Checkmate

This is a horror short story about a hard-headed, down on his luck writer who is befriended by a Russian gypsy. The gypsy is sure the writer's life is in peril, but the writer doesn't believe him, even though he keeps getting warnings from other sources as well. He finds himself in a goth bookstore and the attached coffee emporium and faces the evil within. You know you can't judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you just know when a person is a bit off.