Page 48 of The Scrooge Effect

“Or,” Scottie chuckled, “he just knocked himself out and he’s totally fine. He’ll wake up and everything will be normal.”

“Normal,” I huffed out a laugh. “Is that what you call going to the hospital? Normal?”

“We do it all the time. Remember when we helped Edu home after he got himself stabbed? You didn’t call Harper then.”

“No, we dressed him up in makeup, as I recall. And then Harper found out and things went to shit. There’s a reason we have the manual!”

“Look,” Brock chimed in. “I’m gonna tell you this right now. There is absolutely nothing good that can come from calling home at this time. If you make that call and everything’s fine, all you’ve done is cause a chain reaction of panic. Then all the women will wonder if any job is really safe, which they already know they’re not. But this…this was supposed to be a very simple job. And look how it turned out. He was taken out by a dog! Do you really want to instill panic into the hearts of our women every time we leave the property?”

He was right. Even if every fiber of my body was begging to pull out my phone and call Harper, I knew it would only end in misery for all of us. I would have to wait and reap the consequences if it turned out badly.

“Fine. We wait.”

“That’s my man,” Brock grinned, slapping me on the back. He shoved the dirty magazine in my face. “Now, tell me. What kind of hair products do you think she uses?”

13

EDU

I was sucked through some kind of time warp back to the church basement. Gasping for air, I fell to my knees and panted heavily on the ground, praying I didn’t go through that again.

“What the hell was that?”

“Well, you didn’t want to be there anymore,” Zoe said, turning to absolutely no one. “Can we get a reset on the lighting?”

“Who are you talking to?”

“The lighting guys, of course.”

I looked around the empty basement and sighed. “I don’t suppose we’re at the end of this adventure and you’re going to let me go home.”

“Silly,” she chuckled. “We’re only getting started.”

Chains rattled behind me, and I spun, glaring at Lock, who was now dressed in a three piece suit, and had his long hair slicked back in a ponytail.

“What the hell is this?”

“Well, see, I didn’t really like the whole deathly Marley thing, so I decided to go for a more refined approach. What do you think?”

He spun around, grinning at me as he adjusted his tie.

“You look like IKE.”

“That’s not a bad thing. He always looks very sharp.”

“Yeah? Tell me where you’re going to hide your gun in that thing.”

Frowning, he pulled aside his suit jacket and glanced at the waistline of his pants. “Well…I’ll figure it out.”

“Sure you will,” I snorted. “So, what’s next? More horrible memories? Are you going to show me the day my mother died?”

“Oh, I think we’re through with your past. As fun as that was,” he said, widening his eyes, “I think we’ll move on to the ghost of Christmas present.”

“Gee, that sounds like a swell time, but maybe I’ll take a rain check on that one and just head home. You know, to my wife and kids.”

I spun on my heel and headed for the door, but as I shoved it open, it slammed back in my face, sending me flying through the air, into a table and chairs.

My head bounced off the ground, and that intense pounding in my skull returned at full force. Gritting my teeth, I shoved the chairs aside and got to my feet, glaring at Lock.