Chapter Two

Chapter Two

     1

      Through tinted glass Patty strained her vision.  Cluttered shelves and patrons hindered her search further and her heart sank into her stomach where it threatened to disrupt her bowels.   Even if she did find him what on earth was she going to say or do? 

"Excuse me."

Patty nearly jumped out of her skin. She spun around to stare into a pair of hooded eyes. She clutched her purse closer to her breasts and swallowed hard.

"Are you lost, Ma'am," he said. It was shocking there was a person beneath all that grime and stink.

"No," she quickly said.

The man laughed. "Are you looking for someone?"

His voice seized her then. As she examined his every wrinkled and dirt caked feature she saw a glow flare deep within his dark depths.

"You don't need to say anything," he whispered. "I know your story. You work as a secretary answering phones for a big designing company who doesn't appreciate you. You watch as your boss's son Liam and his main squeeze circulate around the office like a pair of dogs in heat."

Heat flushed her face as her knees weakened. It was impossible. This...man was impossible.

"How..." She stumbled over her words as his exterior melted away.

Sagging features lifted, stretched as reformed into smooth and flawless ivory. Dark eyes sunk inward and rolled to be replaced by bright burning sapphire jewels. Unkempt screwy hair grew before her eyes, hung long and blackened.

"I know you have been following me, Patty," he said, his voice a satin note playing an angelic harmony in her ears as she exhaled sharply. "You were at the eatery your husband banished you from. I knew you would be there. I knew you would see me. "

"Who," she gasped, "who are you?"

A smile cracked his lips and white pearls flashed. "I am your 'angel’."

Patty shook her head. Those eyes were impossible to deny as she swam in them, explore their rich color and then she realized the street around them shifted, bled colors and reshaped into a room cloaked in red velvet.

2

With the papers in her hands Patty took a deep breath and turned.  She glanced down again at the familiar writing yet it still seemed foreign to her.  She had never written in blood before.  She fancied to never do it again.  Her arm would forever be a reminder of it. The man in the corner lowered his stare.   She wasn't sure why it captivated her, but her intrigue had yet to reach its pinnacle. 

"And the price is set," he confirmed.

 "I know what I must pay," she said, trembling and extending a hand with the papers. "But can I ask for your name?"

"I told you I have many," he replied as he snatched the documents and ran a glowing finger down each sheet. "You may call me Ronan Shea Sheridan. That is the name I will use as long as I have business to do here."

"I still don't understand how or what…." She dropped her sentence as his burning stare met hers.

"Your sorrow was all I needed to find you," he explained. "Your misery was singing out, crying such terror that its voice became hoarse. I came rushing in so that I might silence it and bring to you a sense of peace, but like I told you before it comes with a price."

Patty folded her hands across her chest. It was all she could do to suppress the urge to ask more questions. She watched as he swept forward and from side to side all the while reading and huddling over the papers. It was difficult keeping track of his movements. He moved so quickly it was nearly impossible to see where it was he shifted to until he came to a complete halt.   Only when he had finished devouring every word did he look up. In his clutches the colorless leafs of paper dissolved into smoke.

 "It is done," he said.

"Just like that," she asked, finding the chair behind her and sitting before the floor gave out from under her. In a moment she thought it might collapse and she might tumble down into some uncharted hell.

 "A slow and agonizing fate would be better," he remarked.

"I am sure I should be doing this," she said softly. "I mean...they aren't all bad people. They just get on my nerves."

Ronan tilted his head to one side and chuckled. "It isn't a matter of 'bad' or 'good'. It is a matter of respect and dignity. Those pests that rub their fortune in your face need to experience the side of life they never imagined."

"Perhaps you are right," she murmured.

She sunk in her seat. The padded back did nothing to ease the tension in her back. It had been building for some time now. It now managed to gnarl into huge knots that pressed into her spine like barbs. She squirmed as a hot stream rushed up her legs and into her buttock.

 "So now what," she asked.

"Just sit back and worry not," he said before dissolving like the papers in a cloud of smoke.