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she had never seen beforea bedroom, yes, but large, opulent and full of shadowy strangers. |
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Paula stood so still that the beating of her heart felt like one of the earthquakes that periodically rattled the windows of her San Francisco shop. She saw three men, two standing and one lying naked on his back in the middle of a plush carpet. |
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''Open your eyes, Pablo," the man with the goatee whispered. |
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The fat man on the floor shook his head. |
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"Come on. Don't be like thaaaatopen up." |
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The fat man's lids opened and it was as if he were staring straight up into Paula's soul. Everything about the man seemed paralyzed and yet his eyes were bouncing around the room like Ping-Pong balls. Paula realized that she was seeing everything through the eyes of a fourth mana being of incredible occult power. Horrified by what she sensed in the man's mind, she squeezed her consciousness into a tiny little ball, but loosed a psychic hint for the man to move his eyes around the room. |
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The bedroom was lavishArchitectural Digest lavishwith Goyas in gilt frames and chandeliers that looked like spaceships. Only now, in addition to the Greco-Roman discus thrower standing coiled on a pedestal in the alcove next to the fireplace, someone had nailed a German shepherd's head to the floor between the fat man's thighs, its open mouth and lolling tongue mere inches from his shriveled penis. |
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As Paula's host swept the room with his eyes, she noticed more bizarre decorative touches: bloody animal parts, clumps of fur, a dog's front leg resting like a paintbrush in a bowl of half-congealed blood and a wall smeared with obscene symbols and picturesthe excess blood had run down the stucco and soaked into the carpet. |
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"Would you care to answer my questions now?" |
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The voice inside Paula's head was harsh, like a man gargling glass, and ice coldno emotion, no humanity. |
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"Señor," the fat man sobbed, "I do not know what you mean." |
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