Free DEATHLOOP by G. Brailey

least, telling her that the boy was lying when he said he was his friend, and giving her permission next time they saw him to call the police. But he didn’t do that, and he seemed a little put out that she had brought the subject up at all. The more Betty thought about it, the more she thought that really, she should have taken her misgivings to a higher level. Geoff Turner would not be happy about an ASBO kid being anywhere near the place, she knew that for a fact, and neither was she. They were not running a halfway house for delinquents, this was a well respected centre of commerce and drug dealers were not wanted on the premises, full stop.
    It was only as Zack passed Sam’s open door that he remembered that in all the excitement of the night before he had left his old friend high and dry. As though waiting for his footfall, Sam shot out of his office and confronted him.
    “Oh, you’re here, ” said Sam, “well, how good of you to drop in. Remember me, do you, by any remote chance ?”
    “Sam… I am so sorry , mate.”
    “You have been led around by your cock for twenty five bloody years Zack Fortune and it’s beginning to look ridiculous. Grow up for fuck’s sake!”
    Sam flew back into his office slamming the door behind him. He had made no attempt to keep his voice down and it was obvious by the silence that followed that he had been overheard. Rose popped out of Zack’s room but she didn’t engage eye contact, she just walked away.
    Zack felt humiliated, not only because a fair amount of his work colleagues had obviously been privy to the dressing down, but because he knew Sam was right. He had an excuse last night, but he had often abandoned Sam in similar circumstances, chasing after some girl that he had fallen instantly in love with. Zack felt stupid, shallow and disloyal, and keen to make amends he took a deep breath and followed Sam inside.
    Still flushed and grumpy, sifting through documents at his desk, Sam was expecting this. He knew Zack would start on the little boy offensive, but this time Sam told himself, he would make a stand.
    “Let me tell you what happened.”
    “I can imagine.”
    “No you can’t.”
    “I don’t want to know. I hate the place, it’s a dump, we only go there so you can pick up women.”
    “That’s not true.”
    “And there I am, surrounded by Muggers Anonymous waiting for some bastard who never comes back! ”
    “Sam, listen to me, please… it happened again.”
    “I know it happened again, you don’t have to tell me!”
    “A stranger dying, and calling out my name…”
    Wrong footed, Sam did a double take, took a moment then sank down into his chair, begrudgingly waiting for the explanation.
    “I came out of the gents, and for some reason, I went the other way.”
    “What other way?”
    “I can’t explain it, but the staircase back up to the club is to the right, well you know that, but I went left.”
    “So you ended up in Never Never Land is that it?”
    “Then, the strange atmosphere again, heavy, airless, I could see something, way off, although at first I couldn’t make it out, but I couldn’t stop myself, or turn back, some old guy, calling out to me in such distress.”
    Now Sam was looking at his friend as though he was seriously worried for his sanity.
    “Just like before I felt my body seize, then it was like this guy was melting, right in front of me. After a while, I could breathe again, move again, but I was totally freaked out. Sam, I’m sorry mate, it wasn’t deliberate.”
    Zack chose not to tell Sam about Veronica, there was no need, not here, not now. A silence fell and he could see Sam trying to make sense of what he had just said, Zack was still trying to make sense of it himself.
    A sharp knock on the door made them jump. Rose stuck her head into the room. “The Wahlbergs are here, Geoff would like you to come in now.”
    Geoff’s office was massive and doubled as a boardroom sometimes, because the original board room