stay in one place long enough to make any sort of connection.”
“Shut up.”
“Uh-oh, Jack is getting upset—”
“ Shut up!”
The thing got up and moved toward him. Actually, Jack saw it standing next to the armchair and one second later it stood in front of him. There was a blurry movement in between. It went down on one knee.
“I tell you what. You know why we’re here. You have something I need — that thing around your neck. I have something you need — your life. Easy trade. No hard feelings.”
Jack looked at the thing. He felt as if his mind was caught in a vice and someone turned the spindle, increasing the pressure inside the jaws with each revolution. The hopelessness he felt was unbearable. He had to use all the strength he had left not to give in, not to slide into it and abandon his life altogether.
“Go to hell,” he said quietly.
“Uhh, Jack, let’s not get metaphorical here. Listen to me—”
“ No you listen to me!” Jack cried out. He couldn’t breathe but as he had just decided to fight for his life, he didn’t care. “Here’s what I think and… correct me if I’m wrong,” he spoke a few words at a time, pushing each one out with force. “You need this, whatever this necklace is I’m wearing. You can’t get it off yourself. Can’t touch it.” Jack laughed a little even though it was painful. “I have no idea why, but let’s just say it somehow messes with your evilness. The people you’ve hired to do your dirty work can’t touch it either, otherwise they would’ve ripped it off of me a long time ago. You want me to take it off myself. I gotta tell you, the bit with my mother worked. It really did and I’m scared as shit right now lying here, not knowing what you’re gonna do next and what’s going to happen to me. And I know you know that, as you seem to know everything I’m thinking. But here’s the thing. I won’t take it off. You must know that by now. Why should I? I’m dead anyway. And once I am, you’re gonna have to wait until I decompose to get it off…”
Jack’s head was spinning and he had lost his train of thought.
“We don’t need you to take it off, Jack. Not anymore.” The thing walked around him as if to inspect a piece of merchandise before the purchase. “Someone will take it off for you. And we know she will, because you’re going tell her to do so.” Those last words were whispered into Jack’s ear.
“You won’t find her,” Jack said defiantly.
“See, that’s where you’re wrong. You humans have such potential, but then you screw it all up. We don’t have to find her. She will find us. She will want to find you . And save you. Such is her heart. And when she finds you, we will have found her. And you will have fulfilled your purpose. So, you can be stubborn and spend the next day or five days or however long it will take for her to get here, on your knees, your arms tied to a metal pipe, or you either take it off or tell us where she is so she can do it for you.”
Jack looked at the doctor thing. There was no choice.
“Go to hell,” he said for the second time that day.
“So be it,” the thing said.
The abyss opened and Jack’s mind was swallowed by the unimaginable.
He awoke from the pain in his hands and arms. The chasm inside his eyelids was his sister’s room as the fire broke out. His knees were cups, filled with lava. He pushed his weight into them to lessen the strain on his shoulders. When he opened his eyes, he became aware that the four lights surrounding him were off. Through the narrow windows high up, the first light of dawn was visible.
There had been pain and not much else throughout the night. Sometimes it came from memories, other times from his tortured body. It was never absent and was almost part of him now. Twice, he’d heard helicopters overhead and once what he thought must have been a prop plane. At first, he was sure the plane was part of the search and rescue mission to get
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