Syphon: Guardians of the Fractured Realms (3 page)

“So Samuel, even after what happened to you, you can still sense me. I’m actually pretty impressed.”

He jumped reflexively at the unexpected sound of the stranger’s voice, his right hand clenching around the rail of the bed. As the speaker continued, he kept getting the impression that something wasn’t quite right about the voice. He tried to put his finger on it, but couldn’t quite determine the source of his unease. As the sound played around him, he felt the corruption in the speaker’s voice, like something was rotting and decayed. The image that flashed through his head was of a midden under a hot summer sun.

“Come now… No greeting for an old acquaintance? My, my… the manners are the first thing to go when you get shot in the face, aren’t they…”

The voice trailed off as the outline of a person took shape from the shadows. As the outline became more distinct as the speaker approached him. Grabbing a chair, they dragging it with a metallic hiss closer to the bed.

“Quite honestly, I’m a little disappointed. You see, my master had spent several months planning out that attack. They put quite a bit of effort into coming up with it. You honestly weren’t supposed to come out of that warehouse alive. But then that stupid bloodsucking mercenary just had to try and boost his reputation by being the one to finish you. I think you really did the world a favor when you tried ripping his heart out before his head exploded, but I’m getting off track here. Suffice it to say, if it wasn’t for him grabbing you and then expiring messily in your arms, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Who are you?” he asked, trying to make sense of what the other person was telling him. For some odd reason, he still couldn’t make out the other person’s features even though they were only a few feet away. He felt like he was looking through a foggy window.

“You really don’t know, do you? Maybe we were closer to our goal than we realized. Let’s just say that it’s not really that important at this point. What is important, however, is where we go from here.”

His thoughts raced wildly through his head.

My name is Samuel? At least that’s something. This guy knows me, but from the sounds of it, he tried to have me killed. He said I was shot in the face…? So why aren’t I dead. Was that where the bullet I coughed up came from?

“Excuse me,” the other person snapped, slamming his hand on the bed railing, “am I boring you? Really… some people…”

Samuel jumped slightly at the noise, trying to focus again on what the other person was saying to him.

“Sorry, just trying to come to grips with fact that you admitted trying to have me killed. Forgive me if I seem a little distracted.”

“Ah… No worries. Happens more often than you’d think when talking to someone who survived an assassination attempt. Now where was I…?” he asked, trailing off while he tapped his finger on his chin.

“You were going to tell me why you wanted to kill me…?”

The sound of his abrasive laughter set Samuel’s teeth on edge.

“Heh… Do you honestly think that, just by asking me, I’m just going to blurt out why my master wants you dead? What do you think this is… A movie? That you’re going to trick me into some long-winded villainous monologue whereby you learn our whole diabolical plan? Of course that’d mean that, through some unlikely happenstance, you’ll somehow escape, only to return at some critical juncture to ruin it. My dear boy… The only thing that’s going to happen is…”

As he trailed off, he leaned forward, bringing his face to within inches of Samuel’s face. Samuel sucked in a shocked gasp before gagging at the stench. The other person’s face was a mass of writhing worms and other insects. The short whiff he got smelled of sulfur and decay. Trying to hold his breath, he attempted to press himself deeper into the mattress in a futile attempt to get away from the monster’s face.

“Your death.”

As the creature said it, Samuel felt an overpowering itchy sensation coming from his left finger. He absently started to reach over to scratch it before the handcuff stopped him.

“Oh no you don’t!”

The monster grabbed Samuel by his neck and hoisted him off the bed. As he was lifted, his right hand was yanked down by the handcuff still attached to the railing. Coming up short, the monster took a step back, quickly yanking Samuel with him. With a loud pop, the chain on the cuff snapped off.

“Here’s the windup, and here’s the pitch!”

Samuel felt his body start accelerating backward toward the window behind him. At the same time, he felt the world slow down to a crawl as he flew away from the creature, it’s evil-looking snarl etched in his mind.

I guess you really do have time to see your life flash before your eyes when you’re getting ready to die. This’ll probably be pretty quick though since I don’t remember anything beyond a couple hours ago.

Without warning, the itchy sensation on his left hand became unbearable. Instinctively reaching over to scratch his fingers, he felt something take shape in his hand. As he slowly drifted away through the air, he was startled to find a handle forming in his hand. Intuitively, he pulled his right hand forward as he pulled his left back. Suddenly, an ice-blue crystalline sword materialize out of what appeared to be the dragon’s mouth. Continuing the motion, he swung the blade around, connecting with the underside of the creature’s wrist with a sound like glass wind chimes. The edge of the blade slid through the creature’s wrist, lopping off the hand that he’d thrown Samuel with. Samuel was shocked that the sword sliced through it effortlessly. He had enough time to see the hand slowly start to drop toward the floor, encased in ice, before time snapped back into play.

As he sailed out the window, glass exploded into the frigid night air. The sword caught the side of the window sill as he went through backward, slicing deeply into the frame and cinder blocks, again without any noticeable resistance. It slightly slowed his backward momentum, but not enough to keep him in the room.

“OHHHHHHH SHIIIIIIT!!!!” he yelled as he sailed out the window.

As he started to fall, the sound of the monster screaming echoed into the night after him.

I’m gonna die!

That statement echoed through his mind as he dropped toward the sidewalk. He instinctively reared his sword arm back and swung it forward. As he did, the sword’s blade segmented and elongated, almost appearing like a bunch of crystal fragments held together by twin lightning bolts.

The sword stretched out toward the building, instantly embedding the tip and several fragments of the blade into the wall next to the window he had just flown out of. The blade continued to stretch, slowing his decent as it did. Finally, it brought him to a stop several floors above the ground, in the process slamming him into the wall and knocking the air out of him. Trying to catch his breath, he looked back up at the blade. The lightning bolts had dimmed down to a muted neon blue and the blade was segmented into so many fragments that he quickly lost count of how many were visible.

Looking down, he estimated he was approximately six stories up based on how many windows were between him and the ground. Looking back up, he quickly determined that he had fallen about ten stories before coming to a stop.

How the hell did I do that? Better yet, what the hell do I do now? If I climb back up, assuming I can figure out how, I’d most likely get thrown out the window again or worse. If I let go of the sword, I’ll probably break my legs or kill myself anyway. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.

Without warning, the sword swung him away from the wall before coiling up and yanking itself out of the wall, pulling several chunks out with it. The segments snapped back, forming into a solid blade again while he fell the remaining distance to the ground.

He hit the sidewalk hard, pulverizing the sidewalk and sending small splintery cracks spider-webbing away from his feet. The blade of the sword chopped into the concrete next to him, leaving a huge gash where it came to a stop. Looking back up, he saw several softball sized chunks of wall dropping toward his head. He cringed as he swung his left arm over his head to try and protect it from the deadly chunks. He was suddenly buffeted by a blast of wind as the wings of the dragon flared out unexpectedly, causing the debris to bounce off the wings harmlessly.

Slowly standing on shaky feet, the dragon shrank back down around his arm. He then felt a slight tug coming from his right hand. Looking down, he saw the blade segment again. The tip of the blade swung around, shrinking in the process as it heading toward his left hand. The dragon’s head lifted slightly as the tip of the blade approached, and with a sound reminiscent of chains spooling off a boat, the blade retracted back into the vambrace. Finally, the pommel shrank back down and encircled his finger, to all appearances resembling a very elaborate piece of jewelry again. He clutched at his finger, trying to pull the sword back out, but it appeared to be simple jewelry again.

He noticed the dragon’s eyes were glowing as the sword finished returning to its original shape. As he examined the unusual glow, he was startled when it winked at him before the glow slowly faded out.

Who or what the hell am I?

Glancing around, he noticed the blanket from the bed he was in lying on the ground near him.

“Must have gotten tangled around my foot or something when that thing threw me,” he muttered to himself absently as he picked it up and wrapped it around his shoulders.

I need to get out of here. I have no shoes, no shirt, a monster that’s trying to kill me, and some bad-ass jewelry that winked at me. About the only thing going for me is I have hospital pants on instead of a hospital gown and a blanket to wrap up in. What more could go wrong?

Gradually, he could hear sirens in the distance getting closer.

I had to ask, didn’t I?

Readjusting the blanket tighter, he took off at a slow jog. He wasn’t sure where he was heading, but trying to explain to the police what had happened would generate more suspicions, including his level of sanity. The likelihood of them believing that, not only had he been chucked out a window that was fifteen stories up, by a monster, and landed without a scratch was going to be a pretty hard sell. At this point, all he knew was that the questions were piling up faster than the answers, and staying put wasn’t an option if he wanted to get the chance to balance out the equation.

As he disappeared into the night, several thoughts kept looping through his head.

Who the hell am I, what did I get myself into, and how am I going to live through it?

§§§§§§§§§§§§

“What the hell happened in here, and what is that horrible stench!”

Detective Blanchett covered her nose with her arm, trying to block out the overpowering smell of sulfur and decay that permeated the room.

“It looks like a bomb went off!”

Glancing up, a janitor shrugged his shoulders.

“Not really sure miss.”

The janitor trailed off as Dr Greene entered the room. Cora turned toward him as he approached.

“What happened in here, and where’s our suspect?”

“We’re still trying to piece that together. From the reports I’m hearing, about a half hour ago, loud noises erupted from this room, followed by breaking glass and a scream that raised the hair on everyone’s head. By the time a nurse got in here, the room was in the condition you see it in now and empty.”

“You,” she said, pointing at the janitor. “Out, now. This is an active crime scene. Leave everything as you found it. Nothing leaves this room unless the CSI team clears it.”

She started to turn away, but then looked back.

“Actually, can we get something to kill that smell though? It smells like hell in here, literally.”

“I’ll see what I can find,” he said over his shoulder as he walked out.

Turning back to the doctor, she continued.

“I wanna know what happened in here, and I wanna know now. How’d our John Doe get the handcuffs off, and how’d he get out of the room with nobody noticing?”

As she turned back toward the room, she looked back over her shoulder.

“And where’s the guard that was posted outside this room, anyway? If you see him, tell him to get his ass in here. I wanna know why he left his post.”

Turning her back on the doctor, she ignored his mumbling as she slowly walked over to the window.

“What the hell…?” she whispered as she studied the huge gash in the left side of the window frame. Looking closer, she saw it was a very clean cut. She made a mental note to ask the CSI techs what could make that cut as she leaned out the window. Looking down, she could make out some type of damage to the sidewalk, but she couldn’t make out the details. Pulling her cell out, she punched the speed-dial.

“Frank, you here yet?”

“Just pulling in.”

“Hey, I need to to come over to the sidewalk outside the suspect’s window. Something happened to the sidewalk that I can’t make out from here. Also, the room is a complete disaster. I’m gonna call the crime techs to have them go over this mess with a fine tooth comb. Call me back when you’re outside.”

Ending the call, she called the precinct to tell them to send the CSI lab rats to examine the room.

As she glanced around the room again, her phone rang.

“Hey, are you down there yet,” she said as she walked back toward the window.

“Yeah… Yeah I am, and you’re not going to believe what’s down here…”

“With the way this night’s going, I’m not sure anything is going to surprise me…”

“Yeah, well this might. I’m looking at what appear to be footprints embedded in the sidewalk, along with a huge gouge along the right side. The gouge is about 5 feet long, straight, and it appears to get deeper the farther away from the footprints it gets. Looks like something sliced through it like butter.”

She glanced at the gash in the window frame before leaning out the window to look at her partner again.

“That’s not as crazy as it sounds. It looks like a bomb went off in the room and there’s a huge gash in the frame… Also a clean-looking cut.”