By the time I had gotten to work the next day, there was no mention on the news or in any of the morning papers about a stabbing in Manhattan. I chalked it up to stale news, or some kind of cover up. I didn't like the idea of that guy just laying there in his robe waiting to be discovered.
I reached the Shop, and was relieved to see Aine there. She feigned a gasp at me and said, 'He returns! Honestly I didn't think you would.' Both hands on the glass counter, which I am constantly cleaning her prints from, she leans forward and blows me a kiss from her black tinted lips.
Once she saw my readied look of disapproval over her behavior, she lifted both hands from the glass like a criminal at gun point! Not wanting to disappoint, I stuck my finger out towards her and pulled the trigger of an imaginary gun.
She gripped her heart and thrust herself back against the cabinets, slowly lowering to the ground until she vanished behind the counter. Somehow I cracked a smile, and then opened the curtain to the backroom.
Pendragon was still sitting there. And I say still because it was clear he had not left the Shop since our conversation the previous night. If not for the need to use the restroom, I would say it appears he didn't even move. Even his sudoku puzzle was left unfinished.
He didn't seem to even notice me, so I put my backpack on the table. He mumbled something absently, twisting his overgrown brow between his fingers.
Clearing my throat rather obviously, I leaned back against the employee lockers and folded my arms. Still having no reaction, I spoke to his shoulder; 'I had another dream last night.'
That got him. He stopped whatever it was he was doing off in la-la land and turned to face me at last. 'None of us have been killed. I would have been told.'
'I'm telling you it was exactly the same.' We stared at one another in mutual certainty. 'Well,' my eyes wandered upward as I pictured the lace nightgown. 'There were new elements...'
'You have work to do,' uttered Pendragon simply. He grabbed his walking cane and pushed himself to stand. Facing me, he looked suddenly at my hand as if just noticing I had one. I flinched at his sudden shift of focus, but he didn't say anything. He just turned his head gravely and looked at me sidelong for a moment.
'I have work to do,' I prompted.
'Recover the details of your dream and give them to me,' said Pendragon as if making a list. I began to mentally annotate my new duties the way I would for any other Shop task. 'Once completed, I will work on finding out who it was based on the information. With any luck we can discover the scene before it is reported to the police.'
'Whoa, hang on on a minute.' I tossed aside my mental note pad and tried to reel in Pendragon, 'You want me to visit a murder scene before CSI or NCIS or whatever has a chance to check for prints and stuff. You're crazy. They'll end up thinking it was me!'
'It will be you,' roared Pendragon again, the way he usually does when I say something stupid. 'One day, and one day soon, it'll be you on the ground waiting to be discovered, if you don't find out what's happening to your relatives.'
My relatives, there it was again. It was a detail I had managed to block rather successfully until he had finally forced me to swallow the pill. These people I saw die, these five people, they were family I never knew I had. The first time I met them was to watch them die. I felt woozy, my legs quivered under me.
'Snap out of it,' roared my boss once more. 'Go write down everything you remember from your vision and bring it to me. With luck we can isolate him by sheer reputation.'
'You're right... I will.' I mustered myself to go back out into the Shop. Luckily, Aine continued the Shop's policy of never asking a question, and I let myself vanish into my task without her interruption. I decided I would reward her later for her patience. Some kind of doughy reward, filled with cream, and powdered with sugar. That would do it.
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