Something inside her grew cold, almost angry. Why had this happened? All her life, she’d done just fine without people. She didn’t need anyone. Never had. But for some reason, she felt different about Devin. As if a missing piece of a puzzle long forgotten had suddenly been put into place.
The class room emptied, as students frantically rushed off to their next class, to the library, to lunch, or wherever it was students went to make out between classes. Only Tina and Devin remained. He was standing by the door, books in hand, staring directly at her. Again the butterflies.
“May I walk you to your next class?” he asked, blushing slightly.
“Oh, well, I have a break this hour, but thank you,” she said, trying but failing to stifle the smile on her face.
“What a coincidence,” he said. “So do I. Would you like to go somewhere and talk? Get to know each other?”
Tina wanted to slap herself silly for what she was feeling inside. Accepting his invitation would only encourage him. She’d just end up hurting him. Or being hurt by him, or both. She knew she could never be the kind of girl that he was probably used to. But at the same time, in the last hour, she had become a girl that she was no longer used to. She was different. She was better. And somewhere deep inside, a light came on.
The last piece of the puzzle.
That thought kept ringing in her head.
The last piece of the puzzle. Only question was, what puzzle?
“Tell ya what,” Tina finally whispered. “You can help me find my next class and we’ll talk while we look.”
“Well what class do you have?”
“History.”
“Really?” asked Devin “with who?”
Tina pulled out her schedule to make sure.
“With Mrs. Bonner. Room 228 in—oh, it’s in this building.”
“That’s right down the hall.” Devin pointed and gently placed a hand on her shoulder to direct her.
Good grief he is cute, thought Tina. And if the sight of him sent butterflies through her stomach, then his touch caused the migration of butterfly colonies from the tips of her toes clear up to the knot that was forming in her throat. He’s real alright!
“Dear God no!” she thought. “Don’t let me need this man!” But she did. She knew it, and it scared her.
Somewhere deep down inside a light came on. Somewhere farther down, the sleeper awoke. The puzzle was complete. The door was open. And soon, Tina hoped, she would understand.
Tina’s insides shook. Curse those butterflies!
CHAPTER 4
TWO SIDED COIN
Tina found herself very intrigued by Devin. In a lot of ways, he was as evasive as Tina when it came to giving up much information about himself.
Still Tina learned some of the basic facts about Devin. He was not from town. He had, in fact, been born in some small town Illinois. And said he could not remember when he had been brought to Texas by his late parents. Those were the only words he spoke of his mother and father. No mention of how, when or why they had died. No mention of who raised him or what he had done to survive. Tina’s nature was not to pry. So it was with this circumstance she heeded that voice and did not press the matter.
So many missing pieces to a puzzle Tina needed to put together.
Strange. You get one puzzle complete and there’s another waiting to take its place. Still, he seemed like a good man. Seemed like an honest man. Yet he was hiding something. Perhaps even from himself.
Tina couldn’t explain the feeling but she knew that there was more to Devin than met the eye. In the past, she would have never given it a second thought, but this wasn’t just anyone.
This was Devin. He had a vulnerability about him that Tina could not escape. Much like a black hole in space, it was doing everything in its power to suck her in. Only, for Tina, she couldn’t wait to see what was on the other side.
“Something wrong?” Devin asked.
“Huh?” Tina said, half jolted back to reality. “Oh, no, nothing’s wrong, I was just realizing it is almost time for me to go to my class.”
“You mean time for us to go to class, don’t you?”
“What?” Tina asked, before remembering that Devin had the upcoming class with her. She was by no means unhappy about the potential scenario of sitting through another boring lecture with Devin.
“Oh yes that’s right.” Tina couldn’t help but fixate on the word “us” for a few pointless seconds. For some reason, she hated the mere mention of the word. But, in the right context, she wondered if it might just agree with her, even a little bit.
As they walked into class, Mrs. Bonner was already passing out the syllabus and introducing herself to the class. They were not late. Mrs. Bonner was just a fuss budget, and a work horse.
She used every minute she could and lectured virtually non-stop.
Questions were to be held for after class, she said, “because I’m old and I’ll forget where I’m at and then you won’t get the education I’m paid to give you. And I can’t have that on my conscience!”
She was a little thing. Maybe 5’2 with polish white hair, the occasional wrinkle, though not as many as you might think you’d find on a 67 year old woman. She was very proud of the distinction of being the 3rd teacher the college had ever hired. “And the first two have been dead more than twenty years now!” She was all that was left of roots the institution was built on. She had survived 8 changes in collegiate presidency, countless changes in policy, growth in attendance that was well over 400 percent in the last 20 years alone. She was, by definition, a relic. She knew her stuff back then and, she believed, she still knew her stuff.
“There’s a lot of History in this school,” she boasted, in a strong Southern Baptist twang. “And most of it won’t be taught in this class. But let me tell ya, anytime you see a plaque on the wall, stop and read it. Anytime you see a building named for a professor long dead, find out more about him. Or her. There is more to History then who won what war and how. There is where you came from and why. ‘Know whence you came for if you know whence you came, there is no limit to how far one can go!’ Who can tell me who I just quoted?”
Nobody moved. Silence. Tina’s eyes focused squarely to the blank notebook that lay on her desk, ready to take notes. She didn’t know the answer. And she didn’t want the teacher seeing her ignorance in her eyes.
Tina did not really know whence she came. Not really. And frankly she had no idea where she was going. The class ended sooner than Tina realized. She had found herself as lost in Mrs. Bonner’s lecture as she had been in Devin’s past, or lack thereof, just an hour before.
When she looked up, she spotted Devin talking to another girl. A petite little blonde, probably a cheerleader, judging by that annoyingly perky smile. Tina felt a twinge of jealousy crawl up her spine to the nape of her neck where it settled in one big uncomfortable knot. Tina’s heart sank into her stomach and for a moment she actually felt herself on the insane verge of tears, if not senseless blind rage. She had thought Devin liked her, but now he was just like everyone else. Or so it seemed. She was going to walk past, but he called to her
“Hey! Tina! Where ya goin’?”
“Home,” she whispered, emotionlessly. Her shortness made Devin noticeably worried and he called her over.
“Got a sec? I wanna introduce you to someone.”
“I don’t want to meet your girlfriend, Devin” Tina thought, but said nothing as she approached the two.
“Tina,” Devin said, motioning to the blonde. “I’d like you to meet my friend, Shanice. I’ve known this girl for about as long as I can remember. She’s like my little sister.”
“Yeah!” Shanice laughed “A little sister that’s 4 months older then you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Devin said, laughing sarcastically. “Four months younger and 4 feet taller!” Devin and Shanice both laughed. Tina chuckled in courteous unison, but failed to be amused. She was still reeling at the idea of being conned out of her emo
tions.
“Well, Dev, Old Bean” Shanice quipped, feigning a southern belle’s best British accent –which wasn’t all that great – “I have to get running, my boy. You know how Chuck is when I keep him waiting too long.”
“Yanno, I still think you could do better than that jerk, Shanny” offered Devin.
“Yeah, yeah, tell it to the wall, you’ll probably have better results gettin’ it to listen to ya. Haven’t ya learned that already?”
“Hey,” Devin laughed “Can’t a guy hope that one day his best friend will see him for the God of Truth he is?”
“God, my hind quarters!” Shanice laughed.
“Yeah, God your hiney.” Devin retorted “God your hiney is too big!”
Shanice said nothing as she walked away. Just wiggled her hips in mocking reply, and chuckled in the distance.
Tina still wasn’t all that much at ease. The whole idea of another woman in Devin’s life. Especially one that knew his past.
The past that he’d been so evasive about with Tina. It was just wrong.
When Devin offered to walk Tina to her car, she accepted begrudgingly.
“It’s okay, Baby . . .” echoed The Sleeper deep inside her. “Just relax, Baby, let me take care of it.”
Tina’s head began to throb by the time she got to her car. She was flirting with recklessness, walking the line between sanity and what seemed real. The pain in her head began to demand her focus. So much so that she had lost track of the conversation Devin was trying to have with her, even to the point of losing awareness of his very presence. Her insides shook violently. She saw Fear right in front of her, as if it were something tangible that she could point to, grasp or, for what it was worth, strike.
She was afraid of Devin. She was perhaps more afraid of herself and what she was beginning to feel for him. It amazed her that they had the same classes together, the same break times, everything. It was so remarkable it was almost worrisome. Yet she wasn’t suspicious of Devin…that much.
She trusted in chance, and in him, and that was a most damning thought to Tina. Why should she trust him? Especially since she didn’t really know him.
“Oh you know him alright, Tina.” Something whispered inside her. It was so faint, Tina hadn’t really heard it at all. But her soul heard it. Her spirit had heard it. And they shook violently.
The voice grew louder as Tina looked at Devin. There was no mistaking it. This time, Tina heard it.
“To be or not to be, Baby,” whispered the voice. The Sleeper wanted to be. But be what?
As she began to speed her walk, she noticed Devin matching pace with her. She sped up more. Moving faster and faster until she was breaking out into a full speed run, leaving Devin standing there with a confused look on his face, screaming her name, though to no avail. She passed near the van that had been there earlier in the morning, breathing in a gallon of noxious fumes from the biohazard on wheels. Tina’s headache grew pugnaciously intolerable as she finally made it to her car. She scanned the area. No Devin. Part of her was sad. She could not explain why she ran off. But deep down inside, she heard The Sleeper celebrate and she felt herself crumbling. She began to wish that the stupid van would never run again. She cursed the ozone polluting piece of garbage vehemently.
“Your wish is my command, Baby.” Whispered The Sleeper. Tina barely noticed the voice this time. She was too awestruck by the sudden pop and the huge cloud of smoke that burst from under the hood of the ugly dilapidated van. She had to swerve to miss the frantic driver who had run into the parking lot in a panic.
“What the—?” Tina whispered aloud. Her head was hurting terribly and the confusion wasn’t helping matters. Tina needed to get home. She sped away, not even noticing the frantic van occupant giving her an unsolicited gesture of thanks for her lack of consideration.
* * *
As he sat in his Bronco, outside the college’s Liberal Arts building, he laughed to himself.
“Well that was fun,” he scowled. “We simply must play again.”
Inside him, he felt the Voice of Reason speaking out against what he was doing. As quickly as it spoke, it was silenced. Buried deep under darkness it could never fully understand, grasp or conquer.
Across the way, a frantic hippy character was running around trying to fix his broken down van.
“That was priceless,” he grinned. “But this is better.”
As his fist rose into the air, the van’s hood exploded from its hinges, under the intense heat of flames. The front window shattered into a million fragments. A few passersby were caught in the chaos, nicked by flying glass. All around, people hit the ground, as if half expecting some insane militant group to be firing a bazooka in their direction.
The frantic hippy was now screaming at the top of his petrified lungs. Arms waving, lice-ridden hair flying to and fro, he could do nothing but stand by helplessly and watch his engine ignite upon itself.
“There now. That’s enough fun for one day.”
* * *
When she got home, she decided to take a nap. Tina needed rest. More than she realized. She relaxed on the bed, loosened her clothes so that she could get more comfortable, and climbed under her blankets. As she closed her eyes, her insides shook. In the distant recesses of her mind, the light came on again. Inside Tina’s living room, books began to rattle on their shelves, first softly, then more vigorously. The Sleeper had been awakened. Stepping slowly out of the forgotten darkness of the past into the light of day. As The Sleeper emerged from the darkness, Tina fell deeper into it. As The Sleeper became self-aware, Tina slept.
* * *
She awoke feeling a bit disoriented at first. It took her a moment to realize who and where she was. She’d been asleep for so long. It felt good to be awake again. She wondered if the changes had come, as they had before. At the same time, she already knew they had come. They always did. Her hair was darker blonde than the others’. There were no more brown flakes in her eyes. Her eyes were now totally brown. Deep dark mysterious ebony, much like the darkness from which she had emerged. She did not like the clothes she had on. Quickly she changed into a red dress, more suited for the approaching dusk affairs. She had a purpose. Of that much, she was already certain. She was never called upon without a purpose. In time, she knew that the purpose would reveal itself. She needed only to let it happen. She could feel The Innocent inside her. There was fear. Fear and ignorance.
The Innocent did not know the purpose, but even she could sense who was being sought. Inside her, The Innocent murmured his name. She shook inside. She had not yet awakened all her senses. Her usually keen sense of time had yet to be aroused. She found herself forced to find a clock. It read thirty-seven minutes after six. Her emergence from the dark had taken longer than she had realized. It had been a long time. Perhaps The Innocent’s resistance had grown stronger.
No, that could not be the answer. Her power far exceeded the resistance capability of The Innocent. Perhaps the answer was time. She had been dormant for too long. She had allowed The Innocent to assume too much control.
As she made her way through the living room, she found a picture frame laying on the floor amongst the strewn books. She chuckled to herself as she assessed the damage to the immediate area. Just a big mess, she thought. Nothing broken.
She picked up the frame and turned it over. Inside was a picture of a young girl in a graduation gown, holding her cap and tassel. It was the only picture frame in the room. It was The Innocent.
She turned the picture frame over and removed the back, revealing some writing on the back of the picture. It was a date and the name Tina. “Oh yes,” She whispered “That’s your name this time. Forgive me.”
Rather than take the photograph with her, she carefully replaced the back and gently rested the photo back where she’d found it. She stood and headed toward the door. Inside her, she heard Tina cry out. She pushed hard. Pushed Tina deep down into the darkness. She had a purpose. A purpose Tina could not un
derstand.
She had a reason for awakening, and Tina would only get in the way. “Get some rest, Baby,” she whispered. “You’ll need it.”
As she walked outside, she spotted Tina’s car. “No. No. No,” she whispered. “This will simply never do.”
CHAPTER 5
LIFE AND DEATH
He pulled the Bronco in back of The Star Club. The gravel lane remained dimly lit by a single halogen street light. No one would see the dark Bronco parked in the shallow lavender shadows of Star’s back alley. Perfect for the unabated exit he would need after his night’s work was done. He did not need to claim another. He simply wanted to. Knew he would.
It was almost 10:00. Star had been open for almost 3 hours and still there were fewer than 10 cars in a parking lot built to house more than 50 cars. The real crowd wouldn’t arrive for another hour at least. Teens most likely. The adults, as always, would start arriving about 1:00 a.m. The Star Club didn’t close until 5 the next morning, so it was one of the hotter spots of the local night life. Perfect to find a willing servant. Someone willing to oblige his ultimate need. His need for their life.
For their death.
As he killed the Bronco’s ignition, the soft echo of technogarble thickened the air with a disturbing rhythm of life. It was the music of choice for Star’s younger crowd, and He hated it. The night wind carried the scent of recent decay. He thought he smelled death in the air. Wishful thinking, perhaps.
The wind picked up as he stepped away from the Bronco. A gentle breeze seemed to surround him, as if he commanded the subtle chaos to sever the ties of his existence from that of the world. As he left the back alley, heading toward the front of The Star Club, the music grew louder. He noticed a security guard standing by the door, looking out as if expecting total chaos to break out any moment.
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