Der Schädelring: Thriller (German Edition)

that on before you freeze."
    Dr. Forrest snatched at the robe, jumped to her feet, and ran toward the trees. Her sad, broken laughter filled the clearing. "Satan calls me," mocked Dr. Forrest, in a strange falsetto. "I hear him in the trees. He's everywhere."
    Walter tried to stagger after her, but Julia stopped him. "Let her go," she said. "She won't freeze to death if she keeps moving. They'll find her sooner or later and get her the help she needs."
    Walter leaned against her. "Hopefully, she won't get a therapist as screwed-up as yours."
    "You're making fun of a woman who's holding a gun," she reminded him.
    “You’re not a bad Clint Eastwood yourself,” he said.
    She didn’t want to explain the murdering force that had descended upon her and briefly possessed her. It would sound deranged, the kind of thing a defense lawyer would use for an insanity plea. Walter would call it the grace of God, but Julia could never be sure whether it was instead the will of a malevolent master whose most potent magic was served by disguise and doubt. The devil’s greatest trick was in getting people to believe he didn’t exist.
    But maybe God’s greatest trick was in granting people the free will to doubt.
    “I’m no better than they are,” she said, looking at the gun that was cooling in her hand.
    Walter shook his head. A large purple knot was swelling above his temple. He touched it and winced. "I'm going to have a hell of a hangover tomorrow."
    So would Julia. Tomorrow, she'd have to deal with the fact that she had killed someone. She had played God just as certainly as Hartley had, taking human life. Sure, she could justify it, but every sin had its price, every sinner an excuse.
    "Any more of the Creeps around?" she asked. "I only saw three, plus Hartley and the doctor."
    "I shot one," he said. "That's where I got the robe. But I lost Mitchell's gun climbing up the rocks to get here. It got dark so fast I couldn't look for it."
    "There might be more of the 'Brothers' around, but I doubt it. Not enough slices of the money pie."
    "Money?"
    "I'll tell you later. Let's get out of here."
    She helped Walter toward the trail, clutching the gun in her right hand. Maybe somewhere, God and Satan were sitting in the Happy Hour of the afterlife and bickering over the nature of good and evil and which of them had won this latest dice roll of human souls.
    The sun slipped behind the ridges as they staggered back up the trail, both of them weak. They had reached the granite peak of Cracker Knob when Dr. Forrest's high voice drifted up from the woods. "Oh, Jooolia. Jooolia. He ooowns you, Jooooolia."
    Julia looked out over the dark ripples of Appalachian Mountains in the distance, at the black pockets of valleys. In a strange way, Dr. Forrest had healed her. Compared to a devil-worshipping lunatic who liked to play with patients' minds, Julia felt like the most sane and rational person on the planet.
    They rested against the rocks, the sky in twilight. Walter fidgeted with his hand for a moment and held something out to her. "This is yours," he said. "I was keeping it for you."
    The silver ring. She looked at the skull grinning in the moonlight, at the stupid empty eyes that saw nothing.
    “Free will,” he said.
    She took a step forward and hurled the ring into the deep valley below the rocks. Judas Stone didn't exist.
    She couldn't tell which of them moved first, or if they simultaneously had the same idea. They embraced, their lips meeting, body heat and the heat beyond that combining. Julia kissed desperately, afraid that each precious moment belonged to the past, was already over and never to be regained. But then Walter kissed her again, and she knew that these moments were hers for as long as she desired.
    They finally parted, Julia so light-headed that she had to lean against the rocks again. Neither of them spoke, afraid to break the little magic spell the world had allowed. Walter took her hand and guided her between the boulders under the timeless night.
    The wind gently pushed the last scraps of clouds away. The sky was indigo and scattered with stars. The rising moon shone down on the silver forest. They continued through the trees, pushing away the groping branches.
    By the time they reached the cabin, Julia was exhausted. They found that the Jeep's tires had been slashed. The Creeps had wanted to cut off easy escape.
    "Looks like we'll have to hike out," Walter said.
    "Not tonight," Julia said. "I'm beat."
    "No,