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  I watched my new daughter as she slept peacefully. My daughter. The words still had a strange feel to them. I had never been able to imagine myself as a father but now that I was in that position I wanted to make sure she had all the opportunities that I never felt I had. It excited me to think about watching her grow and discovering the world around her. Her tiny little Darkness looked so innocent and frail. Minute blue and gold sprites danced in the silver-grey mercury as she slept off her first few hours in the outside world.

  With the exception of Carol, the nursery was empty of any other babies. I couldn’t put my finger on why exactly that was but it sat at the back of my head like an uncomfortable itch that wouldn’t go away. Was I missing something? That bizarre feeling came and went like something I was forgetting. A name or number that was just out of reach in your mind only I wasn’t trying to remember anything. There were at least six other warming beds not in use, it seemed odd that no other babies would be in there. I shrugged it off, I was a new dad now and bound to have some pretty new and bizarre emotions rolling around. I smiled to myself as I continued to watch her small Darkness as she slept.

  A male nurse entered from the right side of the room pushing a small cart stacked high with freshly folded towels. He didn’t acknowledge me so I ignored him and turned my attention back to Carol. The tiny tendrils of blue became agitated and began to flare and pulse. Was she having a nightmare? Do babies have nightmares? No. This isn’t a dream, something is wrong. I reached out and tried to calm her but I found a wall around her. I felt my adrenaline spike as my mental alarms began to go off but I didn’t know the reason yet. That part of me that felt confusion earlier suddenly felt enclosed and locked away. There was a slight wave of confusion and slight feeling of vertigo as I began to reach out further.

  The male nurse.

  I had so casually dismissed the him when he entered and now I sense that I didn’t do it willingly. I was ever so lightly touched that I didn’t even feel it. He was blending in to the surroundings so well that I had discounted him altogether, I hadn’t even looked at his Darkness, I had moved on as if coaxed by a guiding hand. He walked toward Carol. Why would you go into nursing if you didn’t want to be seen? With a growing feeling of confusion I pushed out toward the man, the wave of vertigo was heavier until finally a single tendril of my Darkness reached the nurse. A small shiver went down my spine.

  The male nurse was Mr. Black and he was here for Carol. He was going to punish me for hurting him by hurting me in the worst way he could imagine. His eyes held a light that was cold and dead.

  I pushed harder than I ever had as the anger flashed through me like exploding flame. Energy flashes inside me as I saw the threat to my daughter so close at hand.

  Black mercury flashes into a dazzling array of red and green tipped tendrils. They flash around the room as waves of dirty brown and red flash in his Darkness. Our energies slam into each other.

  I can see him now clearly. His shield is torn away and he is visible to all. I hear a brief cry of terror from Carol and it awakens something inside me, something raw, something powerful and angry as hell. I am more now than I was a moment ago. The energy around me has grown as my Darkness flares like a small sun. The tendrils move with excited anticipation, a desire to strike out.

  I look down the corridor both directions but I can’t see any doorway that will take me into the nursery from the hall. The framed in security glass has no sliding windows or any way to open it that I can see, I take several steps back and push out towards Mr. Black. At the last instant I reverse and pull my Darkness back, hard. The glass fractures into billions of tiny crystals and falls to the ground like rain. I push again at his Darkness, I strike out at it. A fist of black-mercury aimed at the center of his being. The Darkness at this close range is a visible cloud of black and gray swirling energy that slams his body. He falls to one knee with a grunt of pain but quickly pushes back in kind. The blast of arctic Darkness takes my breath away and slams into me. The power from the blow lifts me off the ground and throws me against the wall on the other side of the hall. I feel the sheetrock give as I crash into the wall and fall to the floor. The florescent lights in the ceiling erupt in sparks and burst.

  I scramble to my feet and climb through the now glassless opening to enter the room. Mr. Black was waiting and throws another fist of Darkness at me. I feel my feet leave the ground as I am thrown across the room and slam into a wall of cabinets, crushing the doors inward. I start to push hard and see he has Carol in his arms, his Darkness wrapping around her like a vile, filthy blanket, the tendrils of his blackness weaving around her silver essence. His face slides into an evil smile, he is protecting himself with my child and I cannot hit him for fear of killing Carol. Another fist-like tendril slams me to the ground as I hear more glass explode around me. My baby girl is crying loudly now as he turns and runs through the swinging doors, out into the open corridor.

  He won’t kill her here. He will want a trophy kill. I can see this clearly written all around him. He wants to get away and torment me with it. Flaunt it. Demonstrate that he has won. Make more of his malicious cell phone calls to taunt me, break me before he kills her, then Erica, and finally he will take what remains of me.

  By the doorway is a large, red knob with a clear plastic flip cover, marked emergency in large letters. I slam it with my fist as I run out the door behind him, crushing the cover and hammering the button underneath. Alarm bells begin to ring throughout the floor. I hear the locks on the door behind me click into place. Red rotating lights flash in the hallways as I run after my daughter. I am seething with anger now. I will not let him get away. One of us will be dead before the sun sets on this day.

  The building is alive with our Darkness, we are everywhere in flashing tendrils, the hallways are awash in flashes of blues and reds. My dark-gray tendrils flash and dance as his black-onyx does the same. The air is alive.

  The corridor gives me the option to go left or right. I push out quickly looking for his Darkness. I sense it to my left, flowing quickly down the hall. I reach out with a single tendril and lock on to him. My Darkness and his are entangled now, tendrils of black-mercury intertwined as we push and pull. There is no way he can get away from me now, I will find him wherever he goes, regardless of how far and he knows this. I have thrown caution to the wind in my rage and sprint down the hallway after him.

  I feel him pass the nurses’ station directly ahead. A large security guard steps into his path with his hands held out to stop him. I feel the Mr. Black pause for a moment before he lashes out hard against the guard. An icy tendril lances the man through the center of his darkness. The young man falls to the ground gasping for air, pale as the white linoleum he is laying on. He will survive but he is out of the fight.

  I turn a corner and see him at the end of the long corridor ahead of me. The double doors at the end of the corridor are closed and a doctor and a nurse stand nervously waiting for the child abductor to come to them. The doors will be locked and I know neither one of us can influence anything nonliving that isn’t glass. He cannot possibly break through the doors. There is no escape from me now. He is trapped. I slow my pace to a jog and gauge his next move as we continue to spar with the Darkness.

  Our Darkness spins and twists together. Each fighting for the upper hand. His browns and reds lash out at my golds and silvers. Massive sprites of light flash when the tendrils strike out. Lightning jumps as the fighting continues to escalate. More and more energy is being dumped into our surroundings.

  The air around us is filled with the smell of ozone and burning embers. With Carol held tightly to his chest like some sort of human shield, he turns the corner in front of the double doors.

  The doctor holds his hands out in a vain attempt to stop Mr. Black, “That’s far enough, man! Just give me the girl and we can end this peacefully, no one else has to get hurt! There is no need for this violence. These doors are locked and the entire building is on lockdown. There is no way yo
u can’t get out of the building. Just surrender peaceably and this can end now.”

  Mr. Black smiles as he slams the doctor with his Darkness. The older man’s lab coat flows in the wind as he is picked up off of his feet and thrown through the door, wood splinters and metal frames twist as the man lands thirty feet down the hall in a pile of debris. The older man’s Darkness is stripped away and thrown to the winds. He is dead before he stops sliding down the hall. The woman grunts as her Darkness is pierced by another ice-cold tendril. I catch a hint of the musty smell of swamp water as the tendrils flash at her several more times.

  I am less than ten yards behind him now and I can clearly hear Carol crying in terror as his shadow pushes people out of his way.

  Her tiny newborn Darkness is flailing silver and white tendrils. She is screaming in panic and fear. Raw terror echoes in waves across her little Darkness. It is feeding my anger and my rage is building.

  “Black!” The voice that comes out does not sound like my own. It is deep and angry.

  He pauses as he turns to look at me, “Not today, Adam.”

  He hurls a powerful attack towards me but I am able to turn it at the last instant. I think back to the glass security divider. I focus my Darkness on the center mass, tendrils leap across the distance instantly and penetrate into his Darkness. I calm myself for a brief second then pull hard and fast. He grunts as if physically struck and falls to his knees crashing into a supply cart. Carol is thrown clear in his fall and slides several yards down the hall. The heavy swaddling cushions and protects her from any harm.

  I risk a single tendril to check on her.

  Her silver flailing Darkness settles briefly the second she is free of Mr. Black’s mental embrace.

  She is OK. I know this without a doubt. He turns to grab her and I reach out hard and fast. The small glass windows in each door of the hallway shatter in a blast of deep sound as the shock wave rips out from his core. He lets out a bloodcurdling yell of anger and pain as he is thrown nearly forty feet down the hall, his hands and shoes squeaking on the tiles as he tries to control his slide. He gets to his knees and pushes back harder than ever before. The energy slams into me and I am thrown completely through the wall behind me, landing in a pile of sheetrock and ceiling tiles on the other side. For several moments I am dizzy and fear I may lose consciousness. I can see I am bleeding in several places now but I cannot feel it yet. Blood is flowing heavily in to my left eye from a vicious cut on my forehead. My shirt and jeans are shredded in several places with blood flowing freely underneath the ribbons of cloth.

  I hear my baby crying as a nurse picks her up. The alarms are filling the air all of over the hospital; fire alarms have now joined in with the security sirens. I crawl back through the hole my body created and run down the hall. He is through the emergency exit now and goes through an emergency door into the stairwell. I crash through the door but he was waiting for me one flight down. He hammers at me with what could have been a deadly blast into a concrete wall. I turn it. It washes over me with no effect. I return the attack and reach out. I send my tendrils out and blast his core with raw energy from the Darkness. A flash of white and black light fills the stairwell with energy, shattering the sprinkler heads in the ceiling and walls. The fire alarm sounds in the stairwell as the fire protection begins to shower us with water. Bright strobe lights begin to flash all around us turning the stairway into flashes of light and dark. He reaches out once more and slams me to the ground as he jumps down and out of sight.

  Mr. Black shows the first signs of fear. I am nearly his equal and he is scared. It feeds my still growing anger.

  Mr. Black bursts through the first floor exit and is running through a lobby full of patients and doctors struggling to get out of a building that is in full lockdown. Two uniformed police officers are standing at the entrance telling everyone to remain calm and trying to maintain order in the growing tension and ever growing numbers of people stuck in the lobby.

  I see black tendrils reach out to them in preparation for a strike. I shatter his attack with a glancing blow of my own. He merely knocks the officers off their feet and into the furniture near the entrance in a flash of black light. One does not get back up but he is still alive.

  Mr. Black slams his body into the doors but they do not yield. With the hospital on full lock down now, all the entrances and exits are locked as they try to apprehend him before he can get out of the building. As I enter the lobby and lash out at him again, my Darkness lancing the core of this being in a loud detonation of energy and light. He turns to face me and sends another wave of black-mercury over me. I am able to let much of it flow over and around me as I sprint toward him, one hundred and eighty pounds of seething anger. We crash together and roll along the ground as we each struggle for the upper hand. He is stronger than I had thought he would be physically, but he is fighting to get away and I am fighting to stop him. Our Darkness intertwines as we look for an opening. I punch him hard with my closed fist and he rolls away from me with new blood flowing from his nose. I punch him again several more times hard in the face, pushing him back with every blow. He kicks my right knee hard and I go down hard. He tries to kick me and strike out at his Darkness. With a flash of white light, he is lifted off the ground and thrown onto a coffee table in the lobby.

  As one, we stand up and face each other. Both of us are bleeding and torn as we clench our fists. There is less than ten feet between us as we stare at each other. Both of us are waiting for the other to make the first move, reading the other one, trying to guess the next move. I see the attack form in his Darkness and lash out in the same instant. Our energies hit in a thunderous explosion sending us both flying in opposite directions, the glass frontage of the hospital is shattered into raining glass dust, glass picture frames shatter, several glass topped coffee tables explode sending magazines flying through the lobby. Every light in the ceiling showers the onlookers with glass sand and sparks. The fire sprinklers burst and begin to shower the people struggling to get out of the way. Panic sets in as people begin to scream and run.

  Mr. Black sees freedom and dashes through the now empty window frame and through the bushes outside the window. I struggle over broken furniture and jump through the same blown out window he used. I can still sense exactly where he is, heading out to the busy street in front of the hospital. His car is parked at the strip mall across the street and to him it is freedom. If he can get to his car he can get far enough away that he can disappear and attack again later. Already I can see he is making plans.

  I turn the corner and I can see him standing on the median strip between the busy four lanes of traffic. He can sense me coming up behind him as he waits for an opening in the traffic. He lashes out at a random driver as he steps off the curb, the tendrils of darkness pass through the roof of the car as if doesn’t even exist. The driver grabs his chest and locks up the breaks starting a chain reaction of crashing cars.

  I begin throwing push after push as I close the distance. For the first time I feel his true fear, the terror at becoming a victim of the energy he has always controlled, and it empowers me, emboldens me. He darts across the last two lanes of traffic into the busy parking lot. Cars that managed to avoid the first pileup swerve and slam on their brakes to miss him. In the rush of mental combat I cannot hear the sound of twisting metal and smashing glass all around me. Several drivers yell curses out their open car windows and I am aware of the skidding vehicles but I block out the noise completely.

  I begin a push but at the last instant I pull. He doesn’t see the change and is violently thrown off his feet in a flash of white light. I am only twenty feet behind him now as we enter the large parking lot in front of a warehouse style grocery store. The parking lot is packed with cars but the few people anywhere near us are focused on the pile up of cars on the main road behind me.

  Without warning, he stops and spins to face me and starts a powerful push. I don’t give him time to complete the preparation as I slam
into him physically. There is no telling our Darkness apart now. It is intertwined and exploding outward as we clash. His push washes over me as I let it pass. I strike out with a physical punch and see blood flow fresh from his lip. He kicks out at me again and slams the same knee. As I drop to my knees, he slams me on the top of my head with his hands clasped together. With stars in my eyes I try in vein to connect with punches. As my vision clears I see the attack coming too late.

  He pulls and my breath leaves me briefly in a grunt of pain. He pushes again and I feel as if I have been slammed to the floor. He delivers a massive push and with an explosion of black light the nearby fire hydrant detonates sending water sixty feet into the air. I slam him with my Darkness in a powerful crush, surrounding him, squeezing down. I try to make the space between my walls of Darkness ever smaller. He pushes back on the walls with equal power. As we struggle back and forth, a wall of energy leaves us and shatters every car window for hundreds of feet as the brilliant white light shock wave rolls through the area.

  I jump on the vile man again, pounding on his back as he struggles to get away. He is kicking and yelling to get away from me, to get out of reach and attack again. Mr. Black breaks free from my grip and tries desperately to scramble out of my reach on his hands and knees. I claw after him, but his is mere inches from grasp. I want to grab him, crush him. There is no stopping me now. Only one thing will satisfy the desire burning at the core of my being.

  I watch as he gains his footing and begins to run away again. He is limping heavily now. I charge at him and slam him to the ground again. We are both growing weaker, both physically and mentally. We are equals now as we continue to throw energy at each other. Bursts of white and black light flash around us. We are beating on each other with Darkness and fists. The air is alive with static electricity as the smell of ozone becomes so think I can taste it as I breath. Bolts of blue energy arc around us connecting with anything metal and exploding in a shower of sparks. Giant arcs of static jump from car antennas, street lamps, even the sprinkler heads in the bark.