Crowley's Window (Novella) Read Online Free Page B

heels in and start screaming. Stop dammit!
    As they hurried past Abby’s line of vision, and she tried to get a good look at the kidnapper, her psychic connection to this location started to slip. No. Not yet! Abby fought to stay focused but it was no use. She was being drawn into the air and pulled back toward her waiting body. Just before she lost the vision completely, a black and white Westchester Police car drove into sight, pulling up to the main entrance. No sirens were blaring; not yet anyway, and the police could be arriving at the carnival for any number of reasons, but Abby caught a last second vibe from them as she passed overhead and knew the little girl had already been reported missing. The cops had been close by, patrolling the area all night in fact, knowing there was always some sort of trouble at the carnival every year. The two police officers climbed out of their squad car and…
    Everything went dark.
    “She’s right behind you,” Abby screamed, trying to contact the policemen and not yet fully aware she was back in her physical body again, inside the circus tent. Panic hit her hard, the way it always did when the visions faded. The horrible claustrophobic realization of being blind washed over her again, suffocating her in its dark embrace but there was no time for a pity party right now. She had to try and help Trisha. Neither the police nor her parents had any idea the child had already been swept away.
    Unless Abby warned them.
    “Who you talking to?” Charlie Jensen asked. “Us? There’s no one behind us. Umm…are you okay, Miss?”
    Shit! Abby had forgotten all about the customers she’d been with. Now they’d really think she was crazy. “Listen guys, I have to ask you to leave. I’m…I’m not feeling well so if you could just—”
    “Oh no you don’t,” Ray said. “You ain’t sneaking away that easily. I paid my money and I want what’s coming to me.”
    “Look, another time, okay?” Abby stood up and started moving carefully toward the tent door. “I have to go. It’s an emergency!”
    She was nearly out of the room when Ray grabbed her and roughly spun her around to face him. “You owe me a reading, lady, and you ain’t leaving until I get it.”
    “Stop it, Ray,” Charlie tried to intervene. “What the hell are you doing? You’ll get us in trouble.”
    “Screw that, man. I’m sick of this shit. We paid good money to see nothing but crap. This slut ain’t even blind…look!” Ray reached up and before Abby could stop him, ripped off the purple cloth she kept wrapped around her missing eyes. Ray got a close up view of her empty eye sockets, partially covered with what was left of her sagging eye lid skin, and gasped in shock.
    “Oh my God!” Charlie said, standing near his brother. “She really doesn’t have any eyes. Fuck me!”
    Finding his bravado again, Ray said, “Yeah, but she still owes me something, right FREAK ?”
    Abby’s blood began to boil. Every second that went by, the odds of finding Trisha got worse, and this damn fool was demanding a performance. No problem. If that’s what the jackass wanted, that’s what he was going to get. Abby touched him with her left hand. “You wanna know what I see? I see you hunched over in your bedroom closet peeking through that little hole you made in the wall between your room and your mother’s. I see you pulling that tiny thing you have hanging between your legs as you watch your mom undressing at night. You’re a real hero, Ray; now get the fuck out of my way.”
    Stunned into silence for perhaps the first time in his life, Ray Jensen let her go and stepped to the side. Seizing the opportunity, Abby bolted from the tent.
     
    * * *
     
    Nearly an hour had passed and the only thing that was abundantly clear to everyone was that the little girl, Trisha Martin, was gone. Who had taken her, why they’d done it, or where they had disappeared to so quickly no one had any clue, but just like in every