Judgment

Chapter 3: Contact

I carefully approached my door and readied my pistol just in case. I creaked the door open slowly and a voice stopped me."Hello, Abraham." I swung the door the rest of the way open and immediately took aim at the recliner where there was a man sitting."Easy now. I mean you no harm. In fact, I bring only good things, my friend. This little thing is just for my own...safety I guess you could say." he said motioning to the large revolver he held in his hand.

"Who are you and what in the fuck are you doing in my house?!" I asked him. "Terribly sorry, I seemed to of forgotten my manners. My name is Lance Howser, I am an associate of your partner, Arnold. Please, let us put our weapons away and have a nice conversation like civilized people." he said before putting his weapon away in his jacket and motioning to the couch. I walked over to the couch, still with a pistol in hand, and sat down before speaking,"Excuse me for not thinking of this as a civil exchange between two people."

"No matter. Now then, I was asked, against my better judgment, to come to you with a message. There will be a demonstration of what our group strives for in the world, and what world we envision can exist in the future. Come by the old Opryplayhouse around 4 tomorrow evening, I can promise you will want to see what happens." Lance says. I started to ask him what he meant but he just waved his hand and shook his head. "Nope. You have to be there to see. We will even open the side entrance so you can get up top." he says this before pulling his revolver out again. "Easy,I only have it out just in case you try to be a hero. Now then, you know what to do and where to be. I would say it is obvious not to go to the cops, besides, we have already let them know as well. Everyone will see. Until then, I bid you farewell my good man." he continued as he walked out the door.

I quickly got up and ran over to the door but he was already gone, it looked like he just climbed out of the window at the end of the hallway because there were no footsteps coming from below or above me on the stairwell. "Damn it!" I exclaimed hitting the side railing of the stairway. I decided to give Charles a call and see if what he said was true.

"Abe, I'm glad you called. Got a strange message today about.." I cut him off, "To see a show at the old Opryplayhouse. Right?" There was a small silence before he said anything, "How in the hell did you know about that? Abraham you better be reporting any contact you have with Arnold damn it or it will look bad on both of you." he told me. "Don't worry, that is part of why I am calling. See if you can find anything on a LanceHowser for me, he paid me a visit and told me about it. Said I had to come so I could see what they want to accomplish." I heard the click of a lighter on the other end and knew Charles was already panicking a little. "I thought you quit that bad habit of yours?"I asked him. "Yeah well, stress brings out all of our bad habits now don't they?" he told me with a small chuckle.

He took a long pause to take a hit off of his cigarette before saying anything else, "Alright Abe, I believe you haven't had any contact other than what yer saying now, I better not find out your lying to me either. But you know this is probably a trap right?"I lied and told him it was the only contact, I knew it was better that way. Then agreed about the trap but told him I needed to go to call my wife and check on our little girl.

I called my wife's phone and listened to the little ring-back tone she put on her cell phone, funny how such a small thing could cost as much as it does. After a few seconds of the song, she picked up. I explained to her some of the things going on and suggested she stay gone a little longer than initially planned and she agreed, I told her to tell Jamie it was decided to give her more time with her grandmother.

It was late by now, the sun had gone down long ago, and with it, the city lights had come on, you could look out the window and see the city lit up like tiny fires twinkling in the darkness."Arnold...I swear, whatever you have done, we can get you out of it. You just have to come to me, and we could figure it out..." I thought to myself as I closed the curtain back and headed for a shower, and then to bed.