Chapter 1 - Meetings
It had only been four hours since I had gotten back from Ohio when my phone rang. I sighed and got up off my couch, heading to the kitchen to grab my phone.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Steven?” a gruff male voice replied on the other end.
“Yea?”
“It’s Darrell Fairman, I think I found one.”
“And what makes this one any different than the last four? Remember the one in Cleveland? Richard Boss? Turns out he’s just really good at basketball, and is not a flyer.”
“Sorry about Richard, but this one is close to you, maybe a half an hour drive north. Sam Lastman, in Greenville North Carolina, shouldn’t be too bad. The address is 4818 Yorkshire Circle.”
“Any idea on what this one can do?”
“Sorry Steven, I hope you find him” Darrell said before he hung up the phone.
I sighed again and grabbed my coat from off the hook next to my front door. I headed down my driveway and stepped into my jet black Toyota Corolla and drove up to Greenville. After 45 minutes I finally arrived at Yorkshire Circle. I looked at the numbers along the houses, 4810, 4812, 4816, and stopped at 4818. I walked over to the front door and stopped when I heard arguing behind it.
“What do you mean how dare I? How dare you!” the voice came from a woman screaming loudly.
“Oh really? How dare I? Well next time I’ll make sure not to come home early from work maybe then I won't find you in bed with Ted the man from the copy place!” a man’s voice screamed back.
“Stop exaggerating, we weren’t doing anything, I just had him over for coffee!”
“Well then why was he kissing you when I walked in?”
“He wasn’t! I had something in my teeth and he was checking it for me!”
“With his mouth!?”
“How dare you argue like this when our daughter is just upstairs”
“Oh, so now you act like you care about her? You were just making time with Ted and NOW you care about her?”
I cleared my throat and knocked on the door. A few moments later the door swung open and a man was standing in front of me with a
very annoyed look on his face.
“What the hell do you want?” he asked.
“Are you Sam Lastman?” I asked politely. "No, I’m Karl Lastman, Sam’s father, what the hell do you want with my daughter?”
I pulled out my 9mm and pointed it at him.
“Can you please get Sam for me, I have something I need to discuss with her.”
Karl’s eyes went wide for a second before he shouted, “Mary, call the police, get Samantha out of the house! This man-” he was cut off when I knocked him unconscious with the butt of my gun. I dragged his unconscious body into the house and closed the door.
“No Mary, don’t call the police,” I called out. I turned and saw a woman run to another room. I ran after her and knocked her unconscious in the same fashion as Karl. She fell onto a glass coffee table, shattering it, and sending shards of glass ricocheting in off of the walls and in all directions. “Sam!” I yelled, “where are you?” I heard a little gasp come from the kitchen, so I followed the sound. I looked around the white kitchen for Sam.
“I wonder where you are” I said in a playful manner, I could hear a sound coming from under the big white table. “Could you be under HERE!” I yelled the last word and looked under the table, it was empty. I looked up and saw a little girl, probably about 6 years, old run away from me. I smiled, I had her cornered against the fridge. I looked at the pictures on the fridge, none of them looked like they were a very happy family. All of the pictures had at least one person out of the three missing or looking like they wished they were missing.
“Sorry Sam, but there is something I need-” I was cut off as the fridge that Sam was cornered against sailed towards me. I managed to shield my face, but I was knocked to the ground and pinned by the large refrigerator.
“Bad move Sammy,” I said. I managed to get an arm free and reached for my handgun. I aimed and squeezed the trigger. Sam fell instantly with a hole in her head.
I struggled to get free from the heavy fridge on top of me when the window that I was facing shattered. I used my free hand to shield my eyes from the glass. When I looked over at the window I saw a tall girl standing inside the kitchen. She had long brown hair, and was very skinny. If I were to guess, I would say she was about 20 years old, and very pretty.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked her. She looked around, Sam was just out of her view, behind the fridge on top of me.
“Where is the girl?” she asked sternly.
“Who are you?” I asked again
“My name is Hannah Marks, I’m a collector. Now tell me where the girl is, and maybe I won't kill you.”
I slowly aimed my gun, hoping she wouldn’t see. “I have a better idea, I get out myself, and kill you, how’s that for a plan?” on the last word, I fired directly at her chest. She quickly jumped out of the way of the bullet, causing it to sail straight into the oven, knocking out the pilot light.
“So I see you have already have some abilities under your belt,” I said to her. She did a flip and jumped onto the fridge on top of me. The increased pressure completely knocked the wind out of me.
“I got a few under my belt. Now who are you?” she asked, not getting off the fridge.
“Why should I tell you?” I asked through short breaths. Hannah did another flip off of the fridge, moving it slightly as she did, freeing my other hand. She grabbed my wallet from off the floor.
Hannah looked out the window, her back to me. “Listen to me-” she paused to look at my driver’s license, “Steven, I have a dream. In that dream, I have every single D.O. and everybody worships me,” she kept talking and I slowly freed myself from underneath the fridge, trying not to make a sound. I crept out from underneath and crawled towards Sam’s body. I looked up, and Hannah was still talking with her back to me. I pulled the hunting knife from out of my pocket and made a quick incision underneath Sam’s chest but above her stomach. I reached into her body and pulled out a small red and blue ball, about the size of a marble. I looked at the Darwinian Orb and held it to my mouth.
“Do you understand what I mean?” Hannah asked, turning around. She looked at the fridge, then her eyes went wide and she looked over at me.
“GIVE ME THAT D.O.!” she yelled, running over. I quickly popped it in my mouth and swallowed. Hannah stopped in her tracks.
“There’s more than one way to get a D.O. I’ll just pull it out of you once I kill you.”
Suddenly I felt very hot, every muscle in my body felt like it was on fire. I fell to the floor and screamed, I couldn’t take the pain, and I just watched as Hannah closed in on me, holding a knife. The pain subsided immediately when she put the knife right against my neck.
“Any last words?” she asked me. She was stupid, she was standing in front of me.
“Just one. Moron,” I then punched her as hard as I could in the stomach. She flew back and hit the wall, making the dishes on a rack by the sink fall.
“Ow ow ow” I said, shaking my fist. “Hang on a second.”
I looked down at my fist and smiled. “I think the Darwinian Orb just kicked in,” I lifted the kitchen table with one hand and threw it at her. She easily jumped out of the way. She came at me again. I punched but she quickly moved her head out of the way and punched me. I threw my fist out again but she dodged it easily. She punched me a few more times and dodged a few more my blows before I got fed up.
“Stop!” I yelled. I pulled a match out from my pocket. “The pilot light has been out for about 10 minutes, if I light this match, the whole place goes up in smoke.”
“You’ll die too,” she replied, with a look of fear in her eyes.
“Maybe, but so will you. Get out of here now, and I won't do it.”
She looked at the match in my hand, then at the stove, then at the match again, then at the window. “You win this round Steven, but I will kill you, and I will get your D.O.”
“Maybe, but not tonight.” She hopped out the window, grabbed onto the drain pipe, and flipped herself onto the roof. I picked up my wallet and looked around the floor for any more of my possessions that had fallen. When I was sure that I had everything I headed out the door, stepping over Karl’s unconscious body. When I was outside I lit the match and threw it inside the house. I stepped into my car just in time to see the bits of rubble bounce off the hood as the house exploded.
