The End of Ego - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Merchant, all ready to pack Gladlegs into his pleather carrying case, watched as the bizarre little machine processed the debit card.  A searing flash of heat and a volt of electricity sent an excruciating pain up through his arm and into his head.  There was a high-pitched whistle that bore like a laser into the merchant’s brain, bringing his to his knees.  Ego clapped his hands over his own ears to block out the horrible sound and he dove under the merchant’s table to hide from the ghastly noise.  Only Jan seemed unaffected.  The strange little debit machine was lying on the ground smoking and flashing. She picked it up and read the message: Price too high to pay…Price too high to pay…Price too high to pay.  Gladlegs looked around at all the chaos and shrugged his shoulders.  “Never mind,” he said to Jan, “There’s always someone who is willing to pay the price.” And with that, he flopped to the ground; the golden wires tangled in a heap around his feet.

The merchant clamoured back to his feet, his arm hanging uselessly by his side. Turning on Jan, he stalked up and pressed his ugly contorted face against hers. His voice was no longer husky and his eyes no longer limpid, his breath was hot, rancid and disgusting. Jan should have been afraid, but remembering what the Master had told her, she slipped on her armour for protection, and hit the app on her G-phone, which brought up a hedge of angels to surround her. 

“EGO! You stupid, useless fool!”, screamed the merchant. This woman belongs to the Master – she has the strongest firewall I’ve ever seen, and her anti-virus program is updating itself faster than I can draw in a breath.  She is no use to me. Next time, bring me a nice fresh dead soulless creature!”  With that, the merchant, his fancy stall and all his wares disappeared. That left Ego crouching with his hands over his ears, whimpering, and mumbling, “I thought she was ripe for the taking. I thought she was done for…”. And Ego, too, vanished.

Jan picked up the debit card which was laying at her feet and tucked it back into her wallet.  She turned to thank her angel squad, but found that she was no longer in the misery market, but at home, safe and sound. 

“Well, that was just plain weird! I seriously need to meet a better class of people than Ego. That guy’s got issues.” said Jan, as she took off her armour and packed it back into her bag. Remembering what the Master had said about all the new gadgets he had installed, she got out the Operation manual and started to read up on her new program. The instructions were incredibly technical and boring and way beyond Jan’s ability to comprehend.  “I don’t get it!”, she wailed. “There’s so many rules and regulations in the first part of this book – and  warnings of dire consequences if I screw things up.” She tossed the book into a corner, snuggled up with her blankie, and went to sleep.

That night, Jan had an amazing dream.