Free Ultimate Supernatural Horror Box Set by F. Paul Wilson, Blake Crouch, Scott Nicholson, Jeff Strand, Jack Kilborn, J. A. Konrath, Iain Rob Wright, Jordan Crouch

black woman; each began drinking his lunch from a brown paper bag.  Dan listened to Hal and sensed the mixture of excitement and disappointment in his voice.  When he finished, Dan looked down at the loosely rolled parchment in the box on his lap.
    “So, you’re giving me a first century parchment filled with twenty-first century scribbles.”
    “An oddity.  A collector’s item in its own right.”
    Dan continued to stare at the ancient roll of sheepskin.  He was moved. 
    “I...I don’t know what to say, Hal.  I’ll treasure this.”
    “Don’t get carried away—”
    “No, I mean it.  If nothing else, the parchment was made in the early days of the Church.  It’s a link of sorts.  And I’m touched that you thought of me.”
    “Who else do I know who’s so nuts about the first century?”
    “You must have been crushed when you found out.”
    Harold sighed.  “Crushed isn’t the word.  We were all devastated.  But I tell you, Fitz, I wouldn’t trade the high of the first few days with that scroll for anything.  It was the greatest!”
    Just then a woman dressed in satin work-out pants and a red sleeveless shell top walked over to the bench and stood on the other side of Hal.  She was middle aged with a bulging abdomen.  Dan noticed that she wore red slipper-socks over red lace knee-highs.  She’d finished off the ensemble by wrapping Christmas paper around her ankles. 
    Hal looked down at her feet and said, “Good Lord.”
    She smiled down at him.  “Ain’t blockin’ yer sun, am I?”
    Hal shook his head.  “No.  That’s quite all right.”
    She then pulled a bottle of Ban deodorant from her pocket and began to apply it to her right underarm—and only to her right underarm.  Dan and Hal watched her do this for what seemed like five minutes but was probably only one.  During the process she also managed to coat half of her shoulder blade as well. 
    She was still at it when Dan turned back to his gift and spotted a legal-size envelope tucked in next to the scroll.  He pulled it out.
    “What’s this?”
    Hal dragged his eyes away from the woman with the deodorant.  “The translation.  I know you’re pretty good at old Hebrew, but this will save you from risking damage to the scroll by unrolling it.  And as jumbled, paranoid, and crazy as it may read, you can rely on the accuracy of the translation.  The folks who did it are tops.”
    “As usual, Hal.  You’ve thought of everything.”
    An elderly man in a shabby blue suit slipped past the Ban lady and seated himself next to Hal.  Immediately he began untying his shoes.
    “You don’t mind, do you?” he said in an accented voice as he slipped the first one off.  “They’re really sweaty.  I need to air my feet something awful.”
    “Be my guest,” Hal said, rolling his eyes at Dan as the odor from the exposed feet and empty shoes began to rise.  “We were just leaving.  Weren’t we, Fitz.”
    “Gee, I kind of like it here, Hal,” Dan said in his most guileless tone.  “Why don’t you save our seats while I run up to the corner and buy us a couple of hot dogs.  We can eat them right here.  You like sauerkraut?”
    “I’ve lost my appetite,” Hal said through a tight, fierce grin.  “Let’s.  Go.  For.  A.  Little.  Walk.  Shall.  We?”
    Dan hadn’t the heart to play this out any longer.  After all, Hal had just given him a first century scroll.
    “Sure.”
    As they left, the Ban lady took their spots and switched to her left underarm.
    When they reached the sidewalk on Avenue A, Hal said, “I think I preferred living under the threat of a Hamas attack.”
    Just then a very pale woman with very black hair, black blouse and black stretch pants walked by balancing a loaded green plastic laundry basket on her head.
    “And sometimes I wonder if I’ve truly left the Middle East.”
    Dan smiled.  Poor, fastidious Hal.  “You should be at Princeton or Yale.”
    “Yeah.  I could have