WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1986
NW 52nd Street
Seattle, Washington
Although some believe themselves to be alone as freaks or outcasts in the world, Zeni-humans have existed for nearly as long as humanity itself. Long before the first Zeni-human was born, humanity had something else. The first humans had a bond that went beyond death. A bond that let the living draw strength from their loved ones that had passed on. A strength that could be wielded much like Zeni-human powers, yet different. As humanity evolved and expanded into many races, people with this gift shrank.
In modern times only those who are pure descendants of that first human race can channel that old gift. Many have had it but few have learned to control it. Only through extreme loss and emotional distress will the gift surface. To every user it is different. Some use this gift without even knowing what it is or that they have it. Others use it for their own benefit or to help those less fortunate.
Hamilton Blake Jackson is a man with this gift. He uses his new found power on a quest. He searches for the perfect woman to begin his new family. His quest has brought him across the country from Chicago to Seattle. There have been many women that he thought were the right one but in the end they just didn’t live up to his standards. Tonight is New Year’s Eve and he is sure that he will find her tonight. It is the beginning of a new year and new hope to end his quest, end all of the disappointment.
Blake, as he goes by, dresses in dark pants and a yellow shirt with several open buttons to display the tattoo on his collar bone that reads “family”. Family is all important to him, it is from them he draws his strength. His family are all dead now but he is confident that tonight will be the night he finds the perfect woman to begin his new family. He sprays himself with Black Leather cologne making one final check of his short trimmed black hair in the mirror. “This is the night!” he tells his reflection.
His ancestors were hunted in their homeland. Brought to this country against their will in chains. It was the white man that enslaved his people. Although slavery ended a century ago in a way it still continues. So many of his people remain poor and downtrodden, living in ghettos. Young men find their way into street gangs. In the end it is the families of these men that pay the highest price. Blake’s family died in a gang riot in Chicago as proof to him how this society has failed his people. His new family will be different. His new family will not conform to the old stereotypes.
Conor Byrne
Billiard Ave, NW
Seattle, Washington
It had been nearly six months since Pam Donaldson moved to Seattle rather suddenly. It is not the first time she has started her life over hiding from her own actions. She has spent these past months keeping her hair dark to avoid the attention her natural blonde draws. Seattle is much different from where she previously lived. It is much more laid back city, but the weather leaves much to be desired. She has worked hard to build a new life here, finding a teaching job and a place to live. Pam has put her other interest on hold up until now. It is Christmas break and she has no family to spend it with so she has time to pursue one of the favorite hobbies, finding a man. Not to build a lasting relationship but for a night of fun and passion.
Tonight she has washed that dark dye out of her hair, luckily her hair is rather resistant to over the counter hair dyes. The dye usually washes out every time she washes the hair making keeping her hair dark a necessary expense. Tonight she has gone on the prowl for the first time since she moved to Seattle. She sits in a new mini dress at the rail of a local bar. She scans the room for Mister Right now to take her renewed virginity. She chose this place because of the live music and the distance from her job. When you are a school teacher you have to be careful with your one night stands.
There are many possibilities in the bar tonight but she wants to choose wisely. It can’t be a guy who looks too needy or clingy. A guy who is just looking for a good time but isn’t too crazy. Alcohol does play a part in her choice as well. No drunks, not tonight, this might be her only night out until summer break. She hasn’t had sex in nearly six months, since Vegas and if there is one thing Pam loves it is sex.
Pam has a strong sexdrive for good reason, pleasure is the only sensation she is capable of feeling. She does not feel heat or cold, pain is near impossible. Pleasure on the other hand seems to be off the charts for her. Sure she can give herself pleasure but men do it much better for Pam. If she were to search her memory Pam wouldn’t even be able to remember when she lost her virginity. That like so many other things from her childhood she prefers to forget.
Three Korean guys sit at a table near the stage. Hum, I’ve never had an Asian guy before, she thinks. But which one? They all look good to her. Perhaps all three? She grins to herself. Then two women sits down at their table and Pam loses interest in the men. Other women complicate matters for her. She has never been good at flirting with other women around. That is except for Eileen, of course. Pam’s best friend’s name in her mind makes her sad so she pushes away the thought and returns to her hunt.
Then she spots a big, muscular, hairy chested guy with a beard in a tight t-shirt. I bet he would grunt like an ape while fucking, she giggles to herself. That could be hot! Pam turns back to the bar to order another drink, she loves her Margaritas almost as much as sex. The tall blonde bartender returns to take her glass. He is handsome too. She is just so excited to be out that she just can’t make a choice.
The bartender, Phil returns with her drink giving her a white toothed smile. “See anything you like in here tonight?” he asks.
“I see plenty,” Pam replies. “What time do you get off, maybe we can get off together?” She says sipping her drink.
“My boyfriend might not like that, but if you need a ride home I can call you a cab,” Phil replies disappointing Pam to no end. “Just be careful, what with those News reports of late.” Trying to keep a low profile in Seattle Pam has paid little notice to the local news. If she had she would know about the local dangers of single women cruising bars alone recently. Pam hadn’t even taken notice of the few women in the bar, her focus is on the men.
“What do you mean?” Pam asks.
“Are you from out of town?” Phil questions. “There is a rapist on the loose.” “That is why this place is so dead on New Year’s Eve.” “Five young woman not unlike you have been attacked.”
“No, I didn’t know that,” Pam tells him gulping down her drink feeling a little tipsy. “Cops know who he is?”
“Not a clue, none of the victims can identify him, other than to say he was tall, dark and handsome.” Phil tells Pam as he takes her glass for a refill. “You should go easy on these.”
“Don’t worry about me I can take care of myself,” Pam says smiling. “And if I don’t find a man soon I might have to.” Pam turns back to the room to see that her ape-man is gone. Then she spots a tall black man coming in the door. He is alone and exudes a confidence that shows he will not be alone for long. He walks to the end of the bar calling Phil over to him. He orders a draft and sits down in an open seat. Pam feels an instant attraction to him. It is like he is a shining star of life in the darkness of the bar room. Pam calls to Phil, “Let me pay for that beer!”
Phil gives her a look as he takes her money to pay for the drinks. Pam watches as the man offers to pay Phil and he is told, “It’s covered by the blonde over there.” Phil points to Pam and she waves to the handsome man. He raises his glass of beer to thank Pam.
“Does she do this a lot?” the man asks Phil.
“I wouldn’t know, she’s never been in here before tonight,” Phil replies.
The man takes a sip of his beer as he heads over to where Pam sits at the bar. “Thank you for the beer, Beautiful,” he tells Pam. “My name’s Blake.” He shakes her hand loosely. “I must admit I’m usually the one buying the drinks.
“Pam, I just couldn’t let a handsome man like you start his evening alone,” she says flirting. Now that he is closer to her, she definitely feels there is something special about him. It is like he is filled with life. She can’t explain it she has never felt anything like it.
“The important part is how will I be finishing my evening?” Blake says with a smile.
“I guess we’ll just have to see,” Pam winks at him. The band begins to play and she asks, “Do you dance?”
There is another person of interest in the room. He goes by the name Max Williams. He has had his eye on the pretty blonde at the bar from the time she came in the door an hour ago. The arrival of the black man has put a crimp in his plans for the evening so he calls the waitress for his tab.
After paying his bill Max heads for the door. He takes one last look at Pam Donaldson before he leaves the bar. Outside he hailed a taxi. Getting in the car, he instructs the driver of his destination and sits back in the seat.
As Max rides across town he takes a pocket watch from inside his jacket. It is very old and tarnished. Opening the cover, the arms on the face move not so much as a clock but as a compass. As the taxi turns a corner the second hand moves to point in the direction from which he came. He is sure he is on the right course now as he closes the watch cover and places it back in his pocket. It is nearing midnight and his window of opportunity is closing. He will have to wait another whole year for that window to open again. But he has always been a patient man, it is the others that will not be pleased.
Seattle has experienced a kind of rebirth over the last decade as the growth of technology has increased. In the near future Seattle will become a hub of sorts to fantastic innovations in the lives of everyone in the world. Max’s taxi drives one such revitalized area of the city on his way to his destination to an older region that resists the advances of modern technology.
Wyoming Concepts
Broadview section
Seattle, Washington
It is after midnight now and like most large cities, Seattle has a hidden world. A world beneath the surface that few see or care to notice. This is one of the places that Zeni-humans find they can hide from discovery. In this day and age a Zeni-human’s greatest power is secrecy. If people do not know they exist, they have no reason to go looking for them. As the world of computers and the information highway expands it pushes aside the old. Sometimes the old pushes back.
Samuel Watson began his business at the turn of the 20th century. On the surface it is a private employment agency. Beneath the surface it is something much different. The burgeoning internet does not threaten to take over Watson’s business but reveal the truth about it. Wyoming Concepts is not your standard employment agency, it specializes in finding Zeni-humans with the right talents for the job. Employers pay a high price for the right Zeni-human to fulfill their need to make the most profit at low cost. Because the transactions must be done in secret, no one knows that their magic fertilizer really is magic or that their cordless microwave is really powered by a Zeni-human source.
The biggest of Watson’s secrets is that he does not find these Zeni-humans but creates them. Watson appears to be a middle aged man on all accounts, even though he is over a hundred years old. Other than that he has no active Zeni-human power of his own other than the creation of other Zeni-humans. If not for an old legend of the Suquamish Indian tribe about a magic well that gives power, Watson would never have gained his ability or lived this long. Watson chooses his clients wisely. He gives the gift of Zeni-human power only to those whom he needed for his business. Most are usually the sick or infirm that would not have much of a life without the power he bestows upon them.
Wyoming Concepts’ clientele is usually not on the up and up either. To engage in such a fraud on the public takes the right kind of evil. Most of the users of Watson’s service enslave the Zeni-human workers provided by Wyoming Concepts, not trusting them to keep the secrets of their business. Recently Watson supplied an up and coming software manufacturer, Omni-Connect, with a young girl who could hear and read broadcast signals without any electrical equipment. It was a perfect fit.
Until Omni-Connect hired a local school teacher Hugh Murphy to write code for them part time. While looking over the Omni-Connect system Mr. Murphy found some flaws in their networks code. These flaws should have prevented the system from working properly but the system worked fine in spite of the errors. He continued to search for the answers to his questions. So far Omni-Connect has prevented him from finding out the truth, but Watson is not content with trusting Murphy or Omni-Connect. If Murphy finds a trail that leads back to Wyoming Concepts it will be Watson’s head on the block.
Even now after midnight Samuel Watson works in his office to find the perfect agent to handle this problem. He goes through stacks of medical reports and personal files searching for the proper agent for this new job. Computers were the cause of this problem so Watson prefers to find the solution on paper in ink. “Nancy Gartner,” he says closing the last of the files in front of him on the desk. “It all comes back to you, Nancy.”
Watson goes over the calculations on the pad next to the files. He uses a pencil to darken some of his computations saying to himself, “Yes, yes Nancy you are the one.” He has been triggering Zeni-human powers in people for nearly a century and has it down to a science. Using a formula of his own creation Watson can tell what a chosen target’s power will be and the correct combination of elements to trigger it.
The hardest part of his plan is always acquiring his target. Nancy Gartner is housed in a long term care facility in Oregon. A victim of a car accident when she was seventeen. She has laid in a coma for many years. Watson’s commutations will not only wake the sleeping young woman but also give her the power she will need to do the job her requires of her. He has found other would-be Zeni-humans in this state before, most are so appreciative of his help that they willingly return any favor he is owed.
Billiard Ave, NW
an Alleyway not far from the Conor Byrne
Seattle, Washington
A couple lean up against the wall of the building. Lost in passion the world around them has disappeared. He uses his body to press her tight to the wall as they kiss, her hands on his ass. “Fuck me, fuck me right here,” Pam whispers to the large man that looms over her. “Get it out and fuck me now!” she demands her hands moving to open his pants. “I need you inside of me!”
He goes back to kissing her. Her hand goes down the front of his pants searching to find his big cock. What she finds is big but it is not as hard as she would like it to be. Pam pushes him back flipping his back to the wall as she moves to her knees in front of him. She unbuckled his belt and opens his pants freeing the cock. It is big and plump, but nothing she can’t handle as she licks up the shaft to the head. He moans as she wets down his knob with her tongue. Blake’s cock begins to grow as she slides the head between her lips. It tastes salty as she begins to suck it hungrily.
He reaches down his big hands to her head taking hold of her blonde hair. Blake pumps his hips a few time forcing his fat cock all the way down her throat, gagging her slightly. Pam doesn’t mind it only increases her desire for what comes next. She moves her fingers down to her sopping wet snatch to find her love button. Than he pulls her golden locks to move her head back up to his face. He kisses her again tasting his own cock on her lips. “You’re a little slut aren’t you?” he asks in her ear as he moves his hand up her hair to her throat. “You want me to fuck you with my big black cock?”
Lost in her desire and quite a bit of tequila she responses, “Oh yes, fuck me with that big black cock!” As he changes places with her, turning her back to the wall, she brings her legs up around his waist to expose her pantiless snatch to his throbbing member.
Blake teases her with his dick by bucking his hips to slide his rod over her wet mound. He begins to squeeze her throat tighter. “You are just like all of the others,” he says in an angry tone. “All you want is for me to fuck you!” “Never wanting anything more than to fulfill your lust!”
“Look I can blow you some more, first if you want,” Pam suggest not catching on to the seriousness of her situation as holds her to the wall trying to choke her.
“Why did you have to be like the others?” he asks. Pam is not liking the sound of what he is saying now. “Why couldn’t you be the one?” Pam releases her legs from around his waist letting them hang toward the ground. She realizes for the first time just how much strength he is exerting on her windpipe.
“Shit!” Pam says. “We aren’t going to screw are we?” The look in his eyes is the only answer she needs. Then it is like a shadow has fallen over the alley as dim light grows dimmer. “Look I don’t know what your deal is but if you aren’t going to fuck me you need to let go!” As the shadow over takes them his face becomes obscured to Pam. “Damn it, I really liked you too!” Pam takes hold of his wrist and begins to squeeze, exerting more strength than him. His fingers pop open and she drops to the ground. Pam swings him by his arm across the alley to the pavement. The shadow that enveloped them seems to move with him. She sees his face for one last moment and then it is hidden by the shadows that quickly vanish.
Pam stands in the alley for a moment trying to comprehend what has just happened. She straightens her dress feeling as if she has had too much to drink. Then like a magic cure a surge washes over her body and she is sober. More than a little confused Pam Donaldson walks from the alleyway alone.
MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1987
Jane Addams Middle School
Seattle, Washington
the teachers’ lounge
A fresh bottle of mousey brown dye in her hair Pam Donaldson arrives back at school. Fixing herself a cup of strong coffee she looks over the computer science teacher, Mr. Murphy, who like most mornings sits at a table with his oversized laptop. Pam’s desires unsatisfied by her night out, she still has the urge to have the comforts of a man. Perhaps she went about it all wrong. Many things are different here in Washington than they were in California. Murphy is handsome enough although he could use some more meat on his bones. But that really isn’t the meat she is interested in anyway. He kind of has that cute nerd thing going on with his sweater vest and all.
“Still working for that Internet place?” Pam asks sitting down at the table across from him. He doesn’t respond, too lost in what he is doing on his computer. “Earth to Hugh,” she says. “Hello?”
“I’m sorry Miss Donaldson what did you say?” he asks looking up from his computer. Even with brown hair Pam is still an attractive woman and nerdy Hugh Murphy can’t resist her smile.
“You need to get some people time,” Pam tells him. “The future is not people with their faces buried in electronic devices.”
“I know, it is just that I can’t get this idea out of my head,” Hugh Murphy replies trying to smile at her.
“Did you spent the whole winter leave on that thing?” she asks trying to push it closed on his fingers. “There are so many other things your nibble fingers could be used for.” The moment she says it she wishes she hadn’t, but Hugh is too nerdy to pick up on comments.
Hugh blushes slightly as he looks up at her. “No, no, I went to Christmas dinner at my father and step-mother’s place.” he replies pushing the screen back up.
“That sounds like a great idea,” Pam tells him. “What say we get some dinner tonight?”
“You and I?” he questions smiling uncomfortably. “Would it be a date?”
“I guess you could call it that if you put that laptop away,” Pam smiles getting up from the table. “I’ll come by your classroom at five, we can figure it all out then.” “Don’t forget to leave your computer here,” she leans forward to whisper. This is the first time Pam has let her true personality out at school and she hopes she hasn’t gone too far.
Wyoming Concepts
Broadview section
Seattle, Washington
Samuel Watson is happy with the success of his newest creation. All has gone as planned with Nancy Gartner. Her family believes that the young woman has died from a staph infection and that the long term facility in which see died mistakenly cremated her remains. All of it an elaborate ruse to get her into Watson’s custody. Nancy’s transformation into a Zeni-human was completed in record time. She has been awake for two days now that has been spent learning about the last ten years that she was in a coma. The story Watson has told her has not been completely true. An excellent business man, he altered some things to insure Nancy’s full gratitude.
“How are you doing this morning, Nancy?” Watson asks as he enters her room that has been made to look like a medical facility. Watson holds a clipboard as he lays some file folders on a table by the window, next to her breakfast dishes.
“Better I think,” Nancy replies a slight smile on her face at the arrival of her benefactor.
“How was your breakfast?” he asks turning back to the young woman lying in bed.
“Delicious as always,” she tells him. She has no idea of the drugs that have been laced into her food for the past twenty-four hours. It is important to keep these new Zeni-human docile while she is being brought into the fold. “I’ve been thinking about what we talked about yesterday,” Nancy confesses.
“Have you now,” Watson says sitting down in a chair next to the bed. “How are you feeling about the loss of your family?” It is important that she believes the lies he has told her to keep her from running off back to Oregon. If she was to know the truth it could cause problems with his plans for her.
“It, I mean everything before I woke up just seems like a dream to me now,” Nancy tells him. Watson is happy the drugs are doing their job. “I am eager to begin a new life now.” “I’ve been practicing controlling, what did you call it, the side effects of my recovery.”
“That’s very good, Nancy,” Watson tells her. “I really don’t know if you will want to hear what I found then.” “I found someone from your past.”
Nancy’s expression changes drastically to that of excitement. “OH! Mr. Watson, who, who have you found?” Her brave little lost child routine disappears quickly at the thought of someone from her past still remembering her.
“Do you remember a boy named Hugh Murphy, I believe you were friends in high school.”
“Hugh?” Nancy exclaims, “Hugh was more than a friend!”
“Perhaps that explains why he never dated after your accident,” Watson says luring her into his plan. “He teaches computer science at a middle school here in Seattle.” Watson knows full well who Hugh Murphy was to Nancy that is what makes her the perfect weapon against him. He was the driver of the car the night of the accident. She will either love or hate him either way he will die at her hand.
“I want to see him!” Nancy insists.
“Now, it is far too soon for you to be out running around the city,” Watson warns. “You still need more rest.” “I will stop back later, after lunch so we can do some more training.” Mr. Watson leaves the room apparently forgetting his papers on the table.
At first Nancy wants to call after him and then she stops herself. She climbs from her bed to slowly walk to the table where she ate her breakfast. Mr Watson took the clipboard that contains her medical information with him. The three other files he left on the table are labeled “Security protocols”, “Omni-Connect” and last one “Hugh Murphy.”
Jane Addams Middle School
Seattle, Washington
the faculty lunchroom
At lunch in the faculty lunchroom Pam sits with Mrs. Farrell on of the regular substitute teachers. “Back again I see,” Pam comments to the older woman reading a newspaper.
“Mr. Smith is out again,” the substitute says laying her newspaper on the table. “I don’t know if I want to come into the city anymore if they don’t catch this maniac soon,” she said pointing to the article on the shadow rapist. “It says the police think he has killed one of his victims now.”
“Oh ya, I heard something about this on winter break,” Pam replies glancing at the paper. “It’s like a three hour ride for you to get here anyway, isn’t it?”
“I enjoy the ride, gives me time to think,” Mrs. Farrell says. “You should consider moving out of the city, a young girl like you isn’t safe.” “At least you aren’t a blonde, says all of the victims were blonds.” Pam’s attention is drawn a little more to the story at the mention of the blonde angle. She can’t help but to think of her drunken New Year’s Eve. “My son keeps talking about coming to Seattle with his friends for the day trip next summer, I hope they catch this nut by then.”
“Your son?” Pam quizzes. “How old is he?”
“Daniel just turned seventeen in November, but he still my little boy,” Mrs. Farrell tells Pam as she skims over the article. It says none of the previous victims could identify the man who raped them. All of the women said, he was like a shadow.
A shadow that rings a bell with Pam too. What if this rapist is Blake? Funny thing is right up until this minute she couldn’t remember that guy in the bar’s name. She must have been drunker than she thought. “You live on a farm, don’t you?” Pam asks. “I’m sure you’ve got a big healthy farm boy at home.”
“It’s a fruit orchard actually,” Mrs. Farrell replies. “Daniel is healthy now, Thank God!” “A few years ago he was in the hospital for a month, we thought we were going to lose him.” “Doctors never did figure out what was wrong with him.” “My husband says the whole thing made me too overprotective of him.”
“Nothing wrong with a Mother loving her son,” Pam says finishing her salad.
“Daniel just reminds me of my father so much, naive and easily distracted on flights of fantasy,” Mrs. Farrell reveals. “Sometimes I wish he could me more practical like his father.” Mrs. Farrell folds the newspaper over leaving it on the table as she gets up to leave. “One day you will know how hard it is to let your child grow up.”
Alone at the table Pam looks around at the other teachers in the room. She never sees Hugh Murphy here at lunch, he spends his time alone in his classroom on his laptop. Pam turns her attention back to the folded newspaper. As she read she sees something Mrs. Farrell didn’t, The article is written as if to discredit the victims of the attacks. She is disgusted with the reporting. She reads the words over and over again remembering more about her own experience with that man in the alley.
Eileen would say she had to do something to stop this Shadower. Eileen has been her best friend since Jr. high, but Eileen is a cop now. It is her job to hunt people like this rapist and murderer. Pam is just a science teacher at a Middle school. What can she do?
NW 52nd Street
Seattle, Washington
Hamilton Jackson lays awake in his bed, dressed only in his underwear, the same thing he has done for days. He hasn’t slept since his encounter on New Year’s Eve. Something has changed inside of him and he can feel it. His search has become more of a hunt than ever before. A hunt for retribution that ends in the death of the unworthy. His actions now weigh heavy on his conscience. Perhaps that is why he can not sleep or perhaps he can not sleep because he has found his true calling.
One thing keeps replaying in his mind as he stares to the cracks in the ceiling. That girl Pam, who was she really? How was she so strong? No other woman has resisted him with such force. What place does she hold in his destiny? It matters little, he waits now, waits for sunset when his power is at its greatest. Then is hunt will begin anew.
Jane Addams Middle School
Seattle, Washington
Miss. Donaldson’s classroom
First day back after winter break is always the longest to Pam, but at least she has her dinner with Mr. Murphy to look forward to tonight. Hopefully some dessert too. But she doesn’t want to count her chickens. She knows with a nerdy guy like Murphy she has to take it slow, no sex on the first date, unless he initiates it.
It is four-thirty when Pam finishes her work for the day and begins to gather up her things to get ready for her dinner date. “Hello, Miss Donaldson?” Hugh Murphy says knocking on the door frame.
Damn he is eager! Pam thinks. “Please if we are going to have dinner you need to call me Pam,” she tells him.
“Well about dinner,” He begins making her think, shit here it comes, the brush off. “I have to run an errand first, is there a place you like that we can meet at?”
Meet at? she thinks. “Don’t be ridiculous, I’m ready to go now, I’ll just come with you,” Pam tells him taking her purse from the desk drawer.
“That really isn’t necessary, it won’t take long,” Hugh tells her.
“All the more reason for me to come with you,” Pam suggests. “It is a school night after all, the quicker we eat, the quicker we can be in bed.” Hugh gives her a surprised look, that surprises her just as much. “Not together of course,” Pam says trying to cover her Freudian slip.
“Well okay, if you don’t mind waiting in the car,” Hugh concedes.
A cross town bus
Seattle, Washington
Nancy Gartner sits in a seat at the back of the bus trying to hide from everyone around her. She has no reason to hide from anyone. She has been in a coma for ten years and knows no one in this city. But still she keeps a baseball cap down over her face and a hood over her head. It has been an hour since she stole the clothing and cash from the nurse’s lockers at the Wyoming Concepts building. She escaped out an unguarded back door taking only the file labeled “Hugh Murphy”. She needs to find him, learn what really happened that night ten years ago. She wants to know if he still loves her as much as he loves him.
Little does Nancy Gartner know, things are going exactly has Samuel Watson had planned. He knew she would look at the files he left behind. Nancy has no idea what is really happening to her. In the days while she was unconscious at the Wyoming Concepts facility she was implanted with many sub-conscious memories and instructions. Everything she does now is exactly as she was instructed to do as she was transformed in her sleep. The training she was given to use the side-effect powers she gained is but the tip of the iceberg of the power she truly possesses that will only emerge at the proper time.
The thought never crossed her mind how she knows the right buses to take to get to Jane Addams Middle School. Nancy is eager to see her high school love and will do whatever it takes to find him. The file she stole was very thorough, even listing the type of car Hugh drives, a blue Ford Escort. That is Nancy’s plan, she will wait at his car until he comes out of the school.
Unfortunately as the bus gets closer to the school Nancy spots the blue Ford Escort on the street. She recognizes Hugh behind the wheel instantly. But who is that slut in the car with him? she thinks. Luckily the bus follows the blue car for several blocks as Nancy stands to keep an eye on it out the window. When the Ford Escort turns, Nancy pulls the bus cord to have the bus make a rather sudden stop.
She runs to the door banging on it, “Let me out!” “I have to get out of here!” The bus driver moves far too slow for her liking as the door is blown away onto the sidewalk. Nancy runs down the street trying to find the blue Ford.
Omni-Connect
Broadview section
Seattle, Washington
Pam Donaldson and Hugh Murphy pull into the empty parking lot of the company for which Hugh used to work part-time in his blue Ford Escort. There are piles of plowed up snow all around the edges of the lot. Hugh parks near one that blocks the view of his car from the street. “Looks all closed up for the night, no one is here,” Pam comments.
“That’s okay, I have the security codes to get in,” Hugh replies unbuckling his seatbelt. “You can wait here this won’t take long.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Pam warns him.
“I can let the car running so you don’t get cold,” he tells her.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” says turning on the radio. Pam watches Hugh walk to the front door. His ass looks good in those pleated pants, she thinks. This might have been a good idea after all. She reclines the seat to closes her eyes for a minute daydreaming about what else might be under Hugh Murphy’s pants.
Then a knock comes at the window. Pam brings her seat back up to the upright position. Outside the car is a woman panting as if she had just run a minute mile. Pam rolls down the window, “Are you alright?” she asks.
Trying to catch her breathe the Nancy Gartner says, “What are you doing with Hugh Murphy?”
“Excuse me, but who are you?” Pam asks fearing the worst as the woman looks at her with crazy in her eyes.
“I’m his true love, now who the hell are you?” Nancy shouts.
“That is news to me,” Pam says. “He will be out in a few minutes and we can let him clear this up,” Pam is more than a little angry that this is happening, but it wasn’t like she was in love with Hugh she only wanted him for a chance at the good time she didn’t have on New Year’s Eve.
“I don’t think so,” Nancy says as she pushes her hands on the side of the car. The car begins to rattle and shake, alarming Pam. Then the car suddenly flips up into the air, landing hard on the icy black top to roll across the empty parking lot. Pam braces herself against the roof of the car as it rolls. By the time it stops she is pissed! The blue Escort is a crumpled chunk of metal when it comes to a stop a hundred feet away, trapping Pam inside.
Nancy Gartner struts across the parking lot toward the building proud of what she has done. Her completion is gone. The force of her mind rips open the doors of the office building as she marches in. The path of destruction in her wake continues beyond the parking lot.
Out in the parking lot Pam is still pinned inside the crushed car. As usual she can feel no injuries but she can’t move. Is she cursed or what? she thinks to herself. Every time her life is getting on track shit like this happens. First it was her stepfather, then is was that crazy Musician in Vegas, now it is this bitch. It is getting to the point that Pam feels like people with superpowers are drawn to her, forcing her to do things she doesn’t want to do! She was just getting settled here in Seattle and boom! The thing she needs right now is the strength she had in Vegas. Pam feels a surge of power through her body. She now has the strength to make her escape. Pam tears through the twisted metal like tinfoil wrap as she crawls from the car’s remains.
Her winter coat torn Pam is really pissed now, it was the first winter coat she ever owned. Not that she needs it to stay warm but now it is ruined! Her anger wants to go after that bitch but her fear of discovery tells her she should just go home. Forget this ever happened. Then she thinks of Hugh, that bitch is looking for Hugh. She cannot just leave him here. Not with that maniac on the loose.
Inside the office building Hugh Murphy has snuck into the offices of Omni-connect. His computer skills have allowed him to hack into their security system to prevent his defection. Hugh has effectively made himself invisible to the computer system that records the camera footage. When he comes into any camera frame in the building the computer deletes the footage. Hugh needs to get into the mainframe onsite to find the evidence he needs to prove the company’s wrongdoing. He knows they are up to something illegal he just doesn’t know what it is.
It was a month ago on a night like this that he was working late in the office and he received an anonymous message for help on his terminal. It seemed to be coming from inside the system. He spent weeks trying to trace the message source. When he was getting close to finding the message’s origin he was fired and all of his access revoked. Since being fired he has spent all of his time trying to hack back into the company. Tonight is the final step to finding what is going on.
He returns tonight to the terminal at which he first received the message. His hope is to reconnect with that mystery message sender. That hope is set aside at the arrival of Nancy Gartner. “Poop bear, it’s me I’m alive!” Nancy announces from the door to the key entry room. The voice catches Hugh off guard causing him to move to the floor to hide. “Hugh baby, its me Nancy,” she continues. “Come out I am eager to see you!”
“Nancy?” Hugh mutters to himself from his hiding spot. He peeks over the top of his terminal to see the woman standing in the doorway. “Nancy Gartner,” he says loud enough for her to hear as he stands up. “What on Earth are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to find you,” Nancy replies walking toward him. “I need your help to get my life back together now that I am awake.”
“Me why me?” Hugh asks. “Look this isn’t the best time, why don’t you give me your number and I’ll call you later.”
“I can’t wait until later, besides I don’t have a phone number,” Nancy says moving in to kiss him.
“Nancy, what the hell are you doing?” Hugh exclaims pushing her away. “It is great to see that you are okay, but you have to leave before we get caught!”
“But Poop bear, I’ve come all this way to find you,” Nancy says giving him a coy look.
“Poop bear?” he repeats. “Are you out of your mind?” “That is what you used to call Greg and he died in that car along with my girlfriend Joanne!” “I barely tolerated you back then, you were Joanne’s friend not mine!” Nancy backs away from Hugh in a state of confusion. She clearly remembers that it was they who were the couple and that the two of them were alone in the car. “You need to leave now, Nancy!”
“You heard the man,” Pam says standing in the doorway. “Time for you to go!”
“Oh my God, Pam what happened to your clothes?” Hugh shouts at the appearance of his tattered date.
“Slight mishap in the parking lot,” Pam says trying to appear nonchalant.
Nancy’s temper surges as she turns to face Pam. “NO!” “You need to go bitch!” Nancy aims all of her telekinetic force at the science teacher. To her surprise there is no effect.
Pam stands firm using her super strength power to root her to the floor. “Not this time lady,” Pam snarls. Nancy’s anger flares hotter as she turns to look at a large computer bank on the wall. It takes little more than a thought for Nancy to tear the large metal box from the wall sending it at Pam. Debris flies in all directions as the memory bank is freed from its mounting. A segment of wall flies at Hugh knocking him over a desk to the floor where he hits his head, falling unconscious.
Strength in play Pam swings her arm at the ton of metal sailing toward her, knocking it against the other banks of computers along the wall. Sparks shoot everywhere as an even more determined Nancy presses forward. “You have brainwashed my man!” she shouts. “You are nothing but a whore!”
Pam smirks, “Like I haven’t heard that before, usually blonde whore, it’s a nice change.” Then something truly unexpected happens as Nancy glares at Pam. Red hot beams shoot from her eyes. The hot beams hit what is left of Pam’s coat igniting it. Pam can’t be hurt by the flames but she quickly gets the coat off just the same, throwing it to the floor trying to put out the fire.
The beams continue to shoot from Nancy’s eyes completely out of her control. She looks around the room through a red haze that cuts into every surface it touches. Nancy screams in both anger and fear as the fire begins to grow all around her.
“Oh my god, Hugh,” Pam whispers as the other woman rampages around the room catching everything she looks at on fire. The beams strike Pam again slicing open her dress at the shoulder. Her skin underneath is unharmed but she can’t say the same for Hugh if she doesn’t get him out of here now! Breaking though the dividers of the cubicles in the room Pam finds Hugh unconscious on the floor. He is breathing but the smoke is getting thick, she needs to get him out now!
Picking him up is the easy part, getting him out of the burning building is going to be harder. Pam is fairly certain that the room is on an outside wall, even though it has no windows. Holding Hugh tightly she takes one final look at the screaming woman still stumbling around the room burning everything. That bitch is on her own, she thinks as she slams her back against the wall. She is surprised it worked, she put a dent in the wall. Again, harder this time. On the third try she falls back through the wall taking Hugh with her in her arms.
Problem is she is falling. The building would seem to have been built backed up to a cliff. Who does that? As she falls she looks back up to see that there is no building only the cliff and a black cloud that hangs over it. They are falling and she has no idea how far down. Then she remembers, in Vegas she flew. Pam has been trying so hard to be normal since she moved to Seattle, put every weird thing that happened in Vegas behind her now she has no choice but to embrace it all again.
Hugh Murphy becomes heavier in Pam’s arms as she feels the warm surge in her body again as her power changes from strength to flight. Her decent slows to a stop only a few yards from the ground. Focusing on the top of the cliff Pam begins to rise up the unconscious man still in her arms. As flight takes over carrying them up Hugh becomes lighter to hold as she resists the force of gravity on them. Reaching the top Pam lands. Flight power deactivated Hugh’s weight becomes too much for her as she almost drops him to the snowy ground. “Snow?” Pam says looking around in the sun has set and it is early evening. The building, the parking lot are gone. They seem to be somewhere in the mountains east of the city where last week’s snow storm was much heavier. Pam doesn’t feel the cold but Hugh begins to shiver as he lays in the snow. “How the hell did we get here?” she asks expects no answer to come.
“I brought you here,” A voice says from above Pam. She looks up to see the dark cloud that hangs far too low descend to the snowy cliff’s edge. “You must pay for what you have turned me into.” The black cloud dissipates revealing the man Pam met on New Year’s Eve, Blake.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Pam announces in exhaustion of what her night has become. “I have been living here for months completely normal, now I try to get laid and two of you freaks show up in one night!”
“The spirits tell me that you are more than you seem, even without your blonde locks,” Blake tells Pam. When he first appeared Pam didn’t quite remember him but now her memories of the alley come rushing back to her. “Perhaps you are the one I seek after all.”
“Listen buddy you had your chance and you got all freaky about it,” Pam shouts at him. “I really need to get my friend to a hospital, so you can make yourself useful and take us back to the city or we are leaving!” Standing in the knee high snow she bends down to pick Hugh up again as she switches back to strength. She is really starting to get the hang of this one power at a time thing.
“You will be going nowhere!” Blake says as the cloud of shadow returns completely blanketing the area. Hugh almost instantly becomes restless in her arms. Her strength is more than enough to run carrying the adult man but she can’t see where she is going. She has no sense of direction in the darkness, she could easily turn to fall off the cliff again. “The spirits say there is something inside you that is different than all the others.”
Blake’s voice, if she can track it to him she can put him down, Pam thinks. As she stands motionless holding Hugh in her arms she begins to feel cold. Cold? she thinks. Is this cold? Pam Donaldson has never felt cold in her life. “I felt a connection to you the moment we met,” the Shadower says, his hand warm on her face and then it is gone. Trying to focus on Blake’s voice becomes harder as she becomes colder. She lowers Hugh back to the ground, huddling close to him seeking to share his warmth.
Pam’s strength recedes as she struggles to see in the darkness. Suddenly there is a stir deep inside of her, below the cold that overpowers her soul. A new power emerges, she can see in the darkness. See can see Blake as he approaches where she is huddled holding Hugh Murphy. Suddenly something else is triggered deep in her memory. She remembers those dark nights when she was a child and her step-father would come into her room. Mr. Murphy sides to the darkness covered snow as Pam stands up to face her foe. She is no longer that frightened little girl in the darkness.
“Can you feel the coldest, darkest part of your soul, my would-be mate?” Blake asks in a chilling tone. “My power reveals what lurks in the shadows of your soul.” “Let it reveal your true self.”
Stepping forward staring him down, Pam feels something totally new burn within her body. It is not a new power, not something she consciously wants to use against the Shadower. It is what he tells her it is her true self coming to bare against his darkness. Like a flip of a light switch to a thousand watt bulb she bursts with luminescence. The darkness is instantly driven away as her body lights up the snow-covered mountainside like the midday sun.
“Aaaggghhh,” Blake cries out in pain as his shadows are destroyed. He stumbles back as the light dims until he can again see Pam’s form. She stands straight and proud, her body still glowing bright enough to hide her features from normal eyes.
“I am not your mate nor will I ever be,” Pam says like a star from the heavens standing in the night over him. The tables have turned as the Shadower’s power is driven from him by Pam’s light. He tries to crawl away on the ground as she steps towards him. For the first time she can see that he wears only underwear. It was the shadow blanketing him that hid that fact. In the light she casts over him she can see blood stains and it all comes together in her mind. “You murdered those woman, didn’t you?” she asks.
“Only the unfit, Goddess,” Blake pleads shielding his eyes from the light she still shines on him.
She kinda likes the title as he cowered before her “Do you fear me?” she asks.
He trembles and looks down to his crotch in the process silently nodding, “Yes,” to her question.
“You are the unfit one.” Pam tells him. “It is time you paid for your crimes!” Pam looks to Hugh nearby on the ground. He wears a brown leather belt. She wish she was doing this under much different circumstances. When she reaches out to him, Pam sees her glowing hand. What if it is hot? the science teacher in her thinks to herself. Reaching down to touch the snow next to Hugh she discovers that the glow is composed of only light, completely harmless. The glowing goddess unbuckles Hugh’s belt and pulls it from his pants.
Turning back to the frightened man behind her she demands, “Stand up!” Still trembling Blake follows her command. She is beginning to like this aspect of these powers. “Turn around!” Using the belt she binds his hands and arms behind his back. Spinning him back around she glares at him in his face. She is still so bright that he must squint his eyes. “I’m taking you to the police and you are going to tell them everything you have done!” “Or I will come find you and punish you myself!” Her threats are idol, she has no way of finding him again, but he still believes they are linked. “Do you understand me!” Blake nods in shame and fear.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1987
Northwest Hospital and Medical Center
1550 N 115th St,
Seattle, WA 98133
room 258
Returning home last night Pam stared at her glowing body in the mirror. It reminded her of how her mother called her Star child when she was young. When she finally got the chance to look in the mirror Pam feared that she would have to dye her hair again, but as the glow faded it returned to the bottle brown shade. It took nearly ten hours for the glow on Pam’s body to fade. It forced her to call off from work, but Mrs. Farrell was glad to fill in for her at school.
Hugh Murphy was taken to Northwest Hospital by ambulance from the police station where Pam took the Shadower. Even in her state of glow Pam managed to stay hidden from prying eyes on a rooftop nearby. Hugh spent the night in the hospital for observation. Pam stands outside his room now. She isn’t sure why, she just feels like she needs to explain to him. She feel guilty, she never explained anything to Eileen over the years when she would disappear. Her heart tells her to just run again without a word to anyone. But something is different this time and she has no idea what it is.
Pam takes a deep breath and steps into Hugh’s room. He has just finished his lunch and sits up in bed watching the TV News report about the fire. “Hello,” Pam says softly walking to his bedside. “It is good to see you awake.”
“Oh my God, Pam!” he exclaims. “What the hell happened last night?” “The last thing I remember was you walking in on Nancy and I.” “Next thing I knew I was waking up in an ambulance!” “Now I find out that Omni-Concepts has burnt to the ground!”
“It was an eventful first date I would say,” Pam replies trying to smile. “I just wanted to say goodbye.”
“Good-bye,” Hugh repeats. “What are you talking about, are you going somewhere?”
On the TV News the announcer says, “Late last night a Chicago man, Hamilton Blake Jackson, turned himself into the police.” “Jackson confessed to being the Shadow Rapist.” “A search of his residence turned up evidence to justify his claims.” “He is accused of raping seven woman and murdering two of them in recent days.” “He says the reason for his confession was and I quote, “The goddess told him to,” end quote.”
Pam switches off the TV and sits on the edge of Hugh’s hospital bed. “I just wanted to make sure that you knew my leaving had nothing to do with you.” she tells them.
“I must admit I have had worse dates,” Hugh tells her. “I’m just glad you aren’t hurt.” “Not like Joanne.”
“Joanne was your first love who died?” Pam suggests.
“You picked that up from Nancy, huh?” he says. “She was my only love.” “It was Nancy that caused that accident.” “But I always blamed myself.”
“Why?” Pam asks.
“Joanne and Nancy had been best friends since they were kids,” Hugh begins. “Like sisters.” “It was senior year and they had been arguing over something.” “Joanne wouldn’t tell me what, but I could see it was hurting her.” “I arranged the double date without talking it over with Joanne.” “Nancy showed up drunk or high, whatever she managed to get her hands on that night.” “It was raining and Nancy was messing around in the back seat behind me.” “She reached up, putting her hands over my eyes and I swerved.”
“You don’t have to tell me the rest,” Pam says sadly seeing how upset Hugh was getting. They sat silent for a few moments while Hugh pulled himself together.
“When she showed up last night I instantly knew in my heart nothing good was going to happen,” Hugh finally says. “When I saw the reports of the fire I knew it was her and for the first time I knew I didn’t cause the accident.” “Nancy is just one of those people that bad things follow around.”
“I know what you mean,” Pam says taking a deep breath. “That is why I have to go.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Pam!” Hugh insists. “When I saw the TV News footage of the fire all I could think was how did I get out of there?” “That was you wasn’t it?” “It was you who saved my life!” “If I had gone there alone like I intended, I would have died in that fire!” Pam looks back to the turned off TV. Hugh has no idea what happened last night. Sure she tried to save him but in truth it was the Shadower that saved them both. “If not for you I would be right alongside Nancy in the morgue!”
“Nancy is dead?” Pam asks surprised at the news. It seems odd that she could be killed by her own out of control power.
“Report says they found a body, and we were the only three people there,” Hugh informs Pam.
“Why were we there?” Pam asks not sure she wants to know the answer.
Taking a deep breath now it is Hugh who must confess, “I thought Omni-Connect was up to something illegal, I thought they were holding someone against their will.” “I thought if I could get back into the mainframe I could find that person and help.” “Now the whole place is gone, I hope I helped and not made things worse.” “If anyone had trouble following them last night it was me and her name was Nancy Gartner.” Pam smiles slightly at his naivety. “So are you still leaving?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” Pam responds, “What you said does make me feel better.”
“I closed myself off after Joanne died in that accident, ran away from people buried myself in computers.” Hugh tells her. “I have know idea why I agreed to go on a date with you but I did and it changed my whole life.” “I don’t know if I’m ready for romance again, but I sure could use a friend right about now.”
They sit silent again before Pam says, “A friend would be good.” “I’ve never been friends with a man before, I might be a good change.” Besides trying to get laid hasn’t been working out so well for her of late, she thinks to herself as she smiles at the man in the hospital bed.