Arthur stood at the gate and looked east, and watched the car hug the road as it came around the curve and coasted to a stop at the edge of the yard. He could see all three passengers: the woman who had captured the lord, the man who had captured him, and the traitor delivering them to their final resting place. Then he looked south and saw the young college student cross the property line and make his way towards the house. This was it, he thought to himself; the culmination of Kane’s master plan. They would remove two enemies at once: those with the authority to stand against them now, and the only one capable of standing against them in the future. It was the grand stroke of genius that could only be expected of a man such as Kane.
Kurt pulled the car into the driveway and parked. He got out and shut the door, then walked around and opened the passenger doors. “Get out,” he told his hostages. “Don’t try to run; you won’t make it very far if you do. There are too many of us and not enough places around here to hide.” Before he had even finished talking, the two lovers were out of the car. Casey’s eyes were on Ariadne; her’s were on him. Then Casey saw Stringfield.
For a moment, Casey feared that he had somehow slipped into a nightmare. That was the only situation his rational mind could provide to explain the appearance of the demon at this juncture of his life. During the flight, or perhaps even before he had ever stepped foot on the plane, his mind had become filled with the old darkness that had plagued Stephen, and now was manifesting the worst aspects of life that it could pull forward from Casey’s unconscious: betrayal, loss, sacrifice, and now the only true evil that he had ever known. The whole tragedy unfolded before him, punctuated by the fact that he had been outsmarted by Kane.
“Do you understand now?” Arthur asked. And Casey did: Kane had joined forces with Mina Blake and Arthur Stringfield in order to facilitate his plan, knowing that they would both want revenge on the people who had captured them, then had led Ariadne to capture him, knowing that he’d be given the death penalty, and that afterward he would be declared deceased, then had set Ariadne and Casey on the path back towards Mastern where he had set his trap waiting to capture them. Arthur and Mina had been captured in the name of law and order, Ariadne and Casey in the name of revenge.
As Casey was processing this, Allen turned the corner of the house and found them all standing there: Damon, Mina, and Stringfield standing on one side, Kurt, Ariadne, and Casey standing on the other.
“What are you doing here?” Casey asked.
Allen looked at them, trying to determine whether they were real or not, and, seeming content with his estimation that they were not illusions, opened his mouth and stated “I think it’s some sort of test.”
“A test?” Casey asked.
“If I fail, I go to Damon. If I pass, I go to Lucy.”
“What are you talking about?” Ariadne asked.
“I can’t explain it,” he told her. “It seems crazy when I think about it, but I think it’s real.” Casey studied his face for a moment, then nodded. “But what are you two doing here?” Allen asked.
“I think we failed,” Allen told him.
“Not yet,” Damon said. “Ariadne. Kurt. I suggest you two step away from Casey. The test is about to begin.”
“What test?” Ariadne asked.
“Go ahead,” Casey told her. “This is between me and Damon.”
Kurt put a hand on her shoulder and she pulled away from him. He grabbed her wrist. She went to pull away, and he pulled and twisted. “We’ve all got tests,” he told her. “Come on.” She swung at his face, but he blocked her with his free hand. With a smooth arch his hand came through like a sword-stroke across her face, and down she went. “Ariadne, I don’t want to hurt you,” Kurt said. Casey grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, intent on knocking Kurt to the ground, but Ariadne jumped to her feet and spit in her attacker’s face. He laughed, the yellow smile of an alcoholic golden in the sunlight, and brought his fist up into her abdomen, knocking the air from her. Down she went again, this time docile enough for him to pull away from Casey.
Casey drew his gun from the holster on his chest and pointed it at Kurt. “Let her go, you damned Judas,” he ordered.
Stringfield lifted his own gun at Casey, and pulled back the hammer. “Why don’t you just bring that sight back over here, Lanford.”
Casey swung his arm over and looked down the barrel at his old foe. This was the second time that Stringfield had a gun pointed at him, but the first time he had a gun pointed back. There was nowhere to hide this time; it was all just a matter of timing. He looked into Stringfield’s cold hard stare, those demonic black eyes, and in his heart he was afraid: afraid of the demon, afraid of the man the demon was following, even afraid of the guns that they both held. That fear sucked the breath from his lungs, the warmth from his blood, the light from his mind. Seconds ticked by with the length of hours as he felt the acid in his muscles burn.
Damon smiled and said, “Winner take all,” and then the sound of two cannon shots filled the air.
The last thought that ever passed through Casey’s head as his body fell to the ground was, “Please let Ariadne make it.” And then he was gone.
