Sleeping Giant

By RJ Lopez

What happens when someone stops trying to make sense of the world the way it is and lashes back at it? You avoid the unknown stranger, but when it's someone you know who snaps can your world ever be the same? When their dark fantasies and daydreams cross the line into reality will you be able to survive? Will you want to?

• Language: English
• Publisher: RJ Lopez
• Release date: Mar 5, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452305745

RJ Lopez

Please stay tuned for more works coming very soon. If you've enjoyed any of my stories feel free to email me your thoughts and comments, I'd love to hear back from my readers about anything they've read of mine.Also recently Sleeping Giant has been released for free on BarnesandNoble.com athttp://search.barnesandnoble.com/Sleeping-Giant/RJ-Lopez/e/2940000832936The Tales of Blood Stripe company will be coming fairly frequently so be sure to check back for more of their adventures.My wonderful cover designer Tanya Bechara can be contacted at [e-mail] or her website http://www.tanyabechara.com if you have any questions, comments, or need your own amazing cover designed.

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Sleeping Giant

By: RJ Lopez

Smashwords Edition 2

Copyright 2010 RJ Lopez

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

~~~~Acknowledgements~~~~

Without my family and friends this story wouldn’t have been possible. I’d like to sincerely thank anyone who ever helped push me to write or inspired me for even a single line in the story. This is by far the longest work I’ve been committed to, and would like to thank everyone who was there as I worked my way through the story. I would especially like to thank Tanya Bechara for the amazing cover and for inspiring me to take the story in new directions. I’d also like to thank Dianne Allenberg for pushing me to finish my work and giving me the motivation I needed to make this story everything it could be.

~~~~The City Sleeps ~~~~

I didn’t want it to come down to this. I don’t understand how I could’ve let it get to this point. I tried so hard to climb out of these feelings. I try so hard…but I just can’t get away from it.

I don’t want this anymore. I’ve had too much. It’s buried inside and I know it; but there’s no cure for what’s tearing it’s way out of me. No quick fix for what’s about to break down the dam…

A knock pulls me away from my thoughts. I look around my cramped apartment. Wrinkled clothing, battered used books, and empty food wrappers cover most of the floor. Nothing of any interest or meaning is in the apartment besides an old weathered laptop on the bed. The windows have never been washed and the light filtering through the grime takes on the dirty brown color as it washes into the living room. I look through the peephole and see the face of my next-door neighbor standing in the hallway. He knocks again loudly, nervously shuffling his feet as he looks down at them blankly. I sigh softly as I open the door.

He’s a simpleton, the kind of person who is inherently good-natured about being utterly useless. His sickly sweet nature reminds me of a dog who never learned to go outside to pee because you felt too bad scolding him as a puppy. It’s not really his fault he never learned any better but you still want to smack him when he wets the carpet.

I’ve got a problem I need your opinion on. Can I come in?

There’s no ‘hello’ or even a ‘hey’ just right into ‘I’ve got a problem’. For some reason he feels that our casual ‘friendship’ means I want to be drowned in his tears every time something goes wrong in his life…translation he swings by almost everyday. Even when I pretend that I’m not home I’ve heard him come by ten minutes later to knock again. It’s pathetic. He drones on and on about his latest business partner, who’s failed to do anything but rob him blind; and, how he thinks his girlfriend doesn’t care about him anymore. The entire time I’ve known him he’s failed to realize, I really don’t care about his problems.

Why can’t I just find someone that doesn’t want to steal from me? Between rebuilding the little that I’m ever able to save, and taking Sara out I’m barely getting by. I don’t know how long I can keep things going at this rate.

I’m dying inside and fighting back the urge to jump onto him and scream in his face. The urge to grab him and beat some sense into him so strong, but do I do it? No. All I can do is shrug and motion for him to come inside. If I’m going to listen to this mindless babble I’m at least going to sit down for it. I learned a long time ago trying to brush him off only prolongs the torture. He plops down on my couch and the aging legs creak in protest. His fat form is barely contained by his wrinkled shirt, the buttons look as if they can burst off at any moment, and they’re barely better than the shoes he has so casually propped on top of my table.

Maybe you need to talk to a more successful publisher and convince him to invest in you. Show him some of the works you’ve got ready for press, and try to get some help putting it out there.

His face morphs from blank stupidity into pure bewilderment.

What do you mean? I do everything my book about small business recommends. I’ve been to workshops and lectures and they all say I’m just a step away from hitting it big. All the consultants I’ve hired think I’m almost there.

I’m just thinking that maybe, just maybe, sending out mailers and posting flyers aren’t the best ways to find an honest partner. The book you read is an old ‘how-to’ book you found at the bottom of a box in a used bookstore. Maybe it’s not the best thing to try and run your business by, and how successful are those people giving those talks you swear by.

The look on his face is almost worth the torture of having to put up with him. He’s dumbfounded, completely and utterly floored. He’s stupid enough to think this is a revolutionary idea, and doesn’t realize he should be ashamed for not knowing this years ago. His face quickly turns back into a look of worry, he refuses to see a good idea and work with it. He has to be miserable.

Right…maybe I’ll look into that latter…but then I still have to deal with Sara…

One problem at a time. Go to your lawyer, get away from your partner, start looking for a real one. Deal with Sara later.

But…

Idiot.

No Franklin, worry about your business so you can still be in a position to afford having a problem with Sara.

The logic is finally dawning on the pile of mush he calls a brain, and I can tell that he almost comprehends what I’m saying. You can almost see the light turning on behind the vodka-induced haze.

Right

I get up and open the door; I feel a chill from a blast of cold air sailing through the hallway window. He walks out, turning to wave to me like a child.