Free The Messenger by T. Davis Bunn Page B

behind the register, all of it beyond weird.
    The fellow reached out a ring-encrusted hand. “We’ve been so terribly worried.”
    â€œYeah?” Manny watched the hand like he would a snake, making no move toward it. His skin crawled like it had that day in the pawnshop. “Who’s we?”
    â€œWhy, everyone.” The man masked the retreat of his hand by smoothing down his slicked-back hair. “We had absolutely no idea where you had gotten to. It was like you had dropped off the edge of our little world.”
    Our world. The word grated on his nerves like steel fingernails dragged down a mile-long blackboard. Our world. “Somebody’s been following me. I knew it all the time.”
    â€œOh, if only we could have.” The eyes glittered and stretched with the thin smile. “But you moved away from us, you naughty boy. You vanished. Now how on earth did you do that, especially when you had something we needed so badly? You can imagine how worried everybody has been.”
    â€œYeah?” Manny felt the eyes drilling him to the spot. There was neither time nor space to pretend he didn’t know what the man was after. He had no choice but to go back to his old palaver. No choice at all. “So I’m here,” he bluffed. “You gonna pay, or is this just all hot air?”
    â€œOh, my dear young friend, we will pay anything . Name your price. Riches, fame, fortune, it’s yours. All of it.”
    All of it. Everything he had ever wanted. Somehow he knew the fellow was telling the truth. But the promise brought him nothing but a chilling doubt. “So what’s so great about this thing?”
    The fellow misread his hesitation, and took a step toward Manny, his voice a sibilant hiss. “You do have it, don’t you?”
    Manny shrugged, worked to keep the quaver from his voice. “Yeah, sure. I might. Somewhere safe.”
    â€œOf course. My, or perhaps I should say our superiors will be so relieved.” The tension rose a notch. “What the card is, hmmm, I think you know. A young man of your many talents would certainly have tried it by now.” Another step, the glittering eyes so close that the dark center points opened to become bottomless wells. “You cannot imagine how long they have sought this key. It is the bridge , my young friend. The bridge. Now the banner of war can be raised against all we despise.”
    â€œHey, that’s great.” Struggling to get out the words. Feeling a band tightening across his chest. Wanting to turn and flee. Knowing he had to. But unable to move. “I kinda figured it was something like that.”
    â€œOf course you did.” The pools of his eyes opened further, reaching out to encompass the entire chamber, drawing him in, pulling him down farther and farther, sucking the life and the will and the ability to think right from Manny’s body. “Now tell me, won’t you, where is the card?”
    Manny teetered on the brink, ready to fall into the pit, more terrified and trapped than he had ever been in his life. He heard it again then, the hungry growl, and knew without any doubt whatsoever that the beast was there, and hungry, and waiting to devour him whole.
    Suddenly Manny glimpsed something. An image came and went so swiftly he scarcely realized it had been there. The image was of John Roskovitz’s gentle gray eyes. And in that same instant there was the sense of half hearing softly spoken words. A prayer. A prayer spoken for him .
    The fellow jerked back as though electrocuted. One hand clutched his chest, the other reached for the countertop for support, and he shrilled, “What was that? ”
    With the power of a lightning bolt, Manny was freed. He gasped a single breath as the room sprang into focus. Then he leapt for the door, clawed for the handle even as he heard the fellow scream, “Wait!” But Manny was waiting for nobody. Not now. He flung