Chapter Three: Chaos and the Ebony Amulet

Chapter Three: Chaos and the Ebony Amulet

Blessedly the phone rang, my shaky hand having dialed the number correctly. On the third ring, it was answered, and so I hoped would be my desire for pizza.

“Yes?” Not the cheerful pizzaria how can I help you query, but I soldiered on, not willing to admit defeat.

“Ummm…is this Joe’s Pizzaria?”

“What?…oh, wait, yeah, Joe’s. Sure. Yeah. What can I get ya?”

“You forgot?”

“Forgot what?”

“That this is Joe’s.” I was beginning to suspect that someone’s hangover was worse than mine, and that couldn’t really be possible.

“What? Oh, ummm…no, just new. Do you want to order or not?”
“Definitely yes, yes please.” I perused the quick menu in the phone book that I found behind the toilet. Not a great place to wake up, but still, there was a phone book, right? “One medium pizza with the works, thin crust, and extra olives. Got that?”

“You bet.”

“Can you read it back to me?”
“Read what?” The other person on the other end of this phone had better have my pizza. Other wise I might be getting more blood on that bathmat today.

“My order. Look, is Joe there? He knows me. Just put him on…”

“Look, Joe ain’t here, you can come pick up your pizza, and bring the money with you.”

“Pick up? No, I want it deliv…” and then the line went dead. Dammit. My life was in chaos, all I wanted was a fucking pizza, and now I had to pick it up.

I sighed, levered myself up on the bathroom wall next to that god-awful clock that Bruce’s mother gave me and hobbled out the door on my bandaged feet.

I picked up my purse and rummaged around for some cash. I couldn’t find any right away but among the various receipts, ATM notes, and cough drops out popped this darkly shining ‘thing’ onto my floor. 

 

I picked it up and turned it over in my hands and it felt cold and hard, warm and soft all at the same time. Stupid hangover. I blink my blurry eyes a couple of times and focus on the unfamiliar object in my hand. An ebony amulet. What the hell did I DO last night?!?!