“You think you’re so tough, don’t you, boy? You can’t hurt me. You’ll never know who I am. I’ll never answer for what I did to you.” And then the eerie demonic cackling again.
The cackling that brought the rage rising through me.
I stretched out on the sand. Get up. Get up and show him. Get up and show him you’re not a scared little boy anymore. Get up, Talon. Get up.
My muscles tensed, and I grabbed hold of something… It felt like the leather arm of the chair, but when I looked down, it was just a handful of sand.
Get up, goddamnit. Get up.
I summoned my strength, called on every bit of fortitude and courage I possessed, and I stood. I stood m
y entire height of six feet three, and I towered over the masked maniac who taunted me.
“Decided to get tough again, boy? Show me. Show me what you’ve got.”
I pulled my hands into fists and forced myself toward him.
For once, I noticed his eyes. They were brown, brown and evil.
With all my strength, I pushed him down and landed on top of him in the sand.
“How do you like that, boy?” I taunted. “How do you like that?”
I punched his nose, the blood spurting on my face. And then, as he coughed and sputtered, I put my hands around his neck. His arms flopped at his sides, the tattoo of the flaming bird seeming to move as his muscles flexed.
“You like that, boy? You like how I choke you like that? Do you, boy? Tell me. Tell me you like it.”
With a jolt, I was back in my lounge chair, the sun shining on my face. Jade was beside me, her hand still entwined with mine.
I opened my eyes, and I was in the hunter-green recliner in Dr. Carmichael’s office.
“How do you feel?” Dr. Carmichael asked.
She was right about hypnosis not necessarily being relaxing. I had a push me-pull you sensation going on inside my muscles. They were both relaxed and tensed, if that made any sense. Of course, it made as much sense as any part of my life had in the last twenty-five years.
“I’m not sure how to answer that,” I said.
“Do you remember anything about the session?”
I nodded. “I remember being on the beach.”
“Yes, that’s how I guided you to relaxation. Then what?”
“I felt very good. Jade was beside me. And then…”
“What?”
“A man appeared.”
“Did you know this man?”
I gulped and nodded. Brown eyes. The man with the tattoo had brown eyes. Something new. “Yes. I mean, I don’t know his name, and I’ve never seen his face. He always wears a mask.”
“He always wears a mask in your dreams?”
I gulped again. “In my dreams. And in reality… When I knew him.”
“Was he the man you were strangling?”