Page 40 of The Girl with a Thousand Faces
“I’ve been examined by every exorcist in the city, and they all tell me I’m not haunted,” Mercy said, words slurred through her busted lips. “But even if you’re not haunting me, even if you’re just a dream, you carry my secrets. And on the other side of you are all the memories that I’ve lost. I need to know what’s so bad and wrong about my past.”
Sea Sister echoed mockingly,Bad and wrong.
“Oi!” Mercy exclaimed.Thatwas different. “Endless years of ignoring me, and you choose to respond today? Why are you only talking to me now, after all this time?”
Why are you only talking to me now?
“I have always been talking, but you never answered,” Mercy said, annoyed.
I have always been talking.
Disappointment swamped her. It wasn’t really speaking, just parroting her words. So much for a breakthrough.
“Oh, fuck this. Are you even real?”
Are you even real?
“Eat shit,” Mercy offered, experimentally.
Silence. Interesting, her hallucination was choosy.
“Answer me this, at least. Who am I, that you can’t leave me alone?”
Who am I?The apparition touched its throat, thoughtfully.Who am I?
“You are Sea Sister, idiot,” Mercy said, ragged. She was already having the worst day of her life, and this damn apparition couldn’t even answer a straight question.
The green face leaned over, so close its lips were a hairsbreadth from her nose.You are Sea Sister, idiot, it repeated, and licked her eyeball with a sucker-studded tongue.
Mercy lurched away in revulsion, swearing loudly. In an instant, the water and vines vanished as if they had never been, the walls moldy but no longer dripping. Unsurprisingly, the green-skinned apparition had gone; she was alone again.
The door swung open noisily. Footsteps slapped the ground. And Cobra Lily sauntered over, grinning wide.
Except it wasn’t Cobra Lily. Not even close. Beneath that familiar skin lurked a polluting spirit, staring out at Mercy from dead, stolen eyes.
The Girl with a Thousand Faces, in the flesh again.
Well,somebody’s flesh, at any rate.
“Sleeping, were we?” the water ghost said cheerfully. “Any interesting dreams?”
Thousand-Faced Girl had changed clothes, putting Cobra Lily’s form into a smart red jacket. Hair smoothed back, collar and sleeves starched, skin lightly flushed with health and color. No indication that a few hours ago, this body had been cold, empty meat on a stone slab in a secret reservoir, with a preservation talisman slapped to it.
Mercy glared in response, saying nothing.
“Want me to make her speak?” the vanguard said, with cruel eagerness.
“What? No.” Thousand-Faced Girl gestured with a languid hand. “Give us some space.”
The vanguard retreated to the far corner.
The triad queen’s body crouched down. “Are you enjoying the show?”
“Is this a game to you, then?” Mercy retorted.
“Not at all. My goal was simple: to spark a conflict between the police and these triad folks. That’s all it was ever about, this demolition nonsense. With Kit Ling dead, apparently murdered, that will be easy to kick off. I imagine it will be quite the gunfight.”
Mercy spat with perfect aim, landing a gob of blood and spit on Cobra Lily’s clean jacket.
