“Stop fucking lying,” Eric hisses. “You were the one who told me. Before your dad was police chief. Before they put kids on milk cartons. How many runaways did this town have? How many kids went off to join the circus? As if that was really something that nine-year-olds do? They let it happen.”

“Not everyone knew,” Carrie says, not looking at him.

“Enough of them did. So why do we keep saving them if they won’t stay saved? Why don’t we let them pay the bill for their own deal with the devil?”

“Just take a breath,” Danny says. “You’re drunk — ”

“And you’re a sanctimonious asshole, you know that?” Eric says, wheeling on him. “The great Danny Sharp. Sad because you only made half a billion dollars for selling your company. Jesus Christ. You could lose a million dollars a year for the next 500 years before you run out of money, and you’re complaining? You were born rich and you act like you’re owed even more. Well, here’s a fact for you, genius: you were twenty years ahead of your time — twenty years ago. You haven’t had a good idea since.”

Danny looks at him calmly. Fucking robot.

“Eric — ” Carrie begins, a warning tone in her voice.

But he blows right past it.

“And you. The snitch bitch. Always asking questions with that little frown of yours. Always telling people the rules. Has it ever occurred to you that you might be the only one who gives a damn?”

He turns and sees Alana, watching him. Jesus, he really is drunk. He should stop. He knows he should stop.

“Come on,” she says. “Do me next, Eric. I’d love to hear it.”

“You know I’m right,” he tells her. “Everyone hated you, too. No matter what you did for them. They all hated you.”

She shrugs.

“Then why are you here?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” Eric admits. “I am just so tired of this. I did enough. I did my part. And I’m the one who had to pay the biggest price for what we all went through.”

Whoops. That might have been a little too much. Eric knows it the instant when he sees Alana’s face.

“What?” she says.

He tries to explain. “Come on. Look at you. You’re still strong. Carrie’s still smart, and Danny’s still rich. I’m the only one who lost anything.”

Yeah, that didn’t help. She considers him for a long moment, as if trying to decide if he was really stupid enough to say that.

“Oh, don’t give me that look,” he says, and it sounds feeble, even to him. “You know what I mean.”