Station, стр. 31
Marlin Hadder was wrong on all accounts.
As the curtains slowly parted, Hadder ran the gamutof emotions, from disbelief to confusion to fear to, worst of all,hope. Emily moved gracefully onto the bed, looking as youthful andfull of life as she did on their wedding day, her curly auburn hairframing her pink freckled face. Her light brown eyes, soft andgentle, locked onto his own, reminding Hadder of a life longlost.
From somewhere deep, Hadder's inner mind fought withthe story his eyes were telling, screaming that a great betrayalwas being executed. But Hadder's bruised heart muted that distantvoice, backed by a Haela's worth of chemicals and leveraging adamaged brain that was functioning at minimal capacity.
Emily crawled up the bed to lay on top of Hadder,her hands cupping his face and wiping away twin rivers that now randown his cheeks. Her face pressed against his own, Hadder closedhis eyes tightly as the last image he had of her flashed across hisvision. He could barely see her eyes through a veil of red. Shewore a crown of brain matter but somehow kept moving, crawlingthrough broken glass and over rough concrete, doing everythingpossible to get to the small hand that poked out from beneath thetwisted metal.
Hadder opened his eyes, and there she was again.Face clean and serene, clear of the terror and desperation thatsoiled his last look at her. Hadder trembled beneath Emily, workinghard to put words to his thoughts and even harder to vocalize thosefeelings. "Emily, it is really you? I thought I had lost you,sweetheart. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, honey."
Heaving sobs overtook Hadder, and he may haveremained like that forever, caught in a loop of pity, had Emily notextinguished that despair with a passionate kiss that stole hisbreath and forced him back to the present. "It's ok," she said."I'm here. I'm here with you, Marlin. I've missed you so much. Bewith me."
They fell into each other again, paired souls thatwere brutally separated had found each other in absolute darkness,against all the odds. Grief, love, exhaustion, longing, loneliness,and drugs commingled to create a sexual frenzy between twostar-crossed lovers. They didn't bother with clothes; Emily pulleddown Hadder's pants, and Hadder pulled up Emily's floral dress, twosets of hands shaking with impatience.
Hadder slipped inside Emily, and his pupils shrankto pinholes. He was immediately transported to a previous, betterlife. Everything flooded back as she moved back and forth on top ofhim. A drunken kiss at a party that neither were supposed toattend; a beautiful secret wedding on a small island; shopping forlittle dresses; playfully arguing over names; selecting photos forscrapbooks; family walks at sunset during Autumn months.
Hadder looked up at the love of his life and knewthat he was brought to Station for this very moment.
They continued their lovemaking, and their curtainedbed might as well have been another world rotating another star inanother galaxy. The two lovers were their own universe, alpha andomega. Marlin Hadder never wanted it to end.
As Hadder grew close to climax, he reached up tocaress his wife's beautiful face. Emily took his hand and kissedhis palm before placing it back on his chest. She then reached upand touched her own face, grabbing herself just under the chin. Inone swift, violent motion, she ripped the flesh from her face toreveal a demon underneath.
Hadder's eyes went wide, and his heart sank as herecognized Jackie Crone straddling him, her angry blue eyes carvingpermanent trenches into his soul. Hadder's heart broke again, andeven the small bit of sanity he had clung to all night abandonedhim. Jackie Crone sensed his frozen anguish and smiled wickedly,riding Hadder harder until she came powerfully, soaking his groinand the bedsheets below in thick mucus. She kept thrusting Hadderdeep inside her as he laid there a catatonic mess. Eventually, hecame, the sad involuntary reaction of a shattered man.
Jackie Crone stood by Hadder's bedside, stroking hisgrief-stricken face. She leaned in towards his ear, her oily whitehair and too-tight skin stirring his stomach. "Welcome toInferno, new boy. Nothing ends. Tell Rott that you changenothing."
If Hadder had any control of his bodily functions,he would have retched in the bitch's face. Jackie moved away, gaveone last toothy smile, and disappeared, leaving the curtain openbehind her. Raising his head, Hadder could see other residentsexiting their beds, most in either a daze or a desperate flight.Hadder's tattered mind and body elected the latter as he pulled uphis sticky pants and hobbled towards the exit - Inferno'sfinal door that would take him to the ground level.
The elevator down was shared by three otherresidents, each silently dealing with their own personal hells.After a long descent, the doors opened directly to the outside ofthe Bar. The residents fell out one by one; two stumbled away inthe pre-Solay haze while the third fell to the ground and held herhead in her hands.
A cool breeze brushed Hadder's face, the phantomtouch of his dead wife, and Hadder's mind lurched. He had losteverything a second time, and it was too much to bear. While theSlink was gone from his forearm, Hadder could still feel itcoursing through his body, playing tricks on his eyes, pullingstrings on his nerves, and squeezing adrenaline glands.
With no idea of where to go, what to do, or how toterminate the Slink's hold, Hadder began to run. He speedilylumbered along, utilizing movements that looked and felt halftoddler, half drunkard. On and on Hadder ran, past quiet Bars anddown dim thoroughfares, ghosts chasing him, hot on his heels.Despite the streets being empty as Haela slowly surrendered toSolay, Hadder fell as much as he ran, his mind no longer havingmastery over his flailing limbs. His drug-clogged, ruined heartpounded in his chest, and his breathing resembled an asthma attack.But still, he ran.
After numerous twists and turns, Hadder was spat outof a small pathway and limped into a sizeable open avenue ofunseemly asphalt. Looking left