Chapter 21
Curtis: At Last, My Love
Curtis follows the shadow thing out of the studio. The shadow man, attuned to such things, hears the sloshing sound Curtis makes as he walks. It’s a sound made of every ounce of rage, anger, regret, bitterness and disappointment Curtis Freeman has ever felt. Curtis is made of bile. He leaks hatred. The shadow man leads Curtis to the Winter Festival, where he will direct him to pour that hatred and bile onto the citizens of Greener Valley.
What the shadow man did not foresee was this:
As they walk into town – and anyone who saw them would think Curtis was alone – they come upon the Welcome to Greener Valley sign with the new logo of “this town is fucked” painted over it and this might have at another time caused Curtis to gasp and it might have, at this point in time, caused him to grin, but Curtis does not care about the sign, because next to the sign is a limousine. The limo’s driver lies next to his car, quite dead. And half in and half out of the limo’s open sunroof Curtis sees a mess of blood, brain and sequins that used to be Sharon Weiss. Or Shana Cummings, depending on from where you knew her. Curtis knows it’s Sharon by instinct. He certainly can’t tell by her hair, which is covered by blood, or her face, which is mostly caved in. He just knows it’s her.
Curtis stands still for a few seconds, holding in his breath. The shadow man watches helplessly. Things can go a few different ways here. Best case scenario: the scene leads Curtis into a murderous rage. Worst case scenario: despair washes over Curtis and floods the bile out of his soul. It’s the worst case scenario for shadow man because his plan to use Curtis as an instrument of destruction would be ruined. It’s the worst case scenario for Curtis because shadow man will have to kill him.
Curtis exhales. He walks to the limo, slowly, like a man with a purpose. He opens the back passenger door, climbs in and pulls Sharon’s body down through the sunroof into the car. He continues pulling on the body until it is out of the car and then he pulls it even more. He’s a caveman bringing home dinner. He doesn’t stop to look at the shadow man. He doesn’t say a word. He emits some grunts and groans and leaves a trail of blood and bits of brain and face and hair as he walks toward his house, corpse of his beloved in tow.
Shadow man is worried. This isn’t the way things were supposed to go and now he thinks his best case scenario might not be the best case after all. Curtis Freeman has gotten away from him. He lost control of his puppet. Which means he lost control of the show. He decides to watch from the sidelines for now and let Curtis’s new nature take its course, but he’s worried and anxious and he wishes he could do something human like have a drink. This is not going to sit well with Her.