If you rather just read what I wrote instead of listening to it in my Reading Panglossian series, here you go. I would love to here some feedback, good or bad.
Chapter 1 - Static Rondure
In the distance of the tar black night the whine of a passenger train could be heard. The air was frozen and seemed as if it was mostly made of static electricity.
For any normal human the night was the same as every other fall night, not a single being could tell that something of great importance happened and could greatly impact their lives. For them, it was just a normal evening they shrugged off as another non-historically significant day, like everyday; but who could blame them?
~~~
Meanwhile, a man of no importance steps off the public transit, he is holding a black briefcase; the same any business representative would be carrying. His shirt previously tucked, now untucked wrinkled below the last ivory button. The tie, underneath the collar of the shirt, was moved down in an attempt to wipe the day’s history from the man’s memory.
His stride was quick, to keep with the pace of the other pedestrians out that night, as if he was trying to go unnoticed. He kept his head down, to prevent him from looking into the eyes of the other paranoid people, who were doing the same.
As he walked he could feel his stomach tighten, like an external force was grasping it and squeezing it to juice the remains of his late lunch out of his system. The arm without the briefcase swung underneath to support the gut and to ease the pain a bit as he grimaced. He slowed his pace in order for him to recover from the pain that was disturbing his insides.
“What’s going on?” he wondered as his vision started to blur and he felt as if he was on a spinning carnival ride.
His briefcase hit the sidewalk with a dense thud that was soon followed by the rest of his body.
~~~
In a field near the city limits an altercation took place, a few hours previous. This altercation seemed strange, one like no one had ever experienced. A man of average height and average weight stood there in fear while a women a few inches taller than him screamed at him. The man was shirtless and shoeless while the women was dressed in a dark blue sundress that seemed to bounce light off at every one of her curves. The man seemed apologetic, just from the expressions on his face. On top of apologetic he seemed confused, like he didn’t know where he was and how he got there. His knees collapsed from underneath him, he fell backward and broke his fall with his hands.
“Get away from me!” the women demanded as she forcefully placed her foot into the soft top soil and proceeded to take a step towards the man, in hopes that he would be scared off.
The moonlight was reflected in her eyes. Her left hand was clenched, forming a fist while her right hand was flat and open, almost like she was creating a platform for something to happen. She stood still, in this position for a few seconds and then took another step towards the man.
“I don’t know why you are mad Miss, I have done nothing to anger you, in fact we have just met, so I know I have not done anything to upset you,” the man said as he gripped the topsoil in his hands to brace himself as he stood up. He placed one hand on one of his knees and balanced himself.
The women looked at him with disgust and said calmly, “You are correct in thinking that this is the first time we have met, and you are correct in thinking that you have done nothing to anger me; however I just get a feeling that I absolutely do not like you, for some reason.” She closed her eyes and maintained her pose.
The palm of her hand started to glow, like if she had embedded an LED into the center of one of the creases. As the light became brighter, it sounded like a bag of popcorn was being popped to perfection in a microwave.
The man could feel the electricity build up in the air, he knew something awful was about to happen; however the fear he felt prevented him from taking action.
“Look,” he said while he took a step closer to her. “I promise, I will not do anything to hurt you, so you can knock that off right this instant, Miss Faith.”
The brightness intensified in her hand as he stumbled those last few words out of his trembling lips, “How do you know my name?” she asked with her eyes wide open now, filled with terror. “Are you some sort of stalker perv, that has been peeping on me through my window at night?”
“Not at all Miss Faith, while you have your tricks I have mine.”
“Even more reason to not like you, Sir!” she shouted. A small breeze swung her long, straight, rust colored hair in front of her eyes. Even in her fit of rage she could be considered attractive.
One final popping sound came from her palm. The air seemed thinner while she stood there in the breeze. Total silence rang in the two people’s ears while they waited for what was going to happen next.
~~~
A combination of screeching brakes and flashing lights halted the traffic where the man was now lying on the sidewalk, two paramedics jumped out of the ambulance in a panic, the one that jumped out of the driver's seat, looked to be the more serious and seasoned one of the two, he wore a grey beard, that was cut short, probably to make it look more presentable. The crow's feet at the edges of his eyes showed that he had seen a lot of activity while being a paramedic. His partner probably no more than the age of twenty-five, seemed excited, his head was bald, but from an outsider's perspective he seemed like a nice enough guy. They both were determined to save the guy’s life.
"What happened here?" the older paramedic asked the women who had dialed 911, after she had witnessed the guy face planting into the eggshell-colored cement.
"I don't know," she said in a southern drawl, "He was walking, he slowed down and he toppled over like a cougar in a beer barrel. I dialed 911 afterwards, I didn't wan' to hurt the guy by movin' him."
"Ron, I need your help over here," the younger paramedics yelled over the traffic which had picked up again. "We need to get him to the hospital immediately."
Ron swiveled his stance and ran towards the younger paramedic, his head turned to look behind him, with his beard slightly following his chin. "Thanks, we will take it from here," he told the lady who had dialed emergency care, who was now more interested in the reporter van, just pulling up to the scene.
The young paramedic pulled a stretcher out of the back of the emergency response vehicle. The two men loaded the injured man onto it and then proceeded to buckle him into it for his ride to the hospital. The flashing lights and the deafening siren, on top of the truck started whirling around to alert the oncoming traffic to pull to a stop.
~~~
As the two people stood in the field, time seemed to have stopped. They both provided each other with their undivided attention, remaining alert to the next move their opponent was going to make.
"What is your name?" The women demanded as she continued to collect static in the palm of her hand.
"I have no idea," the man responded as the look of confusion returned to his face. "I don't even know where I am at the moment or how I got here."
"Cut the crap, Jackass, what is your name?" Faith shouted, she had a murderous look in her eyes, she was ready to slaughter the man if he made another move. "I would like to know who it is I am about to kill."
"Miss Faith, if I knew I would have told you already." The man was completely on his feet again, grimacing from his pain with the unknown origin. His pants were torn, mostly in the knee region; beneath, his knees looked as if a cheese grater had been used to make freshly grated pile of knee cheese. The scrapes looked somewhat fresh, however the blood had dried and clotted to a degree; the slightest irritation would cause the wound to restart the healing process.
"Fine you don't have to tell m--," she was cut off as the man lunged at her. He pushed her to the ground cutting off her concentration; the static ceased while the air thickened up. "What are you doing?" She shouted as she pushed her hair out of her eyes and attempted to sit up, but was thwarted due to the man, now on his hands and knees above her.
"I'm sorry Miss Faith, but right now you need to be quiet, we are in grave danger. You need to do everything I say."
"What are you talking about? The only danger I see is yo--," the man placed his hand onto Faith's mouth to muffle her shouts and complaints.
"Look, Miss Faith, I will try to explain everything after we are safe, but right now I am going to need you to be quiet, and I am going to need you to listen to me." His face no longer resembled the deer in the headlights look, but instead it had taken a more serious look, one of concern.
Faith attempted to push his dirt covered hand off of her mouth. Her eyes looked as if someone had started a fire in them.
"Now I'm going to remove my hand and help you up, I'm going to need you to start your static trick again, it has to be big and it has to be powerful, we are only going to get one chance at this," he whispered into her ear, constantly looking up and forward, like someone who was paranoid. "Two last thing, do not freak out when you turn around, I need you to remain calm, cool and collected and secondly remain quiet, this thing we are facing is drawn to loud noises." Faith's eyes changed, the fire that was there was replaced by tears of terror.
The man did exactly as he said he would, removed his hand, helped Faith up, dusted her off and reminded her to start collecting static in her palm.
"Slowly turn around now," the man whispered to her. "Do not make eye contact and aim directly for its chest, throw it when you are ready."
Faith's face changed to a bright red color out of embarrassment. "Hey, um Jackass, I can't do it," she said it a quiet tone, almost opposite of her shouting tone. "I can't throw the static I collect, actually it doesn't even harm people, it was all just a show."
"I know it was all a show Miss Faith; however right now I and everybody else on this planet are counting on you, you are probably the only person who can save us right now." He said unaware of cliches. "Just turn around and we will take this monster down together."
The man rested his right hand onto her shoulder, and helped her rotate. Her head was down and her eyes were closed, she had no clue why the filthy man told her to not make eye contact with whatever she was about the face.
"Why me?" She thought, trying to remember how she ended up in the field in the first place; why couldn’t she remember anything of importance? "Why do I even dislike this guy, he has done nothing to me. But now I'm here about to face something even the man who wasn't afraid of my static is afraid of. What do I do?" Her eyes started to tear up more. "Why did I decide to put my trust into him, when just a few minutes ago I claimed I wanted to kill him, I've never had those feelings before. I was going to attack him when he is clearly in pain. Why?"
"I am going to need you to open your eyes now, Miss Faith." The man said with his hand still on her shoulder. "You are going to be alright, just don't make eye contact, DO NOT make eye contact." He made sure to emphasize that in order to remind her of the importance.
"What do I do?" She asked, the tears were almost audible.
"Just follow my lead, you have all of my trust."
"Why?" She thought, "We only just met."
The man's face still had concern painted all over it, he knew he was going to be in a world of hurt tomorrow morning after this event was over, and Miss Faith, he had to remember to protect her, she was priority number one. His right foot moved forward, his knee was obviously in pain; though he would never admit it, he forced his left foot forward and started to run forward. "Now open your eyes, Miss Faith!" He shouted behind him.
Faith's eyes opened suddenly, and her jaw dropped. "What the hell is that?" She whispered under her breath as she stared into what she thought was an abyss of nothingness. Her hand started to crackle once again and the air grew thinner. "He said...he said I was supposed to aim for the chest, how am I supposed to do that when I don't know where that even is? And this thing doesn't have any eyes so how would I make eye contact with it? This thing is just a giant black sludge monster, it is shapeless and it doesn't have any features that would tell me what I am looking at." She thought as she brushed her hair out of her face, it was now tangled and matted with dirt and tears, her face was in similar shape.
