Man with No Name: A Nanashi Novella by Laird Barron

Author:Laird Barron [Barron, Laird]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: JournalStone
Published: 2016-03-17T19:00:00+00:00

* * *

Smoke billowed from the house. Red fire twinkled and capered. She’d smashed a few bottles of alcohol and struck a match on her way through the door. “Watch that bitch burn,” she said and buckled in. She’d put on a silver kimono and slippers. Her purse was some sort of designer plastic; bulky and glossy black. She chain-smoked gourmet cigarettes from an enamel case. He couldn’t place them from their odor.

She gave clipped directions that sent them along secondary roads. It surprised him that the route carried them away from the city instead of closer. He drove at risky speeds, trying to keep his thoughts in sight. The slick, narrow blacktop entered mountainous forest--white trees, white flashes of rock, white mist. The oni and the yokai were awake and traveling in parallel. Ghosts of hunger and vengeance cried the cry of night birds.

“There’s a book about a woman whose husband randomly travels through time,” she said. “It’s a tearjerker. Sold a bajillion copies. That’s what tearjerkers do.”

“I haven’t read it,” he said.

“Are gangsters allowed to read chick lit?”

“Who’s going to stop us?”

“Well, this situation with me and Wes is like that sci-fi scenario. Except not really. Also, the romance is dead. Everything is about death with Wes.”

“Okay.” As soon as the yakuza tracked her down, and soon it would likely be, she was definitely dead, although that wouldn’t happen until she’d suffered enough to welcome annihilation.

“He did the paper trick, right? He always does the paper trick. I’m not sure whether that part is bullshit or not. I mean, the loony stuff about government mind control experiments is a red herring, but the pattern itself does pickle your brain all right. Doesn’t require paper, though. He could draw it in the sand or wave his hands in the air. I kinda suspect he could even just use his voice to conjure the effect. What else did he say?”

Nanashi shrugged.

“There was a bit about time and mazes and blah, blah, blah.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” he said.

“Wes doesn’t time travel. Time travel goes against Einstein, thus it’s impossible. Something else very fucked up is going on. Not time travel, though. Did you kill him? Was it you personally?”

He shook his head. The engine purred. Wind snickered through the hole he’d made in the window.

“I want you to thank whoever did it.”

“Send a postcard to the Yokohama office. The guys will appreciate the thought.” He brushed his hair back; useless in the teeth of the wind. Eventually he sealed the hole with the palm of his hand.

“With Wesley’s death, I am free.”

He grunted.

“I was his slave. That was the price to pay for bringing me back from the underworld. He’s King Pluto, our man Wes.”

“Yeah? Are you certain he’s not Polyphemus?”

“Don’t you dig, killer? All the myths are the same. Geography just changes how we explain the horrors.” She lighted yet another cigarette and smiled a tight, bitter smile. “You’ll figure it out, bad boy. Act Two. Me, I’m beating feet.”

“Where am I taking you, huh?”

“It would be meaningless to say.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.