Free Punktown: Shades of Grey by Jeffrey Thomas, Thomas Scott Page B

quote such a song at him; Japan Black had written it about her ex-husband, who despite a restraining order had followed her around on tour, menacingly obsessed with her. He had ultimately raped her and then killed both her and himself in her hotel room. The song was Stalker .
    Following her around the end of the car, still holding out his arms helplessly, Karlos despaired. This hardly seemed the best way to quote the entire Del Kahn song to her. He needed her to be receptive, to sit with him and listen to what he had to say, to consider his feelings deeply. The ugliness of the scene put him at a loss. Maybe he should have abandoned his attempt to surprise her in the act altogether, when he’d decided not to buy the gun. He could have let her know later that he knew all about her and Josh. But he had so wanted to demonstrate to both of them, in person and simultaneously, that he was aware of their deceit.
    “Please hear my words,” he repeated, feebly.
    Aundrea’s progress was halted when she bumped into Josh, who had dipped inside his car and then emerged again.
    Karlos faced both of them now. His anguish at gazing into Aundrea’s face was replaced with hatred for his supposed friend. He stopped advancing, immobilized by the knot of emotions.
    Josh pushed Aundrea to one side, out of his way, and from behind the purple wings strapped to her back appeared a Tikkihotto dagger with a long blade nearly as slim as a spike. He rushed forward to meet Karlos. They briefly thudded together.
    The skewer went deep, up under his ribs. Karlos gave a little grunt and took a few steps back, looking down at his chest. The handle of the knife, bound in strips of black leather, protruded from him surreally. The entire length of the blade was neatly hidden inside him.
    Josh had been too terrified, too sickened to draw the knife out and strike a second blow. He scurried backward and this time collided with Aundrea, almost knocking them both down. Aundrea was screaming. She grabbed onto his shoulders and dug her fingers in as if she meant to tear the flesh from the bones beneath.
    Together, they watched Karlos stagger against the car, grabbing onto it to keep from falling. He gave a little cough and blood bubbled over his lip. His jaw slackened and a wave of it flowed over his chin.
    He wove drunkenly, directed his dazed eyes toward his friends again.
    Words gushed like blood through his mind. Lyrics of a dozen songs overlapped, distorted, tripped over each other in an effort to rise with biting lucidity from his reddened lips. Rhymes to communicate his outrage, his terror, his agony, the realization that his life was ending. Something that would crush them forever under its emotion. Shame them. Curse them. Words they would play back again and again in self-punishment.
    But as his hands slipped off the car and he crumpled, he gave only a half-choked cry that was thoroughly incoherent. Inarticulate. It would have to do.
    Aundrea continued her keening wail. Josh began to emit a series of whimpers. Despite this, for one moment of terrible clarity, they all knew exactly what the other was expressing, as if for the very first time.
     
     
    — | — | —
     

 
    PERFECTLY BEASTLY
     
    Yu heard Peck screaming above him on the fifth floor.            “Damn it, Russet, shoot that thing on the stairs and get up there to him!”
    Over his headset, Yu heard his partner reply, “I don’t know if it’s the Ophluu or one of his animals…”
    “To hell with the animals! Listen to him! Go!”
    “They’re endangered, Yu—we have our orders!”
    “Peck is endangered! Never mind, you prissy little puke, I’ll go to him myself!” Yu stabbed the key to summon down the elevator. A labored rattling like a washing machine full of wrenches came from behind the door. Damn old tenements.
    “Don’t abandon your position until more back-up arrives! We have to keep that lift covered!”
    “You come cover it; I’m going