Rising Fears (22 page)

After breakfast, he went to the bathroom. He voided his bladder, then looked in the mirror to see if he would need to shave or not. His family was, as a rule, fairly hairy, but he seemed to have been skipped by the Dirkson hirsutism. He could often go days – as much as a week – without shaving. And he probably would have gone longer were it not for the fact that at that point Lillian usually began complaining about his beard scratching her, his cue to make himself clean-shaven once more.

Darn, he thought as he realized that he would, indeed, need to shave.

He looked down at the bottom drawer that was attached to the cabinetry beneath the bathroom sink. It held his meager toiletries – electric razor, deodorant, brush, and so on. He found the electric razor and pulled it out. He thumbed it on to make sure it had enough of a charge – nothing worse than shaving with a half-charged razor – and then, satisfied, looked back at the mirror.

And screamed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michaelbrent Collings is a lawyer, screenwriter, black-belt martial artist, father, husband, and has a killer backhand on the badminton court. He has written several other books, many of them bestsellers; has published dozens of articles on several continents; and is currently writing a number of television shows and movies.

He has a Facebook page, and if you search for "Michaelbrent" on Facebook you'll find him, guaranteed (like it or not, there is only one "Michaelbrent" in the whole world). Or, if you wish, you can follow him on Twitter by following mbcollings.

He also has a website and blog at michaelbrentcollings.com, and double dog dares you to check it out.

Michaelbrent resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife, two kids, and several imaginary friends, all of whom are too cool to invite Michaelbrent to their parties.