CHAPTER 54 “You and I are much alike.”
Renato awakened to pain, a thing to which he had become accustomed. But now, his ears rang with ghastly screams, and the burns on his face and body seared as if he were being barbecued over a campfire.
He cracked his eyes open, fighting the sting of smoke. Beyond the flames, demonic faces bobbed in and out of the darkness.
Once before Renato had awoken to believe himself in Hell. This time he found the notion harder to dispel. Then he saw the fantastic figure in the feathered cloak and snake mask prancing about with a bloody dagger, and he remembered. The empty treasure chest, the fight with Bowie in disguise, and his capture by the savages while Bowie slithered away.
He knew precisely where he was, and wished he were in Hell after all. He stood b
