For Nevermore Season 1

especially someone who knew what his touch would do. But William had seen it firsthand. Though, of course, William was not a normal man. Normal men harbored fear in their hearts, while William harbored no such emotion. Or any emotion so far as Dante knew.
    “I suggest you get a hold of yourself, Dante. I am not unsympathetic to your situation, and I understand your emotions better than you do. But know this: The elders don’t care if Noella is on her last life. There are those among them who feel we’d all be better off if she were dead right now. And from a purely practical argument, I fail to see how they’re wrong.
    Dante shook his head. “Please. Don’t wipe her. You can’t sever our connection.”
    “You’ve left me no choice, Dante. You did this. Not I. It’s gone too far and it is now too late. If you want her to live, I suggest you let me do my job.”
    “Please,” Dante begged, hating himself for allowing his emotions, and weakness, to surface in front of William.
    “Do not interfere, Dante. Or your services will no longer be necessary.” He nodded, then added, “Good day.”
    Dante nodded, and William vanished.

    **

    William crossed over to his office and glanced at the clock. It was 3:55 p.m. He had five minutes.
    He sat at his desk, ran his hands through his hair, then pulled a hidden drawer from beneath the bottom one, retrieving the wooden box with the heart-shaped keyhole. He set the box on his desk, then opened the lid, setting the contents one by one on his desktop: first the blue book, then the pen, and finally the glowing blue inkwell.
    He unscrewed the inkwell and laid the cap gently on the table, then opened the book and dipped the pen into the ink.
    He wrote:

    “ Status: She is starting to remember. Should wipe her soon. We may not have much time. Shall I begin?”

    The book was halfway closed when William noticed the words spilling their response in blue ink, just below his own. He was surprised to receive a response so quickly. That meant they’d been waiting to hear from him and that they were paying far closer attention to the situation, and him, than he had hoped.

    The response said:

    “ Do it.”

    William sighed, then dipped his pen back in the blue and wrote again:

    “ What should we do about Dante?”

    William’s phone intercom crackled. His secretary said, “Your four o’clock is here, Dr. Foster.”
    “Thank you, Mary, just one moment.”
    William wrote in the book:

    “What do the elders wish?”

    Moments passed, then the ink splashed across the page in a fluid line.

    “ Kill him.”

    * * * *

CHAPTER SIX

    Two nights ago...
    midnight.

    Randy sat in the patrol car in front of Harry’s Bar and Pub waiting for the waitress and the owner’s daughter, Molly, to lock up and leave. They’d been asked by Harry, who was out of town for the week, to swing by and watch the place at night since Molly had reported seeing “suspicious” people hanging around after the bar closed the past few nights. Given the bar’s location so close to the highway (and a getaway from out-of-town thieves), Harry’s concerns were justified, even if it meant a half hour of Randy’s night spent waiting for nothing to happen.
    “You see anything?” he asked his partner, Deputy Chris Barnes, via the radio. Chris was parked farther up the road in an unmarked car.
    “Nah,” Barnes said. “Nothin’ here. You?”
    “Nope,” he said as Molly came out of the bar, locking the front door behind her.
    Molly was young, red-haired, and beautiful. Randy admired her figure in the black shorts and tight green tee shirt.
    “Why don’t you let me give you a ride home, baby?” he said to his empty patrol car, eyes fixed on her backside as she headed toward her green Jeep Wrangler. Randy figured it would be worth swinging by Harry’s Bar and Pub one night when he was off before midnight, just so he could grab himself a closer look at Molly.
    She turned and waved a quiet thank you, then climbed inside her Jeep, slammed the door, and pulled from the bar parking lot.
    “Goodnight, you sweet thing,” Randy said. He picked up his radio, “OK, she’s gone. And so am I.”
    “Okay,” Barnes said. “See ya in a few.”
    Randy waited in the parking lot until Barnes pulled beside him and rolled his window down.
    “You wanna grab a bite?” Barnes asked. “I’m gonna swing by Moonlight and get a burger or something.”
    “Nah, I’ve gotta be back in the morning,” Randy said,