Animaton by Judy Colella (online e book reader TXT) 📖

that, he would use his bizarre abilities to leave whenever he wished.

“I don’t have to give you anything, Mr. Rousseau. Besides, I can’t tell you why your presence is being requested, so you’ll just have to come along and find out for yourself.”

“No.”

The man looked past him again at the two hulking individuals at this back and nodded. They each grabbed one of Julian’s arms and started to lift him off the floor, but a moment later, they were out in the hallway, piled on top of each other, and followed a second later by the other two. Julian, gratified that his assumption about his new strength had been right, shut the door.

Taking a step back, he crossed his arms and waited, listening to the muffled grunts and curses, followed by a few seconds of silence before one of them kicked the door open.

Julian stood, unmoving; as soon as they began to enter the apartment he said, “You are extremely rude people.” He removed his sunglasses.

The one who couldn’t move fast enough to get out with the others wet himself, tears coursing down his face.

Julian took a step closer, bent down and whispered, “Go.”

His mouth open in a soundless scream, the man pulled himself from the room.

Julian followed him out, watching him crawl away along the hall, and all but fall down the stairs. The others were already long gone. He returned to his apartment, closing the door, noticing that the jamb was damaged. Not that it mattered. What did matter, at least for the moment, was the wet stain on his carpet.

“That’s disgusting.” He made a face, loath to have to clean it up, but what else did he have on his schedule? He stepped over it and went into the kitchen to get some paper towels and the liquid cleanser.

YOU DID QUITE WELL, JULIAN.

He stopped, then slowly turned around. The voice had been in his head, not his ears, and he had no idea what to expect, but somehow wasn’t frightened.

A man of approximately the same height as himself stood at the kitchen door. He was wearing sunglasses, too, and was giving Julian a closed-mouth smile.

“In what way did I do well?”

YOU CONTROLLED YOUR STRENGTH AND DID ALL YOU COULD TO AVOID VIOLENCE. YOU HAVE SPENT YOUR TIME PRODUCTIVELY, IT SEEMS.

“My time? You mean the past three years?”

YES.

“How have I spent it ‘productively?’ By not turning into a psychopath? I’ve been living in some version of hell, and quite frankly, I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished much of anything.”

BUT YOU HAVE, JULIAN. YOU‟VE LEARNED TO DIRECT YOUR THOUGHTS, TO KEEP THEM IN LINE. YOU HAVE RETAINED YOUR SANITY EVEN IF YOU THINK THIS IS ALL AN INSANE DREAM. YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED, AND NOW YOU’RE READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP.

“Great. Well, I’m not stepping anywhere until I get some kind of explanation. I want to know why I’ve changed and how it happened. I’d also like to know who in the world you are, and why you can talk in my head like that. And what’s wrong with my eyes? Please – I think I’d give just about anything to have those answers right now.”

The man’s smile broadened. YOU HAVE BECOME ONE OF US.

“One of. . .”

The man reached up and removed his sunglasses, and the room was bathed in pure white light. From the corners of his smile, points of light emanated like lasers. THIS OUTWARD MATERIAL THAT IN HUMANS IS CALLED SKIN IS NO MORE THAN A KIND OF SUIT. IT WRAPS MY TRUE NATURE IN SOMETHING COMPREHENSIBLE TO THE HUMAN MIND. THROUGHOUT THE AGES, MEN AND WOMEN OF YOUR WORLD HAVE CAUGHT GLIMPSES OF US, AND SOME EVEN WROTE STORIES OR MADE MOVIES ABOUT US, THINKING WE WERE JUST CHARACTERS THEIR IMAGINATIONS HAD MADE UP, OR THAT WE WERE THE EXPLANATION FOR SOME OF THEIR OLDER VOLUMES OF KNOWLEDGE.

Julian was stunned. Was this what he’d been waiting for all this time? Was this the answer at last? Or maybe he had slipped at last into total insanity. “Were – were you ever human?”

SOME OF US. OTHERS, LIKE ME, WERE NOT.

“What do you want, and why was I turned into whatever I am right now? And by the way, I am not at all happy about any of this. It’s been awful, and I’d like my own life back, especially since there seemed to have been a glaring lack of free will involved here.” Julian raised an eyebrow, congratulating himself for controlling the wild hysteria he could feel welling up inside.

The man-like creature almost looked sad for a moment. THERE ARE MANY THINGS I CAN TEACH YOU AND GIVE YOU TO HELP WITH YOUR NEW LIFE, BUT THE OLD ONE IS THE ONLY THING YOU MAY NEVER HAVE AGAIN. I AM SORRY. BUT I BELIEVE THAT ONCE YOU KNOW THE ANSWERS TO YOUR OTHER QUESTIONS, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THIS.

Julian nodded, devastated at the death of his long-held hope. “That hurts. But whatever.” He went to the window and looked down at the street for a moment for no reason except that it was something to do. “Will you be taking me anywhere?”

ALL I NEED TO TELL YOU, I CAN TELL YOU RIGHT HERE. YOU ARE FIRST OF FOUR WHO HAVE BEEN CALLED TO HELP THIS GENERATION, SO YOU MUST LEARN A GREAT DEAL IN ORDER TO HELP THE OTHERS ADAPT. BECAUSE YOU WILL LEAD THEM, YOU NEEDED TO BE LEFT ALONE ALL THIS TIME IN ORDER TO GROW STRONG FROM THE INSIDE WHILE WE MADE YOU STRONGER ON THE OUTSIDE.

“Where are these others?” One thing at a time…deal with the rest of what this creature said later.

YOU MUST FIND THEM YOURSELF. WE CAN GIVE YOU A GENERAL HINT, BUT PART OF THIS CALLING INVOLVES A JOURNEY, ONE ON WHICH YOU MUST LEAVE SOON, AND WHICH WILL BE OVER WHEN THE LAST OF THE OTHERS IS FOUND.

“Great. Could you be any more cryptic?”

I COULD, BUT I WON’T. PLEASE BE STILL NOW AS I TELL YOU THE OTHER THINGS YOU WANTED TO KNOW, AS WELL AS A GREAT NUMBER OF THINGS YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW.

Julian went to the sofa and settled back; the creature in the man-suit pulled up a chair and sat opposite, then began to fill the young man’s mind with knowledge.

How long this took, Julian couldn’t have said, nor did he care. Because when the flow of information finally stopped and understanding began, he did something he hadn’t done in three long years – he smiled. Then he leaned his head back, letting his eyelids fall over his strange, new interior, and allowed himself to make logical sense of all he’d heard, all he’d been shown, to see how he now fit into the schemes of life.

He had a purpose, it seemed, one he never could have imagined, but it pleased him. He was no longer Julian Rousseau, wannabe rock star from New Orleans, whose Cajun family had a big problem with his ambition because it severed him from his blue-grass roots. But since he was no longer himself, his roots no longer mattered, either. He was free for the first time in his life, and from his life as well, since what energized him now was not by any stretch of the imagination human. He had no organs, no blood, no bones – just a life force made entirely of intense, intelligent energy. It moved his new body at his command, because he had retained every thought, every memory he’d ever had. He was still a sentient being, one capable of great emotion, yet never again to be ruled by it. He was powerful and indestructible; the outer shell could be destroyed, but what it contained could not, and a new shell could always be made to replace the other should something happen to it.

“I’m a living comic-book superhero,” he told himself, chuckling. Yes, he could laugh now, too, and in fact always could, but during the three years of ceaseless torment, he’d found no desire or cause for it. Now he did.

And there was so much to consider, so much to grasp! He never saw the other being leave, even though he felt its sudden absence; he was too engrossed in putting the pieces together to pay much attention to the creature’s departure, and knew that he didn’t have to anyway. His only responsibility at the moment was to fully comprehend and apply his new knowledge to his conscience, to his foundational understanding of right and wrong, and recognize how, where, when and why he fit into all that.

A week later, Julian stood up, packed a few things into a single suitcase, put on his sunglasses, and left his apartment. If the FBI was going to send anyone else, they had run out of time to do so. He had a journey ahead of him; his new awareness would be his compass, his map, and he would find those others who, like he, had been changed. Once found, they would be unified into a kind of brotherhood and instruct them as to their new purpose and helped to adjust. The being had told him it wouldn’t be easy – neither the search, nor the reaction once he’d found each of them – but at least he could deal with the questions. And because he was still capable of experiencing emotion, they would have his empathy and compassion.

Before leaving, he tacked a note to the door for Rémy:

 

“My dear friend, I have finally been given answers. I know who and what I am, and I know what I am to do and why. The FBI was here looking for me, which is why I didn’t call – I told them nothing about you, and would like them to remain ignorant. We may never meet again, mon ami, but I shall never forget you or your precious friendship. Perhaps I will one day have the time to seek you out, but who knows? I can only thank you for all you’ve done, for your tireless efforts to help me in my darkest time. For this, I promise you will be rewarded.

Always your friend,

Julian.

 

The rent had been paid through the end of the next month, and since the landlord was already accustomed to his reclusive life, Julian wasn’t worried that anyone would wonder that he hadn’t been seen for a long time – except, perhaps, the FBI, but he rather thought they’d continue to stay away, at least for a while longer.

The sun felt neither good nor bad on his unusual version of skin, and he knew that if he took off his sunglasses, he could look directly into it with no ill effects. This made him smile. His suitcase felt weightless in his hand as he started walking.

It was good to be super-alive.

DAY 26

 

Almost a month has passed. I’ve begun to calm down, having accepted the horrible possibility that this change is permanent. Looking back at my other Journal entries between Day 1 and now, I realize I’ve spent entirely too much time freaking out and almost none figuring out what to do. I noticed a change in my eyes this morning and nearly went hysterical again, but I’m learning how to control my