Blood Threat and Fears by Cynthia Manson

Author:Cynthia Manson [Manson, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1566191343
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
Published: 1993-09-18T21:00:00+00:00

A human being can be in a situation in which she never was before, and her instincts will tell her what her experience cannot. That happened to me now. They’d just called me dumb, and I was dumb. I didn’t know the first thing about this place. I’d never been in one like it before. And yet I knew instinctively I didn’t like it here. I wanted to get out without even waiting to see Jean. Something told me to. Something told me not to stay a minute longer.

It wasn’t those three girls so much. Their bark was worse than their bite. It was something about the sound of that voice that had come through the door just now. There had been something evil in it. It was the sort of voice you hear in secret places, where secret things are done that never see the light of day. I remembered now the way the cop and the elevator operator had both shaken their heads. They’d known. They’d known something about this place.

There was no one in there with me at the moment, no one to stop me. All I had to do was take the chains off that door, slip out the way I’d come in, ring for the rear elevator. Then I remembered I only had twenty-two cents. But even that wasn’t enough to keep me here. I could telephone Jean from outside and ask her to come out and meet me.

I had my hand out to the first chain, trying to get it out of its socket without making any noise, when I heard my name called in a frightened whisper behind me.

“Francie!”

Jean was standing in the opposite doorway. She came in quickly and locked the door behind her. There was something sick and choked in her voice. “They told me there was somebody back here asking for me—but you’re the last person I expected to see!”

She had diamonds on her wrists and at her throat, and flowers in her hair, and champagne on her breath. She was old. Golden-haired and beautiful, and yet somehow old and tired-looking. Not like when she’d left home.

Her voice was a hiss of terror, like air whistling out of a punctured tire. “What got into you to do this? Why did you come here of all places? This is the last place on earth you should have come!”

“Why? I only wanted to see you.”

She evidently didn’t have time to explain. “Quick! Has anyone seen you?”

“Only those three girls—”

“I can shut them up. They work under me. Come on, get out of here fast!”

“But Jean. I came here to stay with you, to live with you.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying! Stop arguing, someone may come in here any minute. I want you to take the next bus and go back home. I’d take you down and put you on it myself, only I can’t leave here right now—”

“But Jean, I have only twenty-two cents.”

She bent over, fumbled frantically with the side of her stocking, thrust a crumpled bill into my hand.

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