Chapter 7 – Blackouts and Viruses
As I got around for bed, I couldn't help but remember how my magic had blown up last week. I had been afraid to practice at home in case I ended blowing up Harold's apartment. This was his home and I doubt the landlord would be too understanding about having a giant hole in place of one of the walls three stories up. Because of that, I had made up the excuse I wanted to get in some extra exercise or wanted to go for a walk after work to disappear for hours after work.
At times it seemed like Harold acted more like a mother than a roommate, but it was his apartment and I was coming in at all hours. There were days I had a hard time getting up with the alarm for work. I had taken the walks for legit reasons though. I would catch a taxi, bus, and or train to the far side of town, then walk the beach a good distance until I couldn't see anybody and knew I was well away from people. Once that was done, I would remove my inhibitors and for an hour or more I would practice summoning small amounts of my magic, focusing it, and dismissing it. I found out on the first night that focusing first and summoning second left me a lot more winded, but took a lot less effort. I barely had to put any effort into bringing my magic into being if I focused a spot for it to manifest. It also didn't had to manifest on or around me. I was able to manifest my little fireball up to twenty feet away I found and usually tried to keep it at that distance just so that if it did blow up again, I wouldn't get knocked silly and could make a quick getaway if someone came looking. It hadn't blown up yet and I really didn't want to make the trip out to the beach tonight. I had class tomorrow morning and wanted to be well rested for it.
Deciding, I nodded and started to carefully place all my focus onto the very tip of my right index finger. Right before I began to get tunnel vision I remembered that I still had my inhibitors and broke from my exorcise. The last thing I wanted was to bust those. I quickly pulled the ring off and placed it on my wardrobe, shortly followed by my piercing. Taking a deep breath I started again, focusing and remembering to breath. I could now feel the pulse of my magic running through all my bones just looking for an outlet. I imagined a hole the size of a pinprick opening on the very tip of my finger, allowing a very small amount of my magic to come out and coalesce into a small flaming ball that hovered just over the digit. When it reached the size of a tennis ball, I cut off the flow and it stopped growing. I could still feel the magic pushing to get out, but it couldn't and stayed where I wanted. This was the hard part because I had to control my magic in two different ways. I had to keep the largest portion at bay and within myself while a very small, minute amount had to exist outside of myself and receive commands without doing whatever it wanted, like say, blowing up.
I made my tiny ball of sapphire fire move from one spread finger to the next, before making it travel through the air slowly from one hand to the next. Normally I would move it from the top of one sand dune to the next, but moving it this close to me was a bit nerve racking and made it that much harder. Once it made it to my other hand I moved it over each of the fingers on that hand. Slowly and carefully I adjust my gaze to the wall and willed the ball to move over to the wall. It couldn't go too fast or it might hit it or go through it. Right now there wasn't such thing as too slow, so I took my time. It had managed to go about three quarters around the room when Harold pushed open my door, looking an absolute mess.
"I don't know what your-" He stopped when he saw the ball of sapphire flame mere feet from his face. "Shit. That explains what. I'm, I'm gonna go. Come see me when you are done please." His face had gone completely white. He backed up and carefully closed the door.
After that interruption, my focus was very disturbed. I had thought I had it down pretty well, but I could see that was not the case now. The magic in my bones pushed even harder than before, leaking out in little bits that showed up as small balls of flame all over my frame and the ball I had been working on started growing. I tried to put it out, but the magic just kept growing. By the time I realized I couldn't stop it, I was already getting feint. I stumbled the step or two to my dresser and grabbed for the ring, and slammed it on. Instantly my magic slowed its outward flow, but didn't stop. Just as I feared, the more I practiced, the stronger it got. I forced myself to take deep breaths and focus on the flow within myself more than that which was leaving me. I had found that correcting the flow in myself could sometimes stop the outward flow. Passing out stopped everything, as I had found out on Tuesday, but I didn't want to do that now. Thankfully I managed to stop the flow going out after slowing the flow within myself, but nearly lost control again when I opened eyes I hadn't realized I closed and found little fireballs on every surface of my room in sizes ranging from golf balls to basket balls. I evaluated where the focal points were for me right now and was thankfully there was still just the one on my finger. If I was correct, I cancel that and all these go out. If I was wrong, they all blow up. It was a make or break. I sent a prayer to whoever may be listening and canceled the focus. My room instantly went from a blue illumination to pitch black. I let a breath go and put in my piercing again. The thrumming within my bones disappeared and I went out to see what Harold had been so upset about.
When I stepped out of my room, the first thing I noticed was there were no lights on at all. I tried the switch and it wouldn't work. Had I accidentally tripped a breaker. That had happened a few times, but not in a long while. Keeping a hand on the wall so I would know when I entered the next room, I was surprised to still be in complete darkness. Normally some city light would leak around his blackout curtains. I couldn't see anything.
"Uh, Harold. You out here? What is going on?" a short shriek was enough of a giveaway that he was in the room and not expecting me.
"Geez Gaz, you scared the bejezus out of me. Make some noise when you move would you?"
"Sorry man. Hey, so what's going on. Is the whole borough in a black out for some reason?"
"Worse, this whole half of the island. I was just coming to see if you were messing around with your magic again cause my alarm clock kept going off and the time kept changing. A few minutes after that, our apartment went dark and it spread from there."
"Shit." I had caused a multi-borough black out cause I couldn't hold my focus.
"Has this happened anywhere else recently?" I asked, half hoping it was a recurring problem, and half hoping it had not happened near the area I had been practicing.
"Yeah, last Tuesday come to think of it, down near the peninsula. Why? Wait, is that where you've been going on those walks late at night? Did you cause all of this?" I could hear the disbelief in his voice.
"Um, I think so. This past Tuesday I was really late cause I got startled by a sand snake and lost my focus and ended up passing out for a few hours. I thought I was far enough out that it wouldn't affect anybody on the beach and I didn't want to go all the way out there. I didn't realize I could affect this large of an area."
"This is just cause you lost your focus? So this is technically my fault for interrupting whatever you were doing in there? What were you doing by the way?"
"It's not your fault. I shouldn't have been practicing in the house. You've asked me not to use magic here until I get a handle on it and I did. I was just doing a focusing exercise to practice control. I'm supposed to do it every day."
"And I was being such a pain about you going out late. Sorry man. Why didn't you tell me what you were doing?"
"I didn't want you to worry. You get skittish every time I so much as bring up the subject." I was getting snappy, I knew it too. I had fucked up again and all because I was lazy.
"Uh, this may be out of line for me to request, but would you mind summoning one of those little balls so we can have some light until they turn on the lights?"
"Seriously dude? One moment you are scared of it, the next you want it. Would you make up your damn mind already?" I wanted light anyway so I wasn't just yelling at the darkness so I focused and summoned a softball sized ball of fire that flickered green. It lit the walls in a sickly shade that made me think of all those radioactive horror movies. "Happy?" I snapped. He was curled in a ball on the sofa.
"Does it have to be green?" he whined.
It turned black, but somehow still put off a faint flickering light. "You know I can't control the damn colors of it Harold. Give me a fucking break. You wanted me to learn to control it, when I'm trying dammit and this is what I get for trying. We get what we get from it." I was practically snarling. The flame had become laced with green the more I yelled.
"Sorry, sorry." He was practically gasping apologies.
I could only imagine what I may look like since my tongue and eyes always matched my magic. I growled and walked over to the kitchen where we had candles just for when the lights went out. I couldn't find matches so figured I would try to light them with my magic. I was surprised with it actually worked and in an instant my black flames evaporated into a bright violet, almost blinding me. "Fuck." I gasped trying to clear my vision. When I finally did clear again my flame had turned yellow with bits of purple occasionally still flickering through it and the occasional streak of green. I wasn't going to complain about the color change though. It made seeing easier. I lit a few more candles and placed them strategically around on the floor so they were out of the way but lit up where the walls where and allowed us to see what was around us. Once that was done, I put out my flames before they caused more problems.
"I thought they couldn't burn stuff?" Harrold asked. He had finally uncurled and had watched me finish getting the candles lit and set.
"Apparently they can if I want them to." I replied.
"Great. More surprises."
"Try living with them being right under your skin, then you can complain." I groused.
"Guess that's true. Sorry about earlier. I'm just not used to all the magic hoodoo voodoo stuff I guess." He apologized.
"Maybe you shoulda thought of that before shacking up with me." I shot back, but I was back in good humor now that we had some sort of light.
"If I hadn't you would have had to deal with one of the girls. Now that would have been real Hell. I mean, can you imagine living with either of them?" We both shivered from the mental image of the hormonal roller coaster that came with living in the same house as women.
We bantered back and forth for about another hour, then turned to playing Rumi by candle light. Halfway through the third game, about four hours after the lights had went out they came back on, blinding us. We blew out all the candles, killed the lights and both went to bed. Harrold hadn't been able to sleep before due to a minor fear of the dark and needing his floor light to be able to sleep. I stayed up just to keep him company, but now I was exhausted and had to be up for the lesson in the morning. "I hate magic." I groaned right before I fell asleep in my bed with the reassuring light of the city glowing once more from under my curtains.
Shooting straight up with a gasp, I choked on air for a second before I remembered where I was shut the screaming goat on my phone off before it woke Harold. Flopping back into bed, I was so tempted to doze right back off and just skip my lesson, but after last night I knew I really needed to go. Groaning, I rolled over and forced myself to get up and go through the daily morning grind of getting around. I grabbed a set of strawberry pop-tarts on my way out the door, finally awake from moving around but now running a bit later than I normally would when leaving. She may be halfway across town, but I still tried to walk there. Today I would have to take the subway, but it couldn't be helped. Just before I pushed open the door to the shop though, I got a call. I didn't recognize the number and figured it was probably just some advertiser and canceled it and walked in. She was at the desk this morning and was glaring at the phone like it had just said something quite insulting. The way her nose crinkled was too cute.
She looked up as I entered and a look like pity crossed her face instantly, confusing me. "I'm sorry G, er, Gaster. Oh fooey, all I keep getting in my head is the name I used for you as a kid. It just keeps bouncing around my head and echoing in my ears. Can't I please just call you G for old time's sake? Ah, anyway", she cut off any answer that I might have made, "I don't think I'll be able to do your lesson today. That freak blackout last night and earlier in the week both hit me and now my computer is acting all weird and giving me weird messages. I'm gonna have to get it looked at and the tech I booked with only had a slot available during your training session. He's booked as well with fixing these blackouts problems. Sorry."
"Let me take a look at it. I'm no computer wiz, but I know a few things." I may not have like the spider lady who ran the treasury of the monster gang, but she had taught me how to find and how to plant computer bugs right before I got the boot. I think they had been planning on promoting me but then my shit father got me jumped and out. I completely ignored her complaints about my being picky with my name.
"Um, sure, I guess. It's my personal computer so I thankfully doesn't have any client data on it other than stuff I transferred to study further on, and that was only on you with your magic levels. They are much more erratic than I gave them credit for. I have sensors around the shop and when I checked the readings, they were quite a bit different than I was expecting. Um, sorry, it's this way." She cut her rambling off quickly as she pushed a strand of hair back in place and out of her face and led me into the back of the shop. "Thanks for offering to help as well. I should have called earlier, but well, it just started acting up this morning and that's when I heard we had another blackout last night."
"It's no problem. It's my fault anyway. Both blackouts are actually my fault. I lost my focus and my magic got out of my control. I managed to catch it last night, but not before it shorted over half the city." I explained as I followed and tried not to stare at her hips as they swung with every step. If it wasn't her hips, it was her hair and how it flowed between her shoulder blades. My exhaustion had to be really getting the best of me.
She stopped and turned to look at me, eyes wide. I nearly walked right into her, lost in thought about how nice she looked and how my magic was such a pain. "The blackouts happened because of you? Now that I have a hard time believing. What where you doing, trying to do, create a new ecosystem or something?"
"No, I was just practicing summoning a small amount of magic and moving it like you suggested. I didn't want to risk it blowing up in the apartment so I was practicing down on the beach last Tuesday and lost my focus. It knocked me out and by the time I came to, they already had power back on so I didn't hear about it until my roommate brought it up during this last one, which also happened literally seconds after he busted into my room since I was too lazy to go out to the beach last night. I was practicing and lost my focus. My magic rushed out of me just like I did here and my inhibitors didn't do much to help. I finally caught it, but the damage had already been done. Once is a coincidence, twice, not so much."
She looked at me quizzically, trying to see if I was fibbing or not. I don't know what she decided, but finally she sighed and waved for me to follow her. "Computer is this way." was all she said.
I couldn't stop the sigh that escaped me as I followed. When we got to the back room, I saw all the scenes I had seen on the first day organized and stacked around the room, floor to ceiling. In one corner was a small desk and laptop on it with a flickering screen. When I got closer to look at it, I went cold. This was definitely a virus, one that was planted and meant to be found, specifically by me. The normal screen showed some background that my teacher had put up along with some icons, but pop-up windows flashed up then disappeared seconds later, remaining just long enough to be read. Most were encoded, those that weren't were cheap ads for even cheaper drugs. Marijuana, heroin, acid, all stuff you could find on the streets. The encrypted stuff was much more illegal, there the pop-ups containing hit offers and the locations of new sales of life, i.e., humans or monsters as pets or slaves. Then there was the pop-ups that got to me. The language my father signed in would blip in one sentence increments across the screen. It took me a few minutes to get the full message, but when I did, I didn't know what to do.
It read "Gaster Sans Jr, grandfather, AZ, firebird, asap, brng CC, sry"
It was a matter of a few minutes once I deciphered the message to me to rid the computer of the virus. It was a simple one, but none the less terrifying for it. I didn't even know I had any living relatives outside of my father and here was one contacting me via my magic teacher's computer. The chances that I would be the one to check it were so small. Who was this person and who was CC? Either way, a summons like this shouldn't be ignored or the next one could be deadly. The underworld did not like to be kept waiting and that was definitely an underworld message.
"Wow, and I was prepared to spend like three hundred dollars to get that fixed. Thanks a ton, you are a life saver." Miss Cloud sighed right behind me and dropped a hand on my shoulder.
Startled, I spun wide eyed with a fist already pulled and slipping into a braced stance as I fell back into my old habits. I didn't even notice the pull in my gut as sapphire flames blossomed all around the shop and around my fist.
"Shit. Sorry G. I didn't mean to… are you okay?" she looked frightened for the first time since I had met her.
I released a breath I didn't know I was holding and carefully corrected my posture until I was standing normally, though I couldn't convince my fists to unfurl. Another few breaths put out the flames. I still had both my inhibitors on and my magic had flashed up just as bad as it had before I had gotten them. "I'm fine. Just a bit jumpy I guess." I lied. I looked toward the exit, pondering on who CC could be and completely forgetting about the magic class I was supposed to be here for.
"CC? Like initials?" my teacher suddenly asked.
My gaze snapped back to her.
"You asked who CC was. G, what is going on. Ever since I showed you the computer you have been tense. Now you are spacing out and talking to yourself and you nearly attacked me just for touching your shoulder. Talk to me. You are scaring me." She did look close to tears.
I made one last look at the exit, then glanced back at her desk where the now perfectly normal, virus free computer sat. Then I took notice of the card next to it. It was the card for this shop. Her name was printed clearly on the bottom of it. Clara Cloud. CC. I looked back to her then to the card. "Fuck." I swore and swung, hitting the wall hard. I could feel the impact in my shoulder and the dent in the wall matched my knuckle bones.
"G! I rent here!" she scolded.
"Miss Cloud, we gotta talk. And I need you to listen very close." I growled, unable to face her.
"G?" she really sounded scared now. That was probably a good thing.
"And stop calling me that! You said my name echoed in your head, memories from when we were kids repeat inside your mind, fine. Then call me Echo. I'm not who you knew, just like an echo is not like the original sound, just similar. Now, I originally told you not to ask about my past since we split. That virus is part of my past coming back to haunt my present and it looks like you are about to become part of it whether you like it or not so you had better listen well. Do you understand?"
"No, I don't understand. I don't understand at all. I will listen, but right now I don't understand anything. Also" she grabbed my shoulder and spun me around harder than I would have thought she could. "Don't you ever threaten me!" she yelled in my face.
Instinct kicked in and I slugged her in the gut, effectively dropping her. Then my mind caught up. "Shit" I hit a knee immediately. "Sorry, I swear I didn't mean that. Reflex. I'm not used to being grabbed. Are you okay?" I wanted to try to help her up so she could breathe, but didn't know if it was okay for me to touch her.
It took almost a minute before she could manage to speak again. "Damn you can hit. Let's restart." She put her back to a wall as she sat up and looked me square in the face. "Take a seat and start talking." She pointed to an open spot on the floor directly in front of her.
To say I was taken aback is an understatement, but I did as I was instructed as this was what I needed anyway. For the next three hours, I relayed my entire life, as far back as I could remember, to her. I hid nothing like I had hidden parts from my coworkers. If she was going to be dragged into the darkness with me, she needed to know what she was up against. I then explained about the virus on her computer.
She took it all in with a blank face, listening just like she said she would. When I finished she asked one question. "So we are going to Phoenix to meet somebody that you have never heard of or met before because my computer had a virus?"
"That is your only question!?" I asked back incredulously.
"Oh, I have plenty of questions, but that one seems the most important right now." She responded way too calmly.
"Well, then, yeah, I suppose we are. It is too dangerous for only one of us to go, and that was a deliberate message to me. I want to talk to my dad before I go though, if it is even possible. Maybe he can give me some pointers, I don't know. I haven't even seen him in three years." I was still amazed she was taking everything so well and that I had other family. I mean sure, they were in the mafia too, but heck, I wasn't alone.
"Finding your dad shouldn't be too hard. Once we find the prison, we can just call to see if he can receive visitors. If not, no harm no foul. Also, I just happen to have two timeless tickets back to Arizona. My mom got them for me for whenever I wanted to come home. I doubt she thought I'd be using them for this though."
"That is just too good of a setup to be chance." I thought aloud.
"My mother isn't mafia." She glared at me, daring me to challenge her.
"Doesn't mean she doesn't unknowingly have mafia connections. She was friends with my father, wasn't she. You don't get out that easy. Not unless you die or disappear. You may be left alone for a while, but there is no out. I thought I could get out. Now this happens. Fuck my life." I groaned.
"Your life! What about mine? I come back to New York to find an old friend, find him but he doesn't remember me, and then he turns out to be a criminal."
I couldn't help but flinch. "I can't help that. I'm trying to go straight. Was even trying to get into college in the fall." I whined mostly to myself.
She softened at that. "I'm sorry G. We will work through this. We are both stressed."
"It's Echo, remember?" I smiled wanly.
We both jumped as my phone let out an evil cackling signaling I had a text, then laughed. I checked it, figuring it would be from Harold. It wasn't, it was an unknown number. "Check shop mailbox." Was all it said. Frowning, I pushed myself up from the floor and made my way to the front of the store. I didn't see anybody outside through the storefront windows as I crossed the studio floor and opened the door. I pushed open the door, fully expecting there to be someone there for some reason. When I saw nobody, I checked the mailbox. There was one envelope, unmarked and very light. I took it back inside and showed Miss Cloud and crossed back to her planning desk. Carefully I slid a carpal under the paper and ripped it open. Two papers fell out, one was a check, the other a regular printer sheet with very neat print on it. "That will cover the rent." Was printed in the center. It wasn't signed, there was nothing else to elaborate. I glanced down at the check and sucked in a breath. It certainly would cover rent. That was a seven digit check.
"I think that whoever my grandfather is, he has some major pull. He apparently is covering your rent. Must really want us to move." I showed her the check.
Her eyes widened. "That covers the entirety of my year's rent plus profits. How long are we gonna be gone?"
"I don't know. Must be some time. Can you look up the info for my dad and I'll call my roommate to update him. We will have to stop by his apartment to get some of my stuff."
"Right." She strode back to her computer in the back, leaving me in the studio.
Things were moving way to fast. "Harold is gonna flip his shit." I groaned to nobody in particular. Fitzgerald meowed pathetically from the corner. I pulled out my phone and text Harold, just letting him know that I was making an unplanned trip out of state for an unknown amount of time due to a family emergency. I also asked him if he would be willing to take care of a cat.
His response was rather quick, but a look at the clock told me that it was already past noon. He had probably just gotten up, but once up, he was glued to his phone. "Not very convincing Gaz, I can take care of the cat, but please tell me what is really up."
I grimaced. "Really is fam. Sort of a summons. It's like my past, can't tell you more without you getting in danger. Please be careful and let the girls know. Will be stopping by for clothes then be gone."
His reply took a couple minutes this time. Probably messaging the girls first. "We don't like it, but fine. Keep in touch if you can. Don't fuck up your life too much kid." Yeah, he messaged the girls.
Almost simultaneously I got a text from each of them. "KEEP IN TOUCH" they both messaged. Seriously, did girls run on a frequency or something?
I heard Miss Cloud speaking in the back of the store and started to make my way into the back.
"Are you absolutely sure he can't receive any visitors? Not even family." She sighed, obviously aggravated. "Fine, whatever. Just so you know, this is bullshit!" she snapped into the receiver of the landline and slammed it back down in the cradle.
"I didn't even know those were still used." I joked. "No luck?"
She smiled but shook her head. "On your end?"
"My roommate agreed to take care of your cat and although they don't like it, they wish me luck and safe travels. The normal stuff." I shrug
Nothing about this is normal." She said dubiously.
I just laugh and follow her as she goes to her room and pulls a suitcase from under the twin bed she has in the small area. It was more of a closet than a room. She doesn't even open it, but rather just drags it out into the hall and walks into the bathroom. She comes back out a few minutes later with a smaller bag. "All set." She already sounds weary.
It's a fight to get fat Fitzgerald into his case, but then we are hauling him and her luggage out to her car, which was parked in the alley on the other side of the shop. From there we drove to my apartment, I grabbed what little I had, introduced her to Harold, she explained specifics about the cat's diet, and we were off to the airport. The flight we needed just happened to be delayed (how coincidental) just long enough to let us get on board before leaving. Then we were on our way to Arizona. I didn't even know what to expect and the stress from the day had me exhausted. I'm not sure which of us fell asleep first.