"Tom…"
"Let me finish. This has got to be the best thing I've ever done in my life. Really. When would I ever get another chance to do something this worthwhile? And this isn't such a heroic thing for me. Because strangely enough, I'm not afraid of what's going to happen here—even if it means dying. One moment I'll be here, and the next I won't. I've got to tell you, not being here won't be so bad, not after the way I've fu—I've so royally screwed up my life."
She shook her head. "What—?"
Obviously Jack hadn't told her the details.
I owe you for that one, little brother.
"Never mind. Suffice it to say I've nothing to look forward to but pain and disgrace, while Jack's got a future with you and Vicky, everything coming his way, including fatherhood. Maybe this isn't so heroic. Maybe it's a way out of having to face the consequences of how I've been wasting my life. Because I'm tired… so tired of living the way I do. I need a clean break. You can't imagine what kind of relief that's going to be."
He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. An oval shape. The Lilitongue. He hadn't known it was here.
And hell, it was moving toward him. He stood frozen as it came within arm's reach and then started to rise. It stopped a couple of feet over his head and hovered.
Tom felt his bladder clench, screaming to empty. Pain shot through his pelvis as he held back. He didn't want a wet stain spreading down the front of his pants to be part of Gia's last sight of him.
He saw the horror in Gia's eyes as she stared at the Lilitongue above him. No! Don't look at that. Look at me.
"I guess this means I don't have much time," he said, hurrying his words past a sawdust tongue. "I'm looking at it this way: Letting this thing take me away won't mean death. I'm pretty sure the guy who made the Lilitongue didn't go to all that trouble just to commit suicide. So I figure there's another kind of life where I'm going." God, he hoped he was right. "And maybe it's a better, simpler life. And maybe because I did this one right thing here, maybe I'll have it better there—I'll be better there."
He felt his skin begin to tingle and he ignored his bladder as it redoubled its efforts to empty.
"Think well of me, Gia. Please? I'm hoping that at least one person in this world will speak well of me after I'm gone. And tell Jack I said merry Christmas. This is his big brother's gift to him."
And then he felt the band of pigment around his chest begin to constrict, felt his skin tingle all over. The room began to fade as the tingling increased. Gia was on her feet, her mouth open. Ever so faintly he heard her scream, and then Gia and Jack and Vicky and Sutton Square and the world he knew were gone.
4
0:00
Gia couldn't hold back a scream as Tom and the Lilitongue faded from sight, leaving nothing more than a waft of cool air. She stared at the empty spot, then turned to Jack. His eyes were open, staring, but he looked disoriented.
"Jack… Jack, he's gone!"
5
Gia's scream had pulled him to consciousness. His vision blurred as he looked at her. She stood openmouthed, with her hands against her cheeks, like The Scream. Then her lips moved. He tried to hear but the words seemed garbled.
Was this how the end was going to come? Lethargy… cottonmouth… like a colossal hangover as the Lilitongue—?
Wait. Hangover… he'd been drinking scotch with Tom. He knew he hadn't had much sleep lately, but a couple of shots shouldn't make him feel like he'd chugged a whole bottle.
And where was Tom?
Jack looked around. No sign of him. Vicky still asleep on the couch. Gia's scream hadn't awakened her. But then, Vicky could sleep through a nuclear holocaust. Gia stood a couple of feet away, but no Tom.
And no Lilitongue.
He searched the corners but they were empty. Had it moved?
"Gia… where's Tom? And where's the Li—?" His thickened tongue couldn't form the word. "Where's that thing?"
Tears streamed down her face. "It's gone. And it took Tom with it."
"What?"
Straightening up on the couch, he pulled open his shirt—who'd unbuttoned it?—and looked down at his chest. The Stain—gone.
He stared at Gia again and saw her nodding.
And then she told him about Tom drugging the scotch, about Tom taking the Stain, able to because they were brothers, about him standing near the center of the room and disappearing.
She had to be talking about another Tom.
Maybe this was how you escaped with the Lilitongue: You wound up in an alternate reality that seemed the same but wasn't.
Because the Tom Jack knew would never—
Gia was talking about how Tom had said he had nothing to look forward to but pain and disgrace, while Jack had so much to live for…
Unbelievable… a mercilessly overworked word, but this was truly unbelievable. If Gia had told him that Tom had morphed into an alien from the Crab Nebula, he might have bought it before this wild tale.
But as she spoke it began to dawn on Jack that this was for real. Tom had taken his place.
"And he just disappeared?"
She nodded as tears streamed down her cheeks. "He and that thing just… faded away. Jack, I just saw a man vanish into thin air. I still can't believe it."
According to the Compendium, the Lilitongue would return to its place of origin—hopefully a hundred feet underground now—but Tom… where was Tom?
Gia said, "Before he went, the last thing he said was that this was his Christmas gift… that I should wish you a merry Christmas."
Tom? Good God, Tom…
Jack didn't know what to say, or how to feel.
"I can't say I'm not happy to still be here, but this wasn't the way… the price… and to be saved by Tom of all people…"
Gia looked at him. "I know you wanted to fix it yourself. And maybe you did."
"I was out cold."
"Yes, but I gathered from what he said that he was in more than a little trouble, that he'd done a lot of wrong. Maybe his time with you changed him, made it possible for him to decide to do this. Maybe you showed him a different way to act, to behave."
Tom, Jack thought, you never gave me a clue you had it in you. I owe you. Wherever you are, I hope you know that. Thanks, bro.
And then Gia was on Jack's lap, her arms around his neck in a stranglehold, talking through sobs.
"Thank God you're still here. I felt terrible when I saw him fade away. Then I felt this overwhelming joy when I saw you still on the couch. And then this terrible guilt for being glad it was Tom instead of you." She buried her face deeper against his shoulder. "Why did something like this have to happen? Why?"
Jack had no answer.
But he sensed a design here. He'd lost his father and brother—his closest surviving relatives—in less than three weeks.
But had he been the real target?
Had he been scheduled to go down at La Guardia? If he'd waited to help Dad with his bag, he'd have most likely wound up in the morgue on a neighboring gurney.
And if he'd been the Lilitongue's target, Tom had foiled that little plan at the last minute.
Why him? Why anybody?
And then Joey's dying words echoed through his head:
It wasn't them… it's bigger than them… something else going on.
What else going on?
He hoped he was just being paranoid, but he'd been warned of pain to come. Was this it? Would it stop here?
Or would…
He stared over Gia's shoulder at Vicky. These two precious people… would proximity to him put them in danger?
He closed his eyes and tightened his grip on Gia. Nothing he could do but keep close watch and take it day by day… day by day…