I can say now that there's a very low chance of me writing tomorrow as my day's pretty much fully booked, but definitely monday! So, expect more Darren shenanigans then! Until then, enjoy the next part of the story.
Darren took a slow stroll along
the street, thoughts brewing within his mind. The smell of fresh brewed coffee
permeated the air. He sighed and rummaged around in his pockets for loose
change, his thoughts shifting to focus on the smooth, sweet morning charge of a
fresh vanilla latte.
“One track mind, that’s what you
are...”
Darren rolled his eyes beneath
his glasses, “Not now, Mak!”
“What? There’s nobody around.
Who’s gonna hear me?”
“You never know who or what’s
around these days. Look at those two stiffs back with Grace.”
“The forensics guys?”
Darren couldn’t help but chuckle,
“You know what I mean, Mak. Those kids probably never even saw what killed
them.”
“Fine, fine... I’ll thought
link.”
A vibrating sensation coursed
through Darren’s mind, like the soft roll of a bass speaker.
“Better?” The voice now echoed within Darren’s skull.
“Much, thank you. Now if you’ll excuse me.” Darren pushed open the
door of the coffee house without even taking note of its name or their prices,
but as he looked up at the counter, he smirked. He’d been to this coffee house
before, a few times. Darren had a strange relationship
with fate. He knew that things happened for reasons, and he didn’t always agree
with those reasons, but if fate wanted him to keep coming back to this coffee
house, to keep being served by her,
then that was fine with him.
He pushed his glasses further up
his nose and observed the menu, mentally counting his change as he thumbed the
coins in his pocket.
“Hi, good morning!” Her voice was
still just as musical as his first visit here, “Oh, hi! Welcome back.” She
smiled, “Your usual?”
Darren looked over to her, his
eyebrows angled upward and his mouth curled into a slight smile, “Hey.” He took
one last cursory glance at the menu board and nodded back to her, “Please.
Grande.”
Sally’s nose gave a cute little
wrinkle as she smiled, turning to fix his large vanilla latte, “Extra shot,
right?”
“Mhm.” Darren replied absently.
“She really is a cutie... I can see why you keep coming back here.”
“Not now, Mak!”
Mak gave a grumble and Darren
felt the thought link subside, leaving his ears with a slight ringing in them.
Darren left his money on the
counter as Sally turned with his glass of steaming, foamy, sweet caffeinated
goodness and he couldn’t help but smile as the bittersweet aroma of the fresh
ground coffee mingling with the vanilla syrup punched up into his nostrils.
He made his way over to a table
and set his glass down before removing his white leather jacket and setting it
over the back of his chair. He glanced at the tribal flame pattern emblazoned
on the back of the jacket in pale blue that formed an ancient Japanese ‘Oni’
face with yellow stitching designed to look like flaming eyes. Around the
flaming face pattern and along the sleeves were etched ancient runic markings
that caught the light in interesting ways.
The jaw of the face began to
shift up and down slightly, causing the jacket to crease and fold in parts as
Mak’s voice crept into his head once more.
“So, what do you think killed those saps?”
Darren winced, not expecting the
sudden thought link, “Honestly? No
clue... I need to ask around.”
His gaze fell back on Sally as
she tended to other customers. He sighed, his mind beginning to wander as he
sipped his coffee, feeling the warmth spread through his body.
Mak chimed in once more, “So, you think it was a Join Beast, and not
a Sider?”
Darren shook his head, “As crazy as Siders can be, I don’t think
any are capable to withstand the trek through the Join into this realm and
still have the energy to pull off a crime like that.”
A tut echoed in Darren’s head, “They could’ve been here for a while and
waited to be fully rested.”
“It’s a possibility, Mak, but for the moment I’m still hanging on Join
Beast.” He took another sip of his coffee and watched Sally out of the
corner of his eye, “The look of surprise
on the bodies’ faces implied they didn’t see the attack, or the attacker. I’m
thinking whatever did this was covered with the Veil...”
Darren took a moment to think, shaking
his head. It was widely known, he mused, that there was a theory of multiple
universes running parallel to his. This was, in part, true. Darren knew all too
well that a world that coexisted with his own. This world was not an opposite
dimensional space, because not everything was different. Instead, it existed
more as a reflection, a world of possibilities and ‘What ifs’.
For example, someone could be the
nicest, most charitable individual with not even a smudge upon their criminal
record but in the ‘Side’ world, they would be a ruthless, cutthroat criminal
with little to no regard for anyone other than themselves. They would retain
most other aspects about themselves, such as gender and physical features to a
degree (Though there would be some slight differences).
Between these two worlds is a
space known only as the Join to those aware of it. It is a realm where the
excess energies of the two worlds gather and form into entities known as Join
Beasts, or ‘Joints’. These creatures, once strong enough, seek sustenance greater
than the flow of energy can provide, and so they venture out into one of the
two worlds, looking to feed, to grow stronger. Darren paused and shuddered at the
thought of some of the Joints he’d encountered in the past.
The energy they generate to
travel from the Join to one of the worlds lingers around their bodies, creating
a field known as the Veil. It is this Veil that, for the most part, prevents
humans from noticing these inhumane, otherworldly beasts; instead, they appear
to the human eye as the closest thing that a mortal mind can associate the
beast’s form to, like seeing a quadrapedal hound beast as simply a large dog,
or a wolf.
Darren was a rarity, an anomaly. Lucky
him, he though. He was able to shift between both words without injury or fatigue because of his
connection to Makna’ir. Mak was a Joint that through some kind of ritual (Darren
didn’t fully understand the particulars) had become bound to the jacket that he
wore. As a result, this created a unique bond between his two selves, merging
both personalities into one singular self. Even among the other Joint Hunters,
the ‘Wardens’ that Darren has come across, he is the only person he knows with
this trait.
He was such a lucky guy to be able
to encounter and fight twice the amount
of Joints as any other Warden, Darren mused as he finished his coffee and
sighed, folding his arms behind his head. He stared blankly at the ceiling,
watching the fans cycle continuously. It was a boring existence, being a fan,
just constantly spinning, never changing direction or reaching new
destinations. But then, he thought, a fan had never known any other form of
existence – assuming the fan knew anything of its existence at all, and as such
it would not realise just how dull its existence was. That was true
contentment... It was true what they said, ignorance must be bliss. If only he
could still have ignorance, even if only feigned, to the true nature of the
worlds around him.
“Are you daydreaming again?”
Darren closed his eyes and forced
a deep breath to ease the twinge in his mind, “No, I was just-“
“Bullshit, you know I can see your thoughts, right?” Mak had that
matter-of-fact tone that meant there was no point in arguing with him. "Man, some of things in here... Sickening!"
“I... Fine.” Darren rolled his eyes and stretched, “Let’s establish what little we know so
far.”
Mak snorted, an act that caused
the inside of Darren’s skull to rattle uncomfortably, “We know that whatever this killer used, it was sharp. We know it took
chunks off the corpses to either chow on or display in a glass case-“
“Not funny!” Darren blinked. He
realised he’d said that out loud instead of through the thought link. The
majority of the coffee shop residents had stopped their own worlds to become a
part of his.
Mak’s sniggering now rang through his mind.
“No, but that sure as hell was!” Mak sniggered some more, “But we also know that this thing is either
stupidly quick, or really sneaky if those humans didn’t see it coming.”
Darren closed his eyes beneath
his aviators. If he couldn’t see the world around him, they couldn’t see him;
Ostrich logic at its finest. He stood and made his way to order another coffee.
It was going to be a long couple of days, and he needed every edge he could
get... If it meant being served by Sally, then so be it. He might even ask her
out some time, he thought.
“Great, asking a coffee girl out for coffee... Smoooooth.”
“Damnit, Mak!”
The coffee house stared once
more.
Sally stared.
Darren frowned, blushed, paid for
his coffee, then left.
No wonder people with voices in
their head got locked away.
I think finishing there, when put into a novelesque format on my word processor, gives me about a full chapter's worth of pages when playing to averages, so I think it's a good place to leave it for now.
Love and Peace,
Craiggy.
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