by J M Guillen
“So I’ll be running the store without you?”
“Crap. I can’t do that. Your incompetence will drive me into the ground.”
“True,” he chuckled.
“I’m gonna crash.” I glared up at the pull rope that dangled from the ceiling.
I really need to find that hook.
“Thanks for the update.”
“Get ahold of Baxter, would ya? Tomorrow I need you both here. You and I need to look at the situation with the store, and Bax needs to tell me if the LAN room is set up properly.”
“Seems reasonable. What time in the morning?”
“Morning?” I bent my knees, leapt for the string and barely caught it. “Man, I’m thinking afternoon.” Then I considered my dad’s puzzle box and the mysteries in the small journal. “Maybe evening. Think you guys can get over here by seven or so?”
“I assume that by ‘here’ you mean Knucklebones and not your dad’s apartment.”
“Right.” I’d forgotten Rehl didn’t exactly know everything going on with Dad.
As if I did.
“Knucklebones. I’ll be open, just bring Bax, and we’ll chat,” I mumbled.
“Cool with me, Liz,” he said. “I look forward to it.”
We hung up, and I dragged my way up the ladder to my secret attic lair.
Lair, I grinned. That name was totally going to stick.
Still lit by Christmas lights, the room remained dim, and shadows loomed. The only other light was the large round window on the far wall, which let in wan moonlight.
I didn’t care about spooky shadows. At all.
Shambling along like a golem, I walked toward my father’s canopy bed. I set my phone and small sack of mysteries on the table next to it, fished the balled-up folder from my hoodie pocket, and fell into softness.
I swear, I fell asleep before I hit the blankets.
2
September 30, 1997
New York, New York
The jangling of a phone clawed its way into my ears. It had been ringing a while, I knew, but apparently it wasn’t enough to fully wake me, just annoy some dim corner of my mind that wanted to remain asleep.
“Okay!” I rolled over in the bed and grasped for the phone. A small jar fell off the nightstand when I blindly scrabbled for the phone.
“What?”
“Five missed calls?” Baxter sounded relieved and annoyed.
“I dunno.” I swung my legs off the edge of the bed. “Maybe.”
“You’re the one who said to show up at seven, Liz. It’s 7:30.”
“I meant PM!” I groaned and leaned forward, elbows on knees as I sat. “Seven PM!”
“Yeah,” Baxter snapped. “We know.”
What? I pulled my phone away from my ear, my eyes wide as I read the small clock. 7:32 PM.
“Holy shit, I’m sorry!” I gave my head a shake and stumbled blearily to my feet. “I’ll be right there.”
The ladder, which I’d left down overnight in my confusion, creaked on my way down.
I just slept twenty-two hours straight! What the hell!
“I’m so sorry!” I frantically unlocked the door and gushed at my two surly friends. “I fell asleep.”
Yesterday, I did not add.
“It’s fine.” Rehl gave a weak smile. “If you get some Chinese delivered, I bet Bax here will stop grumbling.”
“I’m just saying,” Baxter turned from me to Rehl, “if I were thirty minutes late, there’d be a damn inquisition.”
“Oooh,” Rehl chuckled and waved his hands in the air. “Nobody would ever expect it.”
“I might be able to manage some Chinese food,” I said. “As it happens, I’m starving too.”
“Well.” Baxter seemed mollified. “I suppose I can’t turn down crab rangoon.”
I placed the order while the guys geeked out over the store. I had to admit to a certain sense of pride, as I watched two of my oldest friends go wiggy pawing through my dad’s stock.
Mine. I realized for the dozenth time. My stock.
“—maybe she’ll pay you in dice,” Baxter teased as I hung up.
“I’m planning on paying you in food, sooo…” I wrinkled my nose at Baxter. “That’s fair.”
“Naw.” Rehl turned to me. “Baxie works for cash money.”
“When I hire you, I’ll remember that.” I smiled sweetly at Baxter. “In the meantime, would you do me a favor?”
As I led him to the back, I realized Baxter hadn’t seen the LAN room the other day. We’d gotten a little distracted by all the weird.
“So this is what I think Dad called you about.” I opened the door and revealed the linked computers. On the wall, robot guardians stared down on us.
“What!” Baxter’s eyes didn’t exactly pop out, and his ears didn’t let out high-pressure steam, but I wouldn’t have been surprised.
“I don’t know if Dad understood how to hook all this stuff together.” I glanced from the computers to a drooling Bax. “I need to know if it’s set up right, and if it’s not, how much it will cost to get it set up.”
“Yeah,” Baxter hadn’t turned away from the banks of computers. “Okay.”
“We’ll come get you when the food shows up.”
“Just…” He waved one hand as he stepped into the room. “Just bring mine back. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”
“Understood.” I turned away with a smile.
When I reached front, I caught Rehl rearranging a couple shelves.
“Oh, hi.” He glanced up with a sheepish expression. “I thought all the CYBERTECH products should be together.”
“Makes sense.” I chuckled. This will work out wonderfully.
Rehl, who had done nothing but complain about his lack of a job since I’d shown up, now enjoyed the title of Daytime Manager of Knucklebones, Inc. It made him the first shift employee, stock coordinator, customer service representative, and sanitation engineer all rolled together in one goateed package.
“I couldn’t possibly have a better job.” He turned to arrange some of the collectible card games into a display upon the counter. Overhead, a small chalkboard asked, ‘Ready for the Tournament?’
“That looks old.” I jerked my chin at the sign. “Date for that tourney is six months ago.”
“Then we’ll do others. This is gonna be awesome.”
“We’ll see if you still think so when I’m working you seventy hours a week,” I teased. “After all, you’re on salary.”
“I don’t care. Besides, Baxter and Alicia each said they could pick up evening shifts once in a while. You’ll have more than enough employees.”
Mr. Serin agreed on that point. I’d dropped him a quick call just after I spoke with Rehl. He’d been so pleased to hear from me less than fifteen minutes after I left his office.
“So, I’ve hired someone,” I chirped brightly. Silence answered me over the line, and even though I had just met the man, I could imagine the small scowl on Mr. Serin’s face.
“You did.”
“Perfect man for the job,” I said. “Let me tell you what I’m thinking.”
Serin had heard me out. As my business manager, he hadn’t been willing to allow me to take on three full-time employees, not quite yet. This was fine with all involved, as both Baxter and Alicia were trying to get their degrees.
For now, Rehl and I held down the fort.
“Seriously, Liz, I can’t thank you enough.” Rehl set down the last box of cards and turned to gaze at me.
“Well, thank me from down here.” I gave him a teasing grin and headed for the pull string. “I’ll be upstairs in my office. I have some things to sort.”
“Will do. What should I start on?”
“Look at stock. Our inventory sheets and product manuals are under the register. Figure out if there’s anything we need. I’d like to reopen soon.”
“Can do.” He cocked his head. “Who has final say over what we stock?”
“I trust you,” I gri
nned. “I figure we’ll set a budget soon enough, but I’d like to be flush when we open.”
“Understood. Do we have an opening day?”
“I’d like Baxter to have the LAN room up and going. That’s something I have to figure out. I don’t know if I charge people by the hour back there or what.” I paused and sighed. “Anyway, when the food gets here, take Baxter his. I already paid with a card number, including tip.”
“Got it. I’ll call if I need ya.” He stepped over to the register and began to peruse the stock sheets.
I watched him for a moment, and the shadow of a grin played at the edge of my mouth.
Rehl seemed happy.
The big guy hadn’t ever done much more than just get by. He hadn’t enjoyed school, and although he’d liked learning to shoot, he’d been a bad fit for the military.
As long as I’d known Rehl, he’d spent his life doing things he hated, just so he could afford the things he loved.
Maybe things could be different now.
Maybe this would be wonderful for both of us.
3
“Within my secret chambers…”
I mused over what I remembered from the journal as I walked back the way I’d come. Surely Dad had meant upstairs. After all, Serin seemed to believe I needed to take a closer look at the astonishingly exciting tax ledgers and riveting real estate blueprints that filled the shelves there.
My phone rang. ALICIA, the caller ID reported.
“Hello?” I grinned.
Static greeted me. It bent and crackled in my ear, as if trying to say something in a tongue I did not know.
“’Licia?” Only more static responded. “Call me back if you can hear me!”
More static.
“Weird.” I frowned at my phone and hung up. Surely she’d call back.
With one quick leap, I opened the ladder and scrambled up with relative ease. Again, the combination of old wood, cigar smoke, and Dad’s cologne greeted me.
“Let’s see what we can see.”
I took my time, unlike when I’d explored the place with Baxter. Before, I had taken everything at face value, assuming it all to be little more than a collection of old junk. None of it seemed to have anything to do with Knucklebones, which made it all too simple to dismiss.
Perhaps the original owners of the building had simply left this stuff here, and Dad hadn’t quite found the time to haul it all off to the junkyard.
As good a theory as any, I had thought.
Now I needed to look more carefully. Peering into the shadows, I strode across the creaky wooden floor. Everywhere I turned, I saw more of the same: stacks of old papers, notebooks that looked like they were ready to fall apart, and scatterings of remarkably outdated furniture.
This time, I took a moment as I passed the man-sized birdcage to unlatch it and swing the door on its creaky hinge.
“Nothing.” I frowned and continued into the shadows.
I paused as I passed the harp and thoughtlessly trailed my fingers across the strings. They played, but I didn’t exactly have a musical talent and wouldn’t know a sour note from a good one.
“Hey,” I chuckled. “That’s it! If I can just play ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ then perhaps a secret door will open…” I giggled as I walked on until I came to the canopy bed.
I couldn’t help a yawn. I still felt sleepy.
I don’t know why you were sleeping here, Dad, but it’s starting to seem like a pretty decent idea. I pulled back the blankets I’d crashed on, noting they seemed a touch musty. Still, I’d seen a laundry just down the street, and I knew the thing was comfortable.
However, Simon had been awfully intent that I come here when he learned the Gaunt Man was searching for me. Mr. Serin had insisted I needed to look around, even before I had read Dad’s little journal.
Yet the attic revealed no secrets.
So I ambled back to Dad’s desk. In all honesty, this was probably the first place I should have come. As long as I could remember, Dad had spent most of his waking hours bent over a desk either reading or making something.
Yet now that desk rested atop a sigil.
I knew what the Eye was for. I touched the charm on my bracelet as I remembered the first time I had seen it, in this very room with Simon. More than once I had heard how it could protect someone, keep them hidden.
“Still a little bit of a slob though, aren’t you?” I glanced over the desk and toyed with an antique magnifying glass before I decided to open one of the desk drawers.
It wouldn’t budge.
Locked? The key Baxter had found still remained within my jacket. I went over to snag it and the bag of mysteries. Once I had the bag, I dumped the book and the puzzle box onto the desk. Then I pawed in my pocket for that key.
Wait. I frowned. This might be a bad idea.
Even though I saw a lock on the drawer, I had a sneaking suspicion that Simon’s key wouldn’t work there.
Unless I want to open a portal in the desk. I had to admit that the impossibility of it intrigued me. A portal right back into the room that I’m standing in. It would probably break the universe.
A series of beeps interrupted my gamery musings. I glanced down at my phone.
REHL:
Alicia just tried to call me. When I picked up there was just a dead line. I called her back and only got static.
I frowned as I read his message. Was it possible that Alicia was in trouble? I sent back:
I got one from her too. Same thing. I thought for a moment and then texted: Maybe try to call her from the store’s landline?
Will do.
I tried the other drawers in Dad’s desk—all locked. That might be a problem, long term, but I thought for now I could deal.
Perhaps it was time to look into some of the books. I knew Bax said they didn’t seem to have anything in them, but Mr. Serin had implied something altogether different.
“I can afford the time,” I muttered. I stepped over to the closest shelves and selected five of the least-dusty books.
Cradling them, I headed back to the desk and settled in for a long read.
4
Thirty minutes later, I had nothing.
I sat and read as my fingers idly fiddled with Dad’s puzzle box. I almost had it solved. The thing had already shifted on two hidden hinges, opening like a flower.
“You’ve got something in you.” I shook it and listened to the clatter. A ring? Maybe a coin?
The box hadn’t been my primary focus. The first book had been a 1950’s real estate ledger, full of purchases made on the Upper East Side. The second and third contained the handwritten scrawlings of a city comptroller, and I had to admit I didn’t understand any of it.
“Not helpful,” I muttered. So far, the books revealed exactly zero arcane secrets.
I dutifully trolled through the fourth and fifth books, and found much the same. I gathered them up and stood, preparing to get more—when the entire building shook.
“Wha—?” I stumbled and almost fell on my ass.
Dust drifted from the ceiling, and books tumbled off their shelves. On the other side of the room, I heard something fall to the floor.
“This seems bad.” I fumbled for my phone.
Before I could open the text menu, Baxter lit me up: need u down here right no!
“That’s hopeful.” I stood, about to sprint downstairs, when I remembered a mistake I had recently made. “Let’s just take these.” I grabbed three of my knife sheaths, strapped two around my arms and one around my waist.
I had been a little bit too helpless when I’d been on the run from Garret. This might not be trouble, but I didn’t want to take a chance.
I sprinted to the ladder and pushed it violently down. The building trembled again, as if a wrecking ball hit the storefront.
Just took possession of the place and there’s already bullshittery going on.
I practically leapt down the ladder, half expecting to see a tractor trailer truck smashed
through the front of the building.
“Liz!” Alicia’s voice jerked my head around.
My red-headed friend stared at me from behind the counter, her eyes wide and frantic.
“’Licia!”
“Is Simon here?” She clutched at Rehl’s shoulder, terror stricken. “I really think… I think we need him!”
“No.” I shook my head wildly, her terror infecting me. “I haven’t seen Simon in days!”
“Oh. Oh, oh, oh.” She sounded like a lost little waif, her voice hollow with despair. “Because…”
“Alicia?” Baxter’s confusion came from behind me. “What’s happening?”
Before anyone could speak further, a crackling series of splintery pops sounded from the front of the store.
Anxiety burned at the sound, as if my blood had literally been infused with unreasonable fear.
“Look!” Rehl pointed at the floor.
Something dark burbled on the carpet, boiling in what appeared to be a roiling puddle of molten tar. The putrid scent of corpse-rotten animal musk billowed up from it.
“What? Oh God!” Rehl covered his face, choking from the scent as he staggered backward.
Like a pseudopod, a misshapen oblong globule pushed forth from the putrid mass. It twisted sideways and formed an eyeless, wolf-like head.
When I looked closely, a gash of a mouth gaped open in the front. Thousands of narrow teeth gleamed inside.
A slender length that could only be an insectoid leg stretched up out of the pool near the head.
A creature vomited itself forth, pulling out of a cistern of blackened ooze on the floor.
“What?” That single word echoed from the creature, a blasphemy, a gurgled evocation against everything right and whole. “What. What,” it croaked from its single open orifice, a red, gaping maw in the blackness.
Terror, raw and unreasoning, rolled over me again. The emotion hammered at me, an unimaginable insult to my sense of rightness about the world.
“Liz?” Baxter’s wavering query came from just behind me. He sounded so small.
“Baxter, get them upstairs.” I took a step backward, though my gaze never moved. I drew one of my knives.
My hands trembled. Every nerve screamed for me to run.