~~~
When the brushed steel doors opened again, Sara found herself in the strangely deserted parking garage from earlier that day. She barely noticed the few luxury cars parked there as she walked up a ramp in search of an exit.
A few steps later, she came upon an attendant’s booth with the vehicle barrier down. The man within was speaking into a telephone and Sara did not break her stride as she bent down and quickly sidestepped under the barrier.
She kept walking and did not see the man hang up the phone as she went by. Or that he had stepped outside the booth, a hand resting upon the handgun at his hip while he watched the young woman walk out into the night.
Her bus stop was not far away and Sara quickly made her way to the plastic roofed bench at the street corner.
She strained her eyes trying to make out the bus line’s evening hours. But someone had used a coin to scratch graffiti across the plexiglass covering the bus schedule, leaving it a blurred, indecipherable mess.
Sara knew that the buses ran at night, although at a much reduced frequency.
With no other choice, and because she had no means of paying a taxi, she began walking toward the next stop along her usual bus’s circuit. Sooner or later, one would go by and she would just have to do her best to flag it down.
She had only gone half a block when she heard the low rumbling of a large vehicle draw up beside her before slipping smoothly by.
A long, black sedan of foreign make came to a stop several yards beyond Sara and the driver quickly got out.
He was a young man, blond and smiling wide as she stopped in her tracks.
He’s just a kid, surely not old enough to drive.
“Hi,” he said it like a teenager would. Only his all black attire, down to the dark sunglasses and black leather gloves, somehow lent him a professional air.
“My name is Carson Flair, but you can just call me Flair,” he said, “Everybody else does.”
Sara smiled despite herself. His grin was infectious.
“And you can call me Sara,” she replied.
He nodded, saying, “Yes...Sara Renardine...I know. I’m supposed to take you home, Miss Renardine, or anywhere else you might like to go.”
Damn that man and his beautiful eyes. He doesn’t know when to give up.
Only Sara knew that she was relieved she would not have to walk who-knows-how-many blocks until she might chance upon a bus. She wanted to stand by her principles, but the fact was, it was very late and she was very tired.
She must have nodded then, but was not aware of it. In any case, Flair immediately opened a rear passenger door and with a flourish of his hand, indicated that she take a seat.
Oh, the hell with it. I’m too tired to argue any more.
She got in and the young man nodded, his smile still in place as he closed the passenger door.
The interior of the car was of deep cushioned, butter soft leather that smelled deliciously of Earl Grey tea. A dark tinted glass panel was up, separating her from the driver’s compartment and just as Sara was about to knock on the glass so she could give him directions, Flair’s voice spoke from a speaker integrated into the car’s interior.
He asked for the address and Sara gave it to him, but the street number she mentioned was one that would leave her at some distance from the hotel.
Her vanity was petty and she knew it, but the idea of where she lived getting back to the amber eyed man was too much to swallow.
As it was, everything about that man was too much to swallow and Sara sleepily watched the city streets float by, as if she rode a cloud within a dream.
Soon enough, the streets took on a meaner aspect. The lighting was dimmer. The few people who loitered on the sidewalks were dimmer, too. Trash gathered in the corners of the street gutters, as if placed there to say that order had no say here, as if wild creatures waited around every corner.
In a smooth glide to a stop, the car halted before a desolate brick building.
Sara had guessed at a street number that would get her close, but not too close, to her hotel.
She did not wait for Flair to come open her door but as she put her hand on the latch, the tinted glass panel abruptly slid down.
“Miss Renardine, this is for you,” Flair said. He reached through the opening to hold a cellphone out to her.
Without thinking, Sara took it and he continued, “Mr. Abraxis wants you to have it. Also, he wants you to know that you can expect a call very soon.”
She said, “What did you say? His name is what?
Carson Flair reached up to remove his sunglasses and said, "Mr. Abraxis? Brazier Abraxis, the man at the top, CEO and owner of Abraxis Industries...the man who owns us all."
Oh my god, oh my god....
Stunned, it took Sara a moment to reply.
"He doesn't own me."
...be careful of the powers you invoke....
Flair smiled even wider as he said, "If you say so, Miss Renardine. But, my nose tells me that he's got plans for you."
What have I got myself into..?
He nodded to the cellphone in her hand.
"If I were you, I’d keep that handy. Mr. Abraxis expects all of us to respond instantly to his calls."
Her mind reeling Sara nearly leapt from the car while Flair rushed outside to join her. His hands opened and closed, as if being deprived of opening the door for her wounded him somehow.
She did not care.
This is not happening.
Sara stumbled back a step from the car, the cellphone held loosely in one hand.
"His every desire...."she said under her breath.
Flair cocked his head and said, "I'm sorry? I didn't catch that."
She shook her head, "Nothing...it's nothing."
"Ok...goodnight, then, Miss Renardine,” he said as he eased the passenger door closed.
Just then a car turned at an intersection nearby and as its headlights swept over them, Sara saw something that should not have been.
In the years before she finally escaped the burg where she had grown up, where most residents were only one credit card payment ahead of being white trash, Sara had seen any number of times what lights at night did to animals' eyes. Hunters would scout the deer herds in harvested cornfields with spotlights, looking for that season's big buck...others were predator hunters out searching for those animals that stalked the shadows, revealing themselves only when their eyes betrayed them under unnatural light.
The car's headlights slipped over them and for a split second, Flair's eyes flashed in unnatural argent. But, just as quickly as the headlights had disappeared, so did that silver gleam.
His smile wavered as he saw her not just looking at him, but looking at his eyes. Flair slipped his sunglasses on and tipped her a salute which would have been ridiculous in any other situation.
But this day, and now this evening, had taught Sara that she should expect nearly anything, no matter how outlandish.
Her mind was racing as she walked down the sidewalk, past shoddy buildings, some with windowpanes broken out, others with hedges overgrown and paint peeling in dun colored strips from their walls. The impossible day was impossible for her to believe, and that was when she saw him.
Leaning against a derelict building's wall as he had been earlier that day, in a way that might have seemed nonchalant for anyone else, Sara recognized the homeless man from outside the restaurant.
Remembering his wild eyes and the bizarre way that he had looked at her in the alley outside the restaurant, Sara plunged her hand into her purse.
Whether it was to search for pepper spray or for a dollar she could not spare, Sara could not have said.
But the man did not try to advance upon her, only following her with his eyes as she walked by, the pace of her steps then as rapid as she could manage without actually running.
Sara only realized she had been holding her breath until after she had got well beyond the homeless man,
releasing it in one long sigh. Then, believing herself foolish for thinking that the poor man meant her any harm, she heard a voice in the darkness.
"Danger...she walks the paths of monsters...she must heed the warning and turn aside...danger...."
He said it quietly, as if he meant it only for Sara's ears, but the sound carried to her in the still night air. Despite herself, she had come to a stop as his words reached her, then jolted by what he said, Sara burst forward again, hurrying as quickly as she could to the relative safety of her shoddy hotel.
She remembered the strange look he had given her earlier that day. A look of manic zeal in an otherwise handsome face. And now, here he was again, miles across town.
This is not a coincidence.
She hurried down the shadowy street and entered the relative safety of the her seedy hotel.
With a sigh of relief, Sara skirted past the front desk. A cigarette burned in an ashtray, but no one was seated on the worn leather chair. As far as she was concerned, that was just fine. The proprietor was a greasy haired, leering fiend, who took more than his fair share of time staring after Sara as she walked away. Further, rent was due and money was more than tight for her just then.
Creaking steps did their best to betray her as she went upstairs, but in a lucky turn of events, the front desk remained unattended until Sara passed out of sight of it and on up to the next floor.
The door to her room did its best to not be outdone by the creaking steps, but once shut, silence reigned.
She fumbled for the light switch and as she did, Sara’s foot brushed against something lying on the stained linoleum floor.
The light stuttered into being, threatening to pass into the next life before taking hold one last time. And on the floor lay a brown paper wrapped packet.
She stooped to pick it up and as her hand touched the wrapping...
Who ties things with string these days?
...she felt a chill and gooseflesh prickled along her arms. The door had been locked. There was no sign of anyone forcing their way in.
The packet did not weigh much and as she undid what appeared to be butcher’s twine, Sara saw that it contained two envelopes, one blank on its exterior, the other with a handwritten “Sara Renardine” scrawled in a looping, old fashioned sort of script.
She opened the one with her name.
Dearest Sara,
It is with great pleasure this evening that I have learned contact has been made.
Bravo...well done.
As agreed upon, please find enclosed your first advance payment.
This sum shall be followed by other, similar payments as you continue in your assignment.
For the moment, however, there is nothing more for you to do.
I am certain the subject will initiate the next phase on his own and you have but to follow along.
And, dear girl, do remember...you are to acquiesce to his every desire. His every desire. Without exception, or I shall know of it and whereupon our contract will be immediately and irrevocably severed.
In such a case, and in accordance with the aforementioned contract, I wish to remind you that all previous payments will revert as debt owed to me and in one manner or another, you will pay...and dearly. I promise you.
With My Most Distinguished Salutations,
The Journeyman