Devil on Your Back by Max Henry

Author:Max Henry [Henry, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-04-25T04:00:00+00:00

I WAKE with a start to find the TV has turned itself to sleep mode. The last program I watched started at eleven, and I know the television takes three hours to turn off. My heart races, and I panic. Where is she?

Rubbing my eyes with one hand, I head into the kitchen and check the answer machine. Relief floods me at the little red light flashing jovially with the number four showing beside it. I hit play, and smile as I hear her first drunken message left shortly before two am.

“I love you baby! We’re staying out another hour; don’t panic.”

I chuckle. Fifteen minutes later . . .

“I love you bay-bee! Thank you for this night out.”

Ten minutes ago . . .

“Vince, it’s Candy. I tried ringing first. You need to call me.”

Nausea swims in my gut, and acid rises up my throat as I squint at the display, like I believe changing my perspective will alter the fact I even have such a message. I rub my eyes and push the button to take me to the next message. Sweat beads on my neck as I listen to the machine spiel off what time the message was left. My legs tingle, and my toes grow numb. Something isn’t right—my gut instinct screams so.

“Vince, something’s happened, and I need to talk to you. Sit tight. We’re on our way to your place.”

Why is Candy calling me? Doesn’t she have someone else who can help her out? My head swims and, determined that this has nothing to do with Julia, I push off the counter and head for our room. Perhaps she came home and didn’t want to wake me? That’s it, yeah. Of course that’s what went down. I’ll just ask her what happened to Candy, and everything will be all—

Our room is empty.

Swallowing thickly, I backtrack to the kitchen. With a shaky hand, I press through the options, and listen to the five-second nightmare again. Two questions echo on repeat in my mind as I replay the answer-machine message over and over, certain I can hear Julia in the background if I just listen hard enough . . .

Why am I listening to Candy? Where’s my wife?

What the fuck has happened?

• • • • •

TWENTY MINUTES later, Candy peers over my shoulder from her position on the porch while I stand in the doorway. “Where’s Alice? Is he asleep?”

The grip I have on the doorframe is the only thing stopping my arm from shaking out of control. The adrenalin’s coursed through me from the minute I listened to her message, telling me to sit tight.

I don’t sit tight.

I don’t even sit.

How can I sit?

“Get inside, Candy. It’s freezing out.”

She walks in, followed by the brunette I recognize from Julia’s old workplace. For the time being her name eludes me. And for some unexplained reason, that little omission bothers me. I wait before I shut the door behind them, scanning the dark front yard in case Julia’s jogging to catch up.

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