Strangers and Shadows

by John Kowalsky

  On her bed, in the corner, her mother sat with her. They were drawing together with crayons.

  Her mother was the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world. Her hair was long and dark like Celia’s, but unlike Celia’s, her mother’s hair was straight. There wasn’t a single loose curl to be found anywhere.

  And her mother’s eyes sparkled. Green, then blue, then green again. She loved her mother, she was the best...

  Celia woke up in her dream to the state of lucidity. She remembered what her purpose was in the dreamscape and what she was supposed to do. A door appeared on the other side of the room. Celia walked to it, leaving her mother and her younger self playing on the bed together.

  She opened the door and stepped through into another room.

  This room was dark, except for one light in the middle. Beneath that light, on a metal table, Celia saw herself. She was strapped down to the table with leather restraints. One on each wrist and ankle and several more across her legs and torso.

  Her self on the table was struggling, trying to wriggle free, but failing. She only succeeded in shaking the table slightly from side to side.

  Celia went over and tried to help herself get free of the restraints. Then she remembered her right hand. Her right hand was the one she wanted to get free.

  Celia took hold of the restraint on her right hand, the leather strap had holes in it. It was fastened like an old belt. She tried to undo it.

  Nothing happened. The strap wouldn’t move and she couldn’t undo the fastener no matter how hard she tried.

  Slight panic set in. Someone was coming for her. She could hear them outside the room. They were getting closer.

  She had to free her other self from this table.

  Celia quickly tried the other hand and found that the strap easily came undone. She moved to the feet and undid those straps with the same ease. The straps across the legs and torso gave her no trouble either.

  She was back to the right hand. She grabbed hold of the strap and tried to undo it again. It held tight, but this time it gave just a little when she pulled on it.

  She pulled harder, and it gave some more, but still not enough to come undone. She needed more leverage.

  She jumped up on the table, squatting over the right arm of her self, and grabbed the strap. She pulled. She pulled with her arms. She pulled with her legs. The strap stretched, giving way.

  Celia could see her other self’s hand turning red, the circulation being cut off. The veins on the back of the hand stood out like soldiers at attention.

  The strap had given enough to come undone, but the the metal pin hadn’t moved out of the way. If Celia was to let go now, the strap would slide back down onto the pin, re-fastening the restraint.

  Celia pulled harder. It was the only thing she could do. Any other movement would cause her to lose her grip and the strap would re-fasten.

  Just as her strength was fading and she could feel the strap begin to slip in her grasp. Celia’s other self reached over with her left hand and moved the pin out of the way. And not a moment too soon.

  Behind them, she heard the door being flung open. The bright light overhead was blinding. Celia spun, peering into the darkness, looking for the intruder in the room, when she was suddenly grabbed from behind by the shoulders and flung off the table.

  She screamed as she fell backwards into the darkness. And then she woke up.

  Celia was standing. She was back in the Seventh, surrounded by screens and medical equipment. Her body was still restrained, but her right hand was now free of the metal cuff that had held her by the wrist.

  Celia glanced around the room, slowly gathering her bearings, and making her way back to the state of alert consciousness. The last little holds that the dream held over her began to wash away. Her heart was still pounding from the fright of how her dream ended.

  No alarms were going off. No people running up and down the hallway outside. Good. It meant that the restraints weren’t electronically operated. Not only would her tampering with them not be reported, but most mechanical restraints were easily undone. At least for someone with Celia’s skill set.

  Celia twisted her arm back and forth, loosening her freed right hand even more. Then she began to snake it backwards in the direction of her head. The two restraints around her waist and chest that also encompassed her arms made this difficult.

  Taking a deep breath, she exhaled as fully as possible, giving herself just enough space to slide her arm back. She almost had her hand free of the waist restraint when she ran out of room. This was as far as her tendons and the restraints would allow.

  Not pausing to consider it, Celia jerked backwards hard, popping her shoulder out of socket. She winced at the pain, but her hand was free of the first restraint. Now for the equally painful part, pushing her shoulder back into joint.

  It took several jolting and painful efforts, but Celia finally managed to do it. Her shoulder hurt like hell, but she could rotate her arm again. She made a mental note to thank her father for all the years of yoga practice he’d put her through.

  Now she began looking for the locking device on her chest restraint. From her limited field of view she couldn’t see it, which meant that it was on either side of the platform she was attached to.

  She chose the nearest side first. That being her right side. Her arm was free up until her bicep, at which point the restraint held it tightly against her side. She bent her arm at the elbow, reaching as far towards her shoulder as she could. When her hand could reach no further she gave one final jerk and tried to grab onto the restraint. She missed. But by dumb luck her thumb caught the clasp holding the restraint and undid it.

  Grateful, Celia took the chest restraint off, her entire upper body now free. The rest of the restraints took no time at all to undo. First the waist, then the left hand, then the other two leg restraints and then her feet.

  She stepped away from her former prison and shook her arms and legs, working some blood back into limbs that had been stationary for too long.

  In the security room, Jerry put down the story he was reading, and glanced at the monitors. Everything was normal. No. Wait.

  Shit.

  The new girl was getting out of her restraints somehow. Impossible. Jerry had put them on her himself. Once a person was in those, there was no getting out of them without somebody undoing at least one of the restraints. He had been told that she wouldn’t be able to use her powers with the EM field active.

  Jerry thought about calling in for assistance for a split second before deciding to handle it personally. If she escaped, at best, Jerry would lose his job, and he didn’t want to think about the at worst part. Besides, she only had one hand free, it would take her longer than it took for him to run down there and secure her.

  Jerry was running down the hall. He put his hand on his stunner, just to be sure he hadn’t forgotten it. That would have been all he needed, to run all the way down there and then forget his gun. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Hence, Jerry’s probation, and why he had to fix this by himself, without any backup. Easy cheesy, Jerry told himself, no problem. It was just one girl, and she didn’t have her abilities.

  Jerry had to slow to a fast walk several times as he passed people walking down the hall. Most were scientists in lab coats, but a few looked to be agents coming and going on official business, no doubt. Jerry gave them a smile, a nod, and a how-do, and resumed his run as soon as they were out of sight.

  Possibly forty-five seconds had passed since he had stepped out of the security room, but certainly no more than a minute. He arrived at the holding room.

  Jerry couldn’t see inside. There was only one window in the door, but the tint was too dark to see anything on the other side. Jerry activated his nanites, running a boost program, just in case he needed the sharpened reflexes, and opened the door.

  It took less than half a second to see that the girl was no longer on the upright table, and it also took less than half a se
cond for Jerry to be kicked in the throat, spun around, and put in a rear naked choke hold.

  At this point Jerry realized that he had forgotten to draw his gun before going into the room. Thinking he could draw it and use it, he heard the woman’s voice.

  “Don’t do it.” Her voice was strong and smooth. “I assure you I can snap your neck before you even get close. Even with your nanites.”

  “Ok, alright,” Jerry spoke slowly, trying to calm himself down more than anything else. “Take it easy.”

  The woman tightened her grip around his throat, squeezing hard. “I don’t have time to take it easy. Where is the EM field?” She paused for a second and then constricted her biceps and back muscles cutting off the arteries on both sides of Jerry’s neck. He felt like his head was going to pop as his field of vision started to turn black.

  “Where is it?” she yelled.

  Jerry was frightened. He couldn’t tell her—she’d be able to jump, and then they’d never find her, but if he didn’t tell her what she wanted to know… She didn’t seem like the type to back down on a promise. Jerry didn’t want to die, but he didn’t want to get fired either. Why hadn’t he called in sick today? He should have known something like this was going to happen, he should have listened to his mother when she told him to—

  He was jolted out of self pity by a voice in his head. “Tell her.” It was the nanite version of a comm, and the voice belonged to his supervisor. Great, Jerry thought, if he already knew about this, then Jerry’s job was done for sure. “Don’t be a hero, Jerry, just tell her what she wants to know.”

  Jerry sunk down inside, and then took a breath and manage to gurgle out a few sounds. It was hard to talk with a woman squeezing your neck with her freakishly strong arms.

  “What was that?”

  Jerry repeated himself. “I said, it’s right over there.” He pointed. “The box in the corner. There’s a panel on the side.”

  The woman reached down and drew his side arm from his holster, pushing him away from her.

  “Deactivate it. Now!” she said.

  Jerry waited for a moment, hoping to receive instructions that help was on the way. He received nothing of the kind though. He did hear the click of his weapon being taken off of the stun setting, and then the woman again, “I won’t say it again, shut it down now!” Her voice was ice cold.

  Jerry moved to the box in the corner and reached down, pulling off the metal panel. He reached down and hit the kill switch, shutting the EM field down. Jerry turned to face what was coming next, but never made it all the way around, before pain stabbed through his head and then the world went dark.

  When Jerry woke, his supervisor was standing over him in the woman’s holding room. His head hurt like hell.

  “What happened here, Jerry?” his supervisor demanded.

  Jerry couldn’t recall hearing a more frightening voice than the one coming out of his supervisor right now. It sounded like the devil’s voice. Anger and hatred and fury, all disguised as a pleasant sound. It made Jerry shudder.

  “I told her where the EM field was…” Jerry managed to spit out. “Just like you told me to.”

  His supervisor pulled out his weapon and fired. “Yes, yes you did, Jerry.”

  Safe And Sound

  The jump was a good one. Anywhere but trapped in her mother’s clutches was an improvement. Celia had never been so relieved to be back in Cairo. Now, to send word to her father. She reached out for him with her mind, and caught just a whisper of him before she felt nothing.

  Panic rose quickly in her chest. Something was wrong. She tried to reach out for any one of the sixty people around her right now on the sidewalk of the busy Cairo street.

  Nothing. Not even a hint of a presence beyond what her eyes could see. She felt nothing except the beating of her own heart and she heard only the spastic thoughts of her own mind.

  What was wrong with her? What had her mother done?

  Celia stumbled down the sidewalk, in the direction of her father’s office. She was light headed. It was hard to say if it was shock or something else. A part of her wanted to sit down right there and cry. But she knew there had to be a reason for what was happening. She just had to find her father and he would make everything better. He always did.

  After the first few blocks, Celia knew it wasn’t just shock. She felt weak, feverish, and nauseated.

  Her father’s office was still five minutes away. She bit down and struggled on. Every step was a little harder than the last. She wasn’t sure how long it took, it might have been hours instead of minutes, but Celia eventually arrived at her father’s building.

  She walked in the lobby and made for the elevators just past the front desk. Her condition must have showed, because the man passing her on his way out asked her if she needed help.

  “I’m fine,” she lied. “I’m here to see my father.” Celia realized she was sweating.

  “What’s his name, sweetheart? I’ll have him come meet you,” the man offered.

  Celia tried to decline his offer with the wave of her hand but instead found that she was slowly sinking closer to the floor. Celia didn’t feel the floor of the lobby as her body made contact with it.

  “Have you ever seen anything like it?”

  “No. It must be something new.”

  “Check on it for me, would you?”

  “I’ll leave at once. She’s like a daughter to me, too, you know.”

  “Thanks. I know.”

  Celia swore she heard people talking, but her eyes wouldn’t open. She tried to pick her head up, but it was heavy, and she couldn’t lift it very far. Her eyes fluttered open once, but then closed again. Her eye lids were too heavy to lift. She drifted back into a dreamless sleep.

  Jack saw Wizard walk past in the hallway outside of Desmond’s office. “Hey!” Jack called out, running into the hall after him. “Where are you going?”

  The old man whirled around as he kept walking. “Sorry, no time to talk.”

  He turned the corner and was out of sight before Jack could get another word out.

  “I’m sure she’ll be alright.”

  Jack looked at the young man who had spoken.

  “What do you know about it? You’re half the reason she’s in this mess.”

  “I know that you’re worried about her,” Asher offered. “And, for whatever my part was in it, I’m sorry… I was only trying to do what I thought was the right thing.”

  Jack thought about ripping the kid a new asshole, but he’d heard the guy’s story. While he was naive and young and stupid, he wasn’t to blame for the way he got played.

  “Forget about it,” Jack said. Truth be told, he was beginning to kind of like the guy. Even if he was still pissed about Asher’s role in Kid’s abduction.

  Jack looked back at Asher from the doorway, and told him to stay put, he would be right back.

  Celia was in a room down the hall from Desmond’s office. It was a small clinic of sorts, the kind used to patch up operatives if they were injured on assignment. There was no fancy equipment, or big display screens. They had no need for them when they could see what was wrong with their mind’s eye.

  When Jack arrived at the room the door was ajar. He knocked on it, pushing it open further.

  Desmond was inside standing beside his daughter who was lying on the bed. She was still in her black outfit from the mission to the Overlap in the Third.

  “How is she?” Jack asked, hoping he wasn’t intruding, but intruding all the same.

  “Hey, Jack. She’s fine,” Desmond said. “At least she appears to be fine. Pulse is normal.”

  “That’s good right?”

  “Yes and no. You see, we don’t have any of what someone from your verse might consider to be medical equipment here, and that’s because we’ve never needed it. With our abilities, we can see into the body and communicate directly with the cells to allow the body to heal itself.”

  “You said she appeared to be fine…” />
  “She does… With the exception of being unconscious, but I don’t know for sure because I can’t see her or feel her with my ability. None of us can.” Desmond seemed like he was worried but trying not to show it. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s like there’s a giant hole where she’s supposed to be. I can feel you, I can feel the bed and the tables and the chairs, and everything in this whole damn building, but my girl right in front of me…?” He nodded down at her. “Nothing.”

  Jack changed the subject. “I saw Wizard running down the hall, is there anything I can do to help out?”

  “I’m not sure right now, but thank you, Jack. I’ll definitely let you know if we need you.”

  Jack was worried for the man, and worried for Celia too. He wasn’t sure what there was between him and Celia or if it was going anywhere, but now, in this moment, he knew that he cared for her. He wouldn’t go so far as to call it love, but he knew it was something very close to it.

  Desmond looked over at Jack. “Thanks for your concern, Jack. But I’ll be fine, and I’m sure she will too. And don’t worry, I won’t tell her about those growing feelings of yours.” Desmond managed a small smile. “Even though she probably already knows.”

  Jack could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. “I was doing it again, wasn’t I?”

  “Don’t worry about it. It takes some time to learn to completely shield your thoughts from being telegraphed to everyone around who can hear them. Especially when they are as emotionally charged as yours.”

  Jack went through his dam routine and mentally raised his thought shield again. “There,” he said. “That should be quieter.” Jack didn’t think Desmond would take him up on the offer, but he extended it anyway. “I’m going to take the young pup out to get a bite to eat, do you wanna join us?”

  “Thanks, but I’m going to stay here and keep an eye on her. Make sure nothing changes.”

  “Alright, let me know if you need anything while we’re out.”

  Desmond nodded and Jack took that as his cue to leave, the conversation over.