Page 12 of The Devil's Dilemma
“What? How could…” That lying old man. Wait until I got home. I’d be having words.
“Tread carefully,” the man said, his face now serious. “Something bigger is at work here.”
A noise off to the side startled me, and I turned away from him. I thought we’d been alone in the store all this time.
“What do you mean?” The spot he’d been standing was empty. Where in God’s name had he gone to?
The front door swung open, a flurry of leaves blowing in. That seemed to be my cue to leave, and I walked out into the street. Chill seeped into my bones.
Not only was the man nowhere to be found, but the shop had gone too. Well, it was still there, just not how it had been mere moments ago.
A boarded-up door replaced the shiny red one, the windows were dirty and cracked, and faded posters peeled as if they’d been hanging on the brick walls for years.
I tried the sticky, dull brass doorknob, but it didn’t budge.
Had I travelled in time?
An improbable and unlikely scenario, but I checked my phone all the same.
Yep, still the same date, but time suggested I’d only just arrived.
“Hey,” I asked a man walking by the now abandoned store, his small dog cocking his leg to pee on a lamppost. “Do you know when this was last open?”
“I don’t ever remember seeing it open. Looked like that for years.” He pulled up his collar, secured his flat cap on his head, and hurried away, dragging the poor dog behind him.
Weird didn’t even cover it, but as I put my hand in my pocket, my fingers touched the rough chip nestled there. I hadn’t imagined it, then.
I shivered and took one last look at the boarded-up store. Nope, too much weirdness for the day.
I ran, putting as much distance between me and the shop as I could.
I finally stopped a few streets away and leant against a wall to catch my breath. Fuck!
I called Joel. “I want to do this job as soon as possible.”
My run-in with The Magic Shop owner had spooked me. He’d known things no one could about me, and when he’d pulled out the Devil card, I had no idea what that meant.
I was no angel, that was true, but a devil? I wasn’t that bad.
“It’s gonna be a couple of days. Pete’s got himself tied up in something and is currently down the nick.”
“Fuck.” I slammed my hand against the wall. Tingles shot up my arm.
“Hey, take it easy. I said a week. It’s been only a day.”
I knew that, but I wanted this one done. The niggling doubt hadn’t gone away. It’d got worse.
Maybe I should back out?
“I think I’m out, Joel. I’ve got a funny feeling about this one.”
“What? Fuck, Austin. We agreed. We’d do three, then be done.”
“Then pick another one. This job has disaster written all over it.”
“No. This is the one we chose. We have the best chance to get as much money as possible from this one. The stakes are always higher at this one. The starting bets are higher. They command a more affluent clientele.”
“And you think we can win?”