Hello. Thanks for stopping by. I don't have much experience with creative writing, so please leave a review telling me what you like and what you think I should work on.
This chapter was updated on June 16, 2015. I didn't change any major events, but I did tinker around with details to try to make it sound more fluid and professional. I do re-read and edit chapters before posting, but I reach a certain point where I think, "Enough already! Just post it and move on!" Then, whenever I need a break from the current chapter, I go back and look at old ones. Happy reading!
Sunday, 2:00 PM
The floor shivered as the front door slammed downstairs, but Dess didn't notice. Her attention was absorbed by the wire that she was currently attempting to solder to the metal rod on her desk.
"Dess!" Charlie Swan hollered up the stairs. "We're here!"
Dess continued to hold the solder and the iron to the joint between wire and rod. Thin tendrils of smoke danced by her face. She was so close to a good stopping point…..
She finished just in time. As she cleaned the tip of her soldering iron with a damp yellow sponge, Charlie rapped his knuckles on her bedroom door.
"Desdemona, come say hello to your sister," he reproved.
"Half-sister," Dess corrected under her breath. She brushed a strand of short, dyed-black hair out of her face and continued cleaning her worktable. Tools and supplies cost money, and they lasted longer when cared for properly. She distributed various items to drawers and wall boards and then glanced around her room one last time to make sure that everything was in its proper place. Finally she grabbed her sunglasses from the table and headed out the door.
"Don't worry, our introduction shouldn't go that bad," she told Charlie when she strode passed him in the hall. "It's not like we could blow up the house."
It took Dess five strides to walk from her bedroom door to her sister's. As she peered around the corner, she observed the brunette girl who was unpacking her suitcases. The girl was pale. This was highlighted by the contrast with the room's sunny décor; the walls were a pale blue, and the curtains yellow. Most of the furniture was very light brown, and the patchwork quilt on the bed contained a variety of colors. The bookshelf in the corner held several worn paperbacks whose classic titles brought to mind torturous high school English classes. Exactly twenty seconds later, the girl straightened, holding several brightly colored shirts destined for her closet. She did not pause as she spoke.
"Can I help you?"
"So you're Isabella Swan," Dess commented as she moved unapologetically into plain view.
"Bella. And you're Dess."
Dess shrugged and continued watching. As she stood there, she played with the metal links on the simple bracelet around her left wrist.
"So….," Bella began awkwardly, "the black Ford truck. Is it yours or Charlie's?"
"Mine. It's a 1997," Dess announced proudly. "And no, you cannot ride with me to avoid being seen in that monster that Charlie bought you. What year is it?"
"Uh… a '53, I think." Bella hesitantly returned the commiserating smile that briefly appeared on Dess's face.
Dess then nodded and muttered, "18. Not great, but not bad." She turned to leave, but peered back around the doorframe when Bella addressed her again.
"18?"
"Oh. 1+9+5+3. 18." Then Dess swept away down the hall, the hem of her black dress fluttering. With her sisterly obligations satisfied, she headed downstairs to catch a documentary on TV.
Bella eventually came downstairs, grabbed her car keys, and left. After she returned, sounds began to emanate from the kitchen. When Dess's show on the Discovery Channel ended, she realized that the clatter from the kitchen had not culminated with the sound of the microwave. She entered the kitchen and then met Bella's glance with a raised eyebrow.
Bella was cooking multiple things on the stove and in the oven. Dess had discovered that she and her father shared a similar indifference towards food. All that mattered was that it tasted half-way decent and satisfied hunger. As a result, they most often ate takeout or microwavable meals.
Charlie, having noticed that Dess was finished with the TV, abandoned the kitchen table in favor of a baseball game. Bella took advantage of his absence to speak with her half-sister.
"You guys aren't very domestic, are you," she stated as she stirred red liquid in a sauce pan.
Dess ignored her and grabbed a spoon, which she used to taste the sauce.
"Look," Bella began, "I'm not judging or anything…"
Dess cut her off with a flat stare. "He's a bachelor. Between the time when your mother divorced him and when I came here at the beginning of fall semester, he's been completely by himself. He pays his bills and files his taxes on time like a good law-abiding citizen and police chief. I'm certain I can find him some tax deductions this year that he's been missing, but other than that he's fine."
"Taxes?" Bella asked, surprised. "That wasn't what I was thinking about."
"He can keep his house however he wants," Dess shrugged carelessly and dropped her spoon in the sink with a loud clang.
"Well, he needs to eat better. He's not young, after all. And this place could use a good cleaning."
"Be my guest. Make sure you use an antimicrobial." With a grin, Dess grabbed a stack of plates and began setting the table.
"What? Why an antimicrobial?"
"It's such a wonderful word, don't you think?" Dess then disappeared to her room, the thudding of her boots on the stairs accompanied by a strange metallic clatter. Bella shook her head in confusion at Dess's second abrupt departure of the day.
Dinner was a quiet affair. In the beginning Charlie tried to make some small talk, but he quickly realized that Bella was not any more interested in it than Dess had been. Charlie was clearly relieved when he determined that pointless conversation would not be required of him. There was, however, one thing of importance to address.
"Well, girls," he began. "Your spring semester starts tomorrow. Dess already picked up her schedule at the end of last semester, but you'll need to go early to get yours." He pointed his fork at Bella as he spoke. He took another bite of spaghetti and continued after swallowing.
"The school is just off of the highway and clearly marked. Be careful in the parking lot. Some people your age drive poorly, and I've been called out several times after wrecks." His tone was gruff, but his concern was sincere.
Dess simply nodded and continued eating, while Bella murmured her acquiescence.
The rest of the meal passed in a comfortable silence. When Dess finished eating, she washed her dishes and returned to her room.
Dess turned on her lamp when she entered her room, though the dark shade kept the illumination dim. She sat on her bed, pulled out her phone, and made a call.
"So, how'd it go? Did you try to eat each other for dinner?" Rex asked by way of greeting. His voice sounded distant. Even Madeleine's old rotary phone was complex enough to irritate the darkling part of Rex's brain. He had probably set the handset on the table so it wouldn't buzz in his ear.
"No, not everyone's an animal like you are," Dess retorted.
"Just checking," Rex said, his amusement evident in his voice. "I still can't get over the fact that you have a sister and didn't tell us. What's the history?"
"I didn't tell you because it wasn't any of your business. I'm surprised Melissa never picked up on it. But you're not going to stop annoying me until I give you the scoop, are you?"
"Nope," Rex admitted cheerfully.
Dess frowned and let the silence stretch out for a long moment before continuing, "My mom grew up in Forks, Washington. It's a small town in the Olympic Peninsula. She and some guy from the graduating class below hers went to the same college and became good friends. When she graduated college she got a job in Oklahoma, so they had to say their goodbyes. Nine months later I was born in Bixby. The guy was planning to stay in Forks to take care of his parents and become a police officer. He finished his degree shortly after I was born and then met some girl who had just graduated high school. It was love at first sight. They married and had a daughter, and got divorced a few years later. The woman left and took the girl with her. It was shortly after that that my mom got around to telling him about me."
Dess stopped talking, and Rex whistled into the silence. "So why's your sister coming to live with him now? Did she come because you did last semester?"
"Hardly," Dess snorted. "She didn't even know I existed. When she told Charlie she was coming, he mentioned me to her. Apparently her mom recently married a baseball player, so she's living here to allow her mom to travel with the guy."
"I guess she's a nice person then."
"We'll see. So far she just seems light an extremely stuffy daylighter. How're things going in Bixby?"
"We're still coming across new midnighters in the Tulsa area, since the population is so large and people are always coming and going. The new polymath is doing alright, but it's not the same without you here."
Dess chuckled. "You're just upset that he won't put up with as much of your crap as I did. And someone had to go to the west coast to teach new Midnighters. I helped you train new people in Bixby for a year and a half, and it seems like you've done well in the six months I've been gone."
"Be honest," Rex laughed. "You just wanted to get away from Madeleine."
"Any person with any brains at all would jump at a chance to get away from Maddy."
Rex wisely changed the subject.
"The others are still in D.C. I think they'll stay there until Melissa is certain that there aren't any Mindcasters nearby. We don't want anyone messing with the politicians."
"Just what we need," Dess said sarcastically. "More Mindcasters meddling. Well, I've got to go. I've got a toy that I want to have finished by tonight."
"Have fun and don't get eaten," Rex said.
"Don't worry, I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself without a bossy Seer looking over my shoulder. Look after your posse of newbies. Bye." Dess hung up. She spent the next several hours continuing to solder. Since she was still alone here, she needed to make sure she had enough weaponry to keep her safe. Her newest toy was a long aluminum rod with a pointed tip.
When she finished, she checked her clock. The blue time was about ten minutes away. She checked on her backpack, which contained her small and medium sized pieces of named metal. There was a variety of screws, nails, nuts, bolts, and paperclips. She also carried a metal flashlight in case she ever ran into another Flame-bringer. It had its uses if she was caught out in normal time, too. When she was satisfied that she was ready, she glanced at the clock and waited.
117 seconds later, a soft blue light filled the room with a subtle lurch. Dess smiled into the silence. The normal quiet night-time sounds had ceased entirely. Dess's bedside clock did not tick. The nocturnal birds and bugs did not chirp. No cars drove by.
Dess picked up her backpack, the clanking inside seeming unnaturally loud. But rather than cringing from the sound, Dess's grin grew wider. Those metal pieces protected her from the monsters that inhabited the blue time.
She strode confidently through the house, mindless of the clatter made by her heavy boots and metal jewelry. No one would hear her. She went downstairs and out the front door, her backpack on her back and her metal spear in her hand. She retrieved her bike from where it rested against the porch and rode down to the street.
At first glance, the blue light that filled the world seemed to be the only unusual thing. But closer inspection would reveal many other abnormalities. For one thing, there were no shadows. It was as if any place that would have contained a shadow was instead filled with a blue-tinted luminescence.
The next unusual sighting was the car in the right lane that Dess peddled past. It was immobile, even though it was in the middle of the block. But despite the car's stationary state, its wheels were slightly elongated as if it were moving. It was frozen in the act of driving through a puddle, and the wave of water was frozen in mid-flight.
Dess did not spare a glance at the car or its driver, whose unnaturally unwavering attention was focused on the road as though he was still driving. Thankfully the rain had stopped shortly before midnight, otherwise Dess would have been soaked as she rode through a sea of raindrops frozen in mid-air.
Dess had just passed the school when a movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She instantly slammed on her brakes, and the bike skidded to a halt. Her heart pounding, she steadied herself with her foot on the ground. She swung her spear from its resting place on the handlebars and pointed it towards the swath of forest on her right. The next three seconds seemed to pass much slower than usual as she scanned for motion. Then a small black snake-like form slithered from behind a stump, and Dess snorted in disgust.
"Just a slither," she announced to the blue world. "Nothing dangerous. Unfortunately."
She pulled a large nail out of her pocket and eyed it critically.
"Condescending," she muttered, and tossed the nail towards the snake-like creature. The head of the nail bounced off the slither's scaly back and gave off a bright blue spark. The slither jerked away and hissed, and then began to shiver. Limb buds appeared, and hair followed. Shortly afterwards, the snake was gone and a small, skinny black cat bolted away.
Dess shook her head, checked the hands on her windup watch, and turned back towards Charlie's house. When she got there, she made sure to put her bike back exactly the way it had been before. She headed upstairs and began getting ready for bed. Shortly after she entered her room, the blue light drained away and normal colors and shadows replaced it. Her bedside clock showed that no time had passed since the blue time began. Her wristwatch, however, had advanced by exactly one hour.