A cafe, small place with WiFi access. Enjoying a smoothie bought with quarters and broken dreams. Looking at attractive girls... they probably think I'm a serial killer, which wouldn't be too far off the mark. Then some kid walks up to me. About 14 years old, wearing a red shirt and backward baseball cap in typical 14-year-old poseur style. I was expecting him to start asking me if I had stolen my laptop when I saw his face.
Terror. Complete terror. I have never seen someone more afraid in my life.
"He wants to talk to you."
There was a very long pause before I answered:
"Who does?"
The kid's eyes bugged out, "HE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!"
Eyes turned towards us. It's not every day when you see a kid yelling nonsense at a vagrant. I shifted uncomfortably.
"All right, and how does he intend to do this?"
He proffered me an iPhone. Feeling tired, I shrugged and took it. The voice on the other end was deep, rough and slightly nasal in quality.
"The Glass Man?"
"Ferus?"
Laughter emitted from the phone, "Yes, yes I am!"
"What is it you want." The crowd stopped watching.
"I'm sure you've already guessed by now."
"I'm in no mood to be humored."
A brief pause.
"It's really simple: I want to kill you."
A slightly longer pause.
"That doesn't make any sense to me."
"Really, why not?"
"Because when you killed Masky the other day you could have easily found and killed me."
A coughing fit on the other end. This man has health issues of all sorts by the sound of it.
"Well played. I do want to kill you, Glassy Glass Glass Glass, but I must prove that I'm better than you."
The last few words were strangely emphasized.
"Why would that be? Why am I your perceived level to surpass?"
"You're not getting that answer today, Glass Man. The boy is going to leave the phone with you. Tell him he can leave now."
I looked at the boy and nodded. He ran.
"What did you do, Ferus?"
Laughter, deep and throaty.
"I gave him a call too. Told him I kidnapped his parents and sister, which is of course true. I'm calling you from his house right now. When he comes home he'll find them... in a somewhat improved condition, if I should say so myself."
"You son of a bitch."
"Not quite, Glass Man, not quite."
Click.
Liking this less and less, dear. Please keep safe, if you need any assistance or want it just drop by. More than happy to help you, Glass Man. Hell, I owe you it for cutting through some of those proxies during my escape.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought this guy was just some grunt proxy, Now I see that he is indeed pulling strings... You need to be careful, Glass. You are useless to me if you show up at my doorstep dead.
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