Open Your Eyes (Book 2): Blink

by H. J. Rethuan

  The wilderness two hours out of the city offered the two a bit more room to work with. That boat? A real big boat. Elephant? You got it. Anything was possible.

  “Is there a limit to what I can do?” she asked as they took a breather.

  “No. Like I said, it’s limited by your imagination.”

  “So let’s say, I need to save the day I can make up a machine that saves the day, will it work?”

  “Sure, as long as you believe in the logic of it working.”

  “Huh. Cool. You know what’s also cool? Dragons!”

  In a puff of glowing white smoke Emma’s sleek jet black dragon materialises in the sky, the horse-sized beast flapping its scaly wings majestically as it hovers right above them.

  “Nice.” applauds Doug as the dragon comes in to land. Emma wraps her arms around its neck, hugging it tight.

  “I love her! I think I’ll call her Ivy!”

  The dragon suddenly raises its head, flinging it back as it sneezes a flaming glob of snot onto Doug’s hat, setting it on fire. Calmly he whips it off and stamps it into the dirt.

  “I’m so sorry Doug!” Emma apologises.

  “Ah, it’s okay.” he reassures her. “You can always make me a new one.”

  She laughs.

  “Come on, let’s go for a ride.”

  On the dragon’s back, Emma and Doug and his new hat head back into Port City, soaring high above the suburbs below. She felt free up here, and completely in control.

  Nearing her house, Emma took the dragon down, making a smooth, graceful landing in the middle of her backyard. She let Doug hop off first before she slid off the beast’s back herself, giving it a pat on the back before it, like the other creations before it, disappeared in a flash of light.

  “Are you sure no-one saw us?” Doug asks her, slightly concerned about her aerial antics.

  “Don’t worry, I took your advice. I made her invisible to everyone else.”

  “Nice.” he says, impressed by her initiative.

  Sliding open the back door, something makes Emma stop in her tracks. Someone’s inside.

  She stares at the woman, just standing there in the house as if she was waiting for her. Emma knew her. It was that woman, his woman.

  Pete’s woman.

  “What’s wrong?” Doug asks her. The woman disappears in a flash.

  “He left me for her. Was I not good enough for him?”

  The tears again begin to well in her eyes.

  “Was I not fun enough for him? Was I not funny, or smart, or loving, or hot or sexy or...”

  She sighs.

  “Am I even all those things at all?” she asks.

  “Of course you are Emma. He’s just an idiot.”

  Doug places his hands on her shoulders. He looks to her.

  “You’re a pretty amazing person Emma. You made a dragon. Can she make a dragon? No.”

  She finally cracks a smile.

  “No. No, she can’t. That fucking slut.”

  She laughs.

  “Hey, how about we take a break?” he asks her. “Have some lunch.”

  “Lunch?”

  He grins.

  “I make great sandwiches.”

  Seven

  “Woah, this sandwich is out of this world!” Emma exclaims to Doug, contorting her face in culinary ecstasy as she takes a bite of the man in the bucket hat’s exceptional creation.

  “Thanks.” he replies modestly as he takes a seat across from her. “When it comes to food though, you Earthlings are easy to please...”

  Emma immediately slams down the sandwich on the plate. She points a finger right at him.

  “There you go again! Earthlings. Who the hell speaks like that?”

  “An outsider.” he replies. “As you may have suspected Emma, I am not of this planet.”

  “So you’re an alien?” Emma asks, continuing to wolf down the remains of the sandwich.

  “I never said that. I just don’t come from here.”

  “So where do you come from then?”

  “A place out there.” he tells her.

  “You’re being very vague Doug.”

  “Things in this universe are very vague Emma, open to interpretation. Other things though, are clear as night and day.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like the origin of your powers.”

  “So you know where my, where Seth’s powers come from?”

  “Of course. Would you like to know?”

  “Hell yeah!” she exclaims.

  “Right. Well Emma, you see, we call it... The Pool.”

  “The Pool.” Salt began as she sat at her desk across from Seth. “Is what we believe gave you those powers.”

  “The Pull? Like The Force?”

  “Jesus Christ.” she grumbles.

  The relationship between prisoner and captor had somewhat changed in the past week. There were no more quote-unquote interrogations. Rather it appeared that Salt now wanted to foster some kind of working relationship or collaboration between Seth and her organisation for some reason... something that definitely intrigued him.

  It was like he was being inducted into their own secret club as Salt began to reveal more about The Toy Shop’s apparent mission, what they set out to achieve. Protect the world apparently, from something, someone - and they needed his help. Or at least help from people who were just like him, those with powers like his, and at the crux of it all was this so-called Pool...

  The Pool.

  “Pool. P. O. O. L. Like swimming pool!” she spells out for Seth. “Pool.”

  “Gotcha.” he replies. “Pool.”

  Salt tried her best to explain to Seth the significance of The Pool, throwing out terms like ‘extra dimensional energy’, ‘reservoir’ and ‘potential exploitation’. Tales of experiments by Tesla and captured Nazi scientists, how they tried to tap into it, to draw upon this energy, energy that can be used to empower people... people just like Seth.

  It all sounded insane to him, like the ravings of a mad scientist or a hacky science fiction writer. But still, he listened and nodded and nodded some more.

  It all sounded crazy, but let’s face it: he had seen crazier.

  “You’re not the only one with these powers Seth.” Salt concludes, seemingly proud to have thought Seth a thing or two.

  “I know.” he whispers reflexively. Surprised, the agent raises an eyebrow.

  “You know?” she asks.

  Fuck. Slip of the tongue. He hadn’t told anyone about Lily.

  Lily Krygynski. What happened to her, Seth wonders. That tough homeless girl, driven to live on the streets of Port City after her parents died. She had somehow gained the same teleportation powers Seth had too - and he trained her how to use them for good, to help people like he did. Did she come in contact with The Pool too?

  She was in Seth’s life all too briefly. She’s out there somewhere; he hopes she’s doing well.

  He quickly tries to backpedal.

  “I mean, there must surely be others out there?” he mumbles to Salt.

  “Yes.” she nods. “There are others.”

  Experiments. Seth flipped through the file. He felt wrong looking through it.

  A program, ran by The Toy Shop. An extension of the previous experiments that attempted to tap into the vast energies of The Pool. They recruited candidates from the armed forces; Seth couldn’t help but notice their psychological profiles: men and women who suffered from self esteem issues, depression. They offered them the chance to be something special.

  He couldn’t help but feel sorry for them.

  “They shut it down before I came onboard.” Salt tells him, obviously trying to deflect the blame from her.

  Seth grimaced as he continued to go through the file. He came to a diagram, of an apparatus. Salt seemed to know what he was looking at.

  “Would you like to see it?” she asked.

  It was hidden away, in the lower levels of the rig. It resembled an electric chair,
with a crown for the head. Seth stepped closer, examining it. He was afraid to touch it.

  “It’s been deactivated.” Salt tells him. “It works by sending rapidly increasing electrical pulses through their brains, trying to mimic the conditions of an electrical storm. Like what you went through, but controlled.”

  “Did the Nazis help you build this too?”

  “No.” she mumbles meekly. “But their research claimed this electrical jump start could create a mental conduit to The Pool, let it flow out across dimensions and connect to the subject. Manifest its powers inside of them.”

  “That sounds a lot like nonsense.”

  “It is, when you don’t understand it.”

  “And you do?”

  “No. Still, it did work though, to an extent...”

  Seth stared at the apparatus. More and more it looked like a torture device to him.

  “You people are monsters.” he said to the agent.

  “Yeah, I don’t disagree with that. But like I said, they shut the program down long before I came on board.”

  “So what happened to them?”

  “To who?”

  “The fucking subjects.”

  “A lot didn’t make it. The others... we thought they did. We were wrong.”

  She pauses, wistfully.

  “My job is to find them, and clean up their mess.” she tells him.

  “I thought you said your job was to protect the world.”

  “Yes.” she replies. “From them.”

  “Jesus fucking Christ.”

  The phone on Salt’s desk rung as soon as she and Seth returned to her office. Without hesitation she puts it on speakerphone.

  “Yes?”

  “Ma’am, I’d like you to know we have a fix on Samuel Jones.” said the junior agent on the line. “We’re tracking him via UAV right now”

  “Is that confirmed?”

  “Yes. It’s confirmed.”

  “Good.” Salt hangs up. She smiled at the news. It was perfect timing.

  “What’s going on?” Seth asks her.

  “Just one of our fucking subjects.” she replies, curtly. “Would you like to tag along Seth?”

  “Yeah, I would like that very much Agent Salt.”

  She smirks.

  “Well then, get your uniform on.”

  “What uniform?” he asks her, puzzled.

  “Your new one of course.”

  “So The Pull...” Emma repeated to the man in the bucket hat. “Is like The Force?”

  “The what?”

  “You know, pull, force. From Star Wars?”

  “No, pool. Like a pond.” her mentor chuckles. “You Earthlings, always seeing things through the eye of your own popular culture.”

  “So, that’s it?” she says. “That’s what’s given me, given my brother these fabulous powers?”

  “Yes. But it’s not just you, your brother and the homeless girl. You three were chosen, and you were chosen by us for a reason. There are others who have managed to tap into The Pool, this reservoir, some intentionally, others unintentionally, on their own and without any of our guidance, our help. They have not done it safely, and there will be side effects...”

  He pauses.

  “I don’t trust them. I do not trust them at all. That’s why you must be ready Emma. You all must be ready”

  Eight

  Seth tugged at the fabric around his neck. It was tight, uncomfortable. The entire thing was uncomfortable, a clingy black combat suit like something Solid Snake would wear in his video games. No hood either; Seth felt naked, exposed in it. To their credit though, they still let him wear the tinted orange gaming glasses that he used to hide his identity.

  Alas, they made him look even more like a douche.

  The helicopter flew low above the smouldering forest, a sea of trees and ground blackened by a massive fire. Little greenery remained. Almost a total loss.

  “What caused this?” he asked Salt, suited up next to him.

  “Officially, a lightning strike.” she replied. “That’s not entirely the case.”

  In the cabin a red light flashed, an obnoxious buzzer sounded. It was time to get out.

  “Where are we setting down?” Seth asked.

  “We’re not.” the agent told him. He knew what that meant.

  Seth held onto the door handle as the helicopter hovered over the designated drop zone. Taking a deep breath, he jumped out.

  Blink.

  It took Seth half an hour to reach the co-ordinates he was given. He was alone out here; Salt refused to drop him any closer. There was something, someone in this dying forest, and they felt only a person with Seth’s abilities could find them. Or survive their encounter...

  It was not long before he saw the figure amongst the trees. A man, his clothes ragged, singed. He followed him, treading carefully as not to make his presence known.

  It was futile.

  The man quickly turns, raising his hand and launching a bolt of lightning at Seth. He blinks, dodging the attack as the man takes off.

  Dashing through the burnt forest, the man runs into the flash of light as Seth reappears right in front of him, shoving him backwards with his hands and onto the ground. Scrambling, the man raises his hand at Seth once more...

  “Woah! Woah!” Seth waves his arms out in front of him. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

  Slowly, the man calms down. He closes his hand.

  “How can you do that?” he asks Seth.

  “I’m like you. I just want to talk...”

  “Talk?”

  Seth nods.

  “Talk.”

  Sam shivered as he related Seth his story. He claimed to have the power over electricity, the ability to channel it within himself. However, unlike Seth he did not have total control over it.

  Whenever he’d sleep he’d cause involuntary power surges, blackouts. Lightning strikes. He hurt people, accidentally electrocuted them. Whatever had done this to him left him broken, psychologically a mess. Even his own body couldn’t mitigate the harm: the burns on his hands were as clear as day.

  He’s suffering.

  “I have dreams.” he tells Seth. “Of things beyond this world.”

  “The Pool?”

  “No. Not The Pool... Of other things. Of beings watching me, not human, not from this planet. Watching me, watching us all the time. Like they’re spying, waiting for us to do something... watching in wait...”

  He suddenly pauses, his eyes going wide.

  “How do you know about The Pool?” he asks.

  Seth doesn’t answer.

  “I don’t even know you...” he says to Seth as he begins to fidget. “Who sent you?”

  Seth is hesitant to answer as Sam’s anxiety and paranoia grows suddenly and exponentially.

  “Who sent you!?” he shouts, demanding an answer, Seth still reluctant to give it to him.

  “WHO SENT YOU!!!???” he screams.

  “Sam...” Seth says to him softly, calmly. It is too late.

  There’s a taste in the air, metallic, electric. Sam’s eyes begin to glow white as the hairs on Seth’s body begin to stand on end. He reaches out a hand towards Seth as arcs of electrical current visibly run up and down Sam’s body, his face contorted in pain and agony.

  Unable to move, Seth watches the charge build up in Sam’s hand. He closes his eyes, somehow unable to blink...

  The back of Sam’s head explodes as the high calibre round passes through his skull. His body flops to the ground, landing face first in a pile of leaves with a soft crunch.

  Seth turns as the sniper makes herself known. Salt.

  “We could have helped him!” he shouts at her.

  “I’m sorry, but he was beyond help.” she replies bluntly.

  “We could have at least tried.”

  “You saw it. He was going to kill you.” She pauses, looking down at Sam’s body. “In the end he just wanted to die. I’m sure you can relate to that.”

  He
confronts her, grabbing her arm.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  She doesn’t answer. Seth lets her go, only for her to turn around and raise her rifle at him. He raises his hands, slowly, calmly.

  She lowers the gun. She grimaces.

  “Let’s go.”

  Leaving Sam’s body for the other agents to take care of, Seth reluctantly returns to the waiting helicopter, Salt keeping a close eye on him all the way there.

  “Today will be our last day together, Emma.” Doug tells his student as they meet one last time in her backyard. “I will be leaving.”

  “Okay.” she nods. “Where are you going?”

  “Somewhere else. I have to leave. I have other tasks to attend to.”

  “My brother?” she asks. He doesn’t answer.

  “Others.” he replies. She nods again, slightly disappointed by his answer.

  “I have to confess. I don’t think I’m ready yet Doug.” she tells him.

  “You are not ready yet Emma.”

  “I’m not?”

  “Honestly, you need more practice. A lot more actually. Your abilities are so unique, so powerful I don’t know if you can just head out into the world like your brother did when he started. But one day you’ll have to, and this time you’ll know when that will be.”

  He smiles.

  “See you around Emma.”

  He holds out his hand. She holds up her hand.

  “High five!” she grins. He returns the gesture.

  “You silly Earthlings.” he says to her with a smirk as he turns and heads for the gate.

  “Thank you Doug.” she replies as he disappears, leaving Emma alone in that backyard. Unsure what to do, she conjures up the one thing she knows that will cheer her up: another Pikachu.

  As he crossed the desert, the visions of the city still plagued the man, the terrorist once known as The Scimitar. He didn’t know what or where this place was, but it must be his home. His attacker’s home...

  The hooded man who had done this to him, he had suddenly appeared inside his bunker, his hidden domain like a flash out of nowhere, in a blink of an eye. He detonated the bomb he had brought with him, hoping to take the terrorist out. And yet, despite the blast he, The Scimitar still survived.