Chapter 05 - The Magic Crimson Café
As Sharon took the Shaw Avenue exit she was on edge. Sharon had managed to convince the gunslingers to conceal their weapons, but they were unable to promise that they would not take any lives. Of course, Sharon knew, that they couldn't make that kind of promise, but it didn't help her nerves. Like Susan, Sharon was not completely comfortable around guns, yet she had accepted the gunslingers for what they were.
Now that the group was actually in Fresno and drawing closer to The Magic Crimson Café Roland was completely alert. Thoughts of Sharon and Susan temporarily laid to rest. Roland knew he would have to be at his best today. Something was not right in the city of Fresno and they were drawing closer to the source of the problem.
When they finally reached their destination Roland immediately knew that trouble was brewing. Jake was the one who voiced it first. "Something's wrong here… Where's everyone else?"
Roland reached for his gun and Sharon shook her head. "Not yet." Roland reluctantly removed his hand from the butt of his gun. It took Eddie a second to take the whole scene in. The parking lot to The Magic Crimson Café and the adjacent mall were completely deserted. Eddie looked back toward the street. No cars. Not one. Eddie was sure that there were other cars on the road less than a minute ago before they turned into the parking lot. Now it was empty. It was as if the entire city of Fresno had been abandoned. Eddie half expected to see a tumbleweed roll across the parking lot toward them, just like in the spaghetti westerns he used to watch with Henry at the Majestic.
"Roland?" Roland ignored Eddie's voice and continued to stare in the direction of the ominous bookstore. Sharon looked at the gunslingers, then back at The Magic Crimson Café. She hesitated momentarily and then spoke. "Lets go." There was no indication of uncertainty in Sharon's voice as she met Roland's eyes. Roland nodded, first to Sharon, then to the rest of the ka-tet. They started walking toward the bookstore, tension increasing. Sharon tried the door and it opened easily. She held it open for the gunslingers and let herself in last. There was a table in the middle of the small bookstore with tall piles of books by the author Richard Ivan Freeburg. Only, the title of these books was not Roland's Journey but The Gunslinger's Journey and the cover had changed too. There was no longer the silhouette which resembled Roland, but a desolate mountain range in its place. The bookstore was otherwise as empty as the street outside. Then Sharon saw it, a second after Roland did. A book. A single book with a familiar cover. A book entitled Roland's Journey. Sharon walked over to it, the lone book lay on a dusty counter apart from all the other books. As Sharon drew closer she could feel the evil energy from the book pushing her away. It was like trying to force two magnets together at their polar opposite ends. Although the opposing force was strong, martial arts taught Sharon nothing if not discipline. She cleared her mind and used all of her concentration to grab the book with both hands.
Just then a gaunt man appeared from out of the back room of the store. Sharon could see a red dot in the middle of the man's forehead as he approached her. Terror griped Sharon and before he had a chance to speak she hit him across the face with the book. The gaunt man was still standing, but not for long. Sharon hit him across the other side of the face and continued to bludgeon him with the book even after he had hit the floor. The book made her feel strong, powerful. She couldn't stop. She didn't want to stop. Whack! Whack! Whack! Each new sound of the book hitting flesh only fueled her on. When the sound changed from dry to wet, like beating a wet tee-shirt with a stick, Sharon felt a queer sense of ecstasy that was previously unbeknownst to her.
"Forget not the face of your father!" Roland bellowed the only thing he could think of to say. Roland could tell from the moment he met Sharon that she had never taken a life he wanted to spare her that burden. The words did not register with Sharon. She was in the grips of evil and was in need of something stronger than words. Roland drew his gun and fired a single shot into the ceiling, but it was the second shot that brought Sharon back to herself. Roland looked back in time to see Eddie reholstering his gun. The bullet grazed Sharon's right wrist as she was in mid swing.
Sharon stopped, frozen, almost as if she was in some kind of trance. The book fell from her hands as her grip simply loosened. A sound like thunder echoed through the virtually empty room as the book hit the floor. Sharon blinked, she was finally able to see what she had done. Blood covered her hands, the carpet, the book, the man. Though he should have been in pain he was smiling.
"Abandon your quest for the Dark Tower. You are too late to save it." Roland again drew his gun. "The rose will soon fall, the Tower will crumble." The gaunt stranger added. Roland pulled the trigger, tearing a new hole in the man's forehead where the bleeding eye used to be. The sound of the shot alarmed Sharon and her breath caught in her chest. She finally recognized that she was in a great deal of pain and grabbed her wrist. The scene before her was practically incomprehensible. Susannah rolled over to Sharon to comfort her and was just in time to see the strange man's body disappear. Sharon's eyes were wide, unbelieving. She held out her bloodstained hands in front of her.
"Sugar? You alright?" Susannah's voice was a gentle hum. Tears gleamed in Sharon's eyes and her hands trembled as she looked up at Susannah. Susannah embraced Sharon, letting her rest her head on her lap. The rest of the ka-tet looked around mystified.
"Now what Roland, where do we go from here?" Eddie was genuinely baffled. If this wasn't the reason they were brought to this world, then what? Roland just shook his head as he looked at Sharon. He was unable to save her. Roland could fool himself into thinking that if Eddie were not there that he would have been the one to stop Sharon's onslaught, but the truth was laid out before him. He shot first and if he were ever going to pierce Sharon's skin with a bullet it would have been with that first shot. Like so many truths in Roland's life it was a harsh reality that he hated to admit but was helpless to deny.
Roland was still lost in thought when Sharon spoke. "The Rose Petal Inn." Sharon surprised everyone by speaking. She looked up and met Roland's gaze with her own. Sharon stood up still holding her injured wrist. "I know where we have to go next. The Rose Petal Inn." Silence. Sharon looked drained and she was unsteady on her feet, but her voice was even as she continued. "I saw it. When I had the book in my hands, when I hit him with it." Sharon weakly gestured to where the agent of the crimson king had once been, without looking. "Anyway, I can't explain how I know this, but I do. We have to go to The Rose Petal Inn. Something catastrophic is going to happen there. Something that may destroy the Tower." The group needed no further convincing. As they left the bookstore Sharon did look back and what she saw barely registered with her. The books on the table had changed somehow. The Gunslinger the title had read, not The Gunslinger's Journey. And the author had changed too. The new author read Stephen King. This had to be significant in some way but Sharon didn't know how. Soon they were on the road again.