The Silver Ring (5 page)

Cashman pulled up in front of a white stone building, placed the truck in park, and cut the engine.

“What is this place?”

“A speakeasy,” he said, already opening his door and stepping out. He turned, squinted back at me. “You coming or what?”

“It’s not even noontime. I didn’t think bars were open this early.”

“First, this isn’t a bar. Second, you’re a kid. What the hell do you know about bars anyway?”

I glanced back out my window. The street was deserted. I got out of the truck, keeping the shotgun aimed at Cashman.

He gave me a bored look, then started walking. We went around to the back of the building, to a narrow alleyway. He knocked on a door, waited, knocked again.

Eventually a voice said, “What’s the password?”

“Open up, I need to take a piss.”

There came the sound of the deadbolt clicking over, then the door opened. An older woman peered out of us.

“That’s not the goddamn password and you know it,” she said.

Cashman pushed his way past her. “Don’t mind the kid with the shotgun. He’s with me.”

She frowned at me, didn’t even glance at the weapon in my hands. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“It’s Saturday,” I said, stepping into the building. It was dark and cool and smelled like a kitchen. Which I guess made sense, because it was a kitchen.

Cashman opened a refrigerator, pulled out a beer. “Want one?” he asked me.

I shook my head.

The woman closed the door, turned the deadbolt, then said, “Can you please explain to me what’s going on here?”

“Haven’t you noticed?” Cashman took a gulp of the beer, wiped his mouth, and pointed the bottle at me. “He’s wearing the ring.”

The woman gasped. Her hands to her face, she said, “Oh my God, you really do have it on you, don’t you.”

I stood there silent, the shotgun now lowered toward the floor. “Okay, now that we’re here, tell me what’s going on.”

Cashman took another gulp of beer, watching me. He shook his head. “Not until you put that thing down. You’re making me nervous.”

“No.”

“Kid, do we really have to go through this? I’m not going to hurt you. Besides, wasn’t it me who saved your ass back there? And anyway, like I said, with that ring on your finger you’re practically invincible.”

The woman was standing very close to me now, her eyes wide as she tried to get a good look at the silver ring.

I gave it a moment, then said, “Fine. But I want you to tell me everything.”

Cashman shrugged, nodded, and held out his hand for the weapon.

I took the shotgun and racked it once, ejecting a round, then kept racking it until no more rounds came out. Four of them lay at my feet. I handed him the shotgun.

“Invincible, yes,” Cashman said, taking the shotgun with a smile. “Smart, no.”

And with the butt of the shotgun he knocked me on the side of the head.

Cue darkness.

17

“I told you this was a waste of time.”

“Shut up.”

“If anybody knew this would be a waste of time, it’d be you.”

“I said shut your goddamn mouth.”

“All you’re doing now is making a mess.”

“Do you want me to kill you? Because you know I will. I’d do it happily.”

I opened my eyes. Stared up at Cashman crouching over me.

He had a sledgehammer in his hands and was glaring at the old woman standing beside him.

She noticed me first. “Oh dear, look who’s awake.”

Cashman turned his attention back to me. He had a bored, irritated expression on his face. “Welcome back to the land of the living, David.”

I was in a supine position on a cold cement floor. The walls, I noticed as my eyes adjusted, were gray cinderblocks. I tried sitting up but found I couldn’t. My legs were chained to the floor, as was my left hand. It was stretched out beside me on the floor. All around it were bits and pieces of metal and wood.

“How do you know my name?”

Cashman hefted the sledgehammer as he stood up straight. He glanced at the woman and said, “This is going to be harder now that he’s conscious.”

“Do you want to knock him unconscious again?”

He shrugged. “I’m kinda interested to see what happens now that he’s awake.”

“Hey,” I shouted. “Why are you doing this?”

“There is no why, David. All there is is that ring on your finger, and I want to get my hands on it. Except, see, the thing won’t come off. But you already knew that, didn’t you? Yes, I can tell by the look on your face. You’ve tried taking it off but it wouldn’t come. See, it was the same for us, so what did we do? We tried cutting off your finger.”

Cashman stepped back, grabbed a butcher knife off a table, held it up for me to see the damaged blade.

“But the thing is, once the steel touches your skin, it becomes like butter. Like I told, you’re practically invincible. So for the past three hours we’ve been trying to first cut your finger off, then cut your hand off, but, well, we’re not having much luck.”

“But why—”

Cashman stepped forward, raised the sledgehammer up over his head, and brought it down with a grunt.

The steel tip raced toward my left hand spread out on the floor. I didn’t even have a chance to move it a centimeter before the hammer made contact.

For an instant the silver ring flashed and the hammer burst apart, exploding into a thousand pieces.

“Goddamn it!” Cashman shouted. He turned and threw what was left of the sledgehammer across the room. It sailed end over end until it bounced off the cinderblock wall, hit the floor, and went still.

I stared at my hand, at the ring that was no longer glowing. The hammer had in fact made contact—I’d felt its cold tip kiss the skin—but I hadn’t felt any pain. I hadn’t felt anything.

“See?” the old woman said. “Are you ready to give up yet?”

Cashman glared down at me, his teeth gritted. “Not yet. Bring me the chainsaw.”

18

Darkness again.

And in the darkness I saw my family, my parents and sister. In the darkness I saw them dead. Yet they were still alive. Their eyes wide, their faces pale. Screaming.

Something touched my face.

I jerked out of sleep.

The old woman was crouched in front of me, pressing a damp cloth against my forehead.

“Are you thirsty?”

I nodded.

She stood up, turned toward the wooden table, picked up a bottle of water, unscrewed the cap, then held it out to me.

I just stared at her.

“Go ahead,” she prompted.

I remembered then that my right hand wasn’t chained to anything and reached out and took the water and chugged it until there was nothing left.

The woman took the empty bottle back from me with a small smile. “You really were thirsty, weren’t you?”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Son, I’m not doing anything to you.”

“My parents are going to realize I’m missing. They’ll call the police.”

She produced that small smile again, only this time it was tinged with sadness. Shaking her head, she whispered, “You poor, poor boy.”

I couldn’t tell whether she was being sincere or sarcastic and looked away from her. Beside me on the floor were the remains of the chainsaw Cashman had used earlier.

“Are you scared?”

I looked back at her.

“Stupid question, I know.” The woman ducked her head, raised it back up. “My name’s Nancy by the way. I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but …”

“Why. Are. You. Doing. This.”

“Again, I’m not doing anything. It’s Cashman. He wants the ring.”

“Yeah, I kind of already figured that part out.”

She looked away from me, bit her lip, closed her eyes. She stayed that way for a long moment. “To be honest with you,” she said but then went silent.

“What?”

She shook her head.

“What were you going to say?”

She started to speak again, stopped, took a deep breath and whispered, “To be honest with you, I’m scared too.”

“Of what?”

“The Shadow Man.”

“Who?”
 

“He’s coming, you know. Cashman already contacted him. He’ll be here tonight. He wants the ring.”

“And what is he going to do once he gets it?”

Nancy shook her head, looked away from me again.

“Hey,” I said softly.

She looked back.

“You don’t have to do this. You can let me go.”

She stared down at me, just stared for the longest time. She seemed to be thinking of something and looked as if she was about to speak when the door at the top of the stairs opened and Cashman came down the steps. He had two large paper bags in his arms and was grinning.

“Had to make a quick stop at the hardware store,” he said. “Ready for round two?”

19

“This just doesn’t make sense.” Cashman took a long drag on his cigarette, then puffed out three small smoke rings. “I mean, why you? What makes you so fucking special?”

I was still chained to the floor, staring up at the ceiling. Cashman had brought back another chainsaw and a flame torch. Both had failed, so he’d stepped on my arm to keep it in place and emptied an entire clip of his gun into my hand. Still nothing.

“You’re just a fucking kid. Not even eighteen years old. Why would the ring choose you?”

I blinked, turned my head to look at him. “Choose me?”

“What—you think it was just by accident you came across the ring and decided to put it on?” Cashman dropped the cigarette, ground it out with his boot. “Nah, it don’t work like that.”

“What is the ring anyway?”

“Too complicated to explain.”

“Who is the Shadow Man?”

He seemed to freeze in place. “What?”

“The Shadow Man. Why does he want the ring?”

“How the hell—” He scrunched his face up suddenly, turned and kicked the wall. “Goddamn it! She sure does have a big mouth, doesn’t she?”

“Answer my question.”

“Fuck you, David.”

“What were those things earlier, the ones you
saved
me from?”

“Goddamn it!” he shouted again, this time kicking a broken piece of the chainsaw. It didn’t go very far, spinning across the concrete floor, and it looked like Cashman had hurt his foot in the process. “I’m gonna kill her. I’m gonna fucking kill her.”

He limped across the room, disappeared up the steps, slammed the door shut.

A moment later the lights went off, drenching me in darkness.

I closed my eyes, stared into my own special darkness.

Time passed—a couple minutes, maybe an hour—and then the lights came back on. I could hear the bulbs buzzing in the ceiling.

I opened my eyes just as the door opened and footsteps came down the stairs.

I expected Cashman but it was Nancy.

She came to me, shaking her head quickly. “Why did I ever say anything to you? Why?”

Again I tried sitting up but the chains stopped me.

“Me and my stupid mouth.” She stuffed her hand into her pocket, brought back out a small ring of keys. “One of these days I’ll learn. One of these days …”

She sorted through the keys until she found the one she wanted. Then she reached down, inserted it into the lock keeping my feet chained, turned the key. The lock popped open.

“What … what are you doing?”

“Freeing you,” she said, inserting the key into the lock keeping my left hand chained. “What does it look like?”

“But won’t Cashman … won’t he be angry?”

The lock popped open and she laughed.

“More than he already is? I doubt it. He’ll probably kill me for doing this, but I can’t let this go on. Not with the Shadow Man coming. That … that would be too awful.”

My legs and hand now free to move, they did nothing and acted like they were still chained.

“Come on now,” Nancy said, standing up straight and stuffing the keys back into her pocket. “Get up.”

I just stared back at her.

She sighed, stepped forward, leaned down so her face was only inches away from mine. For a moment nothing happened. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and her face changed—the skin looking like it was turning inside out, her white hair turning black as it grew shorter—and an instant later it was not Nancy that was staring back at me but myself.