0.5-The Asylum Interviews: Bronx: An Asylum Tales Short Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

finally fallen asleep again.”
    “Talk to me.” The joking was gone. Whatever was going on was affecting both of my friends.
    “Bronx tattooed me and everything seemed fine. I went home and climbed into bed. I was woken up this morning by Jill straddling me. She seemed fine so we had sex.”
    “Not a bad way to wake up,” I commented, to which Parker growled at me before continuing.
    “Yes, but her heart rate hadn’t even slowed down when we were done before she’s coming at me again like I never even touched her.”
    “What’s the problem?”
    “Damn it, Gage! It’s not normal. Jill’s not like that. There isn’t a race out there that has that kind of recovery. Not even my race. We’ve done it five times since nine a.m. and she’s hovering outside the door now looking to attack me. I haven’t looked at her or touched her. She just comes at me primed and about to explode.”
    “No, not normal,” I said, mostly to myself. “But you mentioned something about the rest of the apartment building?”
    “After she fell asleep, I slipped out to grab the paper off the doorstep. It was then that I realized that every couple in the apartments around us was having sex.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Fuck! I’m an incubus! I know when people around me are having sex!”
    “Sorry. I’m guessing this has never happened before.”
    “Ten apartments all at the same time? No. It’s this damn tattoo.”
    I had to agree. This was not right, and while the effects could be a whole lot worse, this couldn’t be allowed to continue. The world couldn’t come to a stop because everyone who encountered Parker needed to suddenly get laid.
    “All right. I need to take a look at the tattoo. Get down here,” I said, walking out of the back room to the front of the shop where I kept my schedule. I quickly flipped it open and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that I didn’t have an appointment until eight. There was some time to try to clean up this disaster.
    “It’s almost rush hour. I don’t want to cause any wrecks.”
    “Then take the freaking back roads and hurry! Don’t come into the shop. Go to the upstairs apartment and wait for me. I’ve got some . . . stuff I can do to the apartment that might suffocate the effect that you’re having on people.”
    “What about Jill? How will I get past her?”
    “I don’t know. Have sex.”
    “Gage!”
    “Damn it, Parker! I’m sorry but it looks like you’re going to have to screw your girlfriend so you can get out of the apartment. That or give her whatever you gave me last night. Figure it out. I’ll meet you here.”
    I hung up the phone before he could argue with me any further. I needed to do some quick thinking. It would take Parker at least twenty minutes to drive from his apartment to the tattoo parlor and then there was whatever he was going to do to subdue Jill. That put it at least thirty minutes, if not a little longer, before he arrived. The first thing I needed to do was secure the second floor apartment so he couldn’t cause any more chaos.
    But to do that, I had to dabble in things I had sworn off.
    I posted a sign on the front door of the parlor stating that I would open the shop at eight. With fists clenched at my side, I walked to the back room and shut the door behind me. There were no windows in the room, and the door leading to the back alley was already locked. No one could see me. No one would ever know, or so I told myself.
    Hurrying across the room, I pushed aside a small rolling table and lifted up the trapdoor in the wooden floor. The stairs creaked and groaned as I pounded down to the dirt floor beneath the shop. I grabbed the pull chain to the single light bulb, bathing the large room in dirty yellow light. As I hit the floor, I threw out one arm, sending a burst of energy across the room to the array of symbols spray-painted on the wall to disarm the magic defense spell that blanketed the room. The ward protected the basement against