Ыоуве Been Warned   ::   Patterson James

I feel something on my leg. It’s moving up my thigh, across my stomach.

“Get it off of me!”

Whatever it is, it climbs up my neck, onto my face. It crawls right past my mouth, over my eyes. Now I can see it! I’m screaming, terrified. It’s the biggest cockroach ever.

Delmonico raises his foot high. The heel of his shoe comes crashing down next to my head.

Crunch!

“As I said, Kristin, this is an interview.”

“An interview for what?” I ask.

“Well, to see where you fit in. You say you’re innocent, and yet you had that terrible affair with a married man. You’ve been self-centered for most of your life. And then there’s your poor little baby boy. Dead. Your fault. Yours and Matthew’s. Right here at the Fálcon. How could you?”

I stare at him, horrified that he knows everything. “What is this place, anyway?”

He sighs. “It’s where I died, for one thing, so that gets me a little sentimental, y’know. It’s a portal, Kristin, a gateway. To you-know-where. There are several of them in this big, bad city of New York. But listen to me rattle on. I’m doing all the talking here – and this is your day, Kristin.”



Chapter 109



I’M STARTING TO FEEL very afraid now, and I’m nauseated as well. I smell something burning again. Hives all over my body? Who knows? I have so many questions, I don’t know where to start.

I hear this slap, slap, slap – and I see that Delmonico is tapping his foot beside my head.

“I don’t have all day for this, missy. I should say, you don’t have a lot of time left.”

“For my interview?”

“Exactly. So talk to me. It’s almost time to go. We have to leave these hallowed halls.”

“Go where? Where am I going?”

“Oh, you know as well as I do. What is this you’re trying -the stupidity defense? ‘I’m not accountable because I’m dense?’ You’re not so dumb, Kristin. Boston College. Prelaw. Well, that wasn’t such a great choice, was it?”

“So the Fálcon Hotel is the portal, one of the gates – to my destination?”

Delmonico isn’t pleased. “I believe we’ve covered that ground already. But yes. ”

I can barely speak. “Because?… I’ve made some terrible mistakes?”

“To put it mildly, yes. You’ve been a bad, bad girl. Like so many of your kind.”

My throat feels as if it’s closing up on me, but I still manage the next few words.