“I knew they were cruel. Maybe I felt … sorry for him.” I snort. “Sorry for me? I could’ve handled those guys.” “They smashed the back of your head in with a board from my house.”

“I hit him with a board; of course he’s got a concussion. Don’t be an idiot.”

“You guys didn’t try to do anything to me,” I say honestly. “You brought me to a house because you wanted to freak me out. You didn’t know that your friend would wind up getting torn in half and disemboweled.”

“I even had this idea that the knife stopped working, that after a certain time it just stops working for you, when your number is up. I thought maybe it was me who had done it. That I killed him just by growing older, and being ready to replace him.”

“I come in all big and bad, and you use me for a game of handball.” I grin. “Makes a guy feel damn manly. She grins back. “It made me feel pretty manly.”

“By the time I had gotten off the phone, I knew that I was going after Anna. My gut told me that she wasn't just a story. And besides, I wanted to see her, dressed in blood.”

“The thought makes me reach back for my knife, my sharp, throat-cutting security blanket, as I look around.”