. It’s not your fault.”

    “I killed her.”

    “She killed herself,” Eduardo said. And then more mildly, “it was an accident.” Dodgson saw he was shaking. He turned and went back inside to Xenia.

    He felt Billie come up beside him. He moved away from her down the steps.

    The Frenchman stepped back, staring at him.

    Dodgson looked down into her blood-splattered face.

    “Damn you,” he said.

    The mouth yawned red and wide.