The Beholder by Ivan Amberlake Read Free Book Online Page B

to go through his things, and they obviously had no respect for Jason’s belongings. After a minute or two, his papers had been scattered all over the office, the drawers turned upside down until the intruder found what he sought—Jason’s ID card. With a photo.
    A whooshing sound whispered behind his back, and the door creaked.
    Someone else was here.
    The room turned briefly from dark to light as the person Jason inhabited scanned it. Then, willingly or unwillingly, the trespasser left the office and broke into a run, moving faster with every step. Jason reeled with motion sickness as he struggled in this unpredictable race against invisible danger. Again they ran down corridors and staircases, in darkness bordering on dimly lit passages. Though out of breath, he kept running, and Jason realized he wasn’t familiar with this part of the building. His host, however, was. Out of a number of unmarked doors, he opened one without even looking at it. A mirror on the wall gave an overall view of the room. It was a lavatory. A ladies restroom.
    Unlike the rest of the building, this room was well lit. The person darted a cautious glance at the far end of the room, even checked under the stall doors to see if anyone else was there, but everything appeared to be empty and safe. They came to the middle of the room, turned to the mirror, and Jason saw a woman’s face.
    It was the first time he’d seen a person’s face in his dreams—since he was looking in the mirror he knew it was technically his face, and yet it was the face of another person. A tsunami of fascination swept over him as the woman examined her own reflection. What stunned him most wasn’t that the body belonged to a woman, but the fact of how beautiful that woman was. The mirror, the reflection … it couldn’t be right.
    She closed her eyes to regain her composure, and panic welled within Jason. He was suddenly terrified their connection might break, that he would never see her face again.
    “Open your eyes!” he begged silently. “Please, open your eyes!”
    The girl unknowingly complied with his desperate plea, and Jason, with no time to lose, examined her face more closely. She was truly beautiful, in a simple, natural way that captivated him. Her dark brown hair had been combed back and tied into a knot, and he watched with fascination as she untied it and let it roll down her shoulders, fringing her face like a lion’s mane. The color was several shades darker than her rich amber eyes, which were framed by long black lashes.
    Strangely, Jason had trouble believing such a girl could have been drawn into a situation involving violence and death.
    A thought came to him out of nowhere: She knows why I see the dreams.
    The girl heaved a sigh, looking sad, but at least she’d recovered her breath. In that instant, her peripheral vision caught a subtle movement in the back of the room. Her eyes widened, and the nostrils of her straight, short nose flared. She had barely turned her head when someone’s hand gripped her hair from behind and smashed her head against the mirror. Her body slid slowly down the cold wall to the tile floor since her weakened hands were unable to cling to the sink. Jason couldn’t see the assailant, but he sensed the somber, intangible presence in the room.
    So this is the end, Jason thought miserably. The girl was going to die. Just like the others.
    A hoarse voice cut the echoing silence like a knife. “I’ve been waiting for you for quite a while, Emily. You’re playing a dangerous game, meddling in things that are beyond you. Tell me. Why are you doing this?”
    Emily lay facedown on the floor, still bleeding heavily from her brow. Jason couldn’t see the man, but knew he was lurking somewhere at the back of the restroom.
    Her hands shook, and she clutched at them to suppress the nervous tremor. When she answered, her voice was strong, confident. As if she hadn’t just been slammed against a wall.
    “The Prophecy says