Character · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Carl's father

Found on the eighth floor in a hospital bed in the middle of a trailer's living room, twelve years on and looking forty: 140 pounds, yellow, bullying a six-year-old for cigarettes, watching the Mariners lose. Carl whispers in his ear and leaves the room; his new wife ends him with a lethal dose of morphine. 'He doesn't deserve to have one. Not anymore.' His Panhead, his Glock and his Centipede cabinet go into Carl's inventory; the trailer burns.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 13 — Milk and potatoes
• Chapter 30 — Four drugs
• Chapter 44 — A different time instance
• Chapter 45 — Asher
• Chapter 46 — The Reminiscence Hydra
• Chapter 47 — Operation Slut Stomp
• Chapter 49 — The Shepherd's House flyer
• Chapter 53 — Flee rules

Arc

The silhouette on a soda machine (ch. 44); the shell in the bed; the whisper; the drapes (ch. 45). The hydra was going to be him — 'three smaller creatures inside of him wearing his skin' — and the AI chose otherwise (ch. 46). His voice in Alpha Carl's mouth (ch. 46).