Crampton by Thomas Ligotti, Brandon Trenz Read Free Book Online

middle of the J. Edgar fucking Hoover Building, and the Director has taken it a little personally. Just labeling this thing "unsolved" and letting it go ... that's not really an option for us.
    RICKY
    Then I'll tell you this: the address on your receipt there, 222 Main Street? It's a fix-it shop run by a guy named Fred something. It's closed most of the time, like just about everything in that shitty little town. Who knows, you might get lucky. But don't be surprised if it all turns out to be nothing. Hopefully you can still make that plane home tonight.
    HELEN
    I'm pretty sure us making it home tonight is low on the Director's list of priorities.
    RICKY
    Well, if for any reason you find yourselves stuck in town overnight, you're welcome to stay here.
    Brady and Helen look at each other, then at the general squalor of the yellow house.
    BRADY
    Yeah, thanks.
    (pulling out a notebook and pen)
    Look, just in case we need to get in contact with you, what's your phone number?
    RICKY
    Don't have a phone number. Don't have a phone.
    HELEN
    You don't have a telephone?
    RICKY
    Nope.
    Brady hands Ricky his cell phone.
    BRADY
    I want you to take this, then.
    Ricky won't touch it. Brady sets it on the table.
    BRADY
    Sweeten--give him your cell phone number.
    Helen writes a number on Brady's pad and tears off the sheet for Ricky.
    BRADY
    Call us if you remember anything you think we ought to know.
    EXT. YELLOW HOUSE - DAY
    Ricky standing by the door as the agents exit. Helen steps out of the house. Brady hangs back.
    BRADY
    Ricky, I've got to ask--what happened to you in that warehouse? What could spook a guy like you that bad?
    Ricky considers this carefully.
    RICKY
    You don't get to ask me that. Not yet.
    BRADY
    Not yet? Then when?
    RICKY
    Hopefully never.
    Ricky closes the door in Brady's face.
    EXT. CRAMPTON, MAIN STREET - DAY
    "Shitty little town" does not even begin to describe this desolate burg. Many of the buildings appear to be abandoned. There seems to be only three active businesses: the "Fix-It and Supply" shop, the Oasis Motel, and a diner apparently called "EAT HERE."
    INT. CAR
    Brady and Helen rolling slowly down Main Street, taking in the bleak little failure that is Crampton.
    BRADY
    (singing)
    See the U.S.A. ... In your Chev-ro-lat...
    HELEN
    God bless the Midwest.
    BRADY
    And I thought Detroit was bad.
    EXT. MAIN STREET
    The car pulls up in front of the "Fix-It and Supply Shop." The agents get out and try the door. It's locked.
    BRADY
    (knocking on the door)
    Hello? Hello?
    HELEN
    Wells ...
    She points to a sign on a window--"BACK AT" and a little clock. The hands point to four o'clock. Brady checks his watch.
    BRADY
    We've got about a half hour before Fred's due back. Want to get something to eat or something?
    HELEN
    Wells, take a look at this.
    In the window, next to the "BACK AT" sign, is a yellow flyer. Across the top, in big letters! "Spectacular Display of Illusion and Ventriloquism -- Three o'clock Tomorrow at the Masonic Hall." Just below that, a clown's grinning face.
    BRADY
    I think I've seen enough magic tricks for one trip.
    HELEN
    No, look at the bottom.
    There it is, at the bottom of the advertisement: "Sponsored by Illusions of Empire."
    BRADY
    Well, shit.
    HELEN
    Feel like getting a sneak preview?
    EXT. MASONIC HALL
    From the outside, the Masonic Hall looks like every Other ruined, abandoned building along Main Street, except for the Masonic symbols adorning its face. Brady stands contemplating these.
    HELEN
    What?
    BRADY
    My Uncle Ray had a real burr up his butt about the Masons. When I was a kid, he'd go on about how there are thousands of these halls in cities all over the world, but hardly anyone knows where the Freemasons came from--originally, I mean. They were like the first big cult. I guess some people traced them all the way back to a sect of ancient Egyptians--
    HELEN
    --who were actually a race of aliens who used the pyramids as a device for communicating with their home world, and now the