Picture is up. Story coming tomorrow.Chapter 7
Outbound
I sat in class, but I couldn’t pay attention to the Professor. He was just background noise. I was staring at my phone, looking at how it had changed.
Phonebook:
Dad
Grace
Mom
“Call me after class!”
Her words still echoed in my thoughts. I closed my phone and focused on the lecture.
Class ended early. I walked out of the class and opened my phone.
Calling Grace:
Connecting…
I only stared at the phone.
Grace:
Connected: 0:01
“Hi!”
I put the phone up to my ear.
“I thought you weren’t going to call.”
The time was 2:12. I had told her I would be out of class at 2:20.
“I’m early.”
“You know what I mean. Well, where are you?”
“Next to Steinberg Hall.”
“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”
Before I could say anything, she terminated the phone call. I closed my phone and stood in front of the hall. I only had to wait for one person before. This was not something I was used to or wanted to become used to. When waiting for someone, no matter how short that time actually is, it feels an eternity.
“Hey!” a voice called from behind me.
I turned around to see her walking toward me.
“Miss me?” she smiled.
I glared at her.
“Okay, sorry.” She leaned back and raised her hands in a defensive gesture.
“What do we do now?”
“I don’t suppose it matters. Being with you, we’ll find an Affect or two.”
“Then I’m going.”
“Where?” she asked.
“I don’t know. But there’s no use waiting.”
“Okay.”
We left campus and entered the city. We were at an intersection waiting for the walk sign. When it came to our turn, Grace began to walk. I grabbed a hold of her and pulled back. A car sped through a red light and nearly hit her.
The driver honked at us and cursed us as he sped down the road.
“These are the people you want to protect?”
“Just because one person acts that way doesn’t mean the rest of the world does.”
“Have you heard this city? The noise of people pushing each other aside.”
“Well, you pulled me back,” she smiled and continued forward.
I shook my head and followed her.
“So how do you usually find an Affect then?”
“I roam the city like we are now, but that’s for drones.”
“Drones?” I asked.
“Remember how Eason said there are generic Affects and unique Affects?”
“Yes.”
“The generic ones seem to mindlessly attack and are harder to track, hence drones. Unique Affects follow a pattern. They’re the ones I track and usually target. I call them primaries.”
“Why primaries?”
“Because that’s the first kind I encountered,” Grace nearly whispered. Her voice returned to its perkiness. “But you seem to be able to find,” she considered for a moment, “or attract drones.”
I wrung my mouth.
“And stopping any Affect is better than none.”
“I don’t even know where to begin.”
“By trying.”
“Well, they called me.”
“Maybe it wasn’t that. Maybe you reacted to them?”
I turned down an alleyway and walked toward a boarded, abandoned building.
“Where are you going?”
“To try this in a place where no one will see.”
We entered into the building, and I opened my phone.
“So who do I call?”
“I don’t know,” she laughed. “This is your Aspect.”
A tremendous help.
“But focus. Call out to them.”
I felt the green button would be a good place to start. Call out to them huh? I pressed it.
Outbound…
A soft high pinging.
“That’s strange.”
“What?” she asked.
I showed her my phone.
“That is strange. Do you hear anything?”
“No.”
"Well then, that's pointless."
I was ready to end the phone call when I heard something skitter above us.
"Did you hear that?"
"No what?"
"I don't know. It sounded like-"
“Behind you!”
She threw herself at me and knocked us to the floor. The phone flew out of my hand. I could hear something swish through the air above us. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. We were soon running toward the door.
“Why can’t you fight it?”
“There’s no light in here!”
“What?”
“Trust me! And end the phone call!”
“I can’t! I dropped my phone!” I could see its light shining in the darkness. I could see something skitter past it.
“We’ll get out first, deal with these, then get the phone!”
We were almost out the building. The sun’s light that shone through the doorway was touching us, but an arachnid-like Affect descended down before the door. Grace grabbed her lipstick and swung. The Affect was cleaved in two, and we were out the door. We found ourselves in the alley with both directions guarded by Affects. And I could hear more coming.
“I’m sorry.” She let go of my hand. She turned toward me and swu—
Text and Images © Jonathan Lee
4 comments:
I betting that she knocked him out to stop the pulse of his aspect. Grace should dual wield a flashlight and she would be good to go anywhere. Good ending with this chapter. I could see thew glare that hank gives hank earlier when I was reading this.
Haha. It seems like my character's are becoming imaginable, and that's a good thing. I was hoping I could get across the glare without having to describe it. I will say this, channeling this character is fun but hard. Trying to keep things minimalistic and in his tone is a fun challenge.
The flashlight thing is an interesting idea. I'll think about it.
What else is going to happen aside from them constantly running into Affects? I have no attention span =D
Unfortunately, you'll just have to wait. If you'd like, I can let you know in about 2 months when the story has reached beyond its introductions.
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