The Little Black Box

by K. J. Gillenwater

  Paula’s face heated. “What about him?” She turned away so her friend wouldn’t see how that question affected her.

  “You two have gotten pretty close since I’ve been in here.” Lark quipped.

  “Do I hear someone talking about me?” Will walked through the doorway carrying a drink tray with three cardboard coffee cups. “Anyone for a latte?” He handed one to Paula.

  Lark reached for a cup. “We were just talking about her love life.”

  “Lark!” Paula’s chest tightened.

  Will smiled and put his arm around Paula’s shoulders. “Ah, let me give you the report.”

  Paula elbowed him in the side.

  “First date was last night. We got to spend three hours in the dean’s office explaining why a whole project basically disappeared over night. Funding, professor, secretary, boxes. All gone. What a mystery. Oh, and then I managed to convince her to have dinner with me. Just fried chicken and beer. Nothing too fancy. Then, she came over to my place for a bit. No sex. Just kissing—”

  “Will!” Paula’s face flamed hot.

  “I was just getting to the good stuff.” He kissed her on the cheek.

  Paula set her mouth in a stubborn line. “No, we’re not. That’s enough.”

  Lark laughed at her friend’s embarrassment. “So, they never did figure out where Pritchard disappeared to?”

  “Nope. No one’s seen him since last week.” He dragged a chair closer to the bed.

  “And Ms. Caldwell?”

  Paula answered that one. “The janitor saw her packing up her desk, but she didn’t mention where she was going. Just that she needed to get away from everything for a while.”

  Lark took a sip of her latte. “Do you think the two of them will hook up again, try recreating the boxes?”

  “They left all the technology behind.” Noticing there wasn’t another free chair, Will grabbed for Paula’s hand and guided her to sit on his lap. “All the lab guys who built the boxes, all the equipment. Plus, the notes. We destroyed them—”

  Lark dipped a finger into the foam and licked it off. “You don’t think those notes were the only copies he had?”

  “Probably not.” Paula shyly sat on Will’s lap. “If nothing else, we set him back in his research. I’m sure the funding he was working on is a bust now. No proof of anything. He’ll have a hard time scraping the money together to even start thinking about rebuilding the project.”

  “Hmmm, I wonder,” Lark said.

  “I try not to do that too much.” Will readjusted Paula and rested a hand on her thigh.

  “So, does all this mean they’re shutting down the department?” Lark took another sip of her drink and set it on the side table next to the bed, which was covered in Get Well cards and a vase with wilting flowers.

  “The dean is going to allow the graduate students who are still in the program to finish up their projects. Professor Glick and Professor Raiman are going to be rolled into the Psychology Department.” He slid his hand back and forth on Paula’s leg. “I’m not sure what they’ll do there. But they can still advise us, help us with our research.”

  Lark shook her head. “What a mess.”

  The heat of Will’s hand on her thigh was a distraction, but a nice one. She tried to keep her mind focused on the conversation. “At least Professor Pritchard got some of what he wanted.”

  “What do you mean?” Lark punched at one of her pillows and tried to sit higher in bed.

  “He got recognition for the department.”

  “Negative recognition,” Will said.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard some of the parents of the dead students might sue the university,” Paula’s thoughts drifted to Craig, Sam and Bianca. They deserved more than a lawsuit. She wished their parents knew the truth about the project. “Something about a lack of oversight and bodily harm.”

  “No wonder the dean shut down the department.” Lark winced. Her leg must be acting up again.

  “The sad thing is that the box actually worked. It could have helped a lot of people.” Will caught Paula’s eye, and a look passed between them. “But now...now it will never help anyone.”

  “When you get out of here, Lark, I’m taking you out to dinner.” Paula tried not to think about the black box and how it might have continued to help her hone her ability. To keep one of the black boxes posed too much of a risk. Even she had been sensitive to its destructive powers.

  “I hope so.” Lark frowned. “You know how much this hospital food sucks?”

  A stocky nurse toddled into the room. “I heard that, Ms. Michaels. Guess I’ll be putting you back on the list for green Jell-o?”

  “No friggin’ way.” Lark held her latte close to her chest, as if the nurse might wrestle it away from her at any moment. “This is Pam. She’s the main torturer around here. Watch it, because she’s quick with the needle.”

  “Ha, ha, aren’t you sweet?” Pam set a tray full of gauze and medical tape on the table next to her bed. “I’m going to have to ask you two to step outside for a bit. Time for some redressing.”

  Will paled at that announcement. Even the thought of blood and wounds and stitches was enough to set him off. Paula dragged him toward the door as the nurse started to peel back the covers. “We’ll come by tomorrow, Lark.”

  “Can you bring a brownie with that latte next time?”

  “You betcha.” Will gave a final wave goodbye.

  When they were out in the hall, Will circled his arms around her. “So, what do you want to do now?”

  His arms were strong. They made her feel safe. She gave in to the warm feeling of being connected with someone. She let it take her wherever it was going, without worrying, without hiding.

  “We’ve got one more thing to do before this is over.” She leaned into his body.

  “The last box?” He rested his chin on her head.

  “Yep.” She turned in his arms and looked up at him. “Why don’t we have a formal burning on my barbecue tonight?”

  “I’ll bring the beer.” He kissed her on the nose.

  They walked down the corridor toward the elevators. “I want to thank you.”

  “Thank me?” Will held her hand. “For what?”

  “For keeping my telekinesis a secret.”

  “I think you should tell your brother.” He squeezed her hand. “He would understand...in time.”

  She thought for a second about her brother. His faith. His family. What he expected out of life. She wasn’t sure how she fit into that. “Maybe someday.”

  “It’s a gift from God, after all.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “A gift? More like a curse.”

  “I’ll help you, Paula. We can work on your ability together. Find a way for you to control it, use it when you want to.”

  “Or not use it at all?”

  “Whatever you want.”

  She leaned in close. “You’re a good friend, Will.”

  “Friend? I still owe you a real date.”

  “Only if you promise not to tell Lark anything else about us.”

  He smiled. “I promise.” He pressed the button to call the elevator.

  A strange tingle raced across her skin. A familiar ache grew behind her eyes. “It’s happening again.”

  The bright, white lights in the corridor flickered. Then, they grew brighter and brighter, glowing like small suns.

  “Paula, are you all right?” His voice came to her from far away.

  “He’s here. Pritchard is here somewhere. Close. I can feel it.”

  A light bulb popped and exploded, raining glass down on two nurses walking farther down the corridor. They screamed and darted out of the way. The lights went out. She heard shouts, confusion, a scurrying of feet.

  “Where?” asked Will. “Where is he?”

  “Close. He’s very close.”

  ***

  “Pritchard, you fucked it up and fucked it up good.” A man in the gray suit and red tie stepped threateningly toward the pr
ofessor.

  The parking garage was too dark and too empty for Pritchard's comfort. “I didn’t know...I had no idea she’d figure anything out. It was Caldwell’s fault. Not mine.”

  “Shut the fuck up. It’s too late for excuses.” The man came closer, so close Pritchard could tell the man hadn’t shaved in a few days. “You promised us the box, and you failed to live up to that promise.”

  “Just give me time.” Jonas Pritchard backed away from the well-built man. “I can build you more. You’ll see. Just give me six months, a year. You’ve got the money. All I need is the money.”

  “We don’t trust you anymore. You made a bad decision.” The man pulled out a thin wire. “It’s time for this to be over.” He coiled it around his hands, tightening it.

  Pritchard stumbled over his own feet. “But she’s here. She’s right here! I was going to talk to her. She knows. She still has one.”

  The man closed in on Pritchard. His shadow covered the cowering professor. Pritchard raised his hands, as if that could ward off what was about to happen. “Too late, professor.”

  The wire looped around Pritchard’s throat in a flash, cutting off his air, slicing into his neck. He had no time to scream. No time to fight. It was over in a matter of moments.

  The man in the gray suit wiped his hands on a handkerchief and stuffed the wire into his front jacket pocket. At the sound of a car engine, he slipped away into the dark recesses of the hospital’s parking garage as if he had never been there.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The flames licked around the edges of the last little black box. The plastic melted, exposing the wires and circuitry underneath.

  Will sprayed more lighter fluid on the melting hulk. “The end of the experiment.”

  Paula sat back on one of her decrepit patio chairs, a blanket wrapped around her. November was no time for a barbecue. Not even a black box barbecue. Dark clouds threatened to dump rain on them at any moment. “Who do you think killed the professor?”

  “Does it really matter?” He waved a hand at the noxious fumes rising from the heap of burning plastic.

  “Maybe not...and why was he at the hospital anyway? Do you think he was following us?”

  As the flames died down and the black box was destroyed beyond recognition, Will pulled the lid down over the grill to snuff out the fire. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. It’s over. We’re done with this stuff. No more looking over our shoulders. I hate to say it, but I’m glad the professor’s dead.”

  “There’s still Ms. Caldwell.”

  “She’s not coming back either. I think you scared her enough with your little display the other day.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  Will sat down next to her in another patio chair. “Of course, I’m right.” He leaned back and took a drink from his bottle of beer. “So, what are we going to do about you?” He tapped his bottle on her arm rest.

  “About me?”

  “Will you let me help you?”

  To talk so openly with someone about her ability seemed odd. She’d only just begun to understand the limits of her power, and to know he’d be with her as she explored it was comforting. “Promise me you won’t ever be scared of me. That you won’t leave.”

  He reached out and touched her hand, rubbing his fingers lightly across her knuckles. “I won’t leave.”

  She shivered and huddled deeper into her blanket. “Let’s go inside.”

  “Kiss me first.”

  “What?”

  He leaned toward her and pressed his mouth to hers with a gentle pressure. When they broke apart, a few inches remained between them. “And you need to promise me something.”

  “What is that?” she asked with a whisper.

  “Promise you won’t ever be afraid to confide in me.”

  “I promise.”

  A cold drizzle started to fall. Will grabbed her hand, and they both dashed inside the house, leaving the melted black box outside.

  About the Author

  K. J. Gillenwater has a B.A. in English and Spanish from Valparaiso University and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from University of California, Santa Barbara. She worked as a Russian linguist in the U.S. Navy, spending time at the National Security Agency doing secret things. After six years of service, she ended up as a technical writer in the software industry. She has lived all over the U.S. and currently resides in Idaho with her family where she runs her own business writing government proposals and squeezes in fiction writing when she can. In the winter she likes to ski and snowshoe; in the summer she likes to garden with her husband, take walks with her dog, and try her hand at gold panning and huckleberry picking. She has written several paranormal suspense books and plans on writing more..

  Check in with K.J. at her blog: kjgillenwaterblog.blogspot.com or visit her website for more information about her writing, her books, and what’s coming next. www.kjgillenwater.com.

  If you enjoyed this book, K. J. Gillenwater is the author of multiple books, which are available in print and in eBook format through Amazon.

  The Ninth Curse

  His blood for a cure. It’s a cruel and deadly bargain…

  Nine curses. Nine weeks to live. Joel Hatcher has inherited more than a family legacy. It’s a time bomb that’s ticking down to the inevitable: his own death. But the curse won’t die with him. Unless he can find a way to break the cycle, his younger brother becomes the next victim.

  In the throes of the third curse, the Painful Pox, Joel makes a last-ditch decision to seek the help of a young spiritualist.

  One look into Joel’s suffering eyes, and “Madame Eugenie” finds herself torn between doing the right thing and fulfilling her most secret wish—bring her husband Adam back from the dead. Joel’s cursed blood is the missing ingredient in her resurrection rituals, and Adam’s spirit whispers seductively that there’s only one way to get it: steal it.

  As Gen and Joel unearth his family’s past to track down a cure, they come closer to each other, and to a horrible truth. To live, Joel must lose everything. Up to and including the woman he has grown to love.

  Warning: This book contains curses, sacrifices, a ghostly husband, a crazy cat and a love that defies all odds.

  Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y74qjwcf

  Acapulco Nights

  ACAPULCO NIGHTS was a Write Affair finalist (Kensington Books) on Wattpad as an "Editor's Pick."

  Suzie's fiancé, James, is pressuring her to pick a day for their wedding. She's cancelled three dates, and he's starting to wonder if she really wants to get married. But how does she go about telling her fiancé that she's already married to a man in Mexico? She needs a divorce, and she needs one fast. Her marriage has been a secret from her best friend, Janice, her fiancé, even her own mother, and she wants to keep it that way.

  When Janice asks her to come along on an all-girl vacation to Acapulco, Suzie leaps at the chance. A search on the Internet gives Suzie all the information she needs to track down her husband, Joaquin, while out of the country and finally get that divorce.

  Unfortunately, Joaquin won't give her up so easily.

  When James appears in Acapulco unexpectedly, all hell breaks loose, and Suzie stands to lose everything she's ever loved.

  Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/jtltedq

  Blood Moon

  Werewolves are roaming Northeast High, and Savannah Black is determined to hunt them down.

  When Savannah's academic rival mysteriously disappears, she enlists the aid of her two best friends, Dina and Nick, to solve the mystery. Football players with glowing eyes and razor sharp canine teeth may have fooled the faculty, but not Savannah and her friends. These brave students are determined to eradicate a clan of deadly werewolves who threaten to take over their school.

  When Dina disappears right before the big Homecoming Dance, Savannah and Nick must act quickly to save her from the werewolf's curse. But will a straight-A student be able to master knives and silver bullets as easily
as chemistry and calculus?

  Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/owbhn42

  Skyfall

  A science fiction short story collection of three flash fiction works.

  Skyfall. A miner confronts a devastating future.

  Time Travel. A failed engineer tinkers with a matter-energy transporter, which he plans to step into for the first time.

  Torch. A man attempts to escape from a futuristic prison.

  Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/gue7vmv

  Nemesis

  K.J. Gillenwater edited and wrote a story for this science fiction anthology entitled, NEMESIS. The idea for the anthology was this: Write a short story between 4,000 and 5,000 words using the word "Nemesis" as your inspiration. Ten writers participated (including K.J.). Here are the short story titles included:

  Polarity by Holly Gonzalez

  Superhero Comic Girl vs. the Litter Box by Steven R. Brandt

  Last Walk by Jinn Tiole

  Stagnant by Dave Cardwell

  Three Shades of Black by Matthew Thrush

  Disciple by Kristin Jacques

  Outwitting Alexa by Jesse Sprague

  Mordecai by Hannah Ansley

  Guardian by Louis Williams

  Star Log by K. J. Gillenwater.

  Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/z6wpg3j

  The Man in 14C

  A collection of science fiction short stories

  A brand new science fiction short story anthology of three fiction works, which were all written using contest prompts.

  Encounter. Two crew members must deal with a hull breach on a hauling vessel bound for a distant earth colony. Alone and desperate, they make a choice that might alter their lives forever.

  Lucinda. A tv star in a dystopian America reveals her downfall from highly paid news anchor to a low-life host of a television reality show featuring everyday people being evicted from their homes during the worst financial crisis in U.S. history.

  The Man in 14C. A cancer patient on a flight back from Tokyo passes through a wormhole and experiences time travel that transports him 20 years into the future. His life destroyed, he must reconnect with family and discover how he fits into an unfamiliar world.