by Matt King
“You’re saying we’ll become like you?” Ray asked.
“Eventually, it is possible, but not for billions of years. That is, if your world isn’t destroyed by your tendency for war…” Her voice trailed off. “Or by the wars of others.”
Ray’s eyes glazed with tears. He looked to Bear, a wordless exchange that ended with Bear giving him his hand to hold. August thought he knew a little of what was going through their heads—a strange combination of awe and relief. He remembered feeling the same things the first time he met Meryn. Awe because of the sheer power she held, and relief that there really was someone looking over us, someone in control.
Now he knew better, and when he looked at the joy in Ray’s eyes, he couldn’t help but feel a little sad about the realization that he’d make someday, too.
“I apologize for going on like this,” Ray said, wiping his eyes. “My eyes can’t hold their water any more than my bladder these days. This is all a little overwhelming. Every parent thinks their child is special, but I always knew Bear was...different, you could say. I don't think I was prepared for what I saw today, though.”
“Bear has a unique gift,” Meryn replied, speaking as much to Bear as she was Ray. “He is what we call a dualist—two entities from different worlds bound together, with the ability to phase between the two worlds. When one is in control, the other can see through their eyes.”
“So they switch places?” August asked.
“Yes.”
Bear scowled as he listened to the explanation. “What is this thing I'm connected with? Does it have a name?”
“No,” she answered. “Your phase partner is from Elos, a world with no human inhabitants. The Elosians have no spoken language. Male Elosians are docile creatures. The females are…not.”
“Wait,” August said, trying hard not to smile. “Are you telling me that Bear's other half is a woman?”
“Yes, why?”
“Nothing.”
For his part, Bear seemed less interested in the details. He was either busy putting all the pieces together or trying to pretend they weren’t true.
“We should talk about the days ahead,” Meryn said.
Bear walked to her side. “Ma’am?”
“Please, call me Meryn.”
“Meryn, then.” He was having trouble keeping eye contact with her, glancing away in flits as though he was afraid to linger too long. “I know you sent August to find me, and I'm very sorry to hear about this war of yours, but I can’t leave my father like this.”
“Now that I think about it, maybe I’m in agreement on this one,” August said. “I can keep going on my own for now. Bear doesn’t have to leave.”
“No,” Meryn replied. “I want Bear there to protect you.”
“Okay, first of all, I don’t need protecting and second…” He motioned toward Ray. “He could use some looking after.”
“You are not invincible, August, no matter how often you try to convince me of that.”
“He seemed to do well enough on his own,” Bear added. “My place is here.”
“John, please.”
“Do I get any say in this?” Ray asked. He looked at Bear and Meryn like a forgotten child between arguing parents.
“I want to help,” Bear said, “but we just can’t be a part of this right now.”
Ray pursed his lips. “Bear, I’m afraid I’ve held you back long enough.”
“Daddy, don’t.”
“You don’t need to protect me anymore,” he said. “You’ve carried that burden for too long. These are the people that need you now.”
“What about the farm? What about taking care of you when you get back?”
“Don’t talk foolish, Bear. You don’t even like to farm, and we both know that land brings money in whether we harvest anything on it or not. I don’t agree with it, but if the government wants to throw subsidies our way, who am I to refuse? Besides, Tim Godwin’s been wanting to buy the land for years. Maybe it’s time I let that happen.”
Bear shook his head.
“You know I’m right on this.”
Meryn bent her head slightly to catch Bear’s eyes. “John, he won’t be alone. I can stay with him.”
“Whoa,” August said. “If you’re here, who’s our eye in the sky? I don’t know about anyone else, but I kind of like the whole early warning system thing we’ve got going.”
“You won’t need me this time,” she replied.
“Why not?”
“Because Gemini has been captured.”
“Captured?” It took a second for the word to settle in. What should have been good news felt more like finding out someone took his spot in the school play.
“You sound disappointed. He is confined, if nothing else.”
But he was mine to catch. He spoke up before Meryn could read his mind and tell him how childish he was being. “How do you know he's been captured? And if you could find him all along, why have I been chasing him this whole time?”
“I found nothing. One of those spoke of him in the lobby,” she said, pointing to the television. “A woman stated that the Gemini killer had been caught. He is being held prisoner in a place called Retson.”
August looked to Bear. “Does that sound familiar to you?”
“I know where it is,” Bear said.
“Good. Let’s hope Amara doesn’t.”
“Who’s this Amara person?” Ray asked.
“She is the reason we are in this war, the reason they’ve been given the gifts they have.” Meryn motioned to August and Bear. “I mentioned we were called ‘gods’ before. The rational explanation is that we are an anomaly of reproduction. An aberration—mutation, if you will—that resulted in a creature of pure energy. There are others, though, that define it as something else entirely. They call us ‘God’s Children,’ or gods for short. They believe in a single deity that created our universe. Her name is Pyra—the Great Mother—and Amara considers herself a vessel for this goddess. She has used the claim to command millions in her following, and now she is determined to exterminate those that oppose her.”
“I don’t understand how someone so advanced could be so cruel,” Ray said.
“To Amara, this is not cruelty. It is divine will. She believes Pyra speaks through her, that she was created to act as Her vessel.”
“Sounds like a whack job to me,” August replied. “What does this great mother want her to do?”
“Kill the rest of us in the Circle,” Meryn replied. “Once Amara has taken our power, she will release her energy in a violent blast, ensuring the extermination of life and the fulfillment of her destiny.”
“Kind of like a second Big Bang.”
Meryn reached into his thoughts for the definition before nodding.
“What’s that supposed to achieve?” Bear asked.
“Enlightenment. The passing on to a new world.”
“Heaven,” Ray said.
“The idea is similar, yes. If we are immortal, we can never achieve what Amara sees as our ultimate reward.”
“You seem to know a lot about what she thinks,” Bear said.
“I should,” Meryn replied. “Amara was my mentor. She found me and guided me when I thought I was alone in the universe. I believed in her for a long time, John, but I cannot believe in what she’s trying to do now.”
“Great,” August said, clapping his hands to interrupt the somber mood. “Sounds like we’re all in agreement that the universe shouldn’t be destroyed. Can we please go kill Gemini now?”
All eyes turned to Bear. He bit his lower lip as he thought.
“You promise to stay with him?” he asked Meryn.
“Yes.”
“And protect him?”
“He is not a part of this war,” she replied. “I cannot interfere with what happens to the two of you, but I will not let any harm come to your father.”
August forgot to warn Bear that Meryn could read his mind. She already had the beginning of a smi
le on her face before he answered.
“I’ll go,” he said, “on one condition.”
“Of course.”
“If there’s trouble, you tell me. Can you do that?”
“You have my promise,” Meryn answered.
“As for you,” Bear said, addressing his father, “I’m taking you home tonight, with an oxygen unit.”
“No, sir. I told you, I’m not carting one of those things around.”
“Daddy, either you follow doctor’s orders, or I stay there to make sure you do and August can do this next part on his own.”
“Bah,” Ray said. He looked to Meryn. “Stubborn as a mule. I have no idea where he gets it.”
She smiled at him before turning to August. “The two of you should leave as soon as you are ready.”
“We'll leave in the morning,” Bear said, “after I make sure he's okay.”
Meryn gave a slight bow. She backed away from the bed like she was on the verge of disappearing.
“Hey,” August said, “before you go, can I see you for a minute. Over there.” He led her to the far side of the room near the door. Behind them, Bear and Ray continued their sparring match over the oxygen tank.
“What is it?” she asked.
“About Bear’s phase partner, or whatever it is.”
“Yes?”
“Well, I was just wondering…you know…”
She raised an eyebrow.
“What I’m trying to say is, do I…have a partner?”
Meryn sighed. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Honestly, August, this is no time for jealousy.”
“Who’s jealous? I’m not jealous. I’m just wondering why he’s got a built-in hellspawn and I don’t.”
“I have my reasons.”
August waited for a continuation. Meryn stood with her arms crossed, stone-faced.
“Alright. Fine. Just promise me that if you do decide to make me into something, it's bigger than him.”
“Look after one another,” she said as she started to fade. “You must find Gemini before it’s too late.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Hey, why they call you that name?”
The man standing behind Michael nudged him with hands that were shackled by handcuffs. He had wild, thinning hair and tanned skin so wrinkled, it made the writing on his tattoos impossible to read. Even though he was trying to whisper, the noise ricocheted through the narrow hallway.
“You mute or something?”
“Leave me alone,” Michael said.
“Boy, you ain’t salty enough to be ordering me around. When Jimmy McCann asks you a question, you answer it.”
“Prisoner McCann, lower that voice,” the female guard ordered. She scowled over her clipboard.
“Yes, ma’am, officer.”
Michael kept his head lowered with his hair shielding him from the stares of the guards. He ran his finger along the raised vein on the back of his hand. The handcuffs stopped him from following it up his arm.
“Prisoner Maxwell, step forward for transfer,” the male officer said.
Two people ahead at the start of the line, a man with an exposed section of brain tattooed across the back of his shaved head shuffled forward to be taken back to his cell. The blood around the edges of the tattoo matched the red of his prison uniform.
“So why they call you that?” Jimmy asked again.
Go ahead and tell him, you little shit, his father's voice answered. Tell him how you pretend it's someone else doing the things you do. Tell him how it makes you feel better.
Stop it!
Michael closed his eyes. Sometimes he could chase the voice away if he imagined something silencing it. He pictured a giant wave rushing toward a beach with his father standing helpless on the shore. He gave him eyes, but no mouth to speak. I want you to see, he told him. Squeezing his lids shut, Michael pulled the wave higher until its crest blocked out the sun. The water glowed red.
“You awake up there?”
“What do you want?” he snapped back.
“I asked you why they call you that name.”
“I don't know. The papers made it up.”
Jimmy’s snicker brought another glare from the guard. “Bullshit if I ever heard it. You wanna know what I think? I think your parents were fruitcakes. Probably named you after some kind of yoga instructor.”
Michael stayed silent. He wished he could take back the picture of the constellation he drew on the bathroom stall after the second station incident. Not because they'd figured out his identity from it, but because he'd finally accepted his own. The Gemini was useless to him now. It wasn't some phantom twin doing the killing. It was him.
Jimmy nudged him in the small of the back. “You might as well get chummy with me, you greasy-haired bastard. We’re gonna be next-door neighbors for a little while yet, you and me. In fact, my lawyer says he might get my execution delayed for another couple of years. Ain’t that good news?”
“I really don’t give a shit.”
“That ain't no way to talk to your superiors. What’d your lawyer tell you something you didn’t want to hear? You two didn’t stay in there very long. Maybe you ought to get a new one.”
“Prisoner Williams, step forward for transfer!”
Michael moved to the front once the next man in line was taken away by a pair of guards, shotguns resting on their hips. The woman processing the transfers took one look at him, smirked, and shook her head. Her partner chuckled beside her.
When they see you at your most powerful, those faces will turn to fear, Amara had told him. He hoped to see that soon.
“You don’t talk like you’re from around here,” Jimmy continued.
“I’m not.”
“Northerner, I bet.”
“Ohio.”
“Oh yeah. That’s where you started all the crimes you’re innocent of.”
Michael flexed his fingers, watching the veins on his hand surface and disappear. “I never said I was innocent.”
“Shit. You better start singing a new tune. No wonder your meeting was so short.”
The woman called for Michael and Jimmy next. They followed a pair of guards through the minimum security section of the prison on their way to C-wing, where they kept the prisoners who weren’t allowed near the general population. Central block prisoners had TV screens and windows in the common area. In C-wing, his view consisted of a cinder block wall outside the mesh-screened porthole on his door. He found that he didn’t miss the outdoors as much as he thought he might. The wired grid running through the porthole glass was every bit as beautiful as some stupid sunset. At night, the criss-crossing lines reflected red from the exit lights, mirroring the power beneath his skin. It was the last thing he saw before going to sleep. They reminded him that he didn't need to be afraid.
The guards separated them as soon as they approached the last two cells in the C-wing hallway. Michael was sorry to have the silence of the walk come to an end. Jimmy would be able to talk to him through the air conditioning vents when they got back inside. It was worse than cavity searches.
Once inside his room with the cell door shut and the foot shackles removed, the guard ordered him to back up against the door and stick his hands through the delivery door. He had to bend at the knees to get them through.
“Cells five and six are secure,” the guard spoke into his walkie-talkie.
With his hands free of the cuffs, Michael moved to his bed. His mattress smelled like piss. The bottom was riveted to the metal frame, otherwise he would’ve flipped it over. Instead, he lay down on his stomach and crossed his arms beneath his head. He buried his nose in the crook of his elbow to shield himself from the smell.
“Hey,” he heard through the vent.
“Go away.”
“You really kill all those people in Ohio?”
“What if I did?”
“I wanna know how you did it. I don’t give a shit why, but I heard three of ’em had
their skin burned off. How’d you do that?”
He thought back to the scene. He noticed he didn’t shy away from it like he used to, even when he remembered the stench in the air. Turning over to lie on his back, he held his arm up and began to ball his fist to raise the veins.
“I know you can hear me. How’d you do it?”
“She says I overload them.”
“She? Now you’re talking. You got a picture? I need something to keep me company tonight.”
“She’s not yours,” Michael shot back as he looked at the grate. He caught his breath when he realized what he said. What if she was listening?
Jimmy snickered. “You wouldn't know what to do with a girl if you had a damn instruction guide. Anyway, I heard you like bus stations. Everybody knows what that means.”
His father's laugh rang in his ears.
“I’m not a homo.”
“Oh yeah? I bet you can’t count on one dick the number of women you been with. Like I said to the others, though, I don’t give a frosty turd who you like to shove it in. That ain’t what interests me. What I want to know is how you did it.”
Michael settled back on the bed. “I told you. I overload them.”
“Overload ’em with what? Gasoline?”
“No. Energy.”
Jimmy’s belly laugh rattled the grate. “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard! Energy. That make you some sort of super-hippie? Killing people with your bolts of peaceful energy?”
“Go to hell.”
“Already here, boss man. And I told you once not to talk to me that way. Wouldn't take more than a punch to put you down, I bet. I’ll even give you the first hit.”
He can see how weak you are.
Shut up!
Weak. Weak and powerless.
“I’ll do it,” Michael said. He was up and hitting his hand on the vent. “I will!”
“I bet. So what’s this energy ray gonna do to me?”
“It’s a pulse, you stupid hick. It comes from inside me. And you want to know the best part?”
“Oh, do tell.”
“I never know how it’s going to kill them. Some have seizures and bleed out their eyeballs. They’re the ones who are too far away to get the quick death.”
