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FLEMING

MY firstparade of bad ti into hell

The trip was in stages, like Dante&039;s ten-cent tour, and not nearly as nice

It began with a bewildering dreaed, carried, and aardly shoved into a craathered inforle question floated through the shadows-Where&039;sno answer

After that, the space was in uessable ti carried and set down I was dead, , unable to , not a bed My ar

Then my earth must have been returned, for the dream ceased

Sunset

Eyes wide, internal alarm bells on full, I shot awake in absolute darkness I hated the dark After e, ht-if it was there to be used

This kind of dark was cold, damp, and rock solid I tried to reach for the cot-side la, and at the saony shot froht into my brain like a spear It was so intense that I yelled, tried to pull away, and that s went cloudy for a long, terrible stretch as ht, the greater the pain, until I howled nonstop like a trapped ani The pain re as I kept still

When I was able to think-and that was a struggle-I wondered why I&039;d not vanished away fro into the gray oblivion that had always healedhappened I remained anchored in flesh, and the effort exhausted ood I knew that, but still failed to stop a choking wave fro God knohat until the fit passed

This wasn&039;t like the seizures I could escape the, and that had been unaccountablythe fear to one side, trying to find out anything

Flat onhard, arms spread wide, and hellish pain if I moved either of them, yes, that was pretty daht, and gouging into ure out

The hard surface ran out a few inches from my wrists My hands were over free space I could move them, but it hurt

The room, cave, whatever, was empty and silent, but someone was nearby in another room There was a little distance and a wall or floor between, but I heard a heartbeat and the quick saw of breath and i in turn

Of course I yelled for help, but none came, and no one replied Was he in the saht me here?

My next wave of panic was oing on I struggled, fresh agony stabbed through my arms, and soon the physical pain pulled ain tried to work out as around me My other senses failed to provide much help Arms held in place, pain if I moved them, and the sharp s with h to flow over the edge of soular patter as it hit a hard surface, sounding like a faucet leak you can&039;t shut off Oh, hell Too much, and it would kill ht but could not afford to lose any of it Couldn&039;t tell howwetness beneath n, itWhatever wounds were there would seal up quickly enough, even without vanishing Let theain God, it hurt Not as bad as iven time and no replenishet so starved Too dangerous The last ti at a tier on the cot under the seating tiers at Lady Crymsyn Someone had invaded that sanctuary and taken me elsewhere Poor Myrna had tried to warnfine Had he been in the building earlier, I&039;d have heard him In those last moments before sunrise, he must have crept in, and only Myrna had known

I had a choice of suspects: Kroun-or rather his cronies, Michael or Broder-near the top of the list He could hypnotically control the whatever he wanted The why of it I couldn&039;t guess Maybe he wanted to be the king vao Great, fine, he could have the job, I&039;d leave, no fuss

Next up was Stro otten curious over that ihts back he&039;d seen me appear out of thin air, which surprised the hell out of us both I&039;d popped him unconscious and been fairly sure he&039;d not remembered the Houdini act, but he could have faked it With his stone face, he was the perfect liar Again, the why escaped me

Number one choice-and I hated it: Shoe Coldfield

I didn&039;t want to believe it The ideabody, he&039;d proht not have been enough to change Coldfield&039;s e on and kneeaknesses

He was rabbed hard onto this one-it wasn&039;t hoorked Coldfield would look h a wall, but hold ain When he fell into those blackouts where his eyes went strange but that was also direct and short-lived Why would he do this? Had he gone back on his decision not to execute uys I&039;d annoyed While soet aith it, none would kno pointless it would be Whoever had done this kne to deal with me

Back to Strome but I just couldn&039;t see it Back to

What if Michael and Broder were acting independently of Kroun? Michael uess about my nature Hell, he could know all about Kroun as well There was no guarantee that he&039;d been able to keep his big secret Michael could learn that I survived Bristow and a lot htcrawler&039;s bar; if you knehat clues to look for

But I couldn&039;t see the why of it, either-unless he was keeping ain some kind of control over Kroun Of course it would only work if Kroun was concerned about my welfare I had no confidence in that

However bad the thoughts, the thinking steadied s andand very sturdy table It had held out againstMaybe it was bolted to the floor or just exceptionally heavy

I was dressed, so far as I could tell, in the saone on my coat and shirt, cut away What reed to loosen it and undo the collar button My legs seeave a little and could be rope rather than chain Strong, though I wasn&039;t e I was under a heavy blanket or tarp, i someone was either concerned for my comfort or wanted to be able to conceal ; there was an earthy scent to it, and my voice had bounced off hard surfaces I heard no traffic or other outside noises My best guess for location was a cellar with no ground-level s The utter silence-except for the heavy breather keeping his distance-indicated a deep and private hole

Which was strangely fa on another wave of panic

I crushed it Quick Giving in toto help I had to stay in control Whoever had done this had kept one to considerable effort over it He wanted so Maybe he was just waiting until I calmed down

Okay Why the hell not?

"Ready to talk now?" I bellowed I sounded a lot braver and e s over I chose to think that I was not down here to starve to death in the dark

"Hello!"

No reply I waited a good long ti the wait Footsteps from the floor immediately above as someone paced around, unhurried He was free to stroll, not tied up

"Hey!"

The steps halted, probably in reaction to et his attention

A lunatic part of"Happy Days Are Here Again" in an offensively loud bawl

I have no vocal talent and limit my musical outbursts to the car or the shohen I&039;m alone What isn&039;t flat is off-key, or my voice just doesn&039;t reach certain notes or cracks like an egg It&039;s a shame, because I like music

In this case I hoped the racket would proon the first chorus I didn&039;t know the other words, so I repeated it, putting in a reusto Maybe he&039;d think I&039;d gone nuts Whatever it took

Halfway through a third repeat a light came on

The brilliance was toointo my eyes My lids ha I tried to force them open and couldn&039;t I wanted to rub them-they were dry After a bit I was able to squint past a veil of red and black sparklers and take in quick gliray concrete walls, low ceiling with dusty support bea, and sturdy, a Victorian behe except modern tie in solitude until so at all I was bound like a ht

I blinked, desperate and disbelieving The song died on oddaers twitched when asked, but it hurt There was so that went rotesque

I couldn&039;t see for a ht I was at last vanishing, but my body held solid My htforward cruelty of it

Vision clearing cleared and the awfulness was still there

My ar below the elboas a vertical piece of threaded metal rod

The steel was half an inch thick and inbetween the two bones of le like the flat handle of a walking stick If I pulled le would stop theh the table I was held fast I&039;d seen miniature versions of this used to pin insects to display boards

It was too le This wasn&039;t happening to ainst the immobile steel was useless, but I couldn&039;t stop, not until exhaustion overtookfrom head to toe

You&039;re not supposed to be able to faint lying down, but I went blackout dizzy, andfroet worse"

I looked around for the source of that voice He sounded faht over myself: cleaned up and in a sharp new suit, I looked sympathetic, but clearly unable to offer more than an opinion

That other ht out of

Still, I was coot, I didn&039;t have to be alone in the pit