The Voice in the Darkness

A Broken Man’s Hope

Chapter 5 of 5

This is not the first chapter. Start here.

Raging, swirling, Blue Nile drones circled him, ready to smash and skewer him.

They raised up like an iron fist, preparing to strike like steel knuckles.

But they crashed into… the ground.

The Seeker leaped toward him, wearing its awful grin.

Its augmented arms were outstretched, ready to rip him limb from limb.

Only to collapse, frozen in pain.

Those two things were connected. They meant something. The thoughts floated near the surface, gossamer threads weaving together.

Hands grabbed him and dragged —

Murph woke with a start. Pain waited for him.

His whole body ached, his muscles were still from his feet to his neck. There were sharper, keener pains mixed into the aches too.

And he was icy like he had a fever. He tried to close his eyes and sink back into sleep, but fear flicked his eyes open again.

He found himself in a dimly lit room. He tried to sit up and a heavy hand pushed down on his shoulder.

“Rest, friend, you’re safe now.”

Murph reluctantly gave in to the steady pressure and the chorus of not so distant complaints from his body.

Feeling like a child kept home from school, he squinted up at the shadowed face, confused and still wrestling with the tangled threads of his dream.

Questions floated to the surface one after the other.

Was the dream real? Was this? Who was this?

The figure moved closer, and Murph recoiled. A small click and a bedside lamp harshly underlit his features. Gaunt and stern, but his voice calm and deep.

“I’m Omni’s father.”

He paused a moment, waiting for that to sink in. When Murph looked confused, he pressed on.

“I’m grateful for what you did.”

So it was real.

Murph nodded once, slowly, barely a movement.

“I understand she’s done something she shouldn’t.”

His features grew harder, his mouth forming a thin line, and weariness crept into them for the first time, but just as suddenly a rueful smile broke like a wave and transformed it again.

“It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Omni?

“The girl, yes, the girl. I saved the — “

“Dad? Is he awake?”

Another smaller body pressed into the tiny room.

It was barely big enough for the bed, never mind three people. The temperature and closeness of the space ratcheted up instantly.

“Omni…” the man, “Dad,” stood up in the cramped room, but leaned in close to Murph, his voice barely a whisper. “You and I are going to have a conversation later.”

Then he stepped out of the room and revealed the teenage girl behind him. Murph noticed that she wore a head-covering today.

She hesitated for a heartbeat, then moved closer to Murph. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Murph said, uncertain what to do next. He sat up and looked at his hands, waiting for the words to come.

She fidgeted. “I wanted to say,” she turned around and glanced at the large shadow standing just outside the door, “Thank you.”

She looked at her feet. “And I wanted to know why?”

Murph looked at her, staring at her and wondering how to form the words. Whether he should just lie or -

< Tell her. >

Murph sat bolt upright, his eyes wide. For once in his drug-ridden existence, he knew for sure. That was clearly not his voice.

“What? Is something coming?” Omni whispered, her hand moving by instinct to a weapon at her side. A weapon her father probably knew nothing about.

She stepped toward the tiny window and fingered the threadbare curtain to glance outside and down below.

She turned back, fear rising. He looked at her and shook his head very slightly.

Murph remembered.

They came slowly at first and then in a flood. Flashes of who he was before, unlocked and pristine, the acid thoughts that had corroded his mind were gone.

Murph felt clearer than he did in years, although his hands still tremored. He’d have to ride that out, he thought, flexing them into fists.

He would ride that out.

But the fog was lifting, and the beacon that burned in his mind now stood before him. He had wanted to help her, to guide her and prevent her from getting herself killed.

He’d done that last part. He moved again to sit upright and his body screamed at him. Broken bones and forgotten wounds pulled his motion abruptly short.

“Take it easy. We’ve stitched you up alright, but you need a real doctor.”

“Thank you.”

“You kinda saved my life.”

“It wouldn’t have killed you.”

“No?”

“Worse, made you disappear,” he grimaced with pain as he resettled, gesturing with his hand nonchalantly, “off-book prison, outside the rules. They don’t like us.”

“Us?”

“Hackers, coders, inventors. Summoners.”

“Summoners?”

“We summon jinns.” now he smiled at her confusion, she really didn’t understand the portal she’d walked through. “They help us perform magic.”

“Magic isn’t real.”

He didn’t like half-lying down while having this conversation. How was he meant to be a teacher if he couldn’t summon a shred of dignity?

“Sure it is, if you don’t understand how the tech works — it’s magic.”

“But that’s not — “

“Black box code evolves faster than you understand, learning, growing and changing. At some point it’s simply beyond you,” as Murph spoke, he gestured with his hands like a wizard, “That’s a kind of magic.”

He smiled, “And perhaps the real magic, this great and powerful being, listens to you. It wants to help you and sees something in you. And then it bonds with you and you become not two parts, but a stronger whole.”

She nodded, “Ada, not it.”

Now, for the first time, he saw her worry and her determination and he realised she felt the beginnings of being severed.

“Yes, Ada. You and I need to rescue Ada.”

The story continues!

The short story is becoming a novel, serialized weekly on Thursdays.

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