Page 84 of Misery

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"Perfect," he says, though he hasn't tasted it yet.

He sips slowly, watching me work.

Not leering like some customers do.

This is different. Studied. Like he's memorizing me.

The way I move. The way I breathe. The way my hands handle the bottles and glasses.

"Busy night," he observes.

"Friday usually is."

"You've been doing this long?"

"A few years." I move down the bar, serve other customers, but I feel his eyes following me. When I glance back, he's still watching. Still smiling that wrong smile.

"You look tired," he says when I come back to check on him. "Bad dreams?"

The question is too specific. Too knowing. My spine goes rigid. "Just long shifts."

"Ah." He rotates his glass, whiskey catching the light like liquid amber. "I imagine it's hard to sleep after trauma. The mind replays things. Especially around 3 AM. That's when the demons come out to play. When the walls between waking and sleeping get thin."

Everything in me goes still. How does he?—

"Another?" I force out, pointing to his empty glass. When did he finish it? I didn't see him drink it.

"Please."

I pour.

He watches my hands.

Studies them like they're art.

"You have artist's hands. Delicate but strong. Paint under the nail there—you missed a spot. Cerulean blue, if I had to guess. Beautiful color. The color of drowning."

I look down automatically.

There is paint under my thumbnail.

Cerulean blue from this morning's session. But how did he?—

"I can always spot an artist," he continues. "It's in how they see the world. How they observe. You're observing me right now, aren't you? Trying to place me. Wondering why I feel familiar when we've never met."

"Have we met?" The words come out before I can stop them.

"Not formally." Another sip.

This time I watched it happen.

The way his throat moves.

The way his fingers grip the glass just a little too tight. "But I feel like I know you. Strange how that happens sometimes. Like souls recognizing each other across the divide."

Aren shifts in his peripheral vision.

Good. He's noticed something's off.

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