Midnight Sky, Chapter 1, part of 2

Preface:

The small creature leaped from building to building, its large feet propelling it through the air without effort.  Turning its small head, its long crooked nose looked more like a tree branch between its small yellow eyes.  Naked except for the light downy hair that covered its body, it carried a large bag slung over its shoulder.  The creature tried to keep the flap from flying open with its abnormally large hand that held it closed as his ran. 
Something was chasing the creature as it dashed across the rooftops.  Whatever was chasing the creature was invisible to the city down below, yet the creature knew it was there.  He could sense the presence of its pursuer.  Was this pursuer after the glowing contents of the creature’s shoulder bag?  Every once in a while, small amounts of a fine luminous dust fell from the bag into the night.  Of course, it wasn’t the dust that the pursuer was after; it was what the dust was coming off.  Inside the bag was a nugget the size of a golf ball. 
The creature kept it hidden in a bag full of this luminous dust.  Instead of being dimpled like a golf ball, it had small raised spikes covering it, sharp enough to cut tiles if the user wanted to, but that wasn’t its purpose.  It was something far more valuable then that. 
It was a vision stone.   



Chapter One 

It all started for me on September 12th.  I took a bus to my job at the advertising agency that I worked at and some how managed to get there a whole 3 minutes late.  Who would have guessed that this was going to be the start of a very bad day?  For the sake of 3 minutes, I may not have had at once the worst day of my life and also the beginning of a far more amazing life.

When I arrived at the front lobby of my building, the security guard at the front desk told me that I would have to take the stairs today as the elevators were being fixed.  Not too bad, except for the fact that I was out of shape and my office was on the tenth floor.  Looking back now, I’m surprised that I wasn’t more then 3 minutes late.  It wouldn’t have really mattered though.  In that three minutes I lost one of the biggest accounts that the agency had ever had.  In the advertising game, clients can be extremely anal about their products.  I had made a simple mistake on an advertising copy that was to go out that day, my junior was not willing to wait 3 minutes for me to arrive into work and proofread the copy before he sent it off.  Instead of saying that the dinners my client was advertising were 100% ‘carp’, the copy read that they were 100% ‘crap’.  A little thing I know, but the client had no sense of humour nor were they willing to work with us anymore, even if these copies were sent to them for their inspection before being sent.

My boss called me into his office just after lunch, “Could you explain this to me?  How can this happen and don’t tell me that it was your junior.  This was supposed to be proofed last night before you left.”
         “I had left specific instruction with my junior to not send these copies off before I had a chance to look them over.  Besides, it did not go out to anybody but the client.  This doesn’t have to be …”
         “Are you going to say that just because it didn’t go out that it was ok?  The client feels that you are making a mockery of them here.  100% crap?  What the hell do you think they would have done?”
         “They were just proofs and nothing else, why are they making a big deal over it?  What do you think; they’re going to drop the account?
         My boss look right into my eyes and said, “That is exactly what they did.”
         “Pardon, this can’t be right, are you really telling m…”
         “They called as soon as they read the proofs and they said that they thought you were trying to belittle the product.  Now Ryan, they are the biggest clients this agency has ever had and we can’t afford to lose them.  The only thing that I could do was to tell them that we were going to give the account to another member of my staff.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for them.  Sorry Ryan, but we are going to have to let you go.”
         I couldn’t believe what I was hearing; I was losing my job because of what some one else had done and because of the whim of a client?  “You can’t be serious.  What about Roy?  It was him that sent over the copies without looking through them properly.”
         “But you are his boss, he was you responsibility.  Look, the deal is done and I’m sorry, but it is business and I know that you’ll find something else.  This is worth far to much to lose.”
         I wasn’t sure what to say at that moment so I just walked out of my boss’s office.  I got myself a box to empty my desk and while I was filling the box, Roy McKee came over and wanted to talk to me.
         “I heard that you had to take the rap for what had happened, sorry man.”
I have to admit, I wanted to show Roy exactly how I felt about him at that moment.  Possibly push him to the ground and kick the crap out of him.  Kick the crap?  Ironic isn’t it that the first thing that I could think of was ‘crap’ and that is what landed me in this shit in the first place.  “Don’t worry about it.  This may be the best thing that could have happened to me.  Of course, advertising was my life and all.  What the hell, I’ll find something else.  I might even be able to wear a crazy paper hat while I’m doing it.  Do you not realize that the fact that we lost a multi million pound contract and it will be seen to be my fault, my career is basically over,” Roy stepped back when I reached out to pat him on the shoulder, but I was still able to plant a heavy hand on him, just to let him know how I was feeling.
         “Do you want any of this?” I asked him.  “No, no, that’s ok Ryan.” 
         I wasn’t sure why I did it but I threw the box across my ‘old’ desk and the two security officers that were to escort me out, grabbed my arms and dragged me to the lift.  I began to calm down by the time that the lift came up and the guards let me go, but walked me out the front door.
         I embarrassed myself to no end already, but that wasn’t going to be the end of it.  I really couldn’t believe that I was fired on the spot for some body else’s mistake and then I was thrown out of the building.  This is when I did really the stupidest thing I could have, I went to the pub.  What happened there wasn’t at all exciting, I drank until I couldn’t sit on my stool.  By five that evening, I couldn’t even stand properly.  The bartender called a cab and threw me in.  I really felt like the box I threw across my desk earlier.  Luckily, I was still able to talk and I gave the cabbie my address and he made sure to hit every single bump in the road to get me back there.
         My luck was about to change and not really for the better.  There were several boxes out in front of my building.  Now, that may not seem to be very interesting to anybody but as I paid the cabbie and thanked him for the remarkable lift he had given me, I realized something, this was all my stuff that had previously been in my flat.
Like a drunken idiot that just realized that he was nowhere near his destination, I held out my hands and talked to myself.  “What, what, what is this?” I said in a confused and drunken stupor.  I stood in friend of the Victorian terrace house that our flat was in and just stared and at the boxes.  Books of mine were falling out of one; my underwear was falling out of another.  This is what I had become, just a few boxes on the front stoop of my building. 
Then from the window I heard it, “That’s right asshole, I’m kicking your sorry ass out of here.”
         “But why?”
         “You have nothing to offer.  This is the first time that you have ever been home before nine.  You live and breathe advertising.  It’s almost as boring as accounting.  You have no hobbies and outside interests.  Even going down to the pub for the occasional drink is a chore for you because it will mean that you might have to leave work a little early on a Friday night.  Don’t worry though I’m already well aware why you are home at this time.  I called the office after I packed up your stuff and they told me what had happened.  Sorry to have to do it to you today of all days but I guess it was fate.  You’ve lost it all in one day.”
This was my girlfriend hanging out the window.  Well, it was my girlfriend until I arrived home to find out that she had moved me out of her life.  It really is amazing how quickly you can sober up when you are having a really crap day.  There is that word again.  It was going to follow me around for a while, wasn’t it?
She hung out the window like a medieval soldier about to dump a vat of hot oil over me.  Somehow, I wish she had and just put me out of my misery.  Even at that moment though, she was still the beautiful woman that I had fallen in love with several years ago.  Her blonde hair, her pale skin and at that moment, her fiery temper she was really a vision to behold.  “Oh ya, I forgot to pack this for you,” and she took off her engagement ring and through it down at me.  To my drunken surprise, I didn’t have a chance in hell of catching it.  It hit the pavement and rolled right for the sewer grate just off the footpath.
         There is really no point in continuing with this, I’m sure that you all get the picture of where my life had become.  In a mere eight hours my life was turned completely up side down and I was force to contact a friend of mine to help me out in my little predicament.  Raymond Steer had been my friend from way back in primary school.  We always made a point to meet up at least once a month to talk about old times.  Looking back, he really was the only fiend that I had and I was really force to ask him for help.
         “What do you mean that you have to stay at my place?”
         He was more then helpful when I called, “I just told you, Kris kicked me out and I lost my job.”
         “I don’t get it Man, Kris wouldn’t have kicked you out, you guys are engaged and all that, besides you’re like a safe guy, you have the good job and …”
         “What do you mean ‘the safe guy?’  Look, she did kick me out and I need a place to stay.  Can I please stay at your place?”
         “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.”
         “Forget it, can I?”
         “Sure, where are you anyway, do you want me to came and pick you up?”
         I thought about it for a second and said, “That would be great, I’ll meet you over at the coffee shop down from my place, you know, the one on the corner?”
         “I’ll be there in about half an hour.”
         “I’ll get a coffee and wait for you then.”
         “Hey, can you sit outside, that way I can just pull up and I don’t have to park.”
         “Whatever man, just don’t take to long, all my stuff is out on the street and I don’t want to leave it here for too long.  I think people have already started going through it.”  I hung up the phone and put it in my pocket, headed down to the coffee shop.  I don’t know if I was really worried about my stuff at all.  I was really beyond caring about anything.  I got to the coffee shop and order a large one and sat at a table on the footpath. 
         That was when it all happened.  I heard a commotion on the roof.  Well, not really the roof but along the roofs of the terrace houses that the lined the street.  It was as if some one was running along the tops of them yet I couldn’t see anything except for the occasional sparkle of dust glowing in the lamplights.  It was almost as if there was something small running across and something much bigger running behind, but several houses down. 
         I turned to the couple that was sitting at the table next to mine and said, “Did you hear that?”
         “We’re trying to have a conversation here,” said the man and his partner gave him a look before saying, “We didn’t hear anything, sorry.”
         “I could have sworn that I could hear something on the roof.”
         “Do you think it might be burglars?”
         “Don’t be crazy,” the man said to his partner.
         “It could be and they’re trying to get away by running over the roofs.”
         All three of us stood up from our seats to look up on to the roof, but because of the overhang we weren’t able to see anything.  “I could have sworn that I heard something.”
         “Maybe it was just rats,” I said and suddenly realized why some people weren’t interested in things I had to say.
         “Rats?”
         “Yea, the city is full of them,” there I went again.  “But it probably was just a couple of birds fighting over something.”
         The couple gave me a funny look and went back to their seats.  I tried to get a better look and moved back a few paces before looking up at the roof again.  I never saw anything coming towards me, but the last thing I knew, something struck me on the bridge of my nose, just down from my eyes.  As I fell backwards I could see a creature running across the tops of the building and a stream of dust and golden golf ball fly off to the left of me.

         “You ok buddy?”  I opened my eyes and saw Raymond looking down at me.
         “Man, what hit me?
         The couple were standing either side of Raymond and they said, “Nothing hit you, you just lost your balance.”
         “No, something hit me on the nose,” I could feel the blood running down my face. “See, I think it’s broken.”
         “You landed on your face.” Said the woman and the man backed her up, “You tried to turn around to break your fall.”
         “Right, and that’s why I have this massive bump on the back of my head.”  Raymond helped me sit up on the footpath and a waitress brought me a plastic bag full of ice.
         “I’m just telling you what I saw,” the man said as the couple got their stuff from the table before heading on down the block.
         “Don’t worry Man, you’ve had a rough day, but this is three.”
         “Thanks, You want to help me up here?”
         “Sure, want to finish your coffee?”
         “Might as well,” I said as the gold golf ball caught my eye.  It was just a foot or two away from me.  I grabbed it and said, “This is what hit me!”
         “What?”
         “This,” and I held it up to Raymond.
         “Uh, you don’t have anything.”
         “What are you talking about, it’s a gold golf ball.  Feels kind of funny but it’s a golf ball.  Probably some kids hitting them off the roof, heard them up there just before it hit me.”
         “You don’t have anything in your hand Ryan, you feeling ok?
         “Here,” and I through the ball at him but he wasn’t able to catch it.  It bounced off his chest and onto the table.  “You must have felt that.”
         “I’m gonna call the ambulance, I think you may have hit your head pretty hard.  There’s still a bit of blood running down your nose as well.”  I wiped my face with a napkin when a very sharp pain rushed through my head.  It was very slight at first but grew in intensity very quickly.  I had to stand up but was brought to my knees as the pain made me cry out.  Holding my head with both hands I was on my knees on the footpath.  I was beginning to feel nauseous and I was unable to stop myself from vomiting all over myself.  I wasn’t aware of all the people that were gathering to see me in my lowest moment of the day.  Raymond was busy trying to stop me from biting my tongue off.  Some one had told him that it was most likely a seizure and the most important thing was to stop me from doing this.  I don’t know how, but I had managed to pocket the golf ball before all the excitement, but this was not the highest priority.  I could hear the sounds of the ambulance sirens and was going to die.
         Raymond must have thought the same thing, because he kept on trying to reassure me that everything was going to be alright, but I wasn’t whom he was really trying to convince.  He probably wished he hadn’t answered his phone.  Too late Raymond, you’re involved now, aren’t you, I thought, just before I blacked out.

         The nurse didn’t even look at me when she gave me the small paper cup with three brightly coloured pills in it, “Now take these, they will calm you down.  Now keep in mind that there is a interesting side effect that is does cause your dreams to be slightly more vivid.”
         “What are you giving me?”
         “Like I said, you seem to be slightly rattled here, you were in some kind of incident on the street.  It’s will calm you down.  Help you sleep and you’ll feel better in the morning.”  She handed me a paper cup of water, waited until I took the unknown pills, “Now, theses pills might make your dream a little more vivid then normal but they are unlikely to cause any other side effects other then helping you rest.” She said as I drank down the last of the water.
“What do you mean, ‘more vivid’?”  But it was too late she had already marched off to the next patient in the room.  I tried to relax and let the drugs take effect, but I was still trying to remember the events that led me here.  After almost an hour of staring at the ceiling and shuffling from side to side, my eyes finally became heavy and I was beginning to relax.  I don’t remember dreaming, but I woke up with a start, as if some one was trying to wake me.

That was when the creature came to visit me.  When I say creature, it was like a goblin or at least my interpretation of a goblin.  Kind of like a green monkey that had been shaven down and walked up right.  It walked onto the ward without a care of being seen, but also like it had a purpose.  When he walked closer to my bed, he looked over at me and sniffed the air and crouched.  Moving his head from side to side, he scanned the room and rolled his shoulders, spreading his arms out from his sides.  He then bent his knees, springing to a giant leap onto my chest.  It was as if it was weightless.  Although it had enormous feet and looked very solid, he did not press on me.  With this in mind, I was shocked to find that I was paralysed but not from fear, but some how this creature was able to immobilize me.  Even staring up into the eyes of the creature, I knew that I wasn’t scared. This is when I noticed the creature’s large crooked nose and thin-lipped smile.  He took a close look at my face and brought its long bony finger from his enormous hands over the cut across my nose.  He then inspected my forehead and my brow line.  I couldn’t really understand what he was inspecting on me, but I was surprisingly calm about the whole thing. 
Then it happened, like it came from the creature’s hand, a glowing light hit me in the forehead.  I could see the all the colours of the rainbow, bright reds and yellow, deep green and blues.  They were dancing in front of my eyes and I couldn’t really see anything else.  I was in a euphoric state as if this creature had given me some kind of psychedelic drug.  I was soaring through some kind of dream state, while the creature went through my belongings.  I could only guess that creature was looking for the golf ball that he dropped on my nose.  It grabbed all my clothes in my closet, throwing them to the ground when it couldn’t find it.  Meanwhile, I was left in delusional state that made me see the whole activity as a string of unrelated events.  I still felt paralysed and I was unable to speak. 
The creature was not able to find what ever it was that is was looking for and was getting agitated.  It started going through all the drawers at my bedside and throw everything from my closet.  All that was in the closet was the clothes that I came in with and jacket my shoes.  I was currently dressed in one of the humiliating little gowns that they give you in hospitals.  The creature then jumped back onto my chest and the next thing I knew, it was morning and the creature was gone and a nurse was waking me up. 
“Time to make the beds Mr Peters.”


Chapter 2 

         “What am I doing in here?”
         “You had some kind of seizure out on the street.”
         “I know that Raymond, but it’s been a couple of days now.”
         “Hey Man, the doctors don’t want to tell me anything either, I have no news for you.”
         I slumped in my bed and said, “Well, at least I have a place to stay”.
         “You see, you can think positively.” Raymond said as he spun around and pointed a finger at me.  “and about that, you can stay with me once you get out and apply for the dole.”
         “Thanks Man, it’ll help anyway.  What the hell is going on with Kris?  She hasn’t even sent me a card let along visiting me!”
         “I haven’t seen her.  I think she may have had this planned.  She never let you sign the lease or put the utilities in your name.”
         “I was broke when I moved in there, I didn’t have a job.  I couldn’t sign anything, she had to.”  I said, trying not to sound like I was defending her.
         “Right, doesn’t really matter.”
         “It doesn’t.  She kicked me out and there isn’t anything I can do about it.”  I said, throwing my pillow across the room, knocking a picture to the ground.
         “Easy!”
         “I’m having a shit time here” I said and threw the other pillow.
         “I know things are looking pretty bad, but you’re going to get through it.”
         I turned away from Raymond and tried to blank out the last 24 hours of my life.  I was angry with life in general and with Raymond in particular.  I could not appreciate what he was trying to do or the fact that he probably didn’t know what to do.  All I could think of was that I was reaching rock bottom.     

         For the last couple of days the doctors took me in for tests and then brought me back to my room.  As far as they were concerned, there was nothing wrong with me.  There was abnormal activity in the back of the brain that the doctors could not explain though and this seemed to concern the doctors. 
         “This is why we did so many tests on you, we just can seem to understand why there is so much activity there.  Although, this could account for the vivid dreams that you have been having.  We are just finding that there is a lot of activity there while you are awake as well.  There doesn’t seem to be any damage though”
         “So. I’ll be fine then, no more test?”
         “Unfortunately, you have to come back in about 3 months just as a precaution but I should think you’ll be fine.  The specialists were in and they said that they were satisfied that you’ll be ok.”

         I went home the next morning and felt much better.  Well, I didn’t go to my home I went to Raymond’s flat.  He had a small 2 bedroom flat not far from my old place.  Everything felt kind of weird at first but I had been in his flat so many times before that it wasn’t that strange staying there.
         “Here, you can take the box room.  I borrowed a cot off my Mom.  I take it you’ll be here for a while anyway.”
         “Just until I get back on my feet Raymond.  You’ve been a big help here.  Thanks for everything.”  I felt a little bit humbled by everything that was happening and I was also very aware of the fact that I didn’t have a job or a real place of my own any more. 
         “Don’t worry about it Man.  I know that you’d do the same for me.  Once you’ve got yourself settle in, let’s head down from the pub for a drink.”
         I laughed a little and said, “I just got out of the hospital I’m not sure that going out for a drink would really be the best thing to do.”
         “It won’t hurt, the doctors didn’t find anything.  You’ll be fine and besides, you could use a bit of socializing at the moment.”
         “I do feel pretty good, let’s go.”  I threw my bag into the room beside the bin liners that were already there and shut the door.  I really wasn’t ready to come to grips with this part of my life.
         To the pub we went then.  I wasn’t really ready to socialize, but I was ready to unwind with a drink, a cigarette and loud enough music to block out reality.
         “I’ve seen this band here a couple of times now, they’re pretty heavy.”  Raymond said or at least yelled at me over the heavy guitar of the latest bar band to hit the scene.  I was glad to see that guitar rock was on its way back.  Another boy band would probably put me over the edge. 
         I was on my second pint when I started to feel a little funny, “I have to go outside Ray.”
         “What’s wrong, you’ve only had a pint?  You’re not on any meds are you?”
         “No, they didn’t prescribe anything for me or give me anything.”
         “To bad.”
         “Thanks, I’m just getting some air.”
         Without any intention, Raymond said, “Do you want me to come out with you?”
         “No, I’ll only be a couple of minutes at the most here.”
I felt almost as though I was being watch as I made my way through the pub.  It was as if I was being followed, yet when I got out of the pub there was nothing behind me.  I leaned up against the wall of the build and lit a cigarette.  The fresh air and the nicotine were working their magic on me and I was starting to feel a lot better and then it happened.
         “You have to find him before it’s too late.”  I looked around to see if there was anyone around me.  There were a few people hanging around the outside of the pub but they were well enough away from me.
         Then the voice sounded like it was right in my ear, “He is going to die, you must find him.” I looked around again and there was nobody there.  The closest person was about 20 feet away.  “You are not listening to me.”
         I swung around and yelled, “I can’t even see you.” 
         The crowd looked over at me and I put my hand up to them, “It’s ok, it’s ok. I’m just talking on the phone here.”  They turned away from me but I was feeling very paranoid and I was afraid that I was going to start to panic.  Suddenly, I felt this strange sensation around me.