A man came up to Pete and opened his coat wide.
"Hello there, young man. Fancy anything you see?"
he asked. A hood was covering most of his face. His voice was a sort
of scratchy whisper, but with an ominous undertone Pete found
unnerving.
He began to look at the
objects sticking out of the pockets inside the large jacket. It was
all mostly junk- silver spoons here, a pocket calculator there...
until his eyes rested upon a pencil that was sticking out of its own
pocket. He looked closer and found that a silver ring was looped
around it. It wasn't particularly attractive in any way, but there
was something special about it and Pete had a hard time looking away.
"How much for the ring?" he asked.
"Oh, this old thing?" the man replied, and took
the ring off the pencil. "You my friend, can have this free of
charge." With that, he placed the ring gently into Pete's open
hand. It was cold to the touch, and felt... electric.
"Gee, thanks a lot mister." He was about to place
the band in his jeans pocket when the man asked, "Well aren't you
gunna try it on? See if she fits?"
"Uh... sure why not?" He raised the ring to his
right index finger and, as soon as he slid it on, Pete's eyes went
blank. His pupils were gone, along with his mind.
"That's better, isn't it sonny?" the man
exclaimed happily, and put a pair of large dark sunglasses over the
boy's eyes.
"Come along now, I have a lot of work for you to
do." he said, and Pete followed him obediently down the street,
never to be seen again.
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