Throwing knives at targets that he’d created out of thin air seems to have sharpened Kevin’s reflexes (the word play is very much intended). The section of the street he’d created to divert a car speeding on a street where he found himself while trying to avoid a conversation with a statuesque woman named Anish, flashed out of nothingness just as he dropped to one knee and the speeding car eased over the hump, seeming to gain speed on descent. When the addition to the road disappears, there is only Kevin crouched down, trying to disappear himself.
There are groups of people staring at him on the sidewalks, cars are stopped in the street and people stand in their open doors. It’s one of his worst fears, revealing his abilities before a crowd of people, and he doesn’t want to deal with what usually comes next, the part where using his abilities leads to unintended consequences.
He feels a hand on his shoulder. “Elroy, come with me, I know some people who can help you.” Kevin slowly unfurls from the tuck and Anish offers a hand that he takes. She leads him through the amazed crowd, some taking pictures and video with their phones, some yelling praise that he is an angel, others that he is a minion of the devil, and as Anish leads him down avenues and alleyways that take them away from the eyes of the crowd, life slowly gets back to normal at the intersection as though Kevin had never been there.
“You really work at the rehab?” Kevin asks as he follows Anish down an alley filled with dumpsters and garbage that hadn’t made it inside one of them. Anish is still holding his hand as she walks briskly.
“I really work at the rehab. But I won’t lie to you, there’s no reason to.” She stops and the two stand looking one another in the eyes. “We’ve been looking for you. We heard you were in the area, they sent me because I’m Canadian and I decided to do some work at the rehab while I kept an eye out for you. You’re the guy, right? You saved that family in California?”
Kevin is proud of that moment, it was one of his high points, pulling them from their car that had flipped and trapped them inside, but it was short lived as he was confronted by the alien very soon after.
“I didn’t kill her. I would never have killed Jessica. I…” Kevin remembers seeing news reports about the heroic incident that also questioned if the mysterious hero had been responsible for the death of a woman that the hero had flown off with after saving the family. She was found shot in the sand on a beach close to the car wreck.
“I believe you, but honestly, it doesn’t matter now. You’ve outed yourself here. It’s obvious you like to keep to yourself, we think that’s a good thing, but now you’re gonna be looking to disappear again and I want to offer you a place to go. A very secret place where no one will find you and you won’t have to pretend that you’re like everyone else.”
Kevin ponders, then “Who are you? Who is we?”
“I work for the US government, and we really can use someone like you, Elroy. Your gifts, you can help a lot of people.”
Kevin has heard this before, from Jessica not long before she was killed.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ve been doing OK on my own this long. I appreciate the offer but I’m gonna go back to my place and pack.” Kevin offers a hand to Anish who stares at it with a look of disappointment.
“You’re a miigis, Elroy. You can save the world. I can’t let you just walk away from that.” Kevin assumes that the word Anish uses means magician in whatever language is her native tongue and so much about the interaction reminds him of bad times he tried so hard to run from every morning.
“I’m just a man, Anish. There’s no such thing as magic.”
Kevin turns to leave.
“I hate this, but I can’t let you walk away. I have to take you in. I believe you about not killing that girl but not everyone does. You have to explain what happened.”
“Just tell them you never found me and I promise that no one ever will again.”
Anish grabs Kevin’s shoulder and it is not friendly like before when he was frozen in the street. Her grip is strong.
“Just come with me…”
Before she can finish her thought, Kevin creates a flash of light and puff of smoke that he hopes will disorient Anish, but she never loosens her grip. And in the smoke, Anish kicks his feet out from under him and when he falls, he hits his head hard enough on the pavement in the alley to be knocked unconscious.
Kevin comes to in a room that he does not recognize with the few things from his apartment; his garbage bag of clothes and his couch along one of the walls. The walls are gray and a fluorescent light illuminates the room. Kevin feels the bandage on his forehead, it’s damp and when he looks at his fingers he sees blood. He feels disoriented and he is trying to contain his panic. Anish must have taken him to some government facility and they had obviously cleaned out his apartment. He stumbles up from the twin bed where he had been unconscious and searches for a door. If there is one, it’s disguised very well. There are no windows, nothing hanging on the walls.
“Hello!” He screams, and his panic is building. “Is someone there? Can anyone hear me? I’m bleeding, my head is bleeding.” The room starts to spin and Kevin feels light headed. He loses his balance before he can sit. “I need help! Can anybody hear me?”
“Elroy,” Kevin recognizes the voice of Anish over an intercom. “I need you to calm down, someone’s coming now.”
“No!” Kevin screams through the disorientation. “You, you did this, you come help me. If anyone else comes into this room I’ll make them regret it.”
“You need a doctor, I’m not a doctor…”
“Come now and explain what the hell is going on or I’ll find a way out. You won’t like it Anish. Come now!”
“Please forgive me miigis,” Anish says soberly over the intercom before panels open near the ceiling and release a gas that knocks Kevin unconscious once again.
PRL Serials 