The Map of Moments (from html) by Christopher Golden

Author:Christopher Golden [Golden, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

chapter

11

Back in the RAV4, driving through the streets of New Orleans, the stink of corruption from over a century before still on his clothes, Max felt in more danger than ever. He was the focus of this city’s attention, as if every home he passed had someone standing behind its front window watching him. And yet he knew that whatever had set its awareness upon him was beneath and behind the city. Something deeper, and deadlier. The Tordu.

He had stood and watched them slaughtering that girl, that doctor, so that they could introduce a cure. He’d been able to touch and smell, hear and taste, but he had not been there enough to intervene. And that felt so unfair.

But if he had intervened? Stopped them, somehow? How many more would have died?

He cursed, stamping on the brakes and slewing around a corner, taking out his anger on the road.

Ray’s words came back to him. Follow it, magic yourself up, like runnin’ your feet along a carpet to build up static, and at the end of the map you’ll find Matrisse. Then maybe he’ll help you through.

Perhaps it was because it was fresher in his memory, but this Moment had felt much more real than the others. He had almost been taking up space in that replay of history rather than merely witnessing it. During the other Moments, all his senses had been delving into the past, but this time he had felt less like a bystander. It had affected him—involved him—in some way the others hadn’t.

That man stared at me! Max thought. He sensed me there, maybe even heard me.

Maybe he was magicking himself up, as Ray had put it. Perhaps it was a cumulative thing, and every time he viewed a Moment, understanding came closer.

“But how will I know?” he muttered.

A gray sedan cut him off at the next intersection, horn blaring, and Max’s heart jumped. He jerked the steering wheel to the right, bouncing over the curb at the corner and getting back on the street just in time to avoid hitting a parked car. The car that had cut him off slowed.

He caught his breath and slowed as well, staring at the sedan, almost expecting to see a man leaning out with a gun at the ready. What he actually saw were two small kids, turned in their seat and waving to the man their mother or father was likely cursing.

I cut them off, Max thought. He waved back and drifted to a stop at the curb, watching the other car drive away.

He glanced in the rearview mirror. Real though that Moment had been, it did not compare to the sound and feel of the RAV4 crushing that man against Coco’s car. Because I did that, Max thought. And he wondered if the man was dead.

He breathed deeply and closed his eyes, letting the sounds of the street wash through his partially open window. Had he killed? He did not know, and there was no way he could find out.

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