Relinquishing my grip on the pipe, I seized hold of the object and stuck my headout of the ground. I emerged at the gate of an iron fence framing the minusculefront yard of a house on Ripka Street. I could see again! It felt so good tofeel the clear breath of the world once more that I closed my eyes briefly tosavor the sensation.
"How ironic," Euphrosyne said.
"After being so heroic," Thalia said.
"Overcoming his fears," Aglaia said.
"Rescuing the fair maid from terror and durance vile," Cleta said.
"Realizing at last who he is," Phaenna said.
"Beginning that long and difficult road to recovery by finally getting in touchwith his innermost feelings," Auxo said. Hegemone giggled. "What?" I opened myeyes.
That was when the Corpsegrinder struck. It leaped upon me with stunning force,driving spear-long talons through my head and body. The talons were barbed sothat they couldn't be pulled free and they burned like molten metal. "Ahhhh,Cobb," the Corpsegrinder crooned. "Now this is sweet."
I screamed and it drank in those screams so that only silence escaped into theoutside world. I struggled and it made those struggles its own, leaving me tokick myself deeper and deeper into the drowning pools of its identity. With allmy wilt l resisted. It was not enough. I experienced the languorous pleasure ofsurrender as that very will and resistance were sucked down into my attacker'ssubstance. The distinction between me and it weakened, strained, dissolved. Iwas transformed.
I was the Corpsegrinder now. Manhattan is a virtual school for the dead. Enoughpeople die there every day to keep any number of monsters fed. From the store ofmemories the Corpsegrinder had stolen from me, I recalled a quiet moment sittingcrosslegged on the tin ceiling of a sleaze joint while table dancers entertained