Psycher Chronicles

Chapter 53

The Turn

(Shaman Bruce Jacobs)

Later that night, a restless Bruce feverishly comb through old tomes, trying to find the manual he was looking for. A manual that was half diary and half instruction manual for how to truly evolve as a Shaman.

The thing about being a Tier 4 Shaman was the fact that Bruce could see and feel power. He could feel the way the world could and should be, he could feel the raw natural untapped power of the world and he could tell when that same power was misaligned.

It took a moment, but finally after the horror of what he witnessed passed. Bruce realized that evil spirits had been raised to come at him.

For that Shaman had answers, Bruce had answers.

Well not Bruce himself, as the answer he was looking for came in the form of a Spirit and Mind protection amulet found in his great grandfather Jebediah’s grimoire.

His great grandfather had been a true legend, a Tier 5 Shaman that was unsurpassed in his power and abilities. The only problem with his great grandfather was that he used the old ways of gaining power, of stealing the potential from slain enemies and adding that power to his own. This was a practice that was praised and even admired during the time of the Civil War, but now the act had fallen out of favor.

Still, while the way to implement Jebediah’s power gaining method had fallen out of favor, there were still enough power gathering techniques that Bruce found a way to get to Tier 4, a feat that was unheard of since his great grandfather’s time.

Just finding the rune, caused the slight blur on his mind to subside.

Then after carving the Spirit and Mind rune, a seemingly simple yet intricate design. The Spirit and Mind rune essentially consisted of two boxes stacked on top of each other, with the top box that was bisected by a triangle pointing to the right.

Zzapp.

Using the old ways of rune carving, the glyph flared to life, expelling the evil energies that had been surrounding him.

Poof.

A trail of black smoke and dust filled the entire room, letting Bruce know that the rune was being effective for its chosen purpose, that of ridding the immediate world of evil spirits.

Seeing that the rune was effective, Bruce went over to his phone and played the message.

This time when Bruce heard the words, he heard them for what they were, a modulated voice that didn’t even sound like his old friend. There were pitches, nuances to his inflections, words that seemed incongruous with Jacob’s natural cadence. Everything about the recording now seemed completely fake, but at the time they felt so real.

Exhaling, Bruce found himself relaxing.

Brrrrinngg.

An old time telephone rang from the walls.

“Someone’s calling the landline?” Bruce asked himself, then looking down saw that his phone was still on the floor, smashed to pieces. Nodding to himself, he realized why they chose to call the landline. Though the number of people that still had the landline number were few and far between.

Going to the phone, Bruce picked up the receiver of the antique device and spoke. Bruce was so distracted at the faint trail of black smoke that arose from his picking up the receiver that he almost forgot common courtesy, almost.

“Bruce Jacobs speaking.” Bruce said, still looking at the trailing vapors of smoke, only to realize that the hand that still held his carved clay talisman was still in his hand.

“Uncle Bruce, it is me, Alishia.” Alishia’s voice sounded rushed and panicked.

“Yes, yes, I know who you are. But why are you calling me?” Bruce asked.

“It’s, I can’t take it. I, I see her.” Alishia’s voice was nearly a whisper at the end.

Hearing her voice and seeing the smoke trail, Bruce realized that something was amiss.

“Come to my house, perhaps I have something that can help.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there.” Alishia said, her tone cracking as she sounded like she was almost near to bursting with tears.

With that the call ended, Bruce put down his receiver as he realized that there was something larger going on. Going after him was one thing, but going after Alishia was another thing entirely.

Trying to formulate his thoughts, Bruce reread the half diary and half grimoire of his great grandfather. Half journal and half survival manual.

“It’s almost like someone has declared war on us.” Bruce said, stroking the pages of the mystical grimoire as he tried to mentally prepare himself for what would be needed next.

***

(Misha Tulley)

Poof.

Misha felt a mental connection in her mind break off and snap entirely. Pausing Misha waited, trying to figure out if she had done anything wrong.

Yet, when she thought about it, the connection she had to the world as a whole was still there. Though following the strands of her pre-established power links, Misha realized that one node had been completely severed from her.

Focusing, Misha paused trying to figure out what was missing, what it was that she wasn’t seeing.

Had it not been for the fact that she had just made this entirely new connection earlier that night, Misha might have missed the node entirely, however this was one she had just created not four hours ago, before she and the other girls turned in for the night.

That was why feeling the sudden spark and burning away of the connection to this newly established node was so jarring. Well, that and the fact that she had never forcefully had her connections severed like that before.

Part of her mind still burned where that connection had been established.

The burning sensation in her brain was odd, as she knew it had nothing to do with her physical body, yet she still felt the burn all the same.

But before she could get too far in her own thoughts, she heard it.

“You awake?” The whispering voice of Darcy called out, though even at a whisper her voice was loud and excited enough to be heard by almost anyone in the surrounding rooms, let alone being quiet enough to keep Jasmine, or J-Sweep, sleeping.

“Yeah.” Misha said, getting up from her twin bed and heading over to the pull out sofa that Darcy had used for the night. Given that it was a two bed suite, each girl ended up taking their own bed, Darcy being the smallest of the three opted for the pull out sofa.

“So, you ready?” Darcy asked, her eyes filling with excitement as she realized exactly what today was.

“Yeah.” Misha replied.

“Huh, wha?” Jasmine called out her voice caught between a half sleep and trying to find out where she was.

“Wake up sleepy head, today is the day I become Hasty’s Helper.” Darcy shouted, as she jumped up on the sofa bed and did a slight dance.

Seeing the actions of Darcy, Jasmine sat up and declared, “no way, I’m going to be the Helper, but don’t worry since your part of my crew, I will let you backstage with me.”

Misha hearing this just rolled her eyes and chose that moment to be first to go to the bathroom. Something she was immensely grateful for, as a moment later there was a line of people waiting to enter, as everyone’s sympathetic bladder all decided that this was the time to show solidarity.

Hearing her friends banter outside about who would be next brought a slight smile to Misha’s lips, as she realized she never had a memory like this in her past lifetimes. And for a moment, everything was at peace, as she was able to momentarily distract herself from the sudden loss of a node connection.

Mentally she just shrugged it off, realizing that she might have messed up the connection somehow.

It wasn’t until a few hours later when the trio made their way to the packed mall where Hasty was hosting her contest that Misha began to feel that something was off.

There was an electrical tension in the air. Despite being more than four hours early for the event, the trio found that they had to park more than a mile away from the mall in order to make the trek. This was no big deal for the girls, as they were all young, but still as she got closer, Misha could feel a tension.

With each step forward, it was as if there was an invisible field forcing Misha and the others back. Well forcing Misha back, as she was apparently the only one currently being affected by the resistance. Then just when she didn’t think she could take another step forward, it happened.

Sizzle snap.

This time another node in her mind forcefully burst in her mind, sending an intense wave of psychic backlash to her.

Stumbling, Misha found herself falling to the ground.

“You okay?”

Scampering feet came over, as Darcy’s far too tall platform shoes shuffled on the pavement stopping when they were right next to her.

Hands grabbed and pulled Misha up on both sides.

“Thanks.” Misha said, stumbling to her feet as she tried to stand up.

“You okay? What happened?” Jasmine asked.

“I don’t know.” Misha said, and meant it, this was the second time such an event happened.

“You’re bleeding.” Darcy cried out, pointing to Misha’s face.

“What?” Misha asked.

“Oh yeah.” Jasmine said, taking an involuntary half step back as she saw the blood and realized how close she had been.

Reaching up, Misha found that there was a warm liquid on her lip. Then pulling her hand away, she saw the signs of blood on her fingers.

Blinking, Misha felt around for something to wipe away the blood with.

“Here, use this.” Darcy said, pulling out a few tissues from her purse.

“Thanks.” Misha said, grabbing the tissues and then holding her hand to stop the bleeding, while holding her head back.

“Are you okay?” Jasmine asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine just allergies.” Misha replied, answering with the first thing that came to mind.

Hearing that Jasmine and Darcy could only nod slightly in understanding. It wasn’t a good answer, but honestly how would Misha explain that two mental nodes she had sent out and attached to people were now entirely burned out, and that burnout caused a slight backlash that Misha was now paying for.

Pausing, Misha realized that something was wrong with her nodes. These were the hot points to people in the world that she could just jump to mentally and spy on those people. Two nodes she had were on Darcy and Jasmine, both of whom were right in front of her.

The other nodes, those were on people she was either trying to protect or trying to spy on. So far, two of her spying nodes had been burned away in about as many hours. Misha didn’t know what this meant, other than something was happening.

Then pausing, Misha realized that this was likely what her Heightened Danger Sense had been trying to warn her about a moment ago. Now that she had time to think about everything, that is exactly what the mental barrier was that she had felt, the barrier that had kept her from entering the mall. Her newly enhanced sense was trying to warn her about the impending node destruction.

At least that was what she thought it all meant.

Looking around, Misha realized that her two friends were there staring at her.

Then taking a hesitant step forward, Misha waited for the impending doom to set in, which was all that the resistance she felt earlier could have been. After taking the hesitant step forward and feeling nothing, Misha realized that she was likely okay.

“You ready to go in?” Darcy asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Misha said, walking forward, while still holding the tissues against her nose. Honestly given how cold it was this morning, the tissues managed to preserve some heat, a small victory but one Misha was willing to take at the moment.

With each step forward, Misha felt more confident that the danger that she was being warned about was over, and that things were going to be okay.

What Misha failed to realize was that at this very moment her mind was in the process of rewiring itself to better protect from future catastrophic damage. The sensory input portion of her mind, the part that was working double shifts on continuing to keep mental nodes active, while also interfacing with the organo-tech features of the newly acquired Heightened Danger Sense were currently pushed beyond their limits. This was why when not one but two node connections were forcefully severed, it created a severe feedback loop, that both overwhelmed Misha’s mental systems, while making it so that the now overwhelming sense of danger was beyond the scope that Misha’s mind could fully comprehend. The final result of all of this, was the fact that Misha was now mentally blind to the dangers she was casually walking into.

***

(Elijah Cummings)

Elijah stood outside of Station Square, an excitement filled his eyes as he watched as hundreds of thousands of Bakshee spawn and their minions all came in attendance to see the Queen Sinner herself.

Today would be but a small preview of what would come.

What he had today was a slower acting, but no less potent version of the organo-tech killer that he had proven to be of great effect in Europe and Asia.

Here, the idea would be simple, this time he would hand out dozens of the weaponized contagions in the form of air fresheners to mundane humans. Those humans seeing the air freshener and having to stand in line would spray themselves gradually, hopefully even offering to share them with others in line.

By the end of today, the hope was that everyone that went in line, parked in the parking lot, and even looked at the mall entrance would be infected. Then all it would take is for one of those that was infected to go to the concert tomorrow and spread the cure to the world.

With that in mind, Elijah smiled brightly as he held out the small weaponized air canisters.

“Can I try one?” A female asked coming forward.

“By all means. All proceeds go directly to charity.” Elijah replied back.

“Oh what kind of charity?” The female asked.

“Oh, I represent St. Elijah’s Research.”

“Really, I never heard of them.”

“Yes, we are a small research organization trying to rid the world of the common cold and other infectious viruses.” Elijah replied.

“Oh?”

“Yes, this can is our first prototype, an air freshener that also kills 99% of viruses on contact.”

“Really, in that case can I take two?”

“Take as many as you like, just please be sure to spread the word around. Oh and here is a free one if you are going to stand in line and use it.”

“Why thank you,” the woman said, handing a $20 bill to Elijah as she took three canisters.

“Would you like your change?” Elijah asked.

“No, please keep up the good work.” The woman said.

“Oh, I will. I will…”