“I wish it was that easy. It’s not just you.” Mosh broke away and began pacing. “They wrecked me. They wrecked my name. They wrecked my career. Everyone thinks I’m a scumbag. Sure, I’ve done some crazy things. I’ve had some fun. But I never hurt anybody. Now everyone thinks I’m the kind of guy that can just negligently kill a bunch of people, but I’m not going to go give some public, weepy apology for something I didn’t do, so now, even worse, I’m a heartless bastard negligent murderer. MCB’s happy. The bunch of lying bastards.”

“That’s what the MCB does,” I agreed.

“Like you can talk. You’re a liar too. You lie about everything you do! Your whole life is one big lie.” He continued pacing and yelling at me, calling me every name in the book, but I just took it. He needed to get it out. I could tell he was starting to cry a bit, but trying to hide it. “You play their game. You take their money. How are you any better than them?”

I didn’t have a good answer. Like he’d believe me if I told him I’d do this for free anyway. I shrugged. “Someone has to do it.”

“Thought so.” Once he’d railed against me and the government, he got to the Sanctified Church of the Temporary Mortal Condition, the entity that had physically dragged him into this world to begin with. “And the cult. They’re still out there. You know it, I know it.” The pacing stopped. “It was awful. They tied me to a chair. Then that evil psycho British chick sawed my fingers off! She laughed while I screamed! She thought it was fun. She thought it was fucking hilarious.”

He had never talked about the actual act before. I hadn’t known that it had been Lucinda who had done the actual dirty work. I’d managed to kill almost everyone else involved, but she’d managed to get away. Copper Lake had proved she would continue to be a thorn in our side. “She’s evil. She helped murder half a town in Michigan last winter. Next time we run into her, she’s dead. I promise.”

“You know the worst part…” he sniffed. “After they beat the hell out of me, but before they took my fingers off, she asked me for my autograph. I thought she was just a kid. I thought, what’s someone like her doing here? Wanted me to sign a CD, believe it or not. Said she was a big fan.”

“Did you?”