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  “Continue? Continue what? Why don’t you leave me the hell alone?”

  “Now, now Adam, let us keep this civil and try to be polite about this shall we? I will part shortly but first I wished to commend you on what was very nearly your first kill, I remember mine fondly. Secondly, I wanted to say that soon, very soon, I will come for you and I will take everything. Everything that you are, were, or could ever be will be mine. You will be nothing and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.”

  The line went dead.

  Another passing touch flowed over me, and I easily brushed it away. I was feeling stronger but I was still nowhere near the level of his power and abilities. I couldn’t feel a single thread of him near me now. I can’t imagine what kind of range he has if he can touch me that far out. His Darkness was stretched so thin the tendril wasn’t even visible. Even so, I could still feel the touch and the power and energy behind it.

  I shivered slightly as I walked back to my truck. I knew now that he didn’t want to just kill me. He wanted something else. I knew he would tell me soon enough and I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

  ~5~

  Monday morning was the first time I had heard the morning alarm in more than three months. I sat on the edge of the bed with my bare feet on the floor. I’m not the same person I was the last time I woke up for work and I can feel it. I was somehow managing to be both excited and in absolute dread of the first day back.

  With a quick cup of coffee and a kiss good-bye to a still sleeping Erica, I made my way out to my truck. I was two miles down the highway before I was even aware how much time I was spending on looking for the well-dressed Mr. Black to come popping out from a hidden roadside turnout. I had assumed I would be able to sense him long before I ever saw him but part of me didn’t have any faith in that ability. He seems to have a firm grasp on how to be invisible to people. Traffic began to thicken up as I made my way through town. I kept looking in my mirrors, in the windows of passing cars, at every face walking the street. I would need to get a grip on this before the stress of it all tore me apart.

  I forced myself to focus on my driving and the music on the radio for the remainder of my forty-minute commute.

  The parking lot was still empty for the most part when I parked the Ford at a quarter to nine. Most of the upper management type people wouldn’t roll in until closer to ten in the morning if they decided to show up at all and instead opted to work from home.

  I hit the front door and the receptionist still recognized me, “Good morning, Adam. Good to see you back! How are you on this fine morning?”

  “I’m doing well, Nancy, thanks for asking!”

  She always surprised me with her ability to remember the name of every single person who walked through the door. I swiped my badge at the door and made my way to the stairs and up to the second floor. The office felt different somehow, it wasn’t cold but it wasn’t warm. The long hallway was empty but I could hear voices coming from the kitchenette where we could get fresh coffee and cold sodas.

  Maybe sterile would be the right description? I just couldn’t put my finger on how it was different. I was powering on my desktop when Baskar walked in with his customary morning cup of tea.

  “Welcome back, Adam! I am very happy to see you are doing well. How does it feel to be back to work, my friend? We missed you around the work place!”

  Ripples of blue with sprites of green. A rolling silver edge flows around the outside.

  “I’m doing well Baskar. Thanks. I could have used a little more time off, was just getting into the swing of not coming here.” I smiled at him, “How have things been around the ranch?”

  “I’m guessing you haven’t seen your queue yet. I will just say welcome back for now and enjoy your angry curses later.”

  Did Baskar have a sense of humor when I was here three months ago? He felt different somehow. Was it him or me?

  As I sat there pondering any jokes I could recall Baskar ever saying, an instant message popped up on my desktop from Frank.

  ‘Please stop by my office when you get a chance’, the message read.

  I could only guess at what was motivating my boss this time but it was never good and most definitely not in my best interest whatever it was.

  ‘Be there in five if that’s OK. I just want to make sure I don’t have any hi-pri’s in my queue first.’ I typed back

  ‘I’ll have to move some things around but it should be fine’, was his short reply back.

  I found it to be simply amazing. How can he call me down to his office, have me say that I would be right there, yet still have it be an inconvenience? I could already feel my temper rising and I hadn’t even seen the man yet.

  I walked down to Frank’s window office and knocked on the glass next to the door. He held his finger up indicating he needed one minute to finish something in privacy. In the reflection I could see he was looking at some social media website and not actually working at all. I didn’t like the colors I was seeing in his Darkness. He was stewing about my absence. I would imagine life was somewhat hard for him with me being gone and having to cover for many of the things only I knew how to do.

  He finally waved me in.

  “Hey Frank. How’s it going? It’s been a few months.”

  “That’s actually why I called you down here.”

  His first lie rolls through his Darkness. Slow moving folds that ebb and flow.

  These are lies he has practiced until he almost believes them himself. Almost.

  I feel my temper begin to rise again as Frank starts playing one of his control games. He has rehearsed this conversation many times as he stewed in my absence.

  “So I know the story that goes with why you were out but I don’t buy it. I think that being a vendor here was getting on you and you felt you were entitled to a little unearned vacation.”

  “Really?” The voracity of his attack actually caught me off guard.

  “Yes, really,” he said flatly. “You may have pulled the wool over everyone else’s eyes but upper management and I are on to you. We can see through this charade and with your work slipping so much over the past few months before your unearned leave, you are on some seriously thin ice. You didn’t hear this from me but I had to fight pretty heavy just to keep you in a job. They wanted you gone for this little stunt.”

  Sprites of red burst in the folds as they flow outward from the core.

  “So let me see if I have this straight—,” he cuts me off.

  “I’m not through.” He leans back in his chair. “We had a position opening up, full time, big pay increase. It was earmarked for you but I think that has all changed. Your attitude and work ethic is going to force me to offer it to one of the other vendors on the team. It pains me to do it but I was overruled from the man upstairs.”

  More folds form at the edges. Sprites of dark green appear at the core.

  “Are you through yet?” I was nearly boiling at this point and struggled to keep my voice even.

  “Excuse me? I’m not sure I like this attitude, Adam.”

  “You didn’t answer the damn question, Frank. Are you done piling on the shit so I can respond for once or do you want to blather on for ten more minutes as you think of more crap to spew? I’m pretty sure that was the entire speech as you practiced it so I think I can safely reply now, correct?”

  I see a quick flash of fear, “I don’t think there is really anything to say on your part, Mr. Carter.”

  “Of course you wouldn’t, Frank. After handing out that heap of lies, I’m sure that you would like nothing more than for me to go back to my office and sulk for hours about losing a job that doesn’t exist.”

  “Are you insinuating that I am lying?” he says as he stands and attempts to look offended.

  “Sit down Frank. I’m sorry if this isn’t quite flowing the way you had practiced it.”

  He sits and wonders where the Adam he used to know is. I have to admit, I’m kind of curio
us myself.

  “Let me make this extremely clear to you, Frank. You are well aware of what happened to me and it actually bothers you that someone would have the balls to try to stop a crime. You know that for your entire life you have ran away from every single fight, every single challenge, and that’s why you try and keep me down.”

  “Secondly, there was no job. I know for a fact that human resources threw out a hiring freeze more than two months ago. You can’t even get new vendor head count let alone a full timer. It’s been three months and Sid’s old office is still sitting empty yet I was passed over for a new position?.”

  Flashes of red mixed with blue sprites as I continue.

  “And last but by no means least; you can’t get rid of me. I make you look too damn good and I’m the only one on the team that doesn’t actively ignore every word you say. Your biggest fear is that your manager will realize you have no clue what you are doing. That if I don’t leave you enough things to point out how brilliant and diligent you are that maybe they will replace you. I am the only one on this team that knows the systems front to back. You couldn’t replace me and keep this crap running and that kills you.”

  A quick bolt of red.

  “Oh, you are afraid they will replace you, with me no less. I get it now, and in answer to that thought, yes, I can read your mind.” I couldn’t but he didn’t need to know that. “So the next time you want to waddle your ass down and try to lower me a few rungs on the status ladder, you might want to think twice. I’m guessing it would only take about a twenty minute meeting with your boss in order to convince him that you aren’t worth the air you breathe and that the company would be better off dumping you like the dead weight you are.”

  Flashes of blue and green. The folds relax into curls.

  He sat there staring at me with his jaw opening and closing like a drowning fish. I struggled to contain my smile and maintain the angry look I was going for.

  “It would probably be best for you not to say anything, Frank. Maybe a welcome back would be nice though, you know, show you care and all.”

  He blinks several times as he tries to figure out what to do then just admits defeat, “Welcome back, Adam. Good to have you back?”

  “Will there be anything else?”

  “No. I don’t think I have anything else to say. I’ll let you get back to work,” he says in a quiet voice.

  “I have really enjoyed this chance to chat with you, Frank. I’m really glad to be back.”

  I close his door behind me and nearly throw up. I am shaking from head to toe. I have never stood up for myself at a job, ever. I have lost promotions, new positions, you name it, all because I wouldn’t stand up for myself. Victory is kind of a good feeling.

  ~6~

  Frank had several large projects piled up and waiting for me in my inbox when I finally got around to them. It would take my automation several days to catch up so the lunch hour was mine and mine alone. I tend to be a creature of habit. I hit the cafeteria early so I don’t have to see very many people and eat in my office for the same reason. Baskar seems to always be in meetings so for the most part I am alone and the office is mine.

  I had been planning to do this exercise for the last two weeks and was excited to finally test it. I closed my eyes and began to push the Darkness outward. I could not feel as I passed out beyond my own office but I knew I was well beyond the walls around me. There, I can feel two people in the office to my left and one in the office to my right. I push further. I feel several people in the offices on the floor above me and one below. I push out further. I can now feel at least three dozen people around me in all directions. I’m careful not to come in contact with anyone and the black mercury flows around them but does not touch a single soul. I see Frank’s Darkness far down the hall to my right, the black-mercury flows around him so close I can see the anger still burning from our conversation this morning. I move on.

  Not being able to see them with my own eyes I was having trouble fixing them into a three dimensional model that made sense. I was seeing everyone with just my own Darkness so they were spots of black-mercury floating in the middle of nowhere. When I would try to figure out how far away someone was there was no sense of distance. I had an idea of how far based on when I first sensed them but looking now, the person in the office next to me seemed the same distance as Frank was at the end of the hall.

  I feel where the offices stop by the lack of people but I still cannot tell how far out I have pushed by any other means. I feel people moving all around me as if I can see them. They are wisps of black mercury like ghosts floating in the ether of my own Darkness. There is a quick flash as a bolt of black-mercury passes through my Darkness almost faster than I could detect it. Another, then several grouped together. They are flashing through me. It suddenly occurs to me that I have passed beyond the outside of my building, across the access road, the greenbelt, and have pushed all the way out the freeway a short distance beyond that. I am seeing the cars as they pass. I pull back quickly and am once again just in my office.

  I’m wearing a rare smile as I think about the exercise but I need more. I need to figure out a way to sense range better. I have no way to feel how far away I have pushed if I can see it visually. As far as that goes, what is my range? Then it hit me. I need to go down to the lake. Boats. Single targets I can reach out to with no people between us. All living things have the Darkness but I have never seen anything with the complexity of people. Most animals are simple spots of Darkness with simple needs and desires. They are easily ignored as nothing more than background noise. A single person on a boat would be a perfect test.

  I sent Erica a text telling her I would be a little late.

  She responded back with ‘Don’t blow anything up, Loving you’.

  ~7~

  The park is vacant as I slowly roll across the speed bumps. This is the same park where I had chased down the purse snatcher nearly five months and a lifetime ago yet it feels nothing like that place. The lot is nearly empty and I find a spot to leave my truck right up at the front. Jutting out from the shore nearly one hundred feet is a wide floating dock with a small gazebo on the end for people to fish or have a small picnic. There isn’t a single person on the dock today and with the clear weather I can see all the way across the lake. I can see two boats trolling out towards the middle and a Jet Ski on the far side at another park.

  I sit at the small table and try to relax a little. For some reason, I feel excited to test my limits. I take a deep breath and begin to push out. At first I try pushing out in all directions but soon find the volume of traffic on the freeway nearly overwhelms me. I pull back. Again I push out but this time in one direction.

  Tendrils of black-mercury flow out across the water in the direction of the boats. The curling blue and silver rolls and twists as it accelerates away from me.

  It takes nearly a minute before I reach the first boat about two hundred yards away. He is alone. He is content. I spend several moments around his Darkness but don’t touch him beyond that. He is older, maybe mid-fifties and very relaxed. I can see there is an immense sadness in him but I don’t want to pry any deeper than I already have. I let him be.

  I push out further. Another minute and I am more than half way across the lake.

  Tendrils too thin to see surround the life energy on the boat. Two pools of black-mercury ripple and flow with flashes of light.

  I can feel two people in this boat. One feels and looks strange, there is something not quite right with him. His Darkness has too many random meaningless flairs and sprites. I touch him slightly and find him to be blindingly on his face drunk. Have I ever tried to get a good look at someone that was this drunk? I can’t recall ever noticing it. I make a mental note to head to a local bar or at least think about getting out of the house more. I move over to the second man. He is slightly angry with the first. He wants to be somewhere else, somewhere that the first man is not. I get some indications that they are related bu
t don’t probe any deeper. I drift away from the two.

  Pushing further I try to reach the far shore. The tendrils of black-mercury are stretched to invisibility yet I can still sense everything around them. The Jet Ski is right at the edge of what I can feel. I can’t quite touch him but I can tell that someone, a person, is there. He is ghost-like in the ether of my Darkness. I can get nothing from him though. No emotions, colors, nothing. But they are there, like seeing movement in a dense forest and knowing only that there is something there. They must be more than two miles away. How far away was Mr. Black when he touched me last? Is this a physical limit of the Darkness or an ability limit of my own? I decide to start making weekly walks to this park. I will push each time and see if I get better.

  One more question was aching to be answered. How fast is the Darkness? If I push hard, how fast can the Darkness reach out? How quickly does it cross the distance to the Jet Skis?

  Black-mercury rolls around me restlessly. Tendrils curl and roll in anticipation.

  I sit for several moments and collect my thoughts. I want to span the distance between me and the Jet Ski as he runs in circles in front of the park on the other side of the lake. I don’t want to move across the distance, I want to span it as quickly as the Darkness can move. I want me Darkness to be there without having to slowly push out.

  I breathe deep and push. It is a different kind of push this time, something closer to a throw than a push.

  The results are instant. There isn’t any measurable time between my push and my Darkness arriving where I wanted it. The tendril simply came into existence between us. One instant my Darkness was centered on me, the next I am trying to connect to a single person alone on the far side of the lake. For an instant I catch a flash of blue and the slight odor of fresh rain on moss! The second time I have gone further! It is much clearer now and not just some ghost like shade!

  I can see the tallest buildings in Downtown Seattle peeking over Capitol Hill on the far side of the lake and find myself wondering if I will able to reach out that far. What would it be like to sense an entire city? Would the overwhelming numbers of people simply kill me? Would I overwhelm myself and turn the glass of the city into dust?