B008M2IEII EBOK Read online

  “You’re doing it right now aren’t you.”

  “Doing what,” I tried to look away.

  “You are looking at me, reading me. Looking at the Darkness around me and interpreting what it is you see.”

  “It isn’t something I can turn off any more than you can stop seeing the color of my hair. It’s just how I’m wired, I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable now.”

  Erica reached out and held my tired hand, “That isn’t it at all. Look at me, at my Darkness and you should see that I’m not mad, just concerned. I try to understand what it is you have to deal with but know that I truly can’t. But I am here for you, even when you blow up our bathroom,” she added with a smile. “Look at me, Adam.”

  Warm sprites of green flow out from the center in slow growing circles. Edges of gold and silver flow around her Darkness.

  “I can see that now. You are really hard for me to read sometimes. I think that is what probably first attracted me to you. The mystery that surrounded you was intriguing. It’s like someone speaking with some exotic accent.”

  “Well I’m glad I’m hard to read then if that’s what it took for you to finally ask me out for coffee.”

  She ran her fingers through my hair and I saw the glass dust fly away in a cloud, “Whatever you did the glass is pretty amazing. There isn’t one single sharp edge, it’s almost like find sand.”

  I shook my hair over the sink and looked at the glass sand. It wasn’t sharp at all and didn’t even feel abrasive like a hand full of sand would. It felt like talcum powder it was so fine. It smelled like concrete dust.

  “What are your plans today?” I asked as I brushed the rest of the sand out of my hair into the tub.

  “I have to meet with my agent. He thinks I can get that last series I did on Mount Rainier into National Geographic, some sort of Pacific Rim special they are working on.”

  “Wow! That would be fantastic!”

  She started winding the cord for the shop vacuum up, “What do you have planned?”

  “I’m going to go where there are people, lots and lots of people. I’m going to grab a cup of coffee, watch and see what I can learn.”

  “You want to meet for lunch when I’m done with my agent?”

  “Sounds like a good plan.”

  ~3~

  “Is it all right if we sit on that bench for a few minutes?”

  Erica carefully sits on the bench and rubs her ever growing belly. We had grabbed some Thai food at a local restaurant and were watching the mid-day shoppers make their way around the mall.

  “How is your back holding up today?”

  “Not too bad, it’s my feet that want to die right now. I’m really starting to feel ready to have this baby out of me. Mentally, I really like being pregnant, physically, it kind of sucks.”

  I rubbed her stomach and felt several kicks, “I’m thinking that maybe the baby thinks that Phad See Iew might have been a little too spicy.”

  “Either that or there is an aerobics class in my stomach,” she smiled back at me.

  We sat quietly as I got to work taking in everything around me. Darkness was all around. The interactions between different people became more apparent to me. People moving to and fro that were completely oblivious of those around them and how they all affected each other.

  “Adam, can I ask you kind of an odd question?”

  “I’m not sure if those even exist in our world anymore, but go for it.”

  “Can you see the baby’s Darkness?”

  “Nope. I tried. It seems like right now you and the baby are still one living entity. There isn’t anything different around you. The Darkness I see isn’t attached to a person, so I can’t look inside you. Does that make sense?”

  “Yes it does. I was just curious of you think it is healthy.”

  “I think that is a question I should be asking you. What do you think?”

  “Everything seems to be OK.”

  “Then I am willing to bet that it is.”

  We sat quietly for nearly ten minutes. A man and a woman were quietly arguing across from us on another bench.

  “Can you tell what they are fighting about?”

  “I can’t see what it is specifically but from the colors I’m seeing, she is lying. A lot, and he knows it.”

  We still couldn’t pick out anything specific but it seemed like the conversation had something to do with the woman not being entirely honest about where she had been spending her days while he was at work.

  “Should you do something?”

  “I think I’m going to have to let them figure this one out themselves. Some things should just be left to fend for themselves.”

  We watched them bicker back and forth for several minutes before Erica broke the silence.

  “What does it look like?”

  “What?”

  “When you see two people in a heated argument, what does it look like?”

  “Sometimes it can almost look like fireworks. The colors flash and shoot around their Darkness in a wild variety of patterns. It is kind of hard to put into words, it would be like trying to explain Russian or Japanese a few short sentences.”

  We watched them continue to throw words back and forth.

  “So right now, I can see in his Darkness that he is really hurting. The words she is choosing to use right now are really hitting home. I can see some very deep greens tinged with bright red flashes. She is starting to feel badly about what she has been saying or doing and I can see it at the center but she is too stubborn to back down now. She thinks that even though she was completely in the wrong she can guilt him into taking the blame. She isn’t a very good person.”

  “If you can see this so well how come we had so many problems?”

  “I’m not sure to be honest. I think a lot of it has to do with seeing both sides of conversation. With us it was just me. Also, I guess one of the easiest ways to describe it is that your Darkness is hard to read. Like it has an accent or something,” I smiled at her hoping you would see the humor in it.

  “Is that the truth?”

  “Yes. Yes it is.”

  ~4~

  My Saturday morning started with a fresh brewed cup of coffee and a quick walk down to the lake. Not seeing a single person was actually a disappointment this morning so I hopped in my Ford and headed in to town. I was in a good mood but at the back of my head there was the nagging worry. When would the well-dressed man make his appearance?

  The park in downtown Issaquah is always packed with people on a sunny weekend. It is very centrally located downtown, close to restaurants, shopping, has- a huge ball field, and a great playground for children. I picked a bench under a large shade tree and sat back to just watch everyone go about their business. The kids always fascinated me. Their Darkness hardly ever held the edge that adults do. They also tended to have more basic colors. Vibrant blues and greens. The reds and oranges were always more subdued and tended to come and go in the briefest of flashes. Ripples and curls tended to be small and for the most part their Darkness tended to be closer to a smoky gray than the blacker colors of adults.

  I watched two small boys play tag around the jungle gym. Flashes of color that matched the smiles on their faces and the laughter in the air. I heard the crack of a baseball bat over in the field as a little league team warmed up on the field. The Darkness was everywhere pulsing and flashing but I did not find it overwhelming this time. I could focus on one and overlook others. I no longer had that overwhelming feeling of being held underwater. I could cope far better than in the past and it was getting better. I was drinking it in and not drowning.

  From the far side of the field I watched as a middle-aged man closed the door on an older model import pickup truck. The paint was a faded dark-green where you could actually see it through the dirt. Something was piled up and covered with a worn blue tarp in the back and the hood was a rusty orange color. He tucked in his shirt and walked from the parking lot to the edge of the large g
rass field.

  He looked over the entire park and started moving toward the playground. He was moving from tree to tree. Judging by the curved edges of his Darkness, he didn’t want to be seen and this intrigued me. I had been trying to study the moves and mannerisms of those who wished to not be seen. Even though he was nearly one hundred yards away from me I could already see the green and red ripple and pulse across his Darkness. This was not a good man. This was not a good man by any stretch of the imagination and mixing that with the desire to go hidden was always made for a bad combination.

  I leaned forward on the park bench and rested my elbows on my knees as I concentrated on the man. I watched him move from one part of the park to another but always getting closer to the playground. His eyes were darting from person to person as he moved about.

  Red lining rolls and ripples as he watches the children. Green flashes that pulse into red sprites as his eyes pass over watchful parents.

  His colors dance and flash as his eyes move around the park. Nothing he looked at would hold his interest for more than a few seconds.

  He finally sees what he is looking for. Off in the grass a girl that looks to be around five years old is collecting dandelions as she sings a happy song to herself. The man leans against a large pine tree and blends into the background as he watches her play. He curly blond hair bounces as she rocks head back and forth in time with a song only she can hear. Her red jumper has a unicorn jumping over a rainbow and her tennis shoes are covered in sparkly flowers.

  Red lining deepens and rolls into green and brown. The Darkness is muddy as it ripples and roles and curls.

  The little girl’s mother is pushing her smaller brother on the swing, her back to the girl as she laughs with the small boy. He is screaming with laughter as he yells for her to, “Under Doggie!”

  The man begins to move toward the parking and between a minivan and an SUV. A large climbing toy and the minivan are between him and the little girl’s mother. In his mind her last line of defense is now out of the picture.

  Flashes of green deep in the Darkness with bolts of red reaching toward the edges.

  He is enjoying this. For him this is nothing more than a hunt, and the child is his prey. She is nothing more than a prize to be won. I can see his building excitement as he prepares to move in for the kill. To close his trap.

  Deeper red and now flashes of bright-green ripple out from the core. The smear of brown is growing as if leaking into the center of his Darkness.

  He calls out to the little girl quiet enough that only she can hear it clearly. He is asking if she has seen his puppy, telling her that he is so concerned that the puppy might get hurt. If he can’t find it, someone could run over it in the parking lot and he would be really sad.

  Flashes of blue and silver in the gray of the child’s Darkness.

  Without even being aware of it, I have walked across the children’s play area and I am standing near the climbing toy. It occurs to me that maybe I should figure out how people go about not being seen but there is no time for that and I tuck the thought away for future study. The best I can do is walk casually. I hold my cell phone up and appear to be texting as I walk closer to the small patch of wild flowers the little girl is sitting in. A tree about thirty feet from where he is calling makes a good place for me to start. Leaning against the tree I begin to reach out, push my Darkness out to my surroundings.

  Black mercury boils and ripples. Green rolls into red and back. Brown sprites blink in and out.

  I push out to him. A single tendril spans the distance and connects with his Darkness. The second I make contact he looks around, the first hints of fear begin to spark and flash in the swirls of black-mercury. He thinks he has been caught, feels as if eyes are on him but sees nothing and dismisses it. He starts to call out to the child again nervously but with an added sound of urgency. His desire to possess the child beating back his will to run. He wants the child more than he fears getting caught. He looks around again as I push. I push hard. I have never pushed that hard and for an instant I can see into him, all the way through him. I can feel the desire to control, to hurt. I get a painful glimpse of the hurts he has already done and will continue to do. I am angry. A second tendril leaps across and crashes into him. I push again. He gasps and looks around. Again I see into his soul, into the person that he is and will always be. He cannot be fixed. There is no hope. I can do nothing to turn his ways he is too far gone. A wave of anger and disgust rolls over me. Part of me is saddened that I could not find him sooner. Not to save him, but to save those he has touched. He alone has blackened too many innocent souls.

  I push hard in response to my own anger. I want to hurt him. I want to crush him. I push again and he falls gasping to his knees. Another tendril flashes across. I see now the real damage I can do. I can kill him right here. I can strip him of his soul and leave him a dead, empty shell. I begin to pull. I want to tear away his life energy and cast it into the nothingness. Tendril after tendril leaps the distance and crashes into him. He yells out loud in pain as his soul is pierced and torn. The little girl screams for her mother, pulling me back to the park and away from the horrible thing only yards away. I release my hold on the human filth in the parking lot, I am coming to my senses now and completely pull my Darkness back. Instantly the tendrils peal back, leaving his Darkness a twisting turning pool of pain and fear.

  I would have killed him. I could have killed him. In my anger I wanted to kill him, to strip him of his right to life, to completely erase that small part of humanity. He wouldn’t have been dead, he would have been gone. His life essence would have been stripped and thrown to the winds. There would be no way to save him because everything that made him the evil creature he was, would no longer exist. He would be random flashes of energy in an ethereal wasteland and nothing more, ever.

  One of the other mothers walks toward him yelling as she points an accusing finger, “You aren’t supposed to be here you creep! You were warned before!”

  I see parents grabbing phones to call the police. He tries to stand and run but I have exhausted him. He was a heartbeat from death when I let go, a heartbeat away from having the life force that makes him who he is cast into an endless abyss. He has no energy to fight back. I still want to reach out, I can feel the edges of my own Darkness boiling with hatred. The tendrils of my Darkness vibrate with the desire to decimate him, crush him into nothing. Wipe him off the planet he doesn’t deserve to live on. He is a predator of the worst kind and will always be a threat as long as he is alive. I find that I am clenching my fists so tightly that my fingernails have bitten into the palms of my hands.

  The black mercury is barely moving. Ripples of red and brown. The silver edge is nearly invisible now.

  The police car comes into the small parking lot with its lights flashing. Several parents point between the cars where he is trying to crawl away, dragging himself across the pavement in a desperate, but futile, attempt to get away. As they put handcuffs on the man, I notice he has blood trickling out of his ears and nose. Part of me feels an immense satisfaction while another is horrified at what I almost did. Is it that easy to kill? I didn’t so much as break a sweat when I attacked him. Are there really people that deserve no mercy, to be stripped of their soul? Is what I can do a fate worse than death? I walk toward an empty part of the park to gather my thoughts.

  A blast of cold nearly knocks me off my feet. The man from the grocery store has just touched me. I stagger around in a circle looking for him. I am halfway across a soccer field and it is empty. I can’t even sense what direction it came from. I feel the ice-cold touches roam around me before I get the courage to push back. I push hard and fast. The feeling fades. He is too distant. How far can his abilities go? I feel the fear rise but bury it and seek the anger I had moments before.

  My cell phone is ringing on the ground where I dropped it. I can see the number on the screen is listed as private, caller unknown. How was he able to get my phone number? Ho
w is he able to do this? I want to scream out at the world.

  Looking around I tap the screen to answer the call with a yell in to the phone, “What do you want from me?!”

  “How did that feel Adam?” the voice is unnaturally calm.

  “Who is this?”

  “You know exactly who this is. How did that feel? You were so close to taking his soul. That was absolutely fascinating to watch. I’ve never been a, shall we say, spectator of the sport myself. I’m much more the type to be out on the field carrying the ball if you get my drift. A master of the sport doesn’t often spend time watching the little league but it does bring back fond memories of my earliest victories. Starting out the world was so new, you brought back some wonderful memories, thank you very much, Adam.”

  “I’m not like you, I’m not like you at all,” the anger is beating back my fear but it is a close battle.

  “No, you most definitely are nothing like me at all,” a dry laugh echoes through the phone, “of that you can be assured. You are but a baby when it comes to the skills at my command, so you are most assuredly nothing like me.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Yes, yes, yes, the inevitable questions. Where shall I begin with you, Adam? Right now I want nothing from you. I am merely a spectator wishing to get to know the athlete I will be competing against. It is good to know the capabilities of your adversaries prior to doing battle.”

  “Who are you? Where do you come from?” His patronizing tone is feeding me now and the pool of anger is growing.

  “I am remiss and I apologize, I have not properly introduced myself and that is very poor etiquette on my part. I do not socialize much with the commoners so I forget my manners sometimes. In answer to your question, I usually do not have a name. Names are for those whom need to be addressed by,” he paused for a moment, “people. I do not cavort with the commoners so I do not need a name with which to be addressed. For these purposes, I suppose you can refer to me as Mr. Black. Now that introductions are complete, I think it would be prudent for us to continue.”