Burn Phone

by Thomas Malafarina

  “Oh yes. Do tell John. Do tell.” Edmondson said, now looking more like an aged old maniac then ever.

  “You see Charles… how should I put this?” Showalter asked struggling for the right words, “It is rather complicated to explain. I needed to accomplish several, shall we say, different tasks or perhaps responsibilities would be a better term for them; and in order to do so I considered it necessary to involve you.”

  “One of the tasks I needed to get out of the way was to eliminate those two idiots Harcourt and Washington from the picture, and although I could have easily done so on my own, I tend to like to shall we say, ‘kill two birds with one stone’. You see, my superiors also expect me to handle the job of recruiting new members for our little family. That is where you became part of the story. I have been studying you for the past year since this whole project began to take shape. And, I could tell that you had what it took to be part of my team.”

  “Your team?” Wilson asked, perplexed.

  “Yes.” Showalter replied. “My team. I saw something in you that perhaps you did not even see yourself; a drive, an ambition, a longing want, a desire to be much more than a mere mortal. I saw in you the lust for power, and not just the power that comes with authority or success, but ultimate power; a power such as you commanded for the last several days.”

  “Power. Power. Power.” Edmondson repeated like a mindless robot, still sitting at his desk, bouncing in his chair excitedly and patting the top of his desk.

  Showalter clarified. “In order to properly utilize you in my plan, I had to put a series of events into play. And like a great chess player, I had to be planning many moves ahead so that things would work out exactly as I needed them to.”

  Wilson took a few steps backward and dropped clumsily into the guest chair across from Edmondson, whose idiotic maniacal grin was becoming very disturbing to him.

  “Let’s go back to Sunday afternoon.” Showalter said. “You did not forget your cell phone on your own. You see, I am the reason you forgot it. I took over your mind for a very brief time and made you leave your phone at home. Surly, after what you have witnessed during the past several days and what you, yourself have done, you can see how easily I could accomplish this.”

  Wilson sat stunned, speechless, nodding his head absently. He understood that things were now beginning to come together and at last were beginning to make some semblance of sense. He knew that he never ever forgot his phone before. Showalter had made him do it and strangely, that made Charles at least briefly feel a bit better about himself.

  Showalter continued, “I knew your flight arrangements and knew that you would not be able to acquire a ‘Burn Phone’, as you so appropriately called it until Monday morning, so I was able to set up my little exchange at your final destination.”

  “But how did you know about my flight arrangements?” Wilson asked dumfounded. I arranged things through Betty and only she and Mr. Edmondson knew about them here at work. So how did you find out?”

  “Arrangements. Arrangements.” Edmondson said clapping agitatedly.

  “All in good time, Charles. I will get to that in a bit.” Showalter said. “As I said, once I got you to forget your phone, I knew that you would be desperate to acquire another, as what tool in our arsenal of business weapons, is more important than our cell phones? None I would suspect. So, I arranged for one of my minions from what you refer to as ‘the other side’ to take the form of a helpful human stranger in the hotel lobby who was kind enough to point you down that alley to the destination I had prearranged for you.”

  “The strange store,” Wilson said staring at nothing in particular. “with the old man.”

  “I have only one, and it is meant for you.” Edmondson blurted out in a perfect imitation of the voice of old man in the store. Wilson looked up to see him grinning like a lunatic; drool starting to dribble down his chin. For a second, he thought that he saw Edmondson’s face change slightly, as if the face of the horrible old man from the antique store was swimming just under the surface of Edmondson’s own face.

  Showalter reprimanded of Edmondson, “That’s quite enough, Drabzat. We will get to your part in our little play shortly.” Edmondson cringed in fear visibly shrinking down into his chair, yet still smirking wildly.

  “Getting back to my account.” Showalter said, “Once I got you into that alley I knew that the only place you would find open was the antiquities store, because I arranged it to be that way. I suppose I could have chosen a more modern store, one that would be less strange to your sensibilities and would make you feel more at ease, but I so love making humans fell uncomfortable; I can’t help myself. I take great pride in my work and take pleasure from little nuances that I can insert into these life plays. I knew that the condition of the store and the various works of art, that although are exactly to my particular tastes, would disturb you and throw you off your game, which they did nicely.”

  Showalter pointed to the humbled Edmondson. “I chose Drabzat here to play the role of the storekeeper. He had a two-part assignment, only one of which he successfully accomplished. He was to get the relic into your hands in the form of a prepaid cellular phone and was supposed to find a way to get you to murder him in cold blood. I will explain why in due time. Sadly, although he did persuade you to blow his brains out, he had to do so by reverting to his demonic form from the ‘other side’ and then had to threaten to kill you. Although a minor debating point technically that made your actions an act of self-defense cosmically speaking.”

  The creature that Wilson had thought of as Edmondson, but now knew as this being Drabzat, was once again bouncing on his chair making mock motions sticking his index finger into his mouth and imitating a gun blowing his brains out shouting “Boom , Boom, Boom,” then slamming himself back against his chair like a rag doll. He threw his arms over the sides of the chair, pretending to be dead, as his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth. Wilson still did not speak. This was all becoming so bizarre that he hadn’t a clue what to say.

  “So.” Showalter said, “I had to find a way to get you to understand a bit more about what the phone could do. That is why when you left the store in panic as I was destroying all evidence of its existence; you met my other minion in the alley, the ‘Good Samaritan’ as you put it, from the hotel lobby. I instructed him to make you feel endangered and angry so that you might try to use the phone to call for assistance. I knew that once you touched the phone with your anger enraged, it would demonstrate its abilities to you.”

  Finally, Wilson found his voice. “But that poor creature was shredded to pieces, unmercifully. His agony must have been beyond comprehension.”

  “Yes it most certainly was.” Showalter agreed, “But to be perfectly honest with you Charles, compared to a normal day that he would spend in Hell, this little excursion of pain was like a vacation for him. He volunteered for the job with pleasure.”

  “Well, once I got you to see what the phone could do, I needed to get you to use it on your own, to understand how your anger could power and fuel the sacred relic. But you were so terrified of the thing that you would not even touch it, so I had to get you over that obstacle.”

  “Once again I chose Drabzat to give you a call from the other side, and to force you to answer the phone. I knew that once you put the phone close to your face and felt its throbbing power you would soon stop being terrified of it and would begin to see its potential.”

  Wilson recalled how the old man from the store, who he now knew as that creature Drabzat, had made him feel as if his brain was going to explode until he broke down and picked up the phone. Moreover, how the voice had given him the most basic of explanations of what the phone was, almost as if to just get his curiosity moving in the direction that Showalter desired.

  “Then as luck would have it. You turned on the television and saw that live news report about that fine gentleman and child murder, Randal Lee Forester. It was perfect, completely by cosmic chance, but nonetheless
perfect. You were so furious about the man and so drunk that I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It was the just the right time for me to have you use the phone, on your own out of anger on another human being. I simply instructed the phone to buzz and present you with a basic suggestion, ‘NOW’ displayed on the screen and you did the rest. By the way, I want to thank you for sending Forester over to us. He has already begun his suffering and I now look extremely good in the eyes of my superiors. What an unplanned plus!”

  “Next I had to begin your training, so that you would know exactly what the relic was, how it worked and how you could use it to make you into a superior being. At least I needed you to believe that, if I were to use you to achieve my final goals. Hence, the many events that bombarded you during your sleep. These, by the way were not simply plays meant to instruct, but were actual events and real people throughout history who have used the relic, much as you have.

  Wilson recalled the various dreams he had and how when he awoke, he found his mind clear. He seemed to understand more about the phone, and had actually stopped fearing it, anxious to use it to his advantage.

  “By morning, I had you exactly where I wanted you. All I needed to do now was get you into my office and convince you that your precious deal was about to go bust. I knew that you now believed that you were becoming some sort of god and that you could control destiny. I never cease to be amazed by the never-ending bounds of human egos. So, I played my role well and eventually you took care of J. P. Harcourt and Samuel Washington for me. Did you like the way I pleaded with you to help me? I can be quite the actor when I need to be. And just for your information, Charles, I do not have a wife and daughter; they are simply more of my minions assuming their parts in the Showalter family play. However, I did like the way you threatened to harm them if I did not see things your way. It shows the promise that I knew existed deep inside of you. And how did you like the way I begged you not to hurt me? Oscar nomination material, if I must say so myself.”

  “So with H & W out of the way and me in charge, there was just one more thing that I still needed to do. I still needed you to take the final step; to actually kill someone on your own in cold blood, without the benefit of the phone. That single act was all I needed to make you a permanent part of the fold. Once again, I planted an idea in your head. It was a ridiculous idea in hind-site but you were so drunk with power that you didn’t even take the time to consider how idiotic it was. Really Charles, in any other set of circumstances would you have thought about robbing convenience stores and gas stations to finance a business startup? Give me a break! You made this much too easy.”

  “Once again you found yourself walking down my side street. But this time, I didn’t have to set up a single thing. In fact, it was important that I did not, because as I said, I needed you to do this on your own. I did however; disable your phone as you later found out. Again, as celestial fortune would have it, you stumbled into a store with a thuggish clerk who enjoyed inflicting pain on others. I could not have set it up better myself. The key to the final success of this operation however was all your doing, Charles. You had the chance to walk out of that store after the man slipped and was knocked unconscious. That was your chance to walk way and still keep what little remained of your tainted mortal soul in tact. But I knew you would not be able to. I knew that you believed you were now above all of that. I didn’t have to do another thing but sit back and watch you commit first degree, premeditated, cold-blooded murder; making you mine for eternity.”

  Chapter 28

  Showalter waited a beat to allow the implication of his statement to sink in, and then spoke as he strolled around the room, “So after that, there was no need to keep you away and I decided to have Drabzat order you home.”

  “Drabzat?” Wilson questioned almost absently, looking over curiously at the man that he had known as T. Martin Edmondson, his boss and chief executive officer of the company.

  “I suppose now would be a good time to explain that situation as well.” Showalter said with amusement. “Remember last year when old Marty boy’s ticker went on the Fritz? Well, I am sad to report that he didn’t quite make it. However, by that time you and I had already begun negotiating this deal, and I couldn’t let anything hold up its progress so I got my servant, Drabzat to take his place. He is quite the mimic, aren’t you Drabzat?”

  With that, the demonic creature occupying the body of T. Martin Edmondson sat up in his chair and started spouting admonitions in an exact imitation of Edmondson. “Wilson, I don’t pay you to think. Get your sorry butt back here to Pennsylvania right away. I need you here Wilson!” The he sat back grinning sheepishly once again.

  Wilson recalled how he had noticed the difference in Edmondson’s behavior from time to time since his returning after the heart attack. He was certain that others noticed it as well but perhaps chalked it up to his illness or simply old age; the man was in his early eighties, after all. Showalter affirmed, “Drabzat has been filling in for old Martin for the past year. So everything you did or said, Drabzat reported to me.”

  “Aye, Aye Captain!” Drabzat blurted out in Edmondson’s voice, saluting from his seat. Wilson watched the antics of the creature, finding it so very strange to see his boss’s body going through the motions like some zombie marionette.

  “I found it very amusing that today you returned fuming with anger intent on torturing and killing a man that has already been dead for a year.” Showalter had to point out, “Rather funny I might say.”

  Wilson sat stunned. This minion, this demon Drabzat had taken over the body of T. Martin Edmondson for the past year and Wilson had no idea whatsoever. Furthermore, R. John Showalter had wormed his way into the ranks of Harcourt & Washington over the past two years. In Wilson’s mind, that was quite a substantial commitment of time and took a great deal of patience.

  Showalter seemed to read his mind, “I can see that you are surprised that we would take so long to do what we needed to do. One or two years may seem like such a long time to you mortals but it is like a millisecond to us. You see, over on the other side, time is meaningless; it cannot be measured as it has no beginning, no middle or no end. I can walk back through this portal and spend the equivalent of a thousand Earth years researching or learning or perhaps torturing someone special for my amusement and return right back here a minute from now. To you, I would have been gone for a minute but in reality I might have been gone several millennia. Time has absolutely no meaning whatsoever on the other side.”

  Wilson was dumfounded, trying to wrap his mind around the bizarre concepts of the temporal differences that Showalter was explaining and he just couldn’t quite come to grips with it. He was too logical and too much of a linear thinker to allow himself to comprehend. In his mind, everything had a beginning, a middle and an end; in that order. Even after all of the fantastic events he had been through over the past several days, this was something that he could not grasp.

  Charles Wilson decided that now was the time to ask the final question, the one he dreaded asking, sensing that he might already know the answer, “So who are you? What manner of being are you that you can control the very fabric of time and space and powers of Hell itself.”

  “Why, that’s quite simple Charles.” The man replied, “I am R. John Showalter, president and CEO of Harcourt & Wilson, soon to be known as Showalter Unlimited, in honor of the unlimited power that I possess and will use to further both my corporate, personal and satanic goals.”

  Charles asked cautiously, “But you are much more than that aren’t you John? You are the dark one, himself; Satan, aren’t you?”

  Showalter laughed heartily. “Me? Satan? Don’t be foolish Charles. I am so far down the pecking order in Hell from the big man that in the millions and millions of years that I have served the other side, I have never even seen him once. No Charles, I am just another cog in the wheel, a minion like every other minion; perhaps a little bit higher up on the food chain than most, but not nearly
as far along as others. There are millions of us out here in your world Charles walking among you in all walks of life; common people, working people, politicians, teachers, business leaders, and even people that you consider icons in your religious communities. We are everywhere. I told you that I have superiors. I have to answer to someone just like you and everyone else. You know the expression ‘everyone has a boss’? Well, that phrase is true, even in Hell.”

  “So then I am no longer the keeper of the phone.” Wilson said with sadness, accepting his lost power. “You are the true keeper of the relic.”

  “For now, Charles.” Showalter said, “But eventually you will find yourself in possession of the relic again I am certain. See Charles, I told you that I have many tasks and responsibilities including recruitment. That was one of the main objectives of this exercise, recruitment. I just knew that you would be perfect for the job but I needed you to prove yourself, which you did. You committed a heartless, cold-blooded murder of an unconscious, defenseless man. It is hard to find something much more worthy of damnation than that. So congratulations, you have won you place in Hell, for eternity.”

  “So now what?” Wilson asked, not really wanting to know the answer, but still understanding that he needed to know.

  “Well.” Showalter said, “In about five minutes or so from now you are going to assume control of Edmondson Systems as the owner and CEO. And you will lead its soon to be amazing growth.”

  “What?” Charles exclaimed in surprise, standing once again. He had assumed that perhaps he was going to be killed. “You’ve got to be kidding me! That is amazing! You mean I am taking over this company?” Wilson’s business sense told him that although he wanted much more, now would be a good time to show some good old fashion humility. “John. I am more than honored to have you offer me this opportunity, Thank you so very much.”