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."I would never harm you," he said shakily, staring down at the tablet."Never.""I know you'd never want to."Dr.Jekyll had never wanted to be the murderous Mr.Hyde."But you think I sent you this, not The Friend.""I know you did, Jim.It feels right.""So if The Friend sent it but the The Friend is me, a part of me, thenyou believe it really says I love you Holly.'""Yes," she said softly.He looked up from the tablet, met her eyes."If you believe theI-love-you part, why don't you believe the I-will-kill-you part?""Well, that's the thing.I do believe a small, dark part of you wantsto kill me, yes."He flinched as if she had struck him.She said, "The Enemy wants me dead, it wants me dead real bad, becauseI've made you face up to what's behind these recent events, brought youback here, forced you to confront the source of your fantasy."He started to shake his head in denial.But she went on: "Which is what you wanted me to do.It's why you drewme to you in the first place.""No.I didn't""Yes, you did." Pushing him toward enlightenment was extremelydangerous.But that was her only hope of saving him."Jim, if you can just understand what's happened, accept the existenceof two other personalities, even the possibility of their existence,maybe that'll be the beginning of the end of The Friend and The Enemy."Still shaking his head, he said, "The Enemy won't go peacefully," andimmediately blinked in surprise at the words he had spoken and theimplication that they conveyed."Damn," Holly said, and a thrill coursed through her, not merely becausehe had just confirmed her entire theory, whether he could admit it ornot, but because the five words he had spoken were proof that he wantedout of the Byzantine fantasy in which he had taken refuge.He was as pale as a man who had just been told that a cancer was growingin him.In fact a malignancy did reside within him, but it was mentalrather than physical.A breeze wafted through the open car windows, and it seemed to wash newhope into Holly.That buoyant feeling was short-lived, however, because new wordssuddenly appeared on the tablet in Jim's hands: YOU DIE."This isn't me," he told her earnestly, in spite of the subtle admissionhe had made a moment ago."Holly, this can't be me."On the tablet, more words appeared: I AM COMING.YOU DIE.Holly felt as if the world had become a carnival funhouse, full ofghouls and ghosts.Every turn, any moment, without warning, somethingmight spring at her from out of a shadow-or from broad daylight, forthat matter.But unlike a carnival monster, this one would inflict realpain, draw blood, kill her if it could.In hopes that The Enemy, like The Friend, would respond well tofirmness, Holly grabbed the tablet from Jim's hand and threw it out thewindow."To hell with that.I won't read that crap.Listen to me, Jim.If I'm right, The Enemy is the embodiment of yourrage over the deaths of your parents.Your fury was so great, at ten,it terrified you, so you pushed it outside yourself, into this otheridentity.But you're a unique victim of multiple-personality syndromebecause your power allows you to create physical existences for yourother identities."Though acceptance had a toehold in him, he was still struggling to denythe truth."What're we saying here? That I'm insane, that I'm somesort of socially functional lunatic, for Christ's sake?""Not insane," she said quickly."Let's say disturbed, troubled.You're locked in a psychological box that you built for yourself, andyou want out, but you can't find the key to the lock."He shook his head.Fine beads of sweat had broken out along hishairline, and he was into whiter shades of pale."No, that's puttingtoo good a face on it.If what you think is true, then I'm all the wayoff the deep end, Holly, I should be in some damned rubber room, pumpedfull of Thorazine."She took both of his hands again, held them tight."No.Stop that.You can find your way out of this, you can do it, you can make yourselfwhole again, I know you can.""How can you know? Jesus, Holly, I""Because you're not an ordinary man, you're special," she said sharply."You have this power, this incredible force inside you, and you can dosuch good with it if you want.The power is something you can draw onthat ordinary people don't have, it can be a healing power.Don't you see?If you can cause ringing bells and alien heartbeats and voices to comeout of thin air, if you can turn walls into flesh, project images intomy dreams, see into the future to save lives, then you can make yourselfwhole and right again."Determined disbelief lined his face."How could any man have the poweryou're talking about?""I don't know, but you've got it.""It has to come from a higher being.For God's sake, I'm not Superman."Holly pounded a fist against the horn ring and said, "You're telepathic,telekinetic, tele-fucking-everything! All right, you can't fly, youdon't have X-ray vision, you can't bend steel with your bare hands, andyou can't race faster than a speeding bullet.But you're as close toSuperman as any man's likely to get.In fact, in some ways you've gothim beat because you can see into the future.Maybe you see only bitsand pieces of it, and only random visions when you aren't trying forthem, but you can see the future."He was shaken by her conviction."So where'd I get all this magic?""I don't know.""That's where it falls apart.""It doesn't fall apart just because I don't know," she saidfrustratingly."Yellow doesn't stop being yellow just because I don't know anythingabout why the eye sees different colors.You have the power.You are the power, not God or some alien under the millpond."He pulled his hands from hers and looked out the windshield toward thecounty road and the dry fields beyond
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