Read Online Midnight Special by Phoef Sutton - Free Book Online Page B

Kudos.”
    But Flint was too far gone to appreciate this faint praise. His face had rotted away so that his skull-like visage approximated the mask he was wearing when Matt first met him. He was chained by his ankles to the back wall of the theater office. Matt had wondered what those chains were there for.
    “What are you keeping him here for?” Matt asked.
    “What do you want to do with him?” Barnabas replied. “You want to kill him? Why? He can’t hurt anybody.”
    Eva was in the back taking a drag on a joint to calm her nerves. “What’s the matter with him? Should we call a doctor? His thumb looks pretty bad.”
    Matt had to remind himself that Eva couldn’t see the rotting of Flint’s flesh. As far as she was concerned, he was just the same as he ever was—except that he’d turned into a bloodthirsty crazy man and tried to kill them a couple of times.
    “Don’t worry, I already called Dr. Hopley,” Barnabas said. “He’s our ‘private doctor,’” Barnabas explained to Matt with a wink.
    “What did you tell him?” Eva asked.
    “That Flint went berserk,” Barnabas said. “Probably a flashback from some drug he was taking.”
    Barnabas leaned in to Flint, and Flint went wild with anger and hunger and spite. Barnabas laughed. “I like that word, berserk . It means an ancient Scandinavian warrior, so frenzied in battle as to be invincible. Cool.” Barnabas was swinging his samurai sword around his head in slow motion. “Not quite invincible, though, are you, Flint?”
    Flint growled. His bloody right hand shot out at Barnabas’s face like a snake. Barnabas didn’t flinch. He knew the chain would hold.
    “Where’d you get that samurai sword?” Matt asked.
    “It’s a katana. The one used by Toshiro Mifune in Sanjuro . Supposed to be, anyway. I keep it with me in the hearse at all times. You never know when it might come in handy.”
    Flint lunged forward again, his teeth gnashing, his one good eye blazing. The chain restrained him.
    “You have to do something! When is Dr. Hopley going to get here?” Eva cried.
    Barnabas chuckled and put the sword back in its sheath. “Anytime now. Right now, me and the Cowboy have to have a grown-up conversation. Why don’t you be a good little girl and get the box office ready for tonight?”
    “Fuck you,” Eva said. “I’m going to call the police.”
    “And what do you think the police will do to poor Flint? Why don’t we let him get off of whatever trip he’s on first. It’s only fair.”
    She hesitated and then she nodded. “I guess.” Then she looked over his shoulder at Matt. “Don’t listen to his bullshit, Matt. I’ll be downstairs.”
    Barnabas shut the door after her.
    “How long before the doctor gets here?” Matt asked.
    “I didn’t call any doctor. We both know that won’t do any good.”
    Barnabas took out three shot glasses and a bottle of Patrón. “How ’bout a nightcap? We gotta get plenty of sleep. Big day tomorrow.” He poured three shots, picked up one, and slid the other across the desk toward Matt.
    “Who’s the third for?” Matt asked.
    “Absent friends,” Barnabas replied.
    They shot the tequila back.
    “I already know your story, Cahill. Do you mind if I tell you mine? It’s short and I’m good at telling stories.”
    Matt nodded.
    “Well, the first part you know all about,” Barnabas began. “After all, I don’t have to tell you what it’s like to die.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
    “I drowned in my bathtub a year ago last March. There were about thirty people in my house, so you’d think somebody would have noticed me slipping under, or at least would have wondered where I was for the two hours or so I was dead, but they were otherwise occupied.
    “Have you ever been to an orgy?
    “I used to have one at my house in Brentwood every other week. You’d think it would get old, but it really doesn’t. Every girl and every guy, they’re so different. And the combinations! You could really do it for