Some sign of my distress must have shown itself on my face, because her expression immediately went from serious to frightened. At least I thought it was frightened.

"You...know Ashley?" she asked quietly, her head going down.

"No, I-"

"Well, you better not be trying to hurt him!" Jenny erupted, flinging her head back to glare at me hatefully. "Poor Ash has been through enough crap with Linda and Scotty and me even! I will not let some scruffy asshole hurt him any more, not after what he's done for me! Not with what he means to me! If you try anything, I'll beat you to death with the chair you're sitting in!"

I immediately backed off, startled by her outburst but also relieved when she repeated mentioned that Ash was a 'he' and not a she. That meant it wasn't...that it couldn't be...that there was no danger of it being...her.

But as relieved as I was, I had to calm her down. Something had set her off, and I had a feeling that all the things she'd mentioned were just the tip of the iceberg for this assignment.

"Look lady," I assured her, "I'm not trying to hurt your boyfriend, all right? I'm here to do a job, and that's all, okay? I just got scared for a second when you said Ash cause there's this other person with that name, a lady, who's caused me a heap of trouble in the past..."

This calmed her down as expected, but the strength of her outburst still shocked me. What on earth could have happened to her boyfriend over in that store that would have made her act like that. To all appearances, she was a rather sweet young girl.

"Sorry..." she muttered finally, "It's just..."

Jenny took a breath in, then sighed tiredly.

"It's just that bad things seem to happen to him, okay? And after what happened last time, I don't want any more trouble. He's had enough, trust me. And even though he won't admit it sometimes, he lost more than his hand in that damned cabin."

I grimaced as I heard about the hand, but my ears rung as I heard the word 'damned'. Sure, most people just use it to curse, but from the way it sounded, she was really saying it was damned. Maybe the Devil was trying to get a two for one deal again, and the psycho bitch he'd told me about wasn't my only target here.

"Really?" I asked, interested but not overly so. However, despite my attempt at playing it safe, she saw straight through me and got huffy again. Great.

"Look." she said plainly, "If you want to know more, I suggest you do as I told you and ask him. I wasn't there for all of it, I just got a taste of what he's dealt with, and I'd rather not talk about it. If you really aren't going to hurt him, and you do want to know any more, go over to the store and ask him about it, okay?"

I nodded, telling her that that was exactly what I planned on doing, then dropped the money for the meal and a hefty tip on the table. Quitely, I picked up my jacket from where I'd placed it on my chair, slipped it on, and started towards the store across the street. But as I was leaving, Jenny had yet another tidbit to tell me.

"Don't forget!" she shouted after me, "You hurt him, I swear...the chair!"

Since I couldn't think of any way to answer this, I simply turned and waved cheerily to her. She, in accordance with good manners, dropped the glare and did the same. It looked pleasant, if forced.

Well, better than death threats.

I turned back around to head to the store, the pit of my stomach churning. But, I figured, no use worrying till I got to speak to this 'Ash' character, whoever the hell he is. For all I know, he could have just had a lawnmower accident, the more logical side of my mind said to me. However, the part that I usually listened to, my intuition, told me that by going to talk to this guy, I was going to get alot more than I bargained for.

I walked into the store, which was plesantly air conditioned instead of the usual Siberian climate that exists in these places. For a few minutes, I wandered around, looking at the merchandise closest to the door, but after a while I just walked up to one of the clerks who was currently restocking the colored pencils in the children's area.

"Hello," I read her name card. I liked to address people by their names. Calling them 'you' or 'hey' always seemed a bit disrespectful. If they have to call me sir, I can at least call them by their names. Anyway, back from my rant, "Elyse."

"Hello, sir..." she replied, not quite as perky as Jenny had been before threatening to kill me, "Welcome to S-Mart. If you want to Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart. How may I help you?"

I ignored the bored tone and the meaningless words she spoke and got right down to what I needed.

"Could you direct me to, er, Ash?" I asked. Yeah, not so suave, but it's kinda strange asking for someone without even knowing their last name. When I was a cop, I'd refer to them by their last name or by their full name. I know, I know. I'm supposed to be this deadbeat (no pun intended) but it bothered me.

She didn't notice the hesitation in my question though because as I mentioned the name, her eyes lit up like Broadway. Obviously, there was something special about this guy. Women lighting up over him and threating to kill over him. Wish I had that effect. Usually they just raise their eyebrows for me.

"Oh, you mean Ash Williams? In Housewares?"

"Is there any other?" I asked in return, half joking assurance, half actual question.

"You got a point there, sir." she replied with a wink and a grin, "I can take you right to him, though he might be in the back right now reloading."

Reloading? What on earth could she mean?

"Anyway," she went on, not noticing my complete shock, "He's just this way, if you'd follow me. I never pass up a chance to see Ash."

Elyse started walking, and I followed, listening to her babble about her co-worker.

"Yeah, I mean, I know that he's Jenny's, right? But, like, there is no law that says you can't look, you know?"

"Yeah." I agreed half-heartedly. But she just kept on talking.

"I mean, he's such a great guy. A total hero. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, since you've been here before. You have been here before, right? Yeah, I'm sure that you do. Not to mention the fact that he's a total hottie. I mean, like, some of the other women don't like him cause he can get a bit arrogant, but considering, I think he's entitled to it."

On and on she went as she lead me through the store, jabbering on and on about this guy, having a full and complete conversation with herself. Well, she thought she was having it with me, but really she was answering all the questions while I listened to her talk and tried to figure out more about this 'Ash' person. Unfortunately, it was mostly talk about how hot he was, which didn't interest me at all.

"Anyway," Elyse said again as she stopped walking. I stopped as well. "This is Housewares."

I looked around. Seemed normal enough. I could see toasters and blenders, not to mention various other culinary contraptions that had probably been used in the past to torture people. However, I didn't see anyone there. But the young lady at my side fixed that little problem.

"Ash!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Ash, there's someone to see you!"

As she finished shouting, I heard footsteps from within one of the isles. Loud and brash, they echoed through the air, making me think that some huge guy with a chainsaw for an arm was about to come stomping into view. I mean, from his reputation, he had to be something special.

But what actually came out of the isle was a rather tall young man with dark wavy hair, a face full of thin scars, and a rather tired look on his handsome, if heavy-chinned, face. Carefully, I took in just who and what this guy was, and to my relief, I found that he was a perfectly normal living person. But two things struck me hard as I looked at him.

The first was the eyes. Goodness, but he looked tired. Not been-at-work-too-long tired, but seen-too-much tired, a kind of fatigue I was more than familiar with. Yet I could also see a spark within those brown eyes, one which told me that despite his apparent docility, he was a very dangerous man. It was something that I usually found within the Damned, even though I knew he wasn't one of them. A certain glint.

He might not have been to Hell, but he'd gone through something close.

The second thing which took my attention was his hand. Or rather, his lack of hand. I'd known that something had happened to it from what Jenny had said, however, I was unprepared for the metal glove that was attached to his arm. Seemed like some sort of medieval gauntlet or something, and from what I could see, it moved like a hand.

However, I was pulled away from my assesment of the man by the man himself, his loud baritone breaking my thoughts.

"Yeah, what do you want?"