Open Your Eyes (Book 2): Blink

by H. J. Rethuan

  “A greater good?”

  “Yes, a greater good, which is why I’m here. I’m looking for someone new. A new third. You always did seem like a good candidate Emma...”

  “A candidate for what?” she asks.

  A slight smile crosses his face.

  “Super powers of course.”

  “Super powers?”

  “Yeah, super powers. Like your brother. Well, not exactly but you know...”

  He took another sip as Emma tried best to contain her excitement.

  Super powers? Super powers!

  “O. K.” she replied.

  “Okay?”

  “OK!” she beams. He smiles too.

  “Okay, it’s settled then. I’ll make the arrangements, and then we can start.”

  In one gulp the man in the bucket hat finishes his tea.

  “When will I know?” Emma asks him excitedly. “Like when it starts?”

  “Oh, you’ll know. You’ll know.”

  The man stands, ready to leave.

  “Wait!” Emma calls out to him. “Why me? Why us? Why just us ordinary people?”

  “And not a fighter pilot, or a billionaire? You folks are humble. You know what to do with it.” He smiles again. “You’re just good people.”

  He tips his hat, and walks away.

  “Hey.” Emma calls out again. “I don’t even know your name.”

  “Doug.” he says with a smile. “Call me Doug.”

  Emma sat a while longer in that shop, just thinking. She didn’t even finish her sandwich.

  This man, Doug. He was weird, but intriguing. He seemed to know things, have all the answers she needed. Super powers? Could he really give them to her?

  With what Seth could do she had little to doubt him. Did this man really give him the ability to blink? There was only one way to find out...

  With a smile on her face Emma eventually left the shop. She looked forward to what he had in store for her.

  Super fucking powers!

  Four

  The interrogations were more annoying than intimidating. Questions about how Seth got his powers, what he could do with them. He told them everything – almost everything. He thought it’d be better off to leave his ability to apparently travel back through time out of it.

  It was too dangerous an ability, even for him, and especially for a shadowy organisation like this Toy Shop to learn about it.

  Still, even with all this questioning it seemed that these jokers knew more than they were letting on. Either way, Seth felt that the more he tells them, the faster he can leave.

  Alas, deep down he doesn’t think he’ll be walking out of here anytime soon.

  The salty sea air filled Seth’s nostrils. Even though he was essentially a prisoner, they still let him out of his quarters. They knew he couldn’t blink, and it wasn’t like he could walk out of this place. He was on a decommissioned offshore oil platform after all.

  To be fair the accommodations were comfortable, if a little cramped. Things got boring quickly though: no internet, no video games. Surprisingly enough they had a few movies on DVD. No broadcast TV though.

  Still, he was missing some really important things.

  “I need my Desvenlafaxine pills.” Seth again told Salt as they met again in the interrogation room. His anti-depression, anti-anxiety medication. “I need them.”

  “I told you I’m looking into it.” the agent barks back at him. “I’m sure you can live without them for a little while longer Seth.”

  “Have you ever been with a severely depressed person for more than a few days, Agent Salt? It’s not fun. Like really, really not fun.”

  She knew. She can already see the growing anxiety in him. She sighs.

  “I’ll see if I can get a shipment in tomorrow.”

  “Good. Also...” he pauses. “I want to make a phone call.”

  “Why?”

  “You probably know I have friends, family. Just one to my sister, just to make sure I’m fine.”

  She sighs again. Grumpier.

  “Okay. Fine. You get your phone call, you get your crazy drugs. Anything else while you’re here?”

  “Yeah. I want to get the hell out of this place.”

  She smirks.

  “You’re not getting that.”

  Emma picked up the phone. A number, a prefix she didn’t recognise. Still, she answered.

  “Hey, it’s me.” said her brother.

  “Jesus Christ Seth! Where the fuck have you been?”

  “I’m on a decommissioned oil rig turned into a secret government base.” Through the line she could hear the loud bang on the glass that followed.

  “Okay.”

  “I just want to let you know that I’m fine. I’m doing superhero stuff... I think.”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah. I can’t say much more.”

  “I’ve been fucking worried about you Seth!”

  “I’m fine Emma, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

  “Hannah’s worried about you too.”

  “She is?”

  “Yeah. Are you guys dating?”

  “Kind of, I don’t know...”

  Another bang.

  “Tell her I’m okay, will you?”

  “Okay. But you should tell her yourself.”

  “I can’t. Sorry.” He sighs. “I can’t talk longer, I have to go.”

  “Seth, where are you?”

  “Sorry, I got to go.”

  Click.

  The call left Emma relieved but still at unease. It was weird; a secret government base?

  Still, Seth always had an odd sense of humour.

  She smiled to herself as she reached the door of the place she shared with Pete. It’s been months since she left the old house and moved in with him.

  Things seemed to be going pretty good. It was fairly normal life, one that was honestly a little boring especially compared to Seth’s exploits. Still, that was his thing and Emma had hers... for now at least.

  She thought about telling Pete about what was going to happen to her. It would have to come up eventually right? No, not yet, she decided. He didn’t even know about Seth...

  She turned the key in the lock, not expecting to find the door already unlocked. Pete must be home early she thought. Good, they can catch up, maybe go out for dinner later...

  She could already hear the moans and the movement of furniture out there in the living room. They only got louder as she moved down the hallway and towards the master bedroom, the amorous lovers so passionate they had neglected to shut the door.

  Unaware of her presence, the affair continued as Emma stood silent at the doorway, confronted by a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

  Five

  It made her want to gag. The smell of sex that hung in the air. It fucking stunk.

  “What the fuck are you doing?”

  Pete jumps up, pulling himself out of his lover that was definitely not her. Emma runs off into the living room, where she tries her best not to freak the fuck out.

  “Emma...” he pleads, coming out clad in his boxers, his erection still poking out in the slit in the front of them. “Emma...”

  “Don’t you Emma me...” she hisses back.

  “I can explain...” he continues. “Emma, it’s my fault. It’s me. I’m not happy.”

  “What do you mean you’re not happy?”

  “We have... a nice relationship. A sweet relationship. But one day I realised I wanted something more... something less... boring.”

  “Boring? I thought you liked boring?”

  “Things change.”

  “That’s it? All this time and that’s it?”

  He nods. She throws up her arms.

  She sighs.

  “Yeah, things change.”

  Grabbing her things, she turns to leave.

  “Emma, let’s talk.”

  “No. You’re a garbage person Pete. If I had the world’s biggest rubbish bin I would put you i
n it.”

  Slamming the door behind her, she leaves him there with his boxers and his limp dick.

  Emma came home to the only place she felt safe. The old house, Seth’s place.

  She turned the key, slowly opened the door. It was pitch black inside; she quickly turned on all the lights, the television. The company of disembodied voices.

  She stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her eyes red, face wet from her tears. She wiped the trail of snot leaking from her nostril. She was a mess.

  The shower she took was long, hot. Comforting. She cried again. She had not even noticed the noise of the electrical storm outside her house, one that had suddenly seemingly appeared from out of nowhere...

  She turns the water off. Steps out of the shower. She grabs a towel. The lights flicker. They go off. The house goes dark.

  “Fuck my life.” she mutters to herself.

  Again the lights come back on. Emma dries her hair. She looks to the mirror.

  There is no reflection.

  “What the hell?”

  Emma raises her hand, waving it in front of her face. She jumps as her reflection suddenly returns. The light above begins to flicker again.

  “Fuck...”

  Alarmed, Emma quickly slips out of the bathroom still naked, her towel only barely covering her body still dripping wet with water. She steps out to find the lights in the rest of the house all going haywire, flickering violently like a cacophony of strobe lights.

  Her concern quickly turning to a deep fear, she runs into Seth’s room, locking the door behind her. Like an irrationally scared child she pulls the covers off the bed and dashes underneath them as the electrical storm continues to rage on outside.

  Covering her head and closing her eyes, it did little as the glow began to creep into the room, its light seeping underneath the gap in the covers. Building in intensity, Emma tries to shut her eyelids even tighter. It is useless; they have now become transparent.

  Pulling the covers off, Emma decides to face her fear. Staring into the blinding void as it takes over the room and embraces her completely, she makes out a figure, a figure of pure light approaching her. She reaches out to it with her hand. It seems to reach out too.

  Whatever this was, she was ready for it. Whoever this was...

  And things suddenly go black.

  Emma’s eyes again adjust to the darkness. The storm outside has gone. The wave of nausea hits her soon afterwards.

  She runs to the toilet and throws up messily.

  Stressed and exhausted, despite the events of the night it does not take Emma long to fall asleep. Still, it did not keep her from dreaming.

  Her unconscious comforted her. She dreamt of a man, a kind man with a deep voice and handsome features: Alan Rickman, star of Die Hard, Galaxy Quest. Snape from Harry Potter. She imagined him wrapping his arms around her, calming her with his deep baritone voice. A dream she didn’t want to end...

  The sound of songbirds stirs her awake the next morning.

  Emma opens her eyes, stretches out across the bed. Something furry bumps into her elbow. She turns, to come face to face with a sleeping man under the covers with her.

  Her shrieks wake up the man. Only then does she take a good look at him.

  “You’re Alan Rickman!” she shouts.

  “I’m Alan Rickman!”

  “How did you... I dreamed about you... and you’re here...”

  Her eyes widened. Things start to click over in her head. Last night. The figure of light... was that it? Did she now have... powers?

  “Holy fucking god.” she mutters as Alan Rickman suddenly disappears in front of her eyes in a blinding flash of light.

  Yes. She has powers.

  Emma starts to hyperventilate, her heart trying to burst out of her chest. The realisation overwhelms her as she slumps to the floor. She closes her eyes again.

  Her breathing slows. She takes it all in.

  She can’t help but break into a smile.

  “Son of a bitch.”

  She found Doug waiting for her in the kitchen. She half expected to see him; he did imply he would drop by after all...

  “Have a good night?” he asks her.

  “It was interesting, to say the least.” she replies.

  Doug watches her as she stares at something on the counter. It had caught her attention.

  “You seem upset.” Doug asks Emma, noticing the change in her posture.

  “No, not really. I mean, what happened was scary but...”

  “No, something else.”

  She pauses. She screws up the picture of the happy couple in her hand and tosses it in the bin.

  “Oh, its, nothing.” she replies. “Just personal garbage.”

  “We can always do this tomorrow.”

  “No.” she snaps. “That flashy crap scared the shit out of me. We start this now.”

  “Tomorrow.” he repeats.

  She closes her eyes. The tears start to flow.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He hands her a tissue. She wipes the tears away.

  “Tomorrow.” she squeaks.

  He leaves her be as she goes back to bed.

  He was right. She didn’t feel like doing anything today.

  Nothing at all.

  Six

  Emma felt better the next day. She had a whole day to think about what had happened. No, not the storm, not Alan Rickman. She and Pete.

  That went over her head. Why he did that to her, why he didn’t tell her. What he did wrong. What she did wrong. What she could have done better. Things, things, things. Maybe she should go back to him? Work something out? Something?

  No. No. She didn’t need that asshole.

  He was right, things do change.

  The doorbell rang. Doug came by, the same time tomorrow, as expected. He sat her down.

  She was enthusiastic.

  She was ready.

  “I’ve worked out what my powers are.” Emma excitedly told the man in the bucket hat. “I can make things, conjure things up with my mind.”

  Doug smirks. “Is that so?” he asks. “Show me.”

  Emma nods. “Alrighty!”

  She furrows her brow.

  Nothing.

  “Give me a sec...” she pleads as she frowns harder.

  Still nothing.

  “I don’t get it. I made Alan Rickman!”

  “Yeah you did. He’s someone you’re passionate about, yes?”

  “Uh, yeah...”

  “You need to be passionate about these things, passionate enough to make it want to exist. For real.”

  “Just like that? Be passionate?”

  “Well, you could also snap your fingers if you think it could help.”

  She snaps her fingers. At least she tries to.

  Doug stops her from continuing further.

  “Okay, never mind about that. Just concentrate, think about something you really want. Let’s try something small first. A toy.”

  “A toy? Like what kind of toy?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t know your childhood.”

  She thinks.

  “Well, Seth and I shared toys. He had this X-Wing, you know from Star Wars. It was really cool, like we’d fly around and have dogfights going pew pew pew!”

  A burst of light. The tiny X-Wing seemingly materialises out of nothing. It hovers in mid-air, waiting for her command.

  “Woah.”

  It fires on her.

  “Ow!” she yelps as it falls to the ground, shattering into a hundred pieces. They all disappear in another burst of light.

  “It shot me!” she exclaims to him.

  “Yeah, you probably were thinking about it. You know, pew pew.”

  Emma frowns, the doubts still swimming in her mind. She shakes her head.

  “I don’t know Doug. All this stuff, it seems too much.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  Doug rubs together his hands. With another burst of light, he conjures up
a blue rose.

  “I’ve just created a blue rose, a simple, yet impossible thing. What’s great about you is that you’re so much more creative than me. You can make everything impossible possible.”

  He gives the rose to her. She takes it from him.

  “You’re going to be fantastic at this, you just need a little training that’s all.”

  She smells it. A wide smile crosses her face.

  “Ooh, blueberries!”

  Grinning, she hands the rose back to Doug as suddenly a huge shark appears in the middle of the room, thrashing violently and smashing everything in sight as it struggles to stay alive.

  “What do I do, what do I do?” Emma shrieks as she jumps up in a panic.

  “Just close your eyes, and stop thinking about sharks.”

  She does as it fades away in another burst of light. She sighs in relief.

  “What was that about?” he asks.

  “It was going to be a rose?” Emma replies sheepishly.

  He nods.

  “We should start training as soon as possible.”

  “Flashcards?”

  “Yep.” Doug says as he holds one up: banana.

  Emma places her fingers to her temple and begins to concentrate. In a flash of light a perfect yellow banana appears out of midair. It drops out of the sky, landing softly on the lawn of the backyard.

  Another card: apple. A perfect apple. Cat. A black cat. Boat.

  Emma pauses. A toy tugboat appears.

  “You hesitated.” Doug observes.

  “I had a different boat in mind.” she replies. “Bigger.”

  Another card. Mouse.

  A yellow rat thing with red cheeks and a cranked tail appears, dancing about on the grass.

  “What is that thing?” Doug asks her, bewildered by the sight.

  “It’s a Pikachu. You know, Pokemon? Pika pika? It’s an electric mouse!”

  Doug throws up his hands. He walks away, shaking his head.

  “Earthlings.”

  “What?”

  He does not explain.