Rage, page 28
Blaize and Spyder had corroborated Joyce’s claims to have been working undercover at the commune. They’d also gotten married, not only to better their chances for adoption, but because they couldn’t bear to be apart. They’d had a brief honeymoon while waiting for their petition to be granted.
Spyder had been fitted with a prosthetic hand that performed ordinary tasks surprisingly well. Although he couldn’t play the guitar, he’d turned his talents to writing music on the computer, using a program that transformed the written keystrokes into a symphony orchestra and filled their home with music.
They’d had some tense moments when Pierce’s third book was released. Even though they’d unraveled the plot of the books by destroying the commune and rescuing Joey from his mother’s planned destiny, Blaize had been shocked to read a scene eerily recreating most of the events of that night. She’d had nightmares for weeks afterward. Her only consolation was knowing that the final, climactic end to the series was lost to the world forever. There was no way Pierce could reach out from beyond the grave to rewrite their ending.
Finally they were allowed to take Joey into their home and begin the long, slow process of undoing the effects of Mother Moon’s brainwashing. The biggest obstacle remaining was Joey’s conviction. He truly believed with all his heart that his mission in life was to save the world. It bordered on a fanaticism that frightened Blaize. In all other respects he’d acclimated to the normal life of a twelve-year old boy.
Except that he still believed he was the new Messiah.
Blaize heard shouting in the hallway. With a sigh, she pushed her notes aside and went to see what the commotion in the computer room was about. Instead of dying down when she entered the room, the noise increased as she found students scrolling through documents at the terminals.
The boy closest to her whistled. “Oh cool, it’s the missing book!”
“You’re shittin’ me,” another said. “I thought the last book was never coming out because the author died.”
“Yeah, well I heard in a chat room last night that you can download a copy free from this website. Everyone’s talking about it.”
The words sunk in slowly as Blaize stared at the rows of computers, each displaying the same message.
“Welcome to The Play—Book Four: The Coming.”
“Oh no,” she whispered. “Oh no, how could this happen?”
No one answered as they stared with rapt attention, eyes scanning back and forth across the screens in front of them.
“Don’t read it,” she screamed. But no one listened. “I said don’t read it!” She tore through the room, pulling cords from their outlets and turning all the screens black.
“Mrs. Raines, what are you doing?”
“You’re dismissed,” she told them. “You’re all dismissed.”
She ran to the teacher’s lounge to call Spyder. She had to warn him, had to tell him what she’d seen.
But Spyder had his own concerns at the moment. The prosthesis was giving him problems, artificial fingers clenching and flexing without his control. “Damned electronics,” he swore beneath his breath, reaching for the ringing phone that had finally broken through his distraction.
Blaize’s voice was hysterical on the other end. “Spyder, turn on your computer.”
“What?”
“Turn it on now… Oh God…” Then she was sobbing and he ran, taking the phone with him into his office where Joey sat in front of the computer screen. With a shock of recognition he saw the words on the screen, the words they’d destroyed. “How…?”
Joey looked up at him, a secretive smile on his face. “I remembered,” he said. “I remembered it all.”
The boy smiled eerily, staring at the monitor as Algernon Pierce’s final words scrolled up the screen to be read by anxious fans all over the world.
About the Author
Linda Bleser began her writing career publishing short fiction for women's magazines. Since then, she's completed several award-winning novels in a variety of genres, from rib-tickling comedy to bone-chilling suspense.
Writing as both Linda Bleser and L.B. Milano, she has over a dozen books, short stories and novellas in print. Reviewers have hailed her work as unique, original, and impossible to put down.
L.B. Milano, Rage
