Rob Scott - Lessek_s Key

She hoped a day or two in Silverthorn would give her a chance to make contact with Brian and Meg, to impress upon them the need to be careful in the coming weeks and decide where to go next. She pondered on what to do about her brother and his wife; the truth was an unappetising option, and if she told them to avoid contact with strangers and remain in well-lighted, well-populated areas because she believed Hannah’s disappearance was the result of foul play, Brian would insist that she call the police. As much as he loved her, he didn’t trust her to make wise decisions about Hannah; he would promise not to interfere and as soon as she was gone, it would be the first thing he did.

Jennifer was still troubling over what to do when she heard David call from the parking lot.

She waved. ‘Well, hello! Come on over, but be careful. It’s deeper there than it looks. I nearly went in over my head.’

‘I wish you had stayed in the shallow end until my arrival, young lady,’ he chided. ‘Did you at least wait forty-five minutes after eating?’

They walked together for over an hour as the village of Silverthorn gave way to the quiet solitude of the mountain forest. From time to time a bird or a squirrel would disturb the branches and snow would fall around them, but, lost in conversation, neither noticed as they walked, holding hands like school children, across the alpine wilderness, waving to the occasional cyclists who passed them. Jennifer was tempted to share her current predicament – David seemed open-minded enough – but each time she started to speak about Hannah and Steven, she caught herself. The last thing she wanted to do was to frighten this nice man off with fantastical talk of otherworldly monsters and demon hunters! As she gripped his hand she knew she wanted to come back here after Hannah was safely home; she just hoped he would forgive her when she disappeared in a day or two.

She caught sight of a young woman some distance ahead, wearing the same bright red apron David invariably donned while working at the supermarket. Gesturing down the path, she asked, ‘Do you know that girl?’

David squinted into the late morning sun. ‘It’s Laura, I think – I wonder what she’s doing out here today.’

‘I hope nothing’s wrong back at the store.’ Jennifer felt a knot begin to twist in her stomach. She should not have come back to Silverthorn.

‘Let’s find out,’ David said and hurried up the path with Jennifer close behind him. ‘Laura,’ he called as he reached her, ‘what are you doing out here without a coat? Is something wrong at the store? Is everyone okay?’ His breath came in great clouds; he was in good shape, but running at this altitude was hard for anyone.

‘Hello Jennifer Sorenson,’ the girl said, ignoring her boss. Her voice was almost a growl. ‘I have been looking for you.’

Jennifer froze, waiting for billowy clouds of breath to form at Laura’s lips, somehow knowing none would. The girl wasn’t breathing.

‘No, please no,’ she whispered, ‘oh, David. I’m so sorry-’

‘What’s going on?’ David demanded. ‘Laura? Please tell me what this is about-’

The girl broke in, ‘Jennifer Sorenson, I need the portal, now. We can do this a friendly way, or-’ Laura collapsed in a heap, a discarded pile of clothes and fleshed bones, but no spirit, no soul remained.

‘-we can do this an unfriendly way.’ David’s voice had changed. He bent down and plucked something from the girl’s hand, a packet of something, maybe.

Jennifer couldn’t look at him. Overcoming her momentary paralysis, she turned and fled back along the path.

Too soon, she was exhausted – she wasn’t in good sprinting-at-altitude shape – and she was forced to jog. She tried to ignore David’s voice – no, not David, anymore, some demon prince – as he exhorted her to stop.

‘You can’t run, Jennifer Sorenson. You realise I have your daughter.’

That stopped her in her tracks. As she doubled over to catch her breath, the mother lioness within her roused itself. In spite of the icy cold, she was sweating. ‘You motherless prick,’ she snarled, ‘if you hurt her, I swear to Christ I will tear out your black heart with my own hands.’

‘Time is wasting and you have a choice to make,’ David said, ignoring her toothless threat.

‘What choice?’ Jennifer didn’t back away; she could see a wound on David’s hand was dripping dark blood onto the snow. She shuddered.

‘Turn the portal over to me and live, or die right now,’ David said. ‘I very rarely offer anyone a choice. You should consider yourself honoured.’ He smiled, but like the voice, it was no longer David Johnson’s smile, just a twisted caricature. ‘So what will it be?’

‘Why give me a choice?’

‘Because either way, I get what I want, which is to return to Eldarn today.’

‘That doesn’t answer my question.’

‘Insightful, too,’ he said, ‘how delightful.’ He chuckled. ‘I plan to kill Hannah, very slowly, and very painfully. If I let you live, then you will live knowing there is nothing you can do to save her and I can rejoice in the fact that I have driven you mad with helplessness and grief. For me, it’s undoubtedly a win-win situation. For you, not so much.’ The idiom sounded strange in that not-David voice; Jennifer lost control and charged the thing that had stolen David Johnson. She chose death.

As she ran blindly towards him, tears freezing on her cheeks, David’s face changed. A quizzical look passed over his features, as if things were not working out the way he had planned; maybe Jennifer’s actions had taken him by surprise. He tilted his head slightly, as though listening for something, ignoring the fact that a crazed, fifty-something woman was coming head-on at him.

Though distracted, he side-stepped her attack and sent her sprawling over Laura, the dead check-out girl. As she crashed down, Jennifer cried out in pain and tried to roll back to her feet for another lunge.

Not-David had gone back to contemplating the forest. He didn’t look at her, but held up one hand in a wait-just-a-moment gesture, then said, ‘Jennifer Sorenson. You are the luckiest woman in this unlovely world. I don’t need you any more. Of course, I still plan to torture and kill Hannah, and I will be sure to bring a piece or two back here for you, but for now, I don’t need you. A very good, very old friend of mine has allowed his curiosity to get the better of him again and he has just opened the door for me to go home. Goodbye, dear Jennifer Sorenson. We will meet again.’

With that, David Johnson seemed to shimmer – he looked like he was under attack by a cloud of yellow and green insects. He stepped from the bicycle path into the snow and faded away.

Brexan was about to give up for the night. She’d spent two days searching and she was tired and cross, and only the thought of food was keeping her from screaming her frustration aloud – when she spotted Carpello Jax himself, slinking along the side of one of the warehouses she hadn’t yet identified. He stayed in the shadows until he reached a window near the back. Huddling behind a pile of empty boxes, Brexan watched, but it was nearly half an aven before he moved back towards the pier. She ducked down low to the ground until he had turned the corner, then started to trail him, keeping her distance. This time she would be extra careful – no bumping into crates or scolding irritating children – the last thing she needed was a repeat of the Jacrys mission that had ended so ignominiously.

She followed the merchant through the sparse evening crowd, warm despite the cold night. She tried to work out what Carpello been doing back there – from what little she could see he had been eavesdropping at the window, but if that was his own warehouse, that didn’t make any sense at all – unless… the only thing Brexan could imagine frightening the fat man enough to make him run, weeping, in public, was someone trying to kill the rutter. Maybe that’s why Carpello was sneaking about his own warehouse.