Jen saw Geoff's eyes light up from across the store, but she couldn't tell what he was looking at. She put down the honeydew-scented candle which smelled nice, but not nice enough to buy, and walked towards him. He looked up and waved her over.
"Jen, look at this," he said.
"What, hon?" When she saw it was a decorative knife, she rolled her eyes. "You already have three swords hanging in your den. You don't need this one."
"It's the Dagger of the Dread King," he said. "This will be perfect for my collection. It's exactly the same as in the catalogs."
"Who's the Dread King?" she asked.
"Some fantasy character the artists made up, I'm sure," Geoff said. "But doesn't it look like a dagger someone known as the Dread King would carry?"
"It does, but you don't need to spend a lot today, Geoff," she said. "Just order it next time one of the catalogs come in the mail. It'll probably be cheaper anyway."
"I doubt that, little lady." Both she and Geoff jumped at the voice. An older man, probably in his sixties, stepped out from a room behind the counter. "Sorry to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help noticing you taking an interest in that dagger. She's a beauty, ain't she?"
"Sure is," Geoff said. "You get it from a sword catalog? I've seen it in a few of those."
The old man chuckled. "No sir. She's the original. Them fancy-pants artists used this old girl as their model."
"How can you possibly know that?" Jen asked. She could already sense her husband puffing up with excitement.
"Can't say I can prove it, ma'am." The old man reached under the display case and pulled out the dagger. He set it down on the counter and stepped back. "Look at it up close. Have you ever seen such craftsmanship? Them catalog sword artists are good, but not this good. Sure they look the same, but those don't give off the same vibe as this. Can't you just feel it?"
Jen had to admit that something about the knife sang to her. Her feelings of mistrust melted away. She glanced over at Geoff and saw his eyes wide and his skin pale.
"She's talkin' to you, ain't she, sir?" the salesman said. "I can tell. Wouldn't think of selling her to you if she didn't."
"How much?" Geoff croaked out. Jen felt a little dizzy herself, but she still had her wits about her. She wouldn't let this crafty old guy take them to the cleaners.
"Two-fifty. If you give me cash right now, I won't charge you any sales tax."
"We'll take it," Jen said. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she couldn't believe it. She didn't even like Geoff's fantasy sword collection.
The salesman smiled. "The lady knows a bargain. Make sure you hang on to her, sir." He gave Geoff a wink and a friendly slap on the shoulder.
Geoff nodded, as if in a trance, and pulled out two hundreds and a fifty. It had been for this months groceries, but neither of them cared. A quick stop at the ATM would get them on their way. Jen didn't allow Geoff to be frivolous very often, and their jobs paid enough. Let him get his artsy knife. Besides, she couldn't wait to hold it.
The salesman pocketed the three bills and placed the knife in a cardboard box. "Here you go. A pleasure doing business with you." He nodded to both of them and went back into the room behind the counter.
Geoff snatched up the box and sprinted out the door, while Jen followed close behind. She'd never seen such a strange look in his eyes.

As they neared the car, a young man, probably not yet sixteen, stopped them. "You bought it? You bought my dagger?" Geoff tried to walk around him, but the teen stepped in front of him.
Jen felt a tinge of fear creep into her. This young man didn’t look entirely stable. Something in his eyes, she couldn't quite put her finger on it. And his voice. It sounded a bit shaky.
"It's mine now," Geoff said. "I bought it fair and square." He pointed back towards the general store.
"It's my dagger," the kid said. "It's been in my family forever. I needed cash a few months back so I asked Mr. Williams for a loan. I offered to leave my dagger as collateral, so he gave me the money right quick. He knows about it. You folks don't. I can't believe he sold it to you."
Jen exchanged a glance with Geoff. She was glad to see he looked more like his old self, but he still clung to that box with a tight grip. She looked back to the store to see if the old man had come out, but she couldn’t see anyone.
"Listen," Geoff said. "I just paid a pretty penny for this. I'm not going to just give it to you."
"I'm not asking you to just give it to me," the teenager said. "I'm short on cash right now. I'll take it now, and in two weeks I'll have twice what you paid for it. I promise."
"I didn't just fall off the turnip truck, junior," Geoff said. "I give you the dagger, and you disappear. I know how that works."
Jen took a step back and prepared to bolt for help in case this turned physical. She had no idea what this kid was capable of, but she knew Geoff couldn't handle himself in a fight, even against a kid ten years younger.
"Mister, please," the kid said. "You don't know what you have there. My family knows how to wield the Dagger of the Dread King. You don't. It can only bring you pain and death."
"News flash, Kid," Geoff said. "I'm not planning to wield it. It's going to go on my wall with the rest of my collection."
"Sir, you don't understand."
Geoff grabbed Jen by the wrist and pushed past the teen. "I'm through talking. Get out of my way."

The young man stepped back and let them climb into their car. Before they could get the doors closed, though, the kid yelled at them. "He'll come for his dagger! Mark my word! I only pray you're not there when he arrives."
Geoff and Jen slammed their doors shut, and Geoff started the car. Seconds later, they sped off towards home.

As soon as they were in the house, Geoff took the dagger to their bedroom. Jen hurried after him, her desire to hold the knife now gone. Neither had said anything during the trip home, so she had no idea what he was up to. When he got to the room, he stuffed the cardboard box under the bed.
"What are you doing?" she said.
"You heard him. You heard the little punk. He threatened us. Someone's coming for this. It should be okay under here for tonight, but tomorrow we’ll have to buy a safe. No one's going to take my dagger."
Jen's eyes went wide. Geoff had never acted like this. The knife was driving him insane. "Honey, you bought it so you could put it on display."
"It doesn't matter," he said. "You heard him. It holds power. If I just keep it safe for a few years, all will be forgotten, and we can check it out. Until then, I must protect it."
Jen shook her head and left the room.

The next day, true to his word, Geoff bought a safe. It was nice, thin enough to rest under their bed, and impervious to fire. It held not only the dagger, but some of their important paperwork, and a few other trinkets Jen didn’t want destroyed or stolen. She viewed it as a good purchase.
The safe lay under the bed for a full year without incident. But on the anniversary of the day they bought the dagger, something strange happened. Something that neither she nor Geoff could explain.
The footsteps started around ten o'clock, just minutes after Geoff had turned off the lights. The footsteps originated just outside the door of their bedroom. Loud, banging footsteps which reminded Jen of her father coming home drunk when she was a girl. Geoff grabbed the baseball bat that he kept next to the bed ("Protection in case that punk kid comes looking for my dagger."), and threw open the bedroom door. Nothing. Geoff searched the house from top to bottom, but found no one. The doors and windows were all still closed and locked. No one else could possibly have been in the house.

When Geoff returned from his search, Jen said, "It couldn't have been our imaginations because we both heard it." Geoff agreed, but he could offer no other explanation. Neither slept that night.
The footsteps continued off and on that year. A month would pass with nothing, but then they’d sound three or four nights in a row. And always from the hallway right outside their bedroom door.

The next year, the footsteps stopped. Jen was on pins and needles waiting for them to return, but they didn't. Midway through that year, she finally slept without listening for them. Geoff, too, seemed a bit more at ease. He hardly even mentioned the dagger anymore, which suited Jen just fine.

On the third anniversary of the day they bought the dagger, though, everything changed. The footsteps came back, but this time they didn't confine themselves to the hallway. They walked right through the door and stopped at the foot of the bed. Jen woke from a deep sleep and saw a pair of glowing red eyes staring down at her. She screamed and scrambled for the lamp next to her on her nightstand, but only managed to knock it to the floor. A split second later, Geoff lit his lamp. There was no one in the room. They checked everywhere, but found no sign of entry. They couldn’t even find foot indentations on the carpet.
"He's after it," Geoff said. "I don't know how, but he's after it."

Jen knew she should claim that was nonsense, but she couldn't. With the image of a pair of red, glowing eyes fresh in her mind, she couldn’t argue with him. "Even if it doesn't have anything to do with the knife, I don't want to live here anymore," she said.
Geoff fished the safe out from under the bed, and fetched the key from its hiding spot, a false bottom in the top drawer of his nightstand. With a quick flick of his wrist, the safe popped open. Geoff held up the Dagger of the Dread King.
"Is this what you want?" he yelled. "Right here? Too bad! I'm not giving it up!"
"It's after midnight," Jen said. "Keep your voice down." She got up to dress. "I don't want to sleep here anymore. Let’s rent a motel room. We can start looking for a new house tomorrow."

Geoff leaped to his feet. "No. We can't leave tonight. It'll know we’re gone and take the dagger."
"This is crazy," Jen said. "I'll be happy if that thing does disappear. It's brought nothing but grief. And what good is a decorative sword if it's hidden away?"

Geoff looked at her with anger in his eyes. He started to say something, but stopped. His eyes clouded over with confusion, and he tried to say something again. Finally, a look of inner peace overtook him. "You're right. But we should stay tonight. After all, the footsteps have never come twice in one night. I'll sell the dagger tomorrow, and I'll use the money to buy a replica from the catalog. One I can display."

Jen lay back down. That did sound like a good idea. And if the footsteps continued after the dagger was gone, then they could move. With these happy thoughts in her mind, she fell asleep in no time.

Jen woke with a start. She expected to see the eyes staring down at her again, but nothing hovered above the bed. She glanced at the clock and saw it was nearly four in the morning. She hadn't realized how much she hated that knife until Geoff promised to sell it. And she would make sure it was gone today. If he couldn't pawn it off, they'd toss it into a river or something.

She looked over and found Geoff's side of the bed empty. She glanced over towards the bathroom, but no light shone under the crack in the door. That's when she heard a gasp from the floor by his side. She turned on her lamp, which had thankfully not broken earlier, and sat up. She saw Geoff lying motionless on the ground and immediately dialed 9-1-1. By the time the paramedics arrived, Geoff was dead.
"If it's any comfort at all, ma'am," one of the paramedics said, "it appears he died almost instantly. Actually, it's sort of as if someone had plunged a knife right into his heart. I don't think he suffered at all."
"Did you say a knife to his heart?" she said.
"Figuratively speaking, of course."

Jen ran over to Geoff's nightstand and grabbed the key. She then pulled out the safe from under the bed, and inserted the key. While this was happening, she was aware of the paramedics trying to speak to her, but she ignored them. She popped open the lid to the safe, looked in, and screamed.

The Dagger of the Dread King was gone.

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