Page 135 of Forever Dark
The shape moved again inside the room.
Selena pressed her shoulder to the wall beside the ruined doorway and forced one breath down into her lungs.The motel walkway smelled of splintered wood and stale cigarettes.Somewhere behind her, a woman screamed from one of the other rooms.A television kept laughing through a wall as if none of this was happening.
Selena could see a slither of what lay beyond the doorway.Inside Room 12, Connor lay on the floor near the bed.
Blood had run down the side of his face from a cut at the hairline, dark and glossy against his temple.One arm was braced under him, trying to push up.The other reached for nothing.No gun in his hand.Her eyes moved to a shadow.
Nolan Pruitt crouched behind the far side of the bed with Connor’s revolver clenched white-knuckled in one hand, face gone wild and sharp, none of the meek musician left in it.The keyboard had been knocked sideways against the wall.One lamp lay shattered near the dresser.The radio mic Connor had worn was half visible beneath the bed frame.
“Nolan Pruitt!This is the FBI!Come out with your hands up or I’m coming in shooting!”
No reply came.
Selena raised her weapon and fired once through the doorway at the slice of shoulder she saw above the mattress.
The shot tore stuffing from a pillow and drove Pruitt lower.
He answered at once.
A blast from Connor’s revolver punched into the wall inches from the doorframe.Another shot came right after it, lower this time, chewing a line through the motel railing outside.
Selena stayed where she was.She needed an opening.
From inside, Pruitt finally shouted, his voice high and ragged.“You should’ve left me alone!”
Selena risked a quick glance and saw Connor roll onto one elbow, dazed but moving.Good.Moving meant alive.
“Drop the gun, Nolan!”she yelled.
“Nolan’s dead!”
The words came back with such venom they almost sounded spit out.
“He died with the rest of them.You understand?The dirty parts.Siring an illegitimate child.The rot.All of it had to be burned out.”
This was dangerous.He was clearly deranged.Whatever abhorrent rationalizations had taken hold in his head, they were eroding at his very personality.
Selena shifted her grip on her pistol and leaned just far enough to see into the room again.
No clear shot.
Only mattress, broken lamp, Connor’s boots near the floor, a sliver of Pruitt’s wrist, then nothing.
“You’re done,” she said.“You know that.Backup will be here soon.One way or another, you’re coming with me.”
A bitter laugh snapped out from behind the bed.“Done?No.You people never understood anything.Those women were filth.All they did was spread it.God is on my side!He won’t let those sacrifices go in vain.He’ll protect me!”
Connor tried to get a knee under himself.
Selena saw it and said sharply, “Connor, stay down.”
Pruitt heard that, too.The revolver swung toward Connor’s shape.
Selena fired again, fast, forcing Pruitt back behind the mattress before he could line up the shot.
The room fell quiet for a moment.Wind moved over the parking lot.A truck braked hard out on the road.Inside Room 12, the scrape of Pruitt shifting position with Connor’s revolver held ready.
Selena checked her angle.
