Contents
3:55 p.m. (EST)
Overview
King Sorrow confronts Allie at home, revealing that Horation Matthews, her chosen target, will be airborne at the fatal hour. He taunts Allie’s guilt but offers a brutal bargain: board the flight so only Horation dies instead of everyone aboard. The moment sharpens Allie’s responsibility and the Easter stakes.
Summary
On a Saturday afternoon, Allie, tipsy on white wine, does laundry and reaches into the dryer. She grasps something scaly before King Sorrow seizes her wrist, manifesting from the machine’s darkness and from her mind. He announces it is nearly Easter again and names Horation Matthews as the marked man.
King Sorrow explains that Horation is running, bound for London via New York, with a midnight British Airways departure from JFK. He mocks that the plane will be full of people Horation despises, implying their deaths might grant him meaning or prove his cowardice.
When Allie questions why she’s being told this, King Sorrow reminds her Horation was her pick, pressing her guilt. He claims none of it would be possible without her choice, twisting the knife over her past heartbreaks and blame she carries.
Finally, King Sorrow gives Allie a horrific option: the flight leaves in two and a half hours, and if Allie boards, only Horation needs to die at dragonedy o’clock. If she does nothing, the implication is mass death over the Atlantic. Allie is left shaken, aware that action could spare many lives.
Who Appears
- AllieAt home, drinking and doing laundry; confronted by King Sorrow; pressured to board a flight to limit casualties.
- King SorrowManifests from the dryer; reveals Horation’s plans; taunts Allie’s guilt; offers a grim bargain to save others.
- Horation MatthewsAllie’s chosen target; fleeing via JFK to London; potential cause of mass death unless Allie intervenes.