The Thief of Always: A Fable

by Clive Barker

‘You’ve got questions, I can see that,’ Rictus said to Harvey. ‘Yeah.’ ‘Ask away. I’ve got nothing to hide.’

Evil, however powerful it seemed, could be undone by its own appetite.

‘What do you want, then?’ ‘To die,’ she said, with a little smile. ‘To slip out of this skin, and go to the stars.’ ‘Is that what happens?’ ‘It’s what I believe,’ she said.

‘but isn’t that always the way of it? Things slip from your fingers and when they’re gone you regret it. But gone is gone, Harvey Swick!’

‘We’re both thieves, Harvey Swick. I take time. You take lives. But in the end we’re the same: both Thieves of Always.’