Fallen Stones Read Online Free Page B

had fallen to the floor and the tips of his fingers rested against the face of his cell phone, which lay near his last will and testament. Suddenly the phone sprang to life and began automatically dialing a number. After a series of rings, a man's deep voice answered. After several minutes in which the faint echoes of a conversation could be barely heard, the phone went dead.
    As Washburn's spirit left his body, it was quickly pulled as if by some unseen magnetic force into the still undulating glass. Then the surface of the mirror returned to its normal appearance, and the room was once again silent. Inside the mirror, the emaciated, naked genital-less image of Emerson Washburn appeared looking distraught, beaten, tormented; yet sadly accepting of his fate.
    The floating faces of the two young boys looked on from the adjacent mirror wall as they slowly shook their heads as if in sad resignation. A sudden cold wind swept through the room as all of the candles were extinguished and the room was plummeted into total darkness. A slight glow appeared at the center of the wall of mirrors and wild maniacal laughter echoed through the pitch-black space.

 
    Chapter 1
    Â 
    The young woman sat at her kitchen table bewildered, staring down at the sealed envelope she held tightly in her trembling hands. She assumed the mysterious packet contained an important letter of some sort, and she was quite certain it would not be any typical letter. It had arrived as a certified, registered letter, requiring her signature before acceptance. Never in her life had Stephanie needed to sign for a letter, nor had she ever been required to confirm her identity by showing the postman her driver’s license. It was all very new and quite disconcerting for her.  She felt a strange hollow sensation deep in the pit of her stomach, as if to suggest any such letter could not possibly be good news.  
    She tried to think of any bills, which she might have forgotten to pay recently. Perhaps she had inadvertently forgotten to send a check for some important invoice for several months in a row, and now that particular account may have gone delinquent and had been turned over to a collection agency. She wondered if that could be possible. She didn't believe so, as she was quite fastidious about her record keeping and bill paying. No, she was quite certain this had nothing to do with any late bill payment.
    She looked apprehensively at the return address, twisting her longish brown hair in circles, as was her habit. The name printed in an ornate, pretentious calligraphic gold script read, “H. Mason Armstrong, Attorney At Law”. Stephanie’s lips moved silently as she read the name over and over to herself, one of those childhood practices which she had never been able to overcome. "H. Mason Armstrong, Attorney At Law", she finally said aloud. Yes, this definitely seemed like quite a pretentious name indeed.
    Stephanie always had a negative prejudice toward anyone who used the initial of their first name and then used their middle name as their actual name. For Stephanie, it was to suggest the name Mason Armstrong was a powerful moniker for a lawyer, whereas the owner might feel his first name, which could be Harold, or Henry or something along those lines, was not strong enough for a man so grand and in such a prestigious position.  Most people would not have even given any consideration to such an thought, but Stephanie always seemed to notice things like that; she always believed she could tell when people were "putting on the dog" as her mother used to call it.
    The address for the law firm was in the town of Ashton, Pennsylvania in Schuylkill County.  She could not imagine what an attorney from Schuylkill County could possibly want with her. Stephanie was not overly familiar with that part of the state, having been born and raised in western Berks County some fifty-plus miles south of Ashton. The only times she had been in the