NOS4A2

Vic asks Wayne if he is still thinking in reverse. He says he is trying but it’s hard, and it’s clear that Manx can’t understand what he’s saying, when he says it in reverse. Vic takes out an ANFO sack, sets a timer, and explains how the explosions will work. Manx screams, and the moon screams for them to kill Vic. The moon screams so loudly that the earth shakes as the children swarm toward Vic. She gets on the Triumph and rolls toward the Wraith. Manx pushes one of his daughters back in a protective gesture that is familiar to Vic.

A girl jumps onto her back and wraps her cold hands around Vic’s waist. She hits Vic’s knee with a chain and then bites Vic’s shoulder when she hits her with her elbow. The Triumph goes down and the moon screams again for them to kill her. Vic brings the motorcycle upright just as a rock hits her in the head. A boy bites her leg, and she drives toward a costume store, where the girl she knocked off the bike is now sitting with a sack of ANFO between her feet. It explodes and the sky and moon evaporate briefly—they are a false projection, as if the sky is a film screen.

Vic makes it to a carousel. In disbelief, she watches the children—burned and smoking from the blast—move toward her. She goes to the rollercoaster and places ANFO in the mouth of the entrance, which is a Santa head whose mouth is filled with sharp teeth. She sees crucified men and women hanging from the tracks. A child stabs her in the lower back but she keeps moving. The rollercoaster explodes when she is one hundred feet away. She puts ANFO by the Ferris wheel. It explodes and rolls toward the town. An avalanche starts high in the mountains and snow rushes downward and begins to bury the town. Vic sees Mille trying to force Wayne into the trunk of the Wraith. Manx tells Millie to leave him so they can leave. Millie bites Wayne’s ear. Just as Manx swings the hammer at Wayne’s head, the ANFO at the base of the tree explodes.

Vic can get Wayne on the back of the Triumph and ride away. She thinks she is dying, but she is alert enough to notice that Wayne’s skin is warm again. The Wraith strikes her rear bumper. She makes it to the bridge and sees “LOU” spraypainted next to the familiar arrow. Wayne sees the bats as they cross the bridge. Bats swarm the Wraith, causing Manx to hit the walls. Suddenly, the Wraith falls through the broken floor to the river, where it smashes far below.

Manx dies with oil in his mouth. The girl is found four days later with bats in her hair. The rest of the bridge collapses as Vic realizes the Triumph is out of gas.

Wayne wakes to see Lou sitting on his bed. He says Wayne was smiling while he slept and asks if he was dreaming about his mom. Wayne says he doesn’t remember, but he had been thinking fondly of the dead children and their sadistic games, in the place he now thinks of as The White, instead of Christmasland.

Three nights earlier they’d been at a movie with Hutter. Wayne had been surprised—but not disapproving—to see Lou kiss her. Hutter transferred to Denver in the aftermath of the Manx case, and it was a good move for them all.

As they prepare to go out for the day, the phone rings. When Wayne answers, a girl with a Russian accent asks when he is coming back to rebuild Christmasland. Wayne hangs up. Sometimes, he worries. When he sees something nasty, like roadkill or a video about the genocide in Sudan, he catches himself smiling, which is what Manx would do. He compares himself to a broken plate that may never be the same. The last time he saw his mother, she was being loaded into the ambulance. She told Wayne he would always be okay. But he also remembers Manx saying that blood doesn’t come out of silk and does not know what he should realistically expect from his future.

Lou has lost a lot of weight, the result of his angioplasty and a gastric bypass surgery. They pass the country store where Lou met Vic. Then, they go to Sleigh House Lou says he has a promise to keep. Wayne is nervous because he is excited by how close the dead children feel. He imagines hitting Lou and Hutter in the head with the hammer he has in the back seat, but he resists the urge.

At the Sleigh House, Lou takes down the angels and ornaments from the trees and breaks them. He says one of the ornaments is Wayne’s, and if he can break it, he will have Wayne all the way back, without any of Manx’s influence clinging to him. Wayne and Hutter help him.

Wayne sees a girl standing by the house. She says a word that he does not recognize, but it is the Russian word for help. Then, Tabitha sees her. It is Marta Gregorski. A boy named Brad comes out behind Marta. Lou sees that Wayne is crying. He can no longer feel the pull of Manx and the children. It went away when Lou smashed the moon ornament. Wayne asks if they can skip Christmas that year. He hears a motorcycle and wonders if it could be his mother riding the Triumph. He knows it is impossible but is glad that there is still enough warm weather for people to ride before winter.