ShadowChancer
Chapter 2
by MistThing, published on February 4, 2001
It was late evening when Grace hurried to Kent's place down the partly dark street. Rain trickled again, making the road and pavements look bathed and clean. An occasional flashlight thrown by a passing car ignited the scattered raindrops, turning them into tiny bits of glass. Grace entered the four-storied building, ignoring the hallway graffiti, and took the elevator to the upper floor. The place suffered from ill maintenance, the floors gathering dust bunnies and the apartment doors scratched and peeling. It was all Kent could afford by now as a struggling comics artist working for a large company.
Grace rang the doorbell. Impatient and a little irritated at getting no response, she hit it a second time. Stuck in the bathroom again, Kent? She fumbled inside her bag, hoping she still had Bruce's key with her - he gave it to her two weeks after they met, on their first morning together. "Here, Scorcher!" - he said then and placed the key in her hand, closing her fingers around it - "Take it! I need to feel you around here, Grace." Grace laughed. "You're full of it," she told him. Bruce kept her hand cupped in his and answered seriously, "You got me hooked, Cow Girl ... badly ..."
Grace found the keys at last and jammed Kent's inside the keyhole, turning it with a clatter in her usual sharp manner. She pushed the door open and entered a darkened apartment.
-"Bruce?" - she called from the doorway. He's obviously not in the bathroom ... something is wrong. Kent never, never leaves me hanging out to dry.
Grace took a hesitant step inside, and then another. She was standing now in the middle of the small living room. Her investigator's sense took over, turning on the alarm in her head. She sensed a faint cinnamon scent, odd to this apartment. Grace strained to listen, but heard nothing - not even the soft clicking of Kent's clock placed on his working desk - he hated digital watches and refused to let one into his home. Oh God ... Something IS wrong.
Grace knew by heart where the light switch was, and she took small careful steps in its direction. Her heart skipped a beat when she switched it on - nothing. The damn thing refused to work. Silly reporter girl ... you have a flashlight. Grace reached for the touch of cold metal inside her bag and turned the light beam on, casting a bright circle around her over the floor and walls. She wandered into the bedroom, which also served as the study in Kent's two-room apartment. The bed was a mess, as always... She approached the wooden working desk and touched it, drawing her hand back as if bitten by a snake; it was the sharp sting of static electricity. What the hell happened here? Bruce's sketches were all over the place, as always; but no Bruce, though. She recognized one sketch from earlier noon, and reached for it. ShadowChancer - Bruce's favorite one. Having doubts about the possibility of messing up fingerprints, she lifted it gently with a latex glove that laid in her wonder-bag and looked closely at the painting. A pencil scrabble underneath the drawn super-heroine said, Dedicated to P.S.I.O.N.
Hold it! That was supposed to my present! And he hates Psion! That's Bruce's message for me - he's in trouble...
Grace sat down on the messy bed, her mind making frantic calculations. I know the guy two months. That's it. Turn around NOW, Grace. She looked at Bruce's ShadowChancer and knew she's got to find him.
And there was only one man she trusted for help. Here comes that familiar twinge in my gut again, sighed Grace.
- "Miss ... how are you feeling? Do you want me to get you an ambulance or something?"
Grace was suddenly lucid again, as if a veil was lifted off her mind. She was lying flat on her stomach on the paved floor of a ... coffee house?
The face hovering worriedly above her was very young - the guy looked eighteen, nineteen at the most. Greatly embarrassed, Grace gathered herself off the floor, and was now crouched on all fours.
- "Here, let me give you a hand" - the guy helped her up, displaying a surprising amount of strength considering his lean build.
Grace tried vainly to wipe the dirt that adhered to her wet coat. She studied the boy more closely - he was the tall slender type, his legs long without proportion to the rest of his body. His dark hair and eyes presented a disturbing contrast to his pale skin. A thin white T-shirt hung on his slim torso, displaying the coffee house logo; the words 'Starlight Cybercafe' were printed over a painted moon crescent with a four-pointed star lying in its curve.
- "Haven't noticed this place before," Grace looked curiously around.
- "Well, we're not as famous as Starbucks" - answered the coffee guy - "We're more of an all-night kind of place."
Night customers, a man and a woman, occupied two of the place's four computers, each absorbed in an intimate dialogue with his PC. The man stared intently at his screen, a concentrated look on his face; the woman just hit a key on her keyboard and giggled softly.
- "These are just some of our usual night dwellers" - added the boy, following Grace's interested gaze.
- "Could I use one? Computer, I mean?" - asked Grace.
- "Sure" - the boy smiled lightly - "Go ahead ... Ride the tide. Would you like a latte with your PC?"
- "Nah ... but a strong espresso would be nice." Grace seated herself in front of the furthest computer. Her fingers already ran swiftly on the keyboard. She tried several entries, got a few "Bad Gateway: DNS lookup error", and finally got results with http://www.psioncomics.com. Hmmm ... nice homepage ... the well-known blue lightning logo at upper left.
Grace went over the offered heading-links: Home - Psion Universe - News - Company - Buy Comics - Contact Psion.
The coffee guy placed an espresso by her side. "Comics fan, are you?" - he straightened himself up and observed the screen. "Psion ... interesting. I like Marvel or DC comics better, though." He pointed at one of the heading links. "Try that one here ... You'll get great images of all of their characters."
- "Uh-huh ... thanks!" - Grace clicked on "Psion Universe".
Last update: October 25, 2007
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