Darkly - Episode #14

Dark Magic Collides w/FBI

Want to start at the beginning? You can find the 1st Episode HERE.

For a Darkly Table of Contents, click here.

Recap: With Ward Six moving on Wilkes’s tip to catch Omega, Kinley connected with the serial killer on a different level—a magical, mental one—and fell into an abyss of his making. Lost to the Darkness, even her magical tendril with Dante was severed, leaving her defenseless against Omega.

Now… onto Darkly Episode #14.

Ritual broken

Ritual found.

If words could sting in this hollow Darkness, those were capable of a thousand cuts. Only one person—person?—could have spoken—Omega.

The Darkness closed in, suffocating. Cloying, jabbing at the emotions of love, anger, pride, and regret that held me together, causing them to fray and splinter. The Darkness unraveled each strand, leaving less of me. I’d be nothing soon. Erased by the beast.

I fought to keep myself together, reaching out in the chaos for my anchors—the data and technology that had always kept me grounded. The people… not that anyone would find me in time. Was my body a lump on the floor next to my desk chair?

I’d been ripped away from the physical world.

When I tried to find my way back, confusion jumbled my senses even more. I held onto a tiny bit of reason, and form began to take shape. Hope briefly rose, but it wasn’t my office coming back into focus. It was a vision. His vision. The Mall.

Again, with the Mall.

Omega appeared as a shadow of a man, oddly shaped like before. An early AI human that messed up the proportions of a man. It distorted the frame and put an eyeball on his forehead. He shifted, grinning to show too many teeth. It gave no clue to his Earthbound form. No clue I could use against him. He only revealed his evil core.

“I am the Omega. The end.” He reached a bony finger toward me.

The nail appeared painfully sharp. More of a claw. A weapon for the last part of his ritual? The part where he carved the omega symbol into his victim’s forehead! Was I supposed to fill that role? In this place? It didn’t seem possible, but a weight dragged at me with a taste of gravity. My face felt real again. We had to be hovering between the nothing and the physical because he needed to finish the ritual.

Had he discovered that I’d found Amanda? That I was responsible?

The bony finger angled toward my forehead.

“Omega,” he repeated.

“Alpha…” I spat out the word in some weak kind of retaliation. A last gasp from a half-dead me. “… the beginning.”

Miraculously, strength surged through me, and I grabbed the finger before it could touch my forehead, snapping it in two.

A howl pierced the Darkness.

And my heart.

Thrown from the vision, I felt the full weight of the physical world. It crashed down on me. But was I free? A static ravaged my thoughts, making it hard to think. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t hear—except for a hissing oscillation. Reaching out, a cold, smooth floor met my fingertips.

My office floor?

A flash of vision—the wheel of a rolling chair. My chair! I grabbed for it, even though I couldn’t feel my hand. Was it attached to an arm? Could I move it? I felt disassembled. Unsure which way was up or down.

Another flash—a clear view of the office door. I was on my feet. Standing. I took a step, but it must have been several because I collided with the door’s hard surface.

Damn. It was shut. I should have noticed.

A call for help escaped my mind, and the computer answered with a beep. It penetrated the white noise. I recognized it. The door’s electronic lock made that sound. Not that we ever locked it, but we could.

The beep repeated, and the static diminished. I listened for new sounds, stumbling forward. Sensation returned to my feet. Another beep greeted me in the hall, and the elevator binged. A slight swoosh had to be the elevator door opening. The computer was guiding me.

Another flash and I could see that I’d made it inside the elevator, giddy with success, not that my panic had eased. With so many senses down, part of me still seemed to be trapped in the Darkness. Crippled. Could Omega pull me back? Beyond the worry, I became aware that my body was awakening. As the numbness receded, pins and needles took their place. They crept over my limbs, a thousand times worse than anything I’d ever felt before.

Knees buckling, I almost fell, grasping the elevator walls. It was descending. Had I pushed a button? Or had the computer known? Known how to communicate with Ward Six. Together, they knew what I needed—Dante. Our bond wielded the strength to fight Omega—the magic. It caused me another kind of pain to admit how much I needed him. Just in this moment, I promised myself.

Another flash, and I saw Dante in the cell. He pounded on the Plexi. Shouting as I stumbled out of the elevator. I couldn’t understand him. For a moment, everything was drowned out by Omega’s blood-curdling howl. It broke through from the Darkness. A wretched screech. It was more than rage, though; it had a cadence. A rhythm. A spell.

I was running out of time.

Omega hadn’t given up. I might be back in my body, but not free. Not safe. He still had a hold, and given enough time, his magic would pull me back. The thought made me falter on my way to the cell toward Dante.

I could see him more clearly and see everything better. The fear in his eyes shocked me. I had to ignore it and whatever Dante was shouting. I needed to open the cell. We couldn’t counter Omega’s magic with him inside, but I needed my badge and a code.

My body and mind, however, hadn’t reunited in a way that would make that possible. I tried in vain to find a pathway that led my fingers to my badge. It would have been easier to find it on the moon than in my pocket. Was it in my pocket?

Logic. Logic never failed me.

The computer waited to help, but it would need to take control. I sensed how my situation already forced it to merge with the Ward Six operating system, and now I needed to join them. They could be my brain and open the cell because my fingers worked, theoretically, if I could feel them.

Fear stopped me. Relinquishing the last of my control might give Omega a chance to take me. But if I didn’t… I was only half of myself, and that wasn’t enough to fight him.

One sigh and I released myself to the logic. It promised me that we’d be alright, but as all self-control faded, I had a sense of falling. The Darkness rushed in, and Omega’s howl reached a fever pitch. He could taste success.

Arms grabbed me from behind…

… and all the noise stopped.

Silence ticked off the seconds.

A wave of energy surged through my soul.

My vision returned.

A kiss pressed against the top of my head.

Blinking, I finally took in my surroundings. I was sitting between Dante’s legs, my back to his chest, slumped against him. We were both on the floor, just outside of the cell. We must have opened it—the AI and me.

I tried to ask what happened.

Stronger together.

Even Dante couldn’t find the words, resorting to an alternate form of communication. I could feel his heart racing. I’d scared him.

Getting to Dante had worked. He’d kept me from falling back to Hell. An ancient, powerful love—an Elder once claimed of us. At the time, I’d taken that pronouncement as another form of manipulation, but our bond just saved my life.

It could also complicate it.

“Back in the cell,” I said, barely able to get the words out. My tongue felt thick.

Dante helped me stand. “It’s only been minutes. You can still help the team.”

Minutes? It felt like hours.

I briefly put a hand on his chest, taking a beat to balance on my feet. They felt like lumps of clay. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said, staring into his wicked eyes, “I’m glad you’re here, but I don’t trust you.”

“Wise woman.” He winked and stepped back into the cell.

Too exhausted to unpack everything Dante represented, I made it back upstairs to my computer, pouring my thanks toward the technology. It reached me when even Dante couldn’t, equally contributing to my escape. Upside, it would never ask for my heart.

However…

The computer insisted that I check on Gil. Odd. It was worried, or they were. I felt the extra presence of Ward Six. Maybe the facility had a thing for Gil? That might prove awkward. “Pull back,” I warned Gil. “Omega is here. There. He’s not something you can outmaneuver.”

I could see the team had reached the Food Court. They’d hunkered down, assessing the space, maybe waiting on me?

“Where exactly?” Gil asked. “What have you seen?”

He knew. I could hear the worry. His empath abilities were stronger than I’d imagined if he’d picked up on my distress.

I couldn’t explain; I just knew they needed to fall back. I said as much.

“If it’s all good on your end…?” Gil asked without really asking what was wrong. I sure couldn’t explain how I’d just been in a battle for my life.

“It’s what’s on a collision course with you.” I stressed the fact that three individuals were headed his way, and by all accounts, they should have been stopped—the baseball cap guy, the mom with a baby stroller, and the teenager with a OneWheel—an updated version of a skateboard with more power. Luckily, the kid was carrying it and not riding it. I doubted they allowed riding inside the Mall.

Gil waved the team to move into the Food Court. “Just talk us through it, Kinley. Keep us one step ahead of him.”

If only I could. It wasn’t just the three individuals tagged by AI; it was the people already in the Food Court, sitting down and eating. They all posed a problem. The Buzzers had scanned the faces, but just their presence could be used against us if they weren’t ushered to a safe spot. With the Food Court at one end of the Mall, that wasn’t easy. Both second-floor walkways were an option, but they were forty feet away.

“You have eleven shoppers eating and a few sitting together,” I said, quickly tallying heads. “Plus, you’re looking at food servers in ten fast food booths. No one stands out. We also have movement along the second-floor walkways. At least six shoppers are heading toward the Food Court.”

“S.W.A.T. Leader,” Gil said, easily shifting from talking to me to another member of our party line. “Detour shoppers at the elevator and the mid-point stairway.”

“Roger,” the S.W.A.T. Leader responded as he and a four-man team exited the stairwell on the second floor. They’d stop any accidental arrivals. I could see him motioning his men to split into two groups.

“Keep civilians out of harm’s way,” Gil ordered.

“S.W.A.T. will miss the three I told you about,” I warned Gil, feeling the need to repeat the information. It mattered. I knew it mattered. “You’ve got a man wearing a baseball cap and a teenager carrying a OneWheel, plus the mother.”“We need eyes on them. Carter?” Gil was close enough for Carter to respond with a finger wave, turning to spot the stray shoppers.

Carter signaled Lopez, and they both moved to intercept the trio.

“On it,” Lopez said, overconfidence in his voice.

“Lopez,” I spoke as clearly as I could, keeping my emotions in check. “Don’t underestimate Omega.”

“You hot for him, honey?” Lopez never let up.

I knew Gil would cut me off if I said too much, so I talked fast. “You’re already at a disadvantage because we want Omega alive. He just wants you dead.”

“Stay focused, please,” Gil had a hard edge to his voice.

“Roger.” Lopez sounded a little less bullish.

Maybe I’d gotten through to him or just unnerved everyone listening.

Gil’s team advanced around the perimeter of the Food Court as Lopez broke to the left and Carter to the right. A few shoppers looked up, surprised to see men with guns. Luckily, our team wore protective vests marked FBI, SWAT, or RPD for Richmond Police Department, which responded quickly to our call for backup. The shoppers obeyed finger gestures and moved to the closest exit.

It was obvious, however, that it would take too long to secure the entire floor. Too many people. Most saw the team and moved to safety. However, several shoppers, sitting at separate tables in the Food Court, were facing the wrong way. They did not see the advancing agents. Two were women: one with a toddler, the other a blonde on a cell phone. If either were Omega, they were great disguises.

Omega had to be here, though. The sense of him lingered on the edge of my awareness, but this was my turf. If I could only get close enough. See his face. Identify him. Make the first contact. I could find him.

All the Buzzer images pulled into one, overlaying until a face formed—and I saw Omega. Well, I saw his eyes. Brown, bloodshot. They morphed out of the surveillance feed, no longer a captured image but alive. And Omega saw me, too.

Kinley!

Dante’s scream rattled my head, and I broke free.

“The OneWheel kid!” I blurted to everyone on the party line. “Stop him.”

The whole team moved at once.

Baseball Cap had his hands in his pockets, window-shopping as he walked. He was behind OneWheel, but the teenager slapped down his board, jumped on it, and cruised faster toward the Food Court.

“Damn it! Shoppers!” Carter bitched so loud it crackled the coms.

A Buzzer picked up three shoppers coming out of the restroom hallway adjacent to the Food Court, oblivious.

The team moved on the teenager and Baseball Cap, but I noticed the cell phone lady. The blonde got up from her table just as Hot Dog Guy crumbled his paper plate and got up to throw it away.

“No, no, no,” I said.

Four people were converging on the same spot—with three others close behind. It was suddenly a jumble of bodies.

“We’re losing control,” Carter warned about the Food Court perimeter.

“Kinley, ring the victim’s cell,” Gil whispered.

I silently told the computer to call the number.

“I hear it,” Alec said.

The phone’s ring was too low for the feed, but all agents on site turned to the Hot Dog Guy.

What? That wasn’t where I expected it to be.

The ringing came from the hot dog lover’s jacket pocket. He looked down at it and did a little turn as if he was surprised to have a phone in his pocket—or just that it was ringing. He reached into the pocket and pulled it out.

I ended the call, and the ringing stopped. I still couldn’t hear it, but I saw the light on the screen go off.

“Move in now,” Gil ordered. “Move, move, move!”

Unfortunately, the blonde was in their way. She spotted Gil and his gun. And froze. She had no idea what to do or where to go. I could see the fear on her face. She dropped her cell phone.

Hot Dog Guy saw the phone fall. He bent to pick it up, but she did, too, just as the shoppers from the restroom joined them, blocking several camera angles. The women spotted the team and instantly freaked out. Screams and chaos erupted just as Baseball Cap and the teenager reached the area. In a blur, a knife blade flashed out. The ceiling lights glinted on the vicious steel.

It happened so fast.

In one heartbeat, it was over.

The blonde collapsed at Hot Dog Guy’s feet, along with a bloody knife. He looked down, displaying something like shock or admiration for a job well done—I couldn’t tell. It’s like he forgot about his surroundings for a minute.

Lopez tackled him.

Someone screamed. I could hear it through the coms.

A man’s voice exclaimed, “He killed her!” More screams and shouts of confusion.

“Don’t move,” Gil shouted, but no one outside of his immediate circle seemed to obey.

Hot Dog Guy, however, didn’t fight.

Alec hung back. “We need a paramedic.” He relayed the message for medical assistance.

S.W.A.T. swarmed into the Food Court. One of their team went straight to the injured woman, but it was too late. Her blood stained the floor.

“We got Omega,” Carter announced, pleased.

I watched them take Hot Dog Guy into custody, finding it hard to think of him as Omega. I tried to get a good look at his eyes. They were hooded. What had I expected? I hadn’t even noticed the unassuming man grabbing a bite to eat. I’d singled out the teenager. Hot Dog Guy looked so normal, but I’d seen Omega’s soul, and it was pure evil. In human form, he didn’t look like a monster. Guess they never did.