Notes From Van

Jack Allison froze in the doorway, pinned in place by the gravity of what he discovered in his home office. Van his blue-suited producer crouching there in the middle of the room next to something –no, nothing. Jack wouldn’t look down, not again, so he focused on his producer's face, a visage like a locked box he had never been able to open in all of their years of acquaintance. Before Jack could voice his shock and confusion at his presence, Van was already standing. Pulling himself to full height before smoothing out the wrinkles in his azure-colored blazer. He rolled his shoulders before stepping over the nothing on the floor and approached Jack, who flinched backward. “Jack.” Van spoke calmly, assuredly, and directly. “You’ve done so well, nearly everything I’ve put on this list,” Van procured a folded sheet of paper from his blazer pocket and held it up, *“ and the show is generating more revenue now than ever. As a producer, I couldn’t be more proud.” *By the time he was finished speaking, Van was close enough to Jack that he could put his hand on his shoulder and did so. Van was significantly taller than Jack who had to tilt his face upwards to meet his placid stare. Van’s voice grew lower then, deeper. Coming from the throat of another man the tone may have come off as menacing, but not from Van, from Van the low timbre felt almost, reassuring. “But you haven’t done everything on the list, Jack.” Jack finally found his voice, “what do you mean? You can’t actually be,” only to lose it once more as he trailed off. “Search your heart Jack, you always knew I was serious.” Said Van and he placed the list in Jacks's hand. Jack grasped it, unfolded it in a daze, and looked for the last item, the single item he knew remained unchecked: Kill a man read the item and Jack swallowed hard. “Look at him,” said Van and he turned aside gesturing to the nothing on the floor. No not the nothing, the something –the man bound in duct tape around his mouth, both arms and legs. He was struggling, giving him the look of