Lin Finity and the Words Unspoken, Fringes of Infinity Book Two
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Long Ago 1
Chapter 2 – Sunday 8
Chapter 3 – Monday 20
Chapter 4 – Light & Night 25
Chapter 5 – Fans & Allies 33
Chapter 6 – Madness & Reality 37
Chapter 7 – Rings & Revelations 42
Chapter 8 – Free Will & Hotcakes 49
Chapter 9 – Impossible & Deadly 55
Chapter 10 – Salt & Sanity 63
Chapter 11 – Mayhem & Creation 69
Chapter 12 – Hunted & Healed 78
Chapter 13 – Candies & Histories 86
Chapter 14 – Fires & Missions 93
Chapter 15 – Horns & Halos 99
Chapter 16 – Dreaming & Dying 107
Chapter 17 – Shovels & Hoses 114
Chapter 18 – Scaring & Sharing 121
Chapter 19 – Reports & Portents 128
Chapter 20 – Planning & Taking 136
Chapter 21 – Shafts & Tunnels 144
Chapter 22 – Madhouses & Messengers 151
Chapter 23 – Hot Shadows & Homes 161
Chapter 24 – Fantasies & Summaries 169
Chapter 25 – Rage & Focus 175
Chapter 26 – Scrolls & Men 182
Chapter 27 – Beaches & Alleys 188
Chapter 28 – Wine & Cookies 196
Chapter 29 – Gods & Terror 205
Chapter 30 – Teased & Crazed 211
Chapter 31 – Friends & Things 217
Chapter 32 – Doves & Oaks 225
Chapter 33 – Infinity & Eternity 235
Chapter 34 – Time & Tents 245
Chapter 35 – Life & More Life 253
Chapter 36 – Hope & Evil 259
Chapter 37 – Secrets & Laughter 265
Chapter 38 – Cowgirls & Cowboys 270
Chapter 39 – Tellings & Verses 276
Chapter 40 – Faith & Death 284
Chapter 41 – Miracles & Waste 293
Chapter 42 – Demons & Destroyers 301
Chapter 43 – Long Ago Now 312
Appendix 1 – The Scroll 321
Appendix 2 – The Tower 322
Chapter 1 – Long Ago
“Your bones and your flesh. Your heart and its streams. All will be reshaped to bear the Words across time.”
“Yes, Queen Gloriana.”
“Of all the volunteers, you, Renato, have shown the required resilience and desire. And most importantly, the patience.”
“I am thankful to be selected, my Queen.”
Tiago could barely believe he witnessed such a scene. He’d only recently come of age and been allowed to advance in the ranks as a helper to one of Gloriana’s attendants. The ceremony would be brief, he knew that much, and he listened closely to every word. He and the attendants, along with select members of the military, were present to display their support to Renato. And to keep him from losing his resolve. What followed the event required Renato’s complete and unconditional submission.
Gloriana sat on the edge of her plain, polished coral chair at the far side of the room, with Renato kneeling before her. In the center of the floor stood a simple table holding an open box fashioned of undersea oak. Her cinnamon gown had few adornments but showed enough of her form for all to know she remained a warrior. Despite the curious faces studying her from every direction, her caramel eyes remained focused on the man cowering before her.
Renato wore a common cloak and sandals. His sun-streaked dark hair fell to his shoulders, braided and ending in a variety of teeth. His eyes never looked up.
“There will be no path back to what you are today. You must accept that.”
“Yes, my Queen.”
“You will span many lifetimes yet live only one. You will speak the Words for brief moments, and centuries may pass before you are called upon again. Ask now if you have questions.”
“Yes, my Queen. What of those centuries? What of my life during those times?”
“Ah, Renato, you will know what every living thing knows except for humankind. You will feel what every human heart longs to feel but cannot. It is a comfort that you, right now, are unable to comprehend.”
The purpose of the ceremony, Tiago had been told by the attendant he served, was to focus the volunteer, to prepare him for the change. Tiago had asked what that meant, but the man could explain no more. It involved magic, he’d said, and Tiago should remain cautious, doing only as instructed. Fear kept the man from speaking of it again.
“Look into my eyes, Renato, and repeat after me. ‘I carry the Words so that others may know truth. I will never forget the Words, and my patience has no end.’”
Renato fearfully looked up and repeated it. Then again. And again.
Tiago grew weary of hearing Renato repeat it so many times. But as it continued, he felt a change within himself. He became calm and felt a sense of purpose. He began to understand the need for the repetition. He knew the importance of Renato carrying the Words.
The round room covered almost all of the tower’s top level. A single door led to the walkway circling all around. The domed ceiling defied gravity five warriors above the floor at its center, and many large openings at the top of the circular wall allowed in light and air. An opening at the roof’s top let in sunlight and rain when it fell. Forty paces would be needed to cross the room and five more to view over the parapet. The low wall rose half a warrior high, except for a section near the door, five paces long, where nothing would prevent a careless fall. Rainwater could flow out from there and drop to the canal far below.
Tiago wondered why the ceremony needed to be held so high up in the tower since most of the palace below remained above water.
Gloriana rose and guided Renato to the middle of the room. A sign from a general prompted all spectators and attendants to file through the door and take places along the parapet, facing away from the room and out toward the islands. Tiago quaked at seeing the ground so far below. But when he looked farther, he could see the Great Ocean at the end of the canal, and it calmed him. The general closed the door from the outside and took her place with the others. No one spoke a word.
It seemed forever to Tiago as he fought to look out over the islands and not back at the room. But it had been only moments before he heard the first screams. Chills clawed up his spine as he listened. The screams didn’t sound human. Renato wasn’t wailing from pain or even fear. His were cries of madness.
Tiago looked to his left and then to his right. Everyone he could see had closed their eyes, as if they hoped that would block their hearing as well. Tiago quietly turned and crept back toward the wall. With only one pace remaining, he froze, stunned from the sight. The wall appeared liquid, with countless waves and swirling ripples, though it had been formed from mountain stone. He took another step, and his curiosity overcame his fear as he listened to Renato’s howling laughter.
He reached out to touch the wall and gasped as his finger disappeared beneath the surface.
The sounds of insanity inside stopped abruptly, and the wall’s shimmering had gone—it was again solid mountain stone. And Tiago’s finger had merged with the wall. He dared not call for help and pulled frantically to free himself.
All at once, everyone opened their eyes and turned toward the room. Tiago’s master scoffed at his predicament and said, “There is always one of you, there is.”
Without another word, he unsheathed his knife and slid it smoothly down the hard wall surface, freeing Tiago from the wall’s finger. Tiago wanted to scream, but his fear and embarrassment denied him his voice. He’d been told. He’d been warned. And still, he’d been a fool anyway.
He felt important, though. Whatever the fate of the tower, he’d forever be a part of it.
Gloriana had summoned Marco, her most trusted general, and he stood with her near the far wall, away from the center of the tower room. He’d brought a scribe as the queen had commanded. All others had been dismissed and had filed down the series of stairways to the palace below.
With his helmet cradled beneath his left arm, his black hair could be seen, trimmed flat across the top, according to his rank. His ceremonial uniform left his thick arms uncovered, and out of habit, his right hand remained close to his dagger.
He made a quick study of the room. It contained only Gloriana’s chair, a small table supporting a closed box, and a folded cloak beneath sandals and some teeth. It was obvious to him that the transformation had been completed.
Marco had high enough rank that he could look at Gloriana directly. He did, and he was taken aback, as always, by her beauty and strength. Wild brown hair coiled down far past the dark skin of her bare shoulders. And her features were graceful, in contrast to her athlete’s body. Her thin garments couldn’t conceal legs that were at least as strong as his own. As she looked down on him, for she was taller, he trembled inside. He knew he had no reason—they’d been friends, even lovers for many seasons. But still, he struggled to meet her gaze.
“Marco, our lives here are nearing their end. The fortitude inside that had once seemed boundless will be gone soon. And all of this with it.” She extended her arms to each side.
“I do not want to tell you goodbye, and I ask that you grant me this request. And it is a request, not a command, because it requires your steadfast resolve long after I have gone. For that reason, I am speaking to your heart. You must be a willing general, a friend like no other, until your very last breath.”
“I will do anything you ask of me, Gloriana. You have had my heart for many seasons, and you will always have it. Just tell me what you desire.”
Marco willed his breaths to stay calm as he reflected on all the golden seasons they’d passed together. Be thankful for those times, he told himself. None of it had been given easily. He knew that only Gloriana’s intent had made it all possible.
“That box is crafted from undersea oak. As you know, when that wood is dried properly, it has the toughness of iron. But it is light. A child can lift it. Inside, I have saved the Words of God.
“The Words cannot be revealed to anyone who does not possess great power. I have made it this way because it takes uncommon ability to accept the message of the Words. The Words must be protected and preserved until the day one who can know them will come.
“Take the largest boat in our navy. Secure the box at the far end in the hold. Do not allow any of your crew to remain within twenty paces of it for more than one tenth of a sea tide. The box itself offers some protection but not enough. If you were to open the box, within a dozen breaths, you would forget your own name. If you were foolish enough to open the clasp and let your eyes hold the Scroll, within several waves of your heart, your mind would be forever lost. This protects the Scroll from all too weak to learn its contents.
“Set sail toward the rising sun and pass through the Pillars. Travel the water until the old sea can take you no closer to the next day’s sun. The Words must wait there.
“Your life must become a shield for the Scroll. When your seasons are reaching their end, pass it to one you can trust. Instruct them to do the same. It must continue this way as centuries are counted. Do you understand, Marco?”
“I do. But I beg of you, Gloriana, set sail with me.”
She shook her head but continued to look into his eyes.
“I can go nowhere, Marco. Soon . . . I will be lost between the Islands, and these islands will be no more.”
“I . . . I do not understand, my Queen.”
“I speak of my life here ending, Marco. All I have built will end.”
Marco began to speak, but his head tipped forward, and he stayed silent.
“Scribe, are you ready?”
“Yes, my Queen.”
“Marco, carry my telling with the Scroll. It might help guide others that follow.
“Go with my love, Marco.”
He looked up and stared without fear into her eyes one last time, letting their warmth burn into his soul. His heart begged that their bond might somehow defy fate. But after several long seconds, she looked past him, through the doorway at the rising ocean.
Marco studied the lines of the stone floor as he left his queen to stand near the parapet, with his jaw clenched tight to keep trapped all he would never say.
The mid-day sun glared into the tower, and reflections off of the long canal cast Marco’s shadow on the far wall. His shade twisted in silent anguish while he, too, appeared built of mountain stone. Military ships shared the waterways with merchant vessels. Only Marco’s ship would remain.
The work of transforming Renato had weakened Gloriana, but she knew that at least one more task needed to be completed. She leaned back in her chair and looked to the scribe, who still awaited her direction.
She nodded her head, and her voice broke at first as she narrated the story of the Words.
“After . . . a long, precious life, full of countless wonders and triumphs, I felt my days approaching their end. I stood on the tower before dawn and looked out at all that I had built. All that I had supported and nourished and loved. And I saw the sadness, fear, and cruelty that had woven itself into the joy, peace, and kindness I had intended.
“I looked to the Heavens and asked God, ‘Why? For what reason are we subject to every imaginable nightmare until the day when all our efforts are swept away, lost in oblivion? Why are we, for all our days, separate from your peace and truth?’
“God’s Words came unspoken. A few shone with the rising sun. More fell with the morning’s light rain. Yet more were carried on a warm afternoon wind. And others descended with the sounds of flocks, fleeing toward tomorrow’s new sun. Still more Words were entwined with the weak light of sunset as I looked down at the islands of my intent, once teeming with life. Islands that I could no longer hold. Lives I had become too weak to hold.”
She paused and closed her eyes.
“God’s final Words rode the pale rays of an uncaring moon as my strength faltered, and the waters began to rise.”
She opened her eyes and continued.
“I gave the Words to the Scroll so that others may know. The Messenger will tell why evil is forever present in our world, even these islands. God’s Words tell us why we are forever stumbling through chaos and sin, while we are made to strive for order and good. Know these Words, and have the answer your heart seeks. Learn what God says about the nature of our lives.
“Perhaps it will be you that finds comfort.”
Chapter 2 – Sunday
J O E L
Night had fallen quickly in Savannah, and Joel welcomed the darkness with another round of manhattans for his friends and himself. The party had been out of control for quite some time, and he’d had so much liquor that he could no longer speak. But still, he drank and danced. Over the sounds of drunken karaoke and screaming and an occasional glass breaking on the patio’s concrete, sirens could be heard approaching from the north. That only prompted more laughter, but they had just enough judgment left to realize they’d best disappear into the night. And Joel couldn’t deny that his shabby clothes and long, greasy hair had always made him a target for the authorities.
Joel had staggered off, led away by someone, and before the sun had risen, he awoke and knew it was time to get back to the Island. For a moment, he considered rolling back the sheets to see whose bed he’d shared. But the drumming in his head drowned out any curiosity. He needed to focus on the drive home and his job at the keyboard. In the house of God.
He knew that playing for Mass would be a struggle since he was hungover and lacked any real enthusiasm. But he knew he could fake it well enough to pull it off anyway. He also knew that not a single parishioner would have any idea what he’d been doing so recently and with whom. He smiled, thinking he didn’t know either, and pulled his knit cap down to his eyebrows for the drive home.
His amusement faded when he recalled the true reason he would always make it to Mass, no matter what fun led him astray. Playing for the service provided some satisfaction, and it paid the bills. But the real reason, the one that he wished he could forget, was the simple task he’d been asked to continue fifteen years earlier by his dying father.
Joel’s father had played for Mass, too, until his declining health prevented it. In one of their final conversations, he’d told Joel about strange events that had occurred on the Island when Joel was but three. A man mutilated himself in a grotesque way, and he hanged himself shortly after. No one could prove foul play. Only a teenage girl had been in the house, a pretty blond girl named Lin, and there was no evidence she was involved. But people that had known the man were baffled, saying he’d never do that to himself, not in a thousand years.
A few days later, he’d been contacted by a man claiming to be a paranormal investigator. Someone looking for proof of the evil in the world. His mission was God’s work, he’d said. He’d made a case that there could have been supernatural forces at work. And he had a simple request for Joel’s father: to listen, to watch, to pay attention to everyone in the church. If he were to hear any talk about strange powers, about magic even, he should call the number provided. He’d promised great financial rewards for any leads he could report and told him again that he’d be doing God’s work.
Joel’s father had scant belief in his public faith. But out of fear, he believed much more in Hell than in Heaven. And he didn’t want a ticket to Hell. So, he’d committed himself to doing as he’d been asked, and he did just that for the last fifteen years of his life. On his deathbed, he’d confided in Joel, and his request had been so impassioned that Joel had kept the number for his own fifteen years as the organist. Joel doubted he’d ever witness anything noteworthy, but still, he listened and watched everything.
As he sat at the console in the empty church, resting his eyes one last time behind his stringy brown hair, Joel remembered that grim conversation with his father. He wanted to laugh about it because it seemed ridiculous. But no, the man had been serious. And since that had been his father’s dying request, he’d been honoring it ever since. So, for fifteen years, he’d been watching and listening, and he’d never heard a single thing.
Until that Sunday morning in early November.
Joel expected it would be a routine Mass, and like usual, God would no doubt be pleased with the attendance and fervor. After he’d rubbed his face and began preparing the music, he heard Father Steve ambling his way to the front door to prop it open. Seconds later, he heard a low conversation at the door between the pastor and a female voice. A quick, quiet walk down the stairs led him to a perfect vantage point, just around a corner and out of sight, but well within hearing distance.
He couldn’t see the woman speaking with Steve, but he could hear every word clearly. It felt like another routine waste of his time until he heard her say, “Maybe it’s a power of some kind.”
Joel’s eyes opened wide, and he froze on the spot. Could something really be happening? After fifteen years of hearing nothing, did he finally have something to report? Maybe, but he figured he needed more than that.
“. . . I can see that the world is magic.”
Joel struggled to accept that he’d really heard that. Someone in his church had actually spoken of magic. The conversation ended shortly after, and he heard the woman’s heels clicking on the pavement as she walked away. He waited, unnoticed, as the pastor shuffled back toward the altar. Joel walked quickly to the open doors and peeked around the corner to watch a blond woman climb into a car and drive away.
After Mass, Joel called the number he’d kept for fifteen years. It took only one ring before someone answered, but no one spoke.
“Hello?” said Joel. “This is Joel Squires, and I have something to report. I was—”
A female voice answered. “Yes, Joel, tell me what you witnessed.”
“Okay, um, I’m an organist at—”
“Tell me what you saw.”
“Okay, there was this woman at the church talking to the pastor. He called her Lin. She seemed to be bothered by something. She talked about having some kind of power. And she said maybe it was magic. She really used the word magic, and—”
“I need her last name.”
“Her last name? I don’t know. She never said. And she’s gone now. She drove—”
“You need to find her last name. The pastor should know.”
“He might, but why would he tell me? Why would I need to know that? I’m just—”
“Find her last name. Quickly. You must do whatever it takes.”
“Me? I’m just an organist here. How would I convince him to tell me—”
“Listen, Joel. This is important. Get that name. You are doing God’s work. Would you rather I send a team down there to visit you?”
“A team? What? No, no, don’t do that. Okay, um, I’ll get the name. Just give me a few minutes, and I’ll call you back, alright?”
“Good.” The call ended.
Joel mumbled and brushed his hair back as he knocked on Father Steve’s door. A soft “come in” prompted him to open the door and step inside the modest room.
“Joel, what brings you here? I thought you’d be gone by now. Beautiful music this morning, as always.”
“Hi, Steve. Thanks, those were some of my favorite hymns. Um, I saw you talking to that blond woman before Mass, and I think she looked familiar. What’s her name? I think I might know her.”
Steve’s badly cut gray hair framed a confused expression.
“Oh, I doubt you know her, Joel. She’s only visiting from Pennsylvania, and she’s leaving today. I knew her as a child many years ago.”
“But, Steve, I need to know her last name. It’s Lin, right? But what’s her last name?”
“Joel, where do you think you know her from?”
Joel felt a new rage and determination spring up inside.
In a deeper voice, he said, “I just need her last name, Steve. Lin who?”
Joel had approached the pastor’s desk and stood looking down on him. Both of his fists rested on the tidy surface as he stared into Steve’s eyes. He began to twitch.
“Joel, I don’t feel I can share that with you. You probably don’t know her. Perhaps we should call it a day, hmm?”
Joel watched his own hands reach over the desk and grab Steve by his robes, pulling him forward and knocking papers to the floor. His eyes had become mere slits.
“Joel, what are you doing? Let me go!”
“Tell me her name, Steve. It’s not much to ask. The name. Now, Steve,” Joel said with more authority than he’d ever said anything before.
When the pastor reached for his coffee mug to his right, Joel let go with one hand and landed a solid punch to his jaw. The old man went limp in Joel’s hands, with blood running down his chin and his eyes wide.
“The name, Steve,” Joel said and punched him again.
The man faded quickly, but he managed to say, “Finnerty, you don’t know her, it’s Finnerty, why are you—” before Joel punched him again, and his head slumped to one side.
Joel released him and stood straight up, looking down at his own hands. His chest swelled as he studied through squinting eyes Steve’s blood on his knuckles.
A second later, his hands dropped to his sides, and his eyes stretched open.
“Steve. Steve! I’m sorry, I don’t know what . . .”
With his hands shaking, Joel dug out his phone and dialed the number.
“Yes, Joel.”
“Finnerty. Her name’s Finnerty, and she’s from Pennsylvania. Steve said she’s going back today.”
“Very good. You have done well, Joel. Tell me, what did you have to do?”
“Oh, I’m in so much trouble now. I punched Steve a couple of times. I don’t know what got into me. He’s unconscious in his study. What do I do now? What will happen to me? I should call the police―”
“You will not call anyone. We will take care of the priest. We will get help there as soon as possible. It might be several hours, though. Stay with him all afternoon if you need to. They will have a generous payment for you. Wait for our help, Joel.” The call ended.
Joel sank into the guest chair and hid his face behind his trembling hands. He hoped that Steve wouldn’t wake up before they arrived, but what then? What will they do with the priest? What will they do with him?
And he wondered who he’d just become.
A N N A
The call from Joel had reached Anna Kelgina just before she’d convened a meeting of her team. Reports had already arrived on her laptop about strange events in Pennsylvania, and at the meeting, she would assign agents to investigate.
As she walked through the spotless hallway deep beneath a vacant warehouse in Baltimore, she stopped outside the heavy concrete block covering the tunnel entrance. The small dog she carried whined and burrowed deeper into her arms. In all her years with The Shield, she’d never seen the barrier moved. She glanced down at the large motor that could be used to drag it to one side. Could the item housed at the very end of the tunnel be that dangerous? she wondered.
“Benson, you have been with us many years. I have never been in the tunnel. I have only heard stories of the last time it was opened. It was more than twenty years ago, I think. Tell me what you have heard,” she said with a Russian accent.
Derek Benson gave every impression of being ex-military, with the rarely blinking eyes of a fanatic. Always in combat boots, always a short, neat haircut, and rarely a smile. That day was no different.
“Ms. Kelgina, I doubt I know any more than you. That thing in there is a nightmare. The box is supposed to have something special, something sacred inside. But all it does is destroy people. And whatever’s inside the box, if that’s opened, too, they go insane almost instantly. Hell, even if you stood just inside the doorway for long enough, you’d be finished.”
“That is what I have heard, too, Benson. Sometimes, it seems too crazy to me. It helps to hear it said out loud by someone. And we still need to know what is in there. All we have is that ‘Telling’—a confusing story handed down through the ages. But the story does say there is an answer there. The Words of God. That is why we do what we do. What we have been doing for many centuries now.”
She quickly smoothed out her blue suit and picked off a few pieces of dog hair as she and Benson resumed walking to the meeting. The black dog she cradled in her left arm remained silent. Anna’s shoulder length brown hair seemed molded into a shape that prevented any disarray. Her white shirt was buttoned to the top, and her eyeglasses resembled oversize windows pieced together with thin wires.
Her work in Moscow had ended more than twenty years earlier, the day the Director of The Shield had approached her at the United Nations. He’d made a compelling case. If she valued helping humanity, he’d said, she’d join their cause.
Anna had often hoped to alleviate the sadness and despair so many people felt as they struggled through difficult lives. She’d been ready to play her part.
And she’d found it impossible to tell him no.
“Please open the folders in front of you,” Anna said. “They describe first reports of unusual events in two locations in Pennsylvania. One in Erie, in a motel room. And one out on a road between Erie and Pittsburgh.
“In Erie, a fugitive was delivered to police by an unknown person. We have been unable to secure information on who delivered him. The man displayed remarkable psychological damage, according to our contact at the jail. The fugitive had been there before, and he was known to be an outgoing, lively person. Something changed that. He is now unresponsive, but there is no sign of injury.
“Daria, you will investigate in Erie.”
“But I’m still new. I’m not sure if—”
“You will go, Daria. This is how you learn. Go and find out all you can.”
Daria nodded and tilted her head back, shaking her thick black hair over her shoulders.
“The other location is along a road closer to Pittsburgh and near a pond. In that case, there is clear evidence of violence. But the violence is of such an unusual nature that it warrants our attention. Look at the photos. He had been a sane man before that. No sane man would do what he did to himself. He is in a local hospital, and though he is physically able to communicate, even if just by writing, he will not.
“Ms. Kelgina, are we sure he did that to himself?”
“Yes, Benson, it is quite conclusive. Look at the photo of his hands. That is his blood. And gravel dust.
“We have other evidence related to this case. It is a recording of a call to 911 from a man who identified himself as ‘John.’ He can be heard talking to another named ‘Tommy.’ Listen to this short recording:”
“Hi, John. Where are you?”
“She’s amazing, Tommy, isn’t she? We’ll find her. Hi, I don’t know—Pennsylvania, I think. But man, Davey’s really messed up. She seemed to care about him, so that’s why I’m calling. In case you were curious.”
“Who cared about him, sir?”
“The blond lady. The most amazing lady ever. Her eyes . . . if you could see her eyes. I saw her eyes! If you saw her eyes, you’d know. She’s all I care—Tommy, wait, you’ll never find her walking. Wait . . .”
Anna clicked off the playback.
“My God, he sounds insane. What’s wrong with him?”
“We do not know, Benson, but we believe he and Tommy are eyewitnesses to whatever happened.
“There is no useful dialog beyond what you heard. It seems this John forgot he was on the phone and also forgot to end the call. It went on long enough that they were able to track his signal. By the time the first responders got there, the two were gone. Possibly they hitchhiked. No further information on them is known.
“Benson, go there and learn all you can, including the whereabouts of John and Tommy.
“One more item. A call just came in from a man in South Georgia. He reported hearing an unusual conversation between a woman named Lin Finnerty and a local priest. She lives in Pennsylvania now. Her address is in the report, and we believe it has not changed. We opened a file on her and her parents over thirty years ago in St. Simons Island. But after several years of surveillance, with no unusual activity, the work there ended.
“Tayo, we need your talents for her. Go alone and learn what you can. She might be there by the time you arrive.”
Tayo pushed his thick glasses higher up his nose and said, “Yes, Anna. You can count on me.”
“That will be all. Good luck.”
T A Y O
Tayo Tersoo had gathered Anna’s report and a few items for traveling and promptly left for Pennsylvania. Likely another dead end, he thought, as the miles played out under a cloudy sky.
But his sense of purpose never lessened. Diligence. Discipline. The words continually echoed in his mind. The task was noble. The fate of the world depended on his dedication.
He’d left his car one block and four houses away from Lin’s home, and under cover of night, he’d crept into a hidden place behind thick shrubbery in front of her house. His tall, thin frame couldn’t be completely hidden behind the bushes, but his dark clothing and darker skin helped conceal him in the unlit space. His long black curls spilled out below a thick wool cap. The air chilled him, and the ground even more so. He hoped it wouldn’t be a long wait.
His photographic memory went over the report again and again. The picture of an attractive blond woman in her late forties. The reported conversation she’d had with a priest. Talk of a power. Talk of magic. Maybe it wouldn’t be a dead end, he told himself.
The strong rumble of a car approaching prompted him to put away his mental notes. The garage door opened, the car pulled in, and the door closed after it. Five and a half minutes of silence followed, finally broken by a single, loud bark. Tayo noted that the deep bark indicated a large dog. And likely only one dog. More silence followed. On a chilly Sunday night, Kingsbury Court remained quiet and devoid of traffic.
Thirty-seven more minutes of silence passed, and Tayo felt the temptation to raise his head to look into the living room window above him. But he didn’t look. Discipline. Above all else. God’s work. He would continue to wait in the cold, all night if necessary.
A loud shriek broke the still of the night, piercing the wall at Tayo’s back. Then, silence. He wanted badly to look, but stealth was crucial.
The shriek was valuable information to report, and it was recorded in his mental notes. The exact time, its duration, even the estimated decibel level through typical construction for homes of that type. But it was not enough on which to draw a conclusion.
So, he waited in the cold. He slept, with his ears tuned to hear mostly sounds from inside, and just enough focus left to hear of any approaching danger.
L E E
Just the sight of him had become a heavy chain pulling her to the ground. She struggled to remember why she’d ever let him into her life. Lee Turner avoided second guessing her life decisions, but Alex had become enough of a burden that it needed a clear reminder.
She’d met him at the community college ten years earlier, at a time when she hadn’t yet figured out how things work. She’d needed him for financial reasons, and, she hated to admit to herself, for emotional support too. Her congenital health problems had been overwhelming then, making even supporting herself almost impossible.
Lee knew she should have ended it with Alex after she’d learned the proper arrangement. Instead, she’d allowed him to stay, and before long, they’d welcomed a daughter into the world.
“We might as well get some lunch, Lee. We should have time.”
“Sure, let’s eat,” she said as she brushed back her straight black hair.
His drinking had gotten excessive following the birth of Alessa, a year after she’d found the key. Maybe he couldn’t deal with her not needing him anymore. Either that, or he was afraid of her.
Lee sat across from him at the mostly vacant airport restaurant, grateful that he’d agreed to go to the treatment center in Austin. She’d convinced him that the family he had in the area would help. She knew he’d get the same help right there in Jacksonville, but she’d wanted him gone. At least for a while.
“It used to be you’d look for something healthy, but not anymore, right? Doesn’t matter what you eat, does it?”
Without thinking, Lee flexed her leg muscles against the faded denim stretched over them. “I feel pretty healthy, if that’s what you mean.”
Her answer seemed to enrage him, but beneath his anger, she saw mostly the panic of a control freak whose life had gone off the rails in an instant. Still, his attitude seemed like it would never stop. He started an argument, and like usual, her calmness only made it worse, driving him dangerously close to violence. She had even prepared herself to use the knife at the side of her plate.
And then, the most amazing thing happened.
Lee felt an odd sensation all over, a pressure of some kind, and instantly, Alex was on the floor. She instinctively looked away, focusing on what she believed was the source of the strange feeling. She could only see the back of a woman’s head, her long blond hair hanging down over the chair back.
The blond woman turned and looked at Alex, then at Lee. Lee sensed something, a reality that she couldn’t describe. But it seemed familiar. And powerful. She gazed into the woman’s green eyes, knowing that answers waited there.
The woman looked away quickly and rose from her seat, grabbed her bag, and headed for the exit. As she paused at the door for a final look, Lee saw a patch on her luggage, and she memorized it.
Chapter 3 – Monday
Just before the sun would begin battling the thick clouds, Tayo heard sounds of life again inside the house. He surmised that Lin would likely leave her home soon, so before the sky lightened any more, he stretched his legs and hurried to his car. The motor fired right up, and he wanted to curse the cold air blowing from the heater. But he didn’t. Focus only on Lin, he reminded himself. A short drive left him within viewing distance of her driveway, and warmer air rewarded his patience.
Forty-nine minutes later, he watched the garage door open, and Lin’s car backed out. He followed the car as it took as direct of a route as possible to a parking lot across the street from a row of storefronts in downtown Allentown. She’d driven at such high speeds, as high as sixty-seven percent above legal limits, according to his calculations, that he could barely keep up.
He found a convenient place to park to keep watch, and he was grateful for the warmth of his car. Three more people parked and went inside after Lin, at roughly three-minute intervals. Likely other employees, noted Tayo.
After twelve minutes of no activity around the shop’s entrance, he stepped back out into the cold. A short, shivering hike brought him almost within reach of Lin’s car. But the rate of passersby in that area, all with the opportunity to observe his actions, drove him back into his own car.
Tayo watched as, one after another, shoppers, workers, vagrants . . . all continued to walk near Lin’s car. To his dismay, a street vendor opened a mobile hot dog stand close by as well. His assignment would have to wait.
But could he at least purchase lunch from the vendor? No, he concluded—he might have been seen already walking in that area. A second appearance might arouse suspicion. Hunger was acceptable. Failure was not.
Six hungry hours later, Lin appeared, and he followed her back to her home, where he remained in his car, slightly over three houses away. Hunger was his only companion. Along with his dedication.
Two hours and ten minutes later, he again tailed her car back to Allentown, risking a speeding ticket to keep her in sight.
After she’d parked and gone into a restaurant, he walked past her car, slowing just enough as he passed it, and he placed a magnetic tracking device in the driver’s side rear wheel well. He continued into the restaurant, grateful for the opportunity to eat while continuing the surveillance. He took a seat at a small table on a balcony, where he had a view of Lin looking through the patio doors before walking to her seat at the bar.
He found he needed to correct a specific entry in his mental notes. The small photo of Lin’s face got replaced with his vision of her standing near the glass. The image of her short skirt, shapely legs in high heels, and flowing blond hair burned into his mind. The blue of her beret became his favorite color. From a distance, outside her work, he hadn’t noticed. But up close, he struggled to remember his purpose. The mission could easily have been forgotten.
But Tayo refocused himself. She was just a woman. A woman who talked of magic, he reminded himself as many times as he needed. Discipline.
Lee’s detective work, along with an unplanned flight and a drive in a rental car, took her straight to Allentown. The patch on the woman’s bag read, “Vets Without Regrets.” A quick search for the group’s website led her to photographs of various animal health care teams that had traveled all over the world. One photo showed the blond woman, identified as Lin Finnerty, with a team that had traveled to Kashmir. She worked at a place called Sweet Pets.
Lee looked at the photo of Lin closely, and nothing out of the ordinary was obvious. Not like what she’d seen in Lin’s eyes in Jacksonville. And what she’d felt. She looked at her own eyes in the rearview mirror for several seconds, shrugged, and looked for the nearest fast food drive-through.
“And cookies. Do you have cookies?”
She parked her rental car near the Sweet Pets entrance and watched intently. She’d picked up a bag of burgers and fries and a dozen cookies for dessert, and she settled in for what might be a long wait. To her surprise, she’d only just finished the burgers and all the fries before an employee turned off the “Open” sign, stepped out to the sidewalk, and locked the door.
Lee calculated that she had enough time before the woman would reach her car, so she brushed her hair back over her black leather jacket and closed her eyes. She remained motionless, doing what she needed to do, setting things right, and opened her eyes just in time to see the woman climbing into her car.
She began devouring the cookies as she pulled into traffic to follow.
Tayo watched as a crowd gathered around Lin. Diligence, he reminded himself as he fought to observe the rest of the room, not just Lin. The bar area had become shoulder to shoulder, and he congratulated himself for finding a seat with a good view. The balcony was mostly empty, with only a few guests at neighboring tables. It all looked routine, and he anticipated his mental report might not have any more entries.
Until he saw a large, unkempt man elbowing his way through the crowd toward Lin. He stopped six feet from her, and she rose from her seat. Tayo studied them closely, but he also noticed that a man two tables from him had gotten up to watch as well.
Without any deliberations, Tayo stood, spilling coffee on his sleeve. An unnecessary thought raced through his mind—a hope that the drink would stain the black stripes, not the white—and then it was gone, and he focused only on the confrontation unfolding below. His mind struggled, but his self-discipline carried him through, allowing him to witness and remember every detail. And he fought to record those details, to treat them as reality, when he doubted they possibly could be.
The woman stood without speaking a word, and her eyes closed slightly less than halfway. He saw a wave emanate outward from her to a distance of about twenty-five feet in every direction. He’d quickly counted four-foot-wide wall panels to arrive at an accurate estimate. Tayo’s black eyes stared, and he muttered under his breath after he’d seen every single person touched by the wave go out of focus, then quickly return to normal.
A voice inside contended that yes, her eyes had been glowing . . . a soft green. No, they couldn’t have been. Yes, he saw it. That fact went into his mental notes too.
As quickly as the wave rushed out and dissipated, the man confronting her began dropping to the floor. Tayo heard a glass crash on the concrete below, and he saw Lin look down on the man, who was out of his view behind the bar. She soon looked up, tried to pull her skirt down, gathered her things, and ignored the clamoring crowd as they parted for her to pass through.
To Tayo’s surprise, the man seated two tables over bolted down the stairs and met her at the door. They exchanged a few words and exited the building together.
Always do what’s right, Tayo reminded himself, as he threw cash onto the table before jumping down the stairs four at a time. He snaked his way through the crowd, which for some reason unknown to him had clogged the exit area, trying to get outside.
He finally made it out into the chilly air, looked for Lin, and saw only the crowd milling around, chattering and snickering.
Several quick miles and half a dozen cookies later, Lee followed the car from Sweet Pets into a restaurant parking lot just as a swarm of giggling people poured out into the windy air. At the other turnoff into the lot, she saw a gleaming black car waiting to turn onto Broadway. She parked her rental car and began walking toward it, with the brisk wind lifting her black hair forward and over her shoulders. She stopped when she saw a man get out on the passenger side and swing the door shut. The car turned right onto the road and traveled a short distance before it jerked to a stop. The man walked out to the sidewalk and stood gazing at the car, which rumbled with its brake lights lit.
Lee walked over and stood next to him, staring at the car through her mirrored sunglasses. Neither spoke a word. Within seconds, the engine roared, tires screamed, and the car rocketed toward the sunset.
Chapter 4 – Light & Night
“Yesterday, I killed a man, Gabby. Crippled a couple more before that. Drove Jack insane with pleasure too. And now, you’re telling me we’ve only begun?”
Gabriel’s jeans, sweater, and hiking boots were a stark contrast to Lin’s tight black sweater and short black skirt. She shifted her long legs, careful to not snag her black stockings under the steering wheel.
Gabriel glanced at her and laughed, saying, “You’ve learned a lot in the last week, Lin. It took over thirty years for you to get control of what you became, what you made yourself, when you were fifteen. We’re not going to wait thirty more years for the next step.”
“There’s more? More than my mayhem?” she said with a smile.
“Yes. When you’ve used your mayhem, and you saw the endless depths of magic below the calm world of reality, you must have suspected that there’s more. Much more.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it. There’s so much I don’t understand. I guess I’m surprised it took me only thirty years to get this far.”
“Well, it might have taken longer, except I pushed you. You do know that, don’t you?”
Lin paused and looked back on their peculiar relationship. It had all become clear just minutes before, after she’d pulled off the highway. Several hours earlier, she’d sped away from everyone in her day-to-day life in Allentown. She’d used her mayhem to heal Ben, and that had turned friends and coworkers into infatuated fans. But not Jack, who only stood on the sidewalk and watched her leave.
Several hours of ignoring the posted speed limits had passed, and she sat with Gabriel in the quiet of midnight. She’d felt a strange confusion deep inside, growing with every mile her Temt8tion traveled, and she’d had to pull over.
Gabriel had somehow found her—miles from home, in her car, on a deserted Pennsylvania highway—and did something to her, something that had cleared her mind.
She’d met Gabriel a moment after her mayhem had first erupted and destroyed the uncle that had abused her for three years. She remembered how she’d felt after that: too weak and overwhelmed to do anything but retreat and maybe never return. Then, Gabriel appeared, held her and comforted her, and became an internal friend. Her best friend. She’d been living some impossible mind trick, not knowing if Gabriel was real, but not really asking either.
And of course, Gabriel had pushed her lately. She could see it clearly. Gabriel had criticized her frumpy clothing, which encouraged her to change her style. Wearing the sexier clothes had helped her reclaim her sexual identity, which she’d locked away when she was fifteen from feelings of guilt. For over thirty years, she’d kept her sexuality, and her mayhem, and knowing the real Gabriel buried deep inside. But with Gabriel’s coaxing, walls had begun to crumble, and what had been hidden away inside began fighting its way to the surface.
Only a week earlier, her mayhem had erupted in Erie, saving her from a violent attack. After that, Gabriel had gently pushed her into dangerous situations. That very same day, in a risky confrontation with a stranger near a pond, Gabriel talked her into getting out of her own car and dealing with whatever unknown danger might be waiting. Gabriel knew that she could no longer be hurt. Her mayhem would always protect her. And it did protect her on its own until she finally got complete control of it on a lonely road in Georgia.
Through all of it, Gabriel had always encouraged her to choose good while prodding her to take control of her power. Her mayhem. And only minutes before, Gabriel had caused Lin to remember all of it. Every memory for her last thirty-plus years had to be rebuilt with the truth of Gabriel.
“I see it now, Gabby. You knew it was time. But still, your patience astounds me. I truly would not have survived without you. I can’t thank you enough.”
“You’re welcome, but I want you to remember something. You’re very important. We’ll talk more about that someday soon. But now, what are your plans? Will you try to find the end of this road number 76?”
Lin released the steering wheel of her Temt8tion and placed her hands on her lap. She still felt the magic just below her surface, and she knew it would never be lost again—her hold on her intent was unbreakable. But after using her mayhem in Allentown, that odd side effect that she’d seen before had changed everyone close to her. Life with them would be impossible, and she had no reason to believe that would ever stop.
“I don’t want to leave my life. I really don’t. But you know what John and Tommy were like, after what I did by that pond. How could I possibly live with so many people acting that way?”
Gabriel stretched then lowered the window, hanging an arm out for air.
“Now, Lin, please don’t think for a minute that I’ve been anything but happy to be with you for the last three decades. But I have to tell you, it’s good to be real again.”
Lin laughed. “I’m probably happier about it. It’s been so unnerving having you with me but not knowing if you were even real. I’ve known something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t look directly at it. Couldn’t even question it. How is that possible?”
“It’s actually pretty easy, Lin. Someday, you’ll see for yourself. But for now, we need to discuss your converts.”
“Converts?”
“Yes, what your mayhem does to anyone close enough. The most important thing for you to know right now is that it’s not permanent.”
“What!”
“John and Tommy are likely back to normal by now. Or whatever normal is for them. The people in the restaurant will take longer. The stronger you get, the longer that effect lasts.”
“Oh my God, Gabby, that’s great news. I can certainly start a new life—I can still feel that fever inside. It was burning so hot when I left it all behind. But that’s a good life, back there. I’d always miss Jack. And Nomad.”
“Leaving the way you did, committing yourself to an entirely new life—that’s what was required. That changed you in an important way.
“It’s the leaving that mattered, Lin. What ground you actually stand on means nothing.”
A short drive brought them to a crumbling motel shrouded in shadows and tucked into the forested hills near Somerset. The chilly air carried aromas of burning wood and pine, and they hurried to check in under the silent moonlight. Gabriel volunteered for the sagging couch so Lin could claim the bed.
“What you’ve been through has tired you, Lin, and you probably don’t know just how much. Using the magic, as you call it, takes a kind of strength that few ever acquire. When you healed Ben, you pushed beyond your limits.”
“I feel good, Gabby. But you’re right—I am pretty tired. I’m still so amazed by it all. The magic and what it can do. And I’m amazed by you too.”
Lin had changed into sweats and slippers, but her hair remained impeccable. She sat cross-legged on the bed, and Gabriel leaned against the plain wood dresser.
“Do you feel you understand things better?”
“Yeah, I really do. Once I got control of my mayhem, my life began to make some kind of sense again. I need things to make some kind of sense.”
“I understand.”
Gabriel studied Lin closely, then spoke.
“Before you sleep, there’s someplace I’d like to take you.”
“Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have changed?”
“We’re not leaving this room.”
Lin still felt beyond needing explanations after everything that had happened in the previous week. She’d used her mayhem many times, injuring some, killing one, and healing another. And she’d almost wrecked Jack with the pleasure she’d forced on him. The world seemed boundless. She’d go wherever Gabriel wanted. She rose from the bed and stood near Gabriel.
“Take my hand, Lin. Try to not let go. There are no signposts where we’re going.”
“Oh, um . . . sure. Okay,” she said and took Gabriel’s outstretched hand.
Immediately, she saw Gabriel’s eyes begin to close, only partially blocking a deep green glow. The wave from Gabriel hit her like a hurricane. Her eyes said that she hadn’t moved, but she felt the wave whip her impossibly high and snap her back down. The feeling of falling was like a brick in her gut, and she felt she’d traveled miles in an instant. As she neared the bottom, the room began to blur, and she felt the odd confusion that she used to feel before she’d gotten control of her mayhem.
Every sense overlapped with all the rest. The alarm clock’s ticking tasted like honey. The white of the walls felt like hot sunshine. And the sound of her own heart beating was a soft shade of blue, then waves of wet and dry. Then, each beat was a puff of wind through lilacs, a scent that she could see bouncing around and that felt rough like sandpaper. Then, the room was gone, and she was alone with Gabriel in the magic.
And everything hit like an explosion.
Every sense she had staggered under the onslaught of chaotic sights and sounds and scents. Her mind collapsed as thoughts and memories and ideas and dreams swept through and were gone, making room for more. Feelings raced to every extreme in countless directions, and she sought anything solid, anything that would just hold still long enough for her to know it, to understand it. But there was nothing that made sense. It was a screaming storm, its only purpose to devour her.
And still, she felt her hand in Gabriel’s being squeezed tight. Gabriel’s grasp became a sound, then a scent . . . then again, only a touch. They’d found a calm corner of the swirling insanity, but she still clutched Gabriel’s hand in fear for her life.
She wanted to look at Gabriel, but something else had captured her attention—something that seemed near and far, gigantic and tiny at the same time. Lin gazed at a stillness being born amid the spinning hysteria. Something was being created there for her alone.
She continued to hold Gabriel’s hand, and she felt like laughing and crying. It was a jewel resting on a cloud, beating like a heart, and shining with a color that she could not recognize. A color that didn’t exist in the world she knew. She could tell it wasn’t a blend of other colors. It was an entirely new color!
How could that even be possible? She knew she had to remember it and somehow bring the memory of it back into the world. What an incredible find, she thought—something that couldn’t possibly exist. A new color, there in the magic, a brilliant color with no name, a color that—
Abruptly, she felt a pull from Gabriel, followed by a sense of breaking a barrier. She felt the whipping force drag her dangerously high and snap her back down. With her free hand, she held her stomach and opened her eyes in the motel room.
An undefined turmoil seeped into her mind as she turned to look at Gabriel, whose eyes were slowly returning to their normal brown.
She felt something move deep inside. Something that had been rooted loosened.
“Gabby, I . . . I don’t know what to say . . .”
“There are no words for it, Lin. We can try to talk about where we were, but our words will fail us. Try to tell me what you saw.”
“I don’t know what it was. A jewel, I think. A magic jewel? But maybe it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that its color…I’ve never seen that color before. It doesn’t exist. But I saw it. I remember seeing it and knowing that it doesn’t exist. But I can’t remember what it looked like now. I really did see it, didn’t I, Gabby?”
“Yes, you really did see it.”
“But why can’t I remember it?”
“Your eyes, your mind, even your memory, are made for this world. They will never know that color.”
“That’s crazy . . . I should be able to remember it.”
“You never will.”
Lin felt hot tears lined up and ready to go. She could only bite her lip and stare at Gabriel before again finding her voice.
“But you . . . you remember it, right?”
“No.”
Lin turned away and grabbed the dresser with both hands. She shook her head slowly, her long hair hanging down past her shoulders, and wondered how any of that could have just happened. The world’s a place where everything is possible, she reminded herself, and everything is accounted for. But that color—it had no place in the world. And while she lived in the world, she knew she’d never see that color. No one would.
A feeling of excitement surged then vanished, replaced by an unfamiliar fear. She’d never known that she lived only a heartbeat from insanity.
Something inside her felt like it was shaking itself loose, breaking apart. Suddenly, her world, the entire world she’d known all her life, seemed no larger than the motel room, surrounded by a vastness stretching to infinity. A realm that literally could not be described. Or even remembered.
She’d seen the endless magic below the calm surface of reality every time she’d used her mayhem. But it had seemed separate, something that existed as a secret part of the world. Almost like a game.
But no, she could see now that the world she inhabited was just a small, easily managed portion of all that existed. What wonders, what mysteries—and what terrors—lay waiting in all that magic? She knew that she’d never be able to bring any part of it back into her life. She couldn’t even remember a simple color.
“Gabby,” Lin said, her voice shaking, “what good is all that endless magic if we can’t understand it? If we can’t even remember it?”
“There’s a challenge for you, Lin. Just know that the magic is real. And understand, too, that when you’re in this world,”—Gabriel pointed to the floor—“you’re experiencing only a small part of all the wonder,”—Gabriel pointed to the empty black beyond the window—“out there.”
Lin stared into the darkness before looking back at Gabriel. One tear escaped.
“Gabby,” Lin whispered, “I don’t . . . I mean, what should I—”
“Rest, Lin. You need to rest.”
She had a thought of their room being but a single speck of light, surviving only because of those thin walls. A light lost in infinite night.
Lin ended her gaze into Gabriel’s kind eyes and lay down across the bed. She struggled to raise an arm of lead to switch off the lamp on the nightstand. She heard only silence, and she wondered if Gabriel even needed to sleep.
Her thoughts raced until they hit their own wall and could go no further.
Lin fell into the deepest sleep she’d ever known. Her dreams courted delirium and flirted with lunacy. But even with all the madness her mind could concoct, it could not conjure up that color.