The Lie Spinners (The Deception Dance) (35 page)

I’m
so busy pouring, fetching, and cleaning minor spills that it’s
suddenly 1 a.m. and Stephen tells me that he’s done for the
night. The guy who threatened me with a knife starts cleaning behind
the bar and Pom counts baht from the jar he put the tips into.

As
I expected, a “Thai tip” is nada; of the many Thai people
who came in tonight, all of them gave me exact change, a huge smile,
and then teased me about something or other (my hair, my outfit, my
choice of company). When I mentioned that I was not
only
receiving Thai tips tonight to Pom, he told me: “it is right,
tourists should tip, not Thai people.”

Pom
hands Stephen a stack of cash and something small that Stephen
quickly puts in his pocket. Pom gives me a much smaller stack of
bills, and, though he is a little shorter than I am, he throws an arm
around my shoulders, “Did you love it?” he asks.

Unexpectedly,
yes, it was exactly what I needed. “It was fine,” I say.

“
Good,”
he says, “Tomorrow, Stephen’s friend, I’ll teach
you how to make some real drinks.”

“
Why
don’t you take that pill now; I don’t want to get
overwhelmed outside,” Polite Goon says to Stephen from where
he’s been standing, unmoving, for the majority of the night.

“
If
I take it now I won’t be able to finish my watch or sleep in an
hour,” Stephen says, “I’ll take it in the morning.”

“
You
can’t finish something you have not started,” Polite Goon
says.

“
I
didn’t feel the need to watch her as you were practically on
top of her all night,” Stephen says.

“
Well,
you’re not walking out with us with
that
in your pocket,” Polite Goon says, “If we get mobbed—”

“
When
have
you
ever been mobbed?” Stephen retorts.

“
You
wait in here for me to honk, understand?”

Stephen
salutes him.

Polite
Goon gestures for me to head to the bar’s back door that leads
to the alley where he parked his Jeep. We exit the bar into a crowd
of the homeless-zombie-people. I hesitate but they barely even look
at us before moving aside, their hungry gazes returning to the back
door of the bar.

Polite
Goon ushers me to the Jeep, waiting for me to step up inside before
climbing into the driver’s seat.

“
Roll
up your window and lock your door,” he says, waiting for me to
do so (even though the car has no roof) before he slowly backs up to
the back door of the bar. The homeless-zombie people only step out of
our way when it’s that or be hit.

Polite
Goon honks.

Stephen
lunges out the back door, slams it shut, grabs the back of the Jeep
and in one move jumps into the open back.

Polite
Goon doesn’t even check that Stephen made it into the car
before speeding forward.

The
disheveled crowd behind us just re-congregates at the back door, one
yanks the door handle but finds it locked—only one girl watches
us leaving out of the alley; my eyes widen and jaw slackens because I
swear I recognize her. She looks dirty and scratches cover her face
but I swear it is one of the blonde Kiwi girls from the train.

****

“
You
can’t be serious?” I hiss at Stephen when he climbs in
beside me in my bed.

He
stills. Moonlight enters the bungalow from the window whose curtain I
forgot to pull closed; in the bluish glow I see Stephen start to
climb back out of the bed.

I
grab his bicep and pull him back down. His weight hitting the
mattress makes me bounce. With my hand still on his arm I clarify,
whispering, “
…about
May
.”

He
settles in beside me, but doesn’t touch me, doesn’t wrap
me in his arms like he did last night. “She
knows
the web,” he whispers back, “I think it’s almost
like…the people closest to him are part of the web.”

“
You
didn’t see what he did to her…he almost killed her for
protecting me, something that he actually wanted done. Asking her to
betray
him, I can’t even imagine what he would do to her if he found
out…it is the wrong way…it’s really, really
wrong…”

“
Yeah,
I’ve seen the beatings.” He sighs. His hand rubs his
forehead. “Maybe I am becoming more like them…maybe I am
more willing to do what needs to be done. But what I know is that as
long as The Spider has Linnie, he controls you—if he controls
you, The Spider controls the whole game. I’ve watched him for
months now. He only values
power
.
He’ll never give Linnie, or you, up.” Stephen lies silent
for a long time, just rubbing his forehead. He finally continues,
“May is the only one of his people who I have ever seen blink
an eye of defiance at him, openly, or even in private…”

“
She
already said no,” I whisper, “I didn’t even know to
ask and she told me that she couldn’t help me.”

“
Which
means she considered it, without you even needing to ask,” he
whispers.

“
Anyone
I ever care about will be used against me,” I whisper,
bitterly. “I was so selfish letting Linnie stay close to me. I
just wanted to have one person; I just didn’t want to be
completely alone.”

“
You’re
not,” He says. His arms wrap around me again. I’m held
tightly against him, where I know better than to be (where I want to
be).

“
I’m
sorry for staying away from you this year. I am probably one of the
only people in the world who can understand what you are going
through; I should have been a better friend and not made you face
this alone. My brothers are sexists; I know that you’re smart
and strong enough to not fall in love with every man who gets close
to you.”

I
bite my lip and squeeze closed my eyes.

I
don’t tell him that his brothers were right to keep him from
me. I don’t tell him anything. I try not to even breathe,
afraid that too strong a gust could somehow extinguish him and leave
me again alone in the dark.

It
feels so right, so amazing to have my body pressed so tightly against
him; but maybe because it feels that right and that amazing, I know
that I have to pull away. Every moment I let myself bask in him is a
moment that I let my selfishness endanger him (and the world). I try
to force my mind to reject him, to think of something, anything, (
I
don’t know…)
bad about him.

“
What
are
those pills?” I mumble into his chest. “Why are you
taking them?”

I
expect him to get defensive or maybe even pissed —or something,
he doesn’t. Stephen doesn’t let go of me, he only
whispers in a very low voice, “I’m not taking them. Here,
come with me, I’ll show you.”

I
open my eyes as he pulls away from me, climbs out of the bed and
crosses over to the restroom. He waits in the open doorway of the
bathroom. I sit awkwardly for a second before getting up and
following him into the bathroom.

He
closes the door and stuffs a towel into the crack under the door
before turning on the light. The shock of the sudden light blinds me.
When I can see again, Stephen stands there, blonde hair messy,
staring at me. He turns his back to me, lifts his hands and starts
separating the hair at the back of his head, angling his head so he
looks out of his periphery at his reflection.

“
Do
you see it?” he asks.

“
See
what?” I whisper back. But leaning in I do see something, black
lines on his scalp. “Do you have a word tattooed on your
scalp?”

“
Yes,”
he whispers, “But it’s actually lower than that, red
dots.”

I
step up and start combing through his hair with my fingers. It
doesn’t take me long to find them. A line of small red dots,
unevenly spaced an inch above his hairline. “I found them.”

“
Alright,
can you see them all? There should be twenty-eight.”

“
Yes,”
I confirm after counting.

“
Alright,
now tell me if one of them turns black,” Stephen puts his hand
in his pocket and pulls out the pill Pom gave him.

I
gaze down the line of dots. “Yes, one did.”

“
Do
you see a white line before the line of dots start? Put your pinky to
the right side of it…”

I
do it.

“…
good,
that’s one. Now continue to count pinky lengths, count both
spots with red dots and without, until you’ve reached the black
dot.”

“
Sixteen,”
I say, after counting twice.

“
Zepar,”
Stephen whispers low, darkly.

“
Zepar…?”
I hiss, “One of the greater demons?”

“
Yes,
the viper demon,” he responds, “He’s the most
recent demon The Spider summoned.”

“
So
these dots are all the greater demons? And it’s in the order of
the Ars Goetia?” I ask.

“
Yes.”

“
What
does it mean… the dot turning black when you touch the pill?”

“
I
am not sure, but almost every dot on there has turned black for one
of the pills,” he says. “Perhaps these pills were created
by these greater demons. Perhaps they touched them, added something
to them…I only have theories.”

“
So
these greater demons are creating super addictive narcotics that make
people on a small Thai island have moving tattoos…? And where
are all these greater demons?”

“
These
are the same questions I have been battling with for months. I know
that the demons are being called forth here; when I spoke with him,
Räum
told me that The Spider summoned him and all the other greater
demons. A few of the red dots showed up while I was here, but I have
not encountered one greater demon in all the time I’ve been
here.”

“
Could
they have been summoned and released, without ever getting a body?”
I ask.

“
No,
they have to steal and occupy a body to get a red dot, and the moment
they leave this world the dot disappears. And since The Spider
summoned them but they haven’t stolen his body yet, they must
be inhabiting soul-bound human bodies; and as soul-bound bodies
aren’t enhanced by demon blood like The Spider’s, some of
the less recently summoned greater demons should be burning through
them by now. Then again, I haven’t seen any soul-bound here
either-but they must be here.”

I
think about telling Stephen about the soul-bound on the train, but
instead I return my focus to the line of dots; even though I know
what I’ll find I keep measuring my pinky’s width until I
get to the sixty-third space. Only Stephen’s skin fills the
spot, no dot.

“
Not
yet,” Stephen whispers.

“
Yeah,
I just…” I don’t finish the thought, I drop my
hands.

Stephen
tosses the pill into the toilet and pours a bucket of water in (which
is what makes the toilets flush here). He turns to me.

“
Is
that dot-thing magic?” I ask.