The Devil You Know by P.N. Elrod Read Free Book Online Page A

matter in every direction except for a collapsing cavity previously occupied by my once solid body. I didn’t know which way was up, then worked out the direction of the collapse and pushed toward it.
    There’s a reason why I slip through cracks under doors rather than forcing through wood or walls: it’s hard work and unpleasant, the discomfort not confined to one point, but all over, even in places I don’t normally think about. Imagine dragging sandpaper through your liver if you want an idea of how it feels.
    I moved too quick for claustrophobia to set in and oozed free, suddenly floating instead of fighting. The push of wind carried me a short distance before I resisted and made myself solid. I was spitting mad and didn’t care who saw it.
    Rocking on unsteady feet, I glared around for an explanation and found the landscape had changed. Drastically.
    The pit was gone, along with the equipment that dug it.
    The hole was filled in, not as smoothly as before, but the job was done. Gouges in the ground led toward the driveway, indicating heavy haulers had done their job and taken away the earthmovers. The tarp and its ghastly contents were gone.
    Barrett’s white Champion was also missing, as was Barrett.
    That son of a bitch!
    What the hell was his game? How did he think he could get away with this?
    A blast of freezing air cut my bare belly. That’s when I noticed my borrowed working clothes were full of holes, literally shot to rags and soaked with my blood. I goggled at the incongruity. I could think of only one thing that produced this kind of damage.
    I said what the hell again, several times, and tried to work out what had happened and why I’d missed it.
    “ Damnation! ” roared Jonathan Barrett, Esquire, who now stood a dozen yards away on the other side of what had been the pit. He was coated head to toe with dirt, mud, and blood, his working clothes in a similar ragged state. Apparently he’d been buried, too, and had escaped the same way. I quickly discarded the unfair conclusion I’d jumped to about him being behind things.
    “ Damnation! Who would dare ?” he demanded of no one in particular, as he’d not yet seen me. He staggered drunkenly a few feet, then dropped as his legs gave out.
    My own pins were none too steady. Weak and hungry, I took my time ambling over.
    Barrett stayed put. He was pissed as hell and visibly trembling. No one gets that mad without a profound fear to inspire it.
    “Fleming?” He suddenly noticed me. “What the devil happened?”
    I put a hand out to help him up. His grasp was icy and feeble. “Food first. Can you walk?”
    He could and did, but leaned on me. It took a long time, or so it seemed, to reach the stables, then it was every man for himself. No fussing with teapots, cups, and saucers, we each picked a horse, bit into a vein, and fed.
    The animals were long used to this kind of thing and stood calmly for it. Just as well, I didn’t have the strength for a fight.
    I straightened and rested, leaning against the chest-high rail of a stall. The blood rushed through my empty body, warming me, filling up the corners.
    Barrett finished his meal, faded briefly to reappear again, but still looked shaken. Vanishing takes care of physical damage, but it’s no help against emotional stuff.
    “You okay?”
    He grunted. “I was interred once, no need to repeat the horror.”
    “You remember what happened?”
    “I heard. . .I don’t know what. . .some kind of loud percussive rattle, but. . .”
    “Like a machine gun?”
    “I’ ve never heard one except in films, but I think that’s what it was. You pitched forward and then I . . . ” He struggled, then shook his head.
    “Lots of wood down in that hole. We must have cracked into it one way or another. No vanishing. Then someone covered up the mess.”
    “In so short a time?”
    “Take a gander outside, Barrett. It’s tomorrow already.” On the way in I’d noticed pink streaks in the western sky, remnants