In All of Infinity Read Online Free Page A

capturing
teardrops.
     
    He shoved his hands in his pockets and
looked towards the sheet again. “Farewell, dearest bride.
Farewell.”
     
    Emmanuel walked down the steps and out the
door, shutting it resolutely behind him. He locked the door and
took the key to the attic off the chain, then pushed it under. With
a deep breath, he continued on his way…forever without Esme.
     
    ***
     
    Emmanuel covered every article of furniture
upstairs with spare sheets, closing and locking each door before
his heart could get caught up in what he was doing. When he was
finished at last, he started down the stairs, fiddling with the
keys in his pockets. He paused halfway when he heard a knock on the
door. Since he wasn’t in the mood for visitors, he went on his way
towards the living room, trying to get lost in the tune he was
whistling. The visitor didn’t stop; another knock landed, then
another, and another.
     
    He was short of patience presently, so he
walked towards the door, rested his ear against it while one hand
held the knob. “Who’s there?” He didn’t hear a word, but he was
pleased that the person had stopped knocking. Emmanuel pulled away
but jumped when he heard a loud bang, almost as if a large rock had
been thrown at his door.
     
    He threw open the door, rage consuming his
calm. No one was there! He looked at the damage done to his door,
saw a dark piece of wood nailed there, with a symbol painted red in
the center of it. Emmanuel had never seen such a symbol. It was
horseshoe shape, with the rounded end pointing up, and there were
three dots: two inside the circle while one was outside. Since he
wasn’t one for art, especially the kind illegally hammered on his
door, he looked around his yard more and saw two dark cloaked
figures staring at him.
     
    “What’s the meaning of this?” he exclaimed
and gestured at his door. “Answer me!”
     
    Emmanuel continued looking at them, his fury
greater now that he could see them. He started across the porch,
then went back to lock his door. He didn’t realize until he’d taken
a step down that the people, whoever they were, were gone. Instead
of feeling relieved, he became agitated, perturbed. He wanted to
release his rage on someone before he exploded.
     
    He turned, saw them standing behind him, and
nearly fell backwards. They caught him, steadied him, but didn’t
release their hold. He attempted to see their faces but the hoods
were large and covered them. He could feel a slight tremble in the
hand of the individual on his right, the one dressed in blue; but
the other, dressed in red, was firm.
     
    Almost as if they had one mouth, they began
speaking, “Emmanuel Reagan, doctor and friend, we have placed this
here for your protection. If you remove it, you will bring evil
unimaginable into your home. Do you understand?”
     
    He felt as if they were trying to put him
under a trance, and recalled a similar time in his childhood. It
was the summer of his thirteenth year when Magnificent Amadeus, a
magician who claimed he could hypnotize anyone, came to Somerville.
He was able to hypnotize everyone he met, except for the teenager,
but that was because Emmanuel couldn’t stay focused on being
entranced. His mind was like a train that could switch tracks any
second, but with more tracks because he could think in several
different directions at once.
     
    “What evil?”
     
    They realized their lulling tones weren’t
affecting him, so they released their grip. He realized they were
both women now, but that was all he could fully understand. He
didn’t know what they meant, who they were, and especially not why
they were here. Why did he need protection?
     
    “You cannot bring her back,” the blue one
said.
     
    Emmanuel looked at her, seeing only darkness
when he tried looking at her face. He felt as if he knew her, but
realized that wasn’t possible. In not knowing these women, he felt
glad. He wasn’t planning on inviting them in for coffee