Jack Thompson's Arc

Chapter 8 of 25

Amelie pressed the dice back into Jack's palm. "Not an anchor," she said. "A bridge. You hold the rail. He walks across." Jack rolled them once on the floorboards. Red and black. The thing inside him stirred, curious instead of clawing. He almost had it. He almost understood. Then the front door blew off its frame. Suited men poured through in fedoras and red moon pins. Behind them, a cybernetic wolf padded over the splinters, yellow eye scanning. Through the broken window, Jack saw more shapes circle the picket fence. Scouts. Hounds in red collars. The perimeter had closed while they talked. "Children. Back room. Now," Amelie said. Small feet thundered down the hall. 13 didn't speak. He pulled his bandanna up his forehead, and the third eye opened wet and bright. "Friday," he murmured. "Go play." Something invisible slithered out of him and across the floorboards toward the door. Amelie unhooked the horseshoe from her belt. She gripped it tight. A black unicorn skull bloomed up over her silver hair, jaw working, horn scraping the ceiling. Orobas. Her stick became a blade in her hand. One of the suits fired. The bullet broke against her flank like rain on stone. Jack looked at the dice in his palm. He thought of her words. Bridge, not leash. He squeezed them once — not to push Blackjack down, but to hold the rail steady — and said, low, "Come on out. We've got work." Cold flooded his chest. His crippled leg straightened under him. The shotgun lifted clean off the floor. He felt Blackjack step up beside him, not over him. Two sets of eyes behind one face. The cards came to his fingers like they'd been waiting. The room turned to noise. When it ended, the suits were on the boards and the wolf was scrap. Jack stood breathing hard, still himself, dice warm in his fist. Amelie's unicorn skull faded. She looked at him a long moment. "You held," she said. Then, quieter: "Barely." Outside, somewhere past the fence, a whistle blew. More were coming. But Jack had crossed the bridge once. He could find it again.