Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Zayne knows all the ins and outs of the building. He worked there long enough. Obviously, they’re going to know him if they see him, but if they know him then he’s clearly not dead. Also, with the ability to melt people’s faces with his breath, we’re not too worried about him. We are worried about me, and I need to go in there as part of the plan. It’s not just about killing Simon. It is also about destroying his realm of lies, exposing him for what he is, and ruining him completely.
“You don’t look ready,” Zayne says, more concerned than critical.
“Can anybody be ready for what we are about to do?”
“You can be. I watched you stride out onto that stage night after night and make thousands of people believe in you. All you have to do today is do that for one person. You can do this, Lyric. I will be with you.”
“But you won’t be.”
“I won’t be far away. I can’t walk in the front door like you, but I’ll be coming. Remember, stay in the waiting room until I get up there in the delivery disguise. Don’t go into the office without me.”
“Gotcha. Let’s do this.”
“One last thing.”
“What?” I snap the word somewhat impatiently, mostly due to nerves.
He ignores my attitude. “I love you.”
“Oh.” Well. Now I feel guilty. “I mean, I love you too.”
“Alright,” he says, smacking my ass. “Go get him.”
Iwalk into the Scowl building as though I belong here. People are streaming the streets, and many of them come in and out as I enter. I am just one of many people here to do business.
Because I look like I belong, nobody challenges me as I step into the elevator and choose the thirteenth floor. The first time I did this I was so nervous. I was here to sign the contract that would later ruin my life. I thought I was on the precipice of a whole new life. Instead I was on the verge of destruction.
I try to get a grip on myself, restrain the worst of my bitterness. I can’t come out of this elevator furious. I have to stick to the plan. I have to stay calm.
“Hello, Mr Scowl’s office, how can I help you?”
I am greeted the moment the elevator doors open and Simon’s new receptionist smiles at me both broadly and blankly. She is well put together, and very pretty, and she is utterly professional. There is an in memorium picture of me hanging behind her on the wall. I glance up at it and try not to stare. God, I used to look good. I used to really be something special. It has only been a few months since my last concert, but I feel as though I have been changed, ugly duckling to a swan, back to a duck.
“Quack quack, motherfucker,” I mumble, trying to gird my loins, as it were.
“Can I help you?” She repeats the question, with a slightly more fixed smile. I am not on her schedule.
“Sure,” I say. “I have an appointment with Mr Scowl. I’m from the Schlorp Corp.” I hold up the clipboard with the Schlorp logo on it by way of proving that fact.
It works. It works because clipboards, no matter how anachronistic they become, will always wield an arcane power. The authority of a solid clipboard cannot be denied by anybody who sits behind a desk. It’s just how it is.
“Oh, of course,” she says. “He’s busy for the moment, but if you would like to take a seat, I will let you know when he is ready for you.”
“Thank you,” I say.
I sit in the waiting room and I wait for the plan to unfold. Zayne is supposed to be moving through the back passages of the place. This building contains many secret entrances and exits, largely for things like boxes, but sometimes for creatures like hookers and such. Scowl has a lot to hide.
Then something happens. Something we should have been able to predict, something I am ashamed to say we did not take into account. Simon Scowl opens the door to his office and steps out into the reception area. I do not know what devil or animal instinct has allowed him to discover me so quickly, but it feels like he already knows I am here, because he makes eye contact with me as he comes through the door.
He is larger than I remembered, at least twice my size. He smiles when he sees me, his leonine features scrunching his nose up and baring the tips of his impossibly sharp teeth at me.
This is not going the way it is supposed to. Zayne is supposed to be here to protect me, but he is nowhere to be seen. I have only been in the office for a minute or two. It could take him another three or four minutes to come up here. It would take less than a second for Simon Scowl to kill me.