Forces of Nature, Chapter 1 by DGB
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"Dammit," Jake cursed under his breath as he shook his finger; he'd manage to shock himself yet again on the doorknob. Jake locked the door and dropped his keys on the table. The shocks had been happening a lot more often than normal lately, easily ten to twenty times a day. They had started when he left the hospital after the accident.
Or maybe it had been an incident, not that he could remember much either way. Jake was working late at the office that night two weeks ago trying to wrap up a report. At 25, he was the low man on the totem pole and always seemed to get dumped on. He was a civil engineer, which was a fancy way of saying he did the same thing day after day. There isn't exactly anything new going on in structural analysis, just one code check after the next. When he was a kid he was good with numbers, and had never quite outgrown the "tractors and cranes" phase, so when he headed to college it seemed like a good career decision.
The summer before his final year he had done an internship at firm just like this. He could still vividly remember that it took exactly two hours after orientation to have his dreams crushed. As a junior engineer he would never be allowed to talk to clients or design anything. All he was going to do all day was crunch away at numbers in his cubicle to verify the work of others.
For Jake it was too late to change his major. Well, maybe not too late, but he'd have to have a conversation with his father. A life of boredom was an easy choice given that alternative. His father had never been cruel, but he didn't exactly show him any love either. The nicest thing Jake could say about the man was that he was a good lawyer, the perfect tool of corporate America.
His mother had died giving him life. He had never said it out loud, but Jake suspected his dad resented him from birth, blaming an innocent child for his wife's death. His father had of course sued the hospital, and the settlement was probably the only reason his father had kept him around. His father always too busy to deal with him; he had been raised by a constant string of nannies. Anna had been his favorite, perhaps because she stayed the longest. She had appeared around his 13th birthday, but the day after he turned 16 she was fired; something about being old enough to learn to take care of himself and not needing a babysitter anymore. At least he had gotten to say goodbye, unlike the others that just disappeared while he was at school.
And so he had endured finishing his degree and going to work. Jake's dad had surprised him by showing up to graduation, carrying his briefcase as always. After a firm handshake he had presented Jake with paperwork to "close out" the trust fund. It wasn't until that day that he even knew he had a trust fund. As part of the settlement over his mother's death, the fund was setup to pay for his education and `help cover expenses' as his father put it.
The fund had a little over $500,000 left, not much by today's standards but still a nice chunk to get him set up in life. He signed the paperwork on the spot, sensing it would be one of the last times he saw his father. The paperwork transferred the car title, insurance, and cell phone bill to him. They hadn't spoken since.
Jake had driven to the city and immediately looked for a place downtown, figuring it would be better to invest his new found funds in a home rather than renting. He had fallen in love with a downtown loft complete with a rooftop deck, several floors above a Chinese restaurant. He dreamed of throwing parties on the roof and inviting all his friends. He had used all the skills he had learned from years of dealing with his father to haggle on the price, leaving him with a healthy account balance. It wasn't enough for him to be able to forgo work, but knowing he could tell his employer to shove it at a moment's notice had provided the fortitude needed to face the impending tedium.
In reality, in the three years he lived there, he had only had a coworker over once or twice to show off the deck. Jake had a hard time making new friends. Growing up it had just been him and his books. Now it was just him and his electronics, whether it was surfing the net from his laptop, playing games on xbox, or just reading on his kindle. The worlds he could immerse himself in seemed so much more entertaining than the real world. His gaming buds expected nothing more from him than to help slay orcs or shoot aliens. These people he had never met meant more to him than anyone in real life.
There was one guy he had been playing games with for almost two years. Jake was always excited to get a message from Alex asking if he was up for playing a bit. Alex, also known as starmage, even lived in the same town, but they had never met. Jake thought of suggesting they meet in person early on, but he decided the relationship was best kept anonymous. After all he knew he was socially awkward, and really fairly average; 5'-11" with broad shoulders and a tapered waist, dirty blonde hair he kept trimmed in a short Caesar cut. His weight fluctuated during the year around 200 pounds. His father had told him once in high school that if he worked out a bit he could have a nicely built body, so naturally he had refused. Besides, he had never been the best at sports.
And so they had just remained semi-anonymous gaming buddies. When no one else was playing with them they would chat about their day to day lives, new restaurants that opened in town, plans for the weekend, how bad traffic sucked at rush hour. Alex's rich baritone voice just entranced him. One night he even found himself telling Alex about his father. Jake decided meeting in person wasn't worth the risk of losing his friend, especially since Alex never brought it up.
Jake had been thinking about Alex that night at the office. Usually they would game Thursday evening, but there he was stuck at work. All of his coworkers had been gone by six, rushing home before a storm hit town. Jake had loved thunderstorms for as long as he could remember. The more thunder and lightning the better. He spent many nights of his childhood staring out the window as a storm raged on, the violent weather giving him a sense of peace.
The rain was pounding the office window by the time he finished up around 10. Jake stood and took a well-deserved stretch while he waited on the printer. His manager was fickle, sometimes preferring a hard copy to edit, sometimes digital, so Jake had learned to just give him both. The lights had flickered after a particularly bright flash of lightning, the windows rattling from a sharp crack of thunder. The office must have been near the eye of the storm. Jake could remember checking the printer to make sure the power blip hadn't screwed things up when he noticed the window leaking.
Jake was shocked by the icy chill of the water on his fingertips as he tried to trace the leak back to the source. He had ended up leaning his forehead against the window frame, his arm extended to near the top finally finding a dry spot.
And then he woke up in the hospital in the wee hours of Saturday morning, alone in the room with a throbbing headache. It took several minutes before he could think clear enough to push the nurse call button. After that it was a bit of a blur.
The nurses had rushed in to check on the newly awakened patient, followed by a doctor shortly after. The doctor had told him the he was lucky to be alive after such a shock to his system, but now that he was awake he should be fine in a couple of days. Aside from being unresponsive the doctors had found no other damage.
Jake hadn't actually heard what happened until his boss and a lawyer from the office showed up mid-morning. Apparently security had found him unconscious on the floor by the window. The building had been struck by lightning, and the jolt must have electrocuted him and knocked him out. Every electronic device in the building had been blown. In fact the whole block was fried.
The lawyer was there to make sure Jake wasn't going to sue the company. Typical lawyers, exactly what his father would have done. Jake signed the papers just to get rid of the two men. They had made him feel uneasy as soon as they had entered the room, and he could just tell neither man wanted to be there. Since he never talked of family, his office hadn't known who to contact as next of kin. His father probably would have been too busy to care anyway.
Jake ended up having to call a taxi to take him home from the hospital that afternoon since uber was out of the question – even though someone had collected his cell phone off his desk, it too had been a victim of the storm.
It was mid-week before Jake had gotten the call that the office would be open for employees to collect personal items. Thankfully someone invented automatic cell phone backups to the cloud, as he never would have been able to replace all the phone numbers he had. The office was going to be closed at least a month while they rewired, and who knows how long it would take IT to get new computers setup.
The elevators was still being repaired, but he wasn't prepared at all for what he saw when he walked up the stairs. The office looked like a bomb had gone off with all of the cubicle walls flattened, spiraled out like dominoes from the window he had been standing at. He gave an involuntary shudder when he saw scorch marks on the carpet. He had been at ground zero.
Jake was still in shock from that revelation as he headed for a check-up at the hospital. He had walked the few blocks uptown on autopilot, only snapping out of it when the door had shocked the shit out of him as he went in. The doctor gave him a full physical and said he seemed to be in almost perfect health for a guy his age. Detecting an opening Jake asked the doctor if the accident could be responsible for all the little shocks he had been dealing with. He regretted the question as soon as he asked it, sensing that the doctor thought he was a nutcase.
And that was the other problem. He could swear he sensed emotions coming off people. The lawyer had been impatient, the girl in the coffee shop thought he was cute, the doctor thought he was crazy. Maybe he was losing it.
Nothing had really been able to hold his attention either. His favorite books didn't draw him in like usual, binge watching Netflix was unsatisfying; he hadn't even been on his xbox much. The few times he had logged in to play he hadn't seen any of his friends on. He had messaged Alex on Thursday to see if he was up for game night, but no response ever came.
This unexpected vacation from work was really starting to drag as well. Jake had discovered he still didn't want to do all those little things he had put off `until he had some free time'. The only thing that still entertained him was going people watching at the coffee shop he had just gotten home from. Even that had gone pear shaped today. Jake plopped down into a recliner trying to figure out what all this meant. He had gone for a drink this afternoon just to get out of the house, buying a decaf latte and a big chocolate chip cookie before taking a seat in the corner. It was the perfect spot for people watching, with a view of the door and the line at the counter.
His dad had occasionally taken him to work when the nanny was sick, always with strict orders to sit in the corner and not make a sound. Jake had fallen in love with reading those days, the images the words could conjure infinitely more exciting than the sea of men in dark suits around him. Still, eventually his eyes would get tired and he devised a new game. He'd look around the office and start making up stories about what each client was there for, or how the ship-in-a-bottle on his father's desk was actually a memento from a great battle frozen in time.
But the last few days his stories had taken on a different tone. When he looked around the coffee shop he could figure out conversations just by the emotions he felt coming from people. Today had been his third day in a row as he tried to figure out if he could really sense something or if it was all in his head. Maybe all this was a dream, and he was lying in a coma at the hospital.
Jake shook his head to clear that thought. He couldn't be going crazy, surely there was an explanation for all this. Probably he was just bored and his mind was playing tricks. But that didn't explain the red headed guy from the coffee shop. Jake had just finished making up a story about a couple in the corner, sure that they were going to head home and screw like rabbits, when the man had walked in. He looked to be about Jake's height but trimmer, maybe a little younger. His green eyes stood out in stark contrast to his pale complexion, spotted with freckles. The tuft of chest hair peeking from beneath his t-shirt was evidence enough that the carpet must match the curtains.
Jake had just started to try and come up with a story when the man looked over at him. And that's when he felt it. Or rather, didn't feel it. He didn't feel anything from the man. Jake had become so accustomed to feeling emotions from people that he suddenly felt confused by being able to sense nothing from someone. He had tried again, focusing harder but nothing came to him. While he was sitting there trying to figure out what was happening, the man had stared at him while he paid for his drink and left.
He rubbed his temples as he sat in the recliner, trying to fend off the headache that had started in the coffee shop. As he started to relax the pitter patter of rain hit his windows. Funny, he didn't remember showers in the forecast. Probably a good thing he had headed home when he did.
Jake popped a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner. Pizza was his go to meal on Thursdays, with enough leftovers usually to snack on between games. He had fired up the Xbox just in case Alex showed up this week. He had nearly given up hope a half hour later when he finally heard the Xbox notification sound effect from his bedroom. He quickly ran back to the living room to see the party invite from starmage fade from the screen. Jake quickly put on his headset and joined the party. "Hey man! I didn't think you were going to be on."
"Oh man you have no idea how bad I need to game tonight. It has been a hellacious few weeks and I need to blow off some steam."
"Ditto. Let's go roast some noobs," Jake fell right back into the swing of things. Catching up with Alex had a calming effect on him, and they we're joking like usual in no time.
"I really should be unpacking," Alex said after a while, "I just moved into a new apartment downtown. Have I ever told you I work for the observatory South of the city?"
"Nope, but that explains starmage finally. I've always been curious but never wanted to ask."
"Oh yeah, that's it" Alex chuckled to himself. "Anyway that big storm two weeks ago screwed up some of the instruments. I've been working overtime to try and get everything back in order. My lease was up at the same time, so between work and moving I haven't had any time to relax."
Jake answered, "Oh yeah, I know what storm you are talking about. It hit my office and fried all the computers. I'm getting a month long vacation while they try to repair the damage."
"Ugh I'm jealous. I could really use a few days to finish unpacking. I had to go out for coffee this afternoon because I haven't found which box I put the coffee pot in. Somehow I managed to pack the machine and filters in the same box, but not the pot!"
Their chat was interrupted by another friend joining the party and looking to get in on a game. It was sort of an unspoken rule Jake and Alex had – the two of them had bonded enough to talk freely, but anyone else in the group meant chatter stayed strictly anonymous. They didn't even call each other by name when other people were in the party, it was just easier to avoid nosy questions.
Jake winced Friday morning when he once again shocked himself catching the door of the coffee shop as it swung open. Of course it was the ginger haired man on his way out. The man stared at him for a moment before he said, "Look I don't know who or what you are, but this town is protected so don't even think about making trouble."
"What the hell?" Jake was dumbfounded as he watched the man walk away. He still couldn't sense any emotions, but he didn't have to in order to get the thinly veiled threat. More than that though he thought he recognized the voice, but he couldn't place why. Surely the man had mistaken him for someone else.
Jake got a muffin to go with his mocha, but as he sat in his usual corner life just felt off. People watching wasn't as much fun after someone had threatened you. Maybe that guy thought Jake was making a funny face at him when the door had shocked him, it was the only explanation he could come up with.
Sunday morning Jake woke up feeling incredible, even though he had fallen asleep in the papasan chair by the window. The rain had started not long after dinner as a gentle shower, but turned heavier as the night wore on. The first clap of thunder had brought a smile to his face, and he had settled into the chair to read a mystery novel.
He was in such a good mood that Jake didn't even pause when he shocked himself yet again on the way out the door. Maybe he'd even go for a peppermint mocha this morning. His good mood continued as he got in line for coffee, tight up until the hairs on the back of his neck stood up like he was being watched. Jake pretended to act casual like he was stretching as he glanced behind him. Sure enough the guy that threatened him yesterday was sitting by the window, staring at him. Jake just sighed and decided he'd get his drink to go.
Jake suddenly felt ill, a wave of heat washing over him, and before he could react he slumped to the floor. A moment later the heat was gone, a sheen of sweat cooling his body. The barista rushed around the counter to check on him to see if he was ok. He griped onto a hand that had been extended towards him, grateful for the help getting up, and stood up to come face to face with the mysterious red head.
"Hey man are you ok?" The question seemed genuine, "Let me help you home."
Jake just nodded meekly, his head a little foggy. The man had put his arm around his shoulder as they left the coffee shop, so Jake had just gestured towards his loft, surely the man couldn't mean to do him harm if he was helping him now. Something felt so familiar about the guy, but he still couldn't place the voice. They walked in silence as Jake slowly regained his balance.
"Well, this is me here. Thanks for helping me get home, I really don't know what happened," Jake said, still sounding unsteady.
"Do you have an elevator or just stairs?" the man asked.
"Stairs."
"Ok then let me help you up. I feel so bad about all this, I'm really a nice guy when you get to know me."
Jake was still too out of it to argue as they made it up the stairs. He was more shaken up than he realized, his hand shaking too much to put his key into the lock.
The man had wordlessly taken the keys and unlocked the door before turning to guide Jake onto the couch.
"I really am sorry about all this. I didn't mean to use that much power, I figured you'd be able deflect it with no problem. Even then I'm really sorry I've been such an asshole to you. I've just been so stressed between work and moving to a new apartment that I've been taking it out on everyone."
Suddenly it all clicked into place for Jake, "Starmage? I mean Alex?"
"Jake?"
Alex jumped back when Jake had smiled in response. He looked posed like he was ready to fight, a shimmering light enveloping his body. "Who do you work for? Have you been hunting me down?"
"What?" Jake began to cry, one of his worst fears had been realized. The one person that was the closest thing he had to a friend had rejected him. "I don't know what you're talking about. Nothing makes sense since that damn storm."
Author note: Yeah I know it's mean to leave you hanging right here ;) Chapters 2 and 3 are already written though and will be submitted soon. I always like to hear your comments though, so drop me a line if you enjoyed reading this.