Brandon’s eyes flew open. He wasn’t even sure he had fallen asleep, or if the violent dreams he had were only produced by his half-awake imagination. There had been shouting, running, and crying, with the occasional red flash. It all blurred together.
He checked the clock on the bedside table. It was that time of morning. Too early to get up, yet too late to try to fall back asleep. He turned over in bed. Marvain lie asleep, facing away from him. Memories of their recent argument flashed in his mind’s eye.
Then the questions poured in again. The same ones he had been asking himself for the past few weeks but was no closer now to answering them than at the beginning. Then, he realized, even if he got the answers, they might not be the ones he wanted to hear.
He forced himself to get up, trying to stay quiet. He didn’t want to wake Marvain; he just wanted to skip this day and be done with it. The warm shower didn’t help his mood much, and it was only after thirty minutes of being lost in his head did he realize he was still in the shower. He hadn’t even begun to wash himself yet.
He walked out with the towel around his waist, then stopped. Marvain was sitting up in bed, staring at him, her sleep mask on her forehead. There was sleep in her eyes too.
His shoulders slumped. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”
She shrugged. “You didn’t.”
“Well, I mean, the sound of the shower—” he began, pointing to the bathroom.
“I never fell asleep,” Marvain stated.
His hand dropped to his side. “Oh.”
She rolled her eyes and flopped back to her pillow, yanking the sleep mask back over her eyes. Brandon whispered “nice talk” to himself as he wandered into the walk-in closet. He got dressed his usual scientist attire. A decent shirt with pants and a belt. When he got to the kitchen, however, he realized he couldn’t decide what to have for breakfast, because he wasn’t hungry. He recalled a fact he learned in Basic Psychology class a couple decades ago. A nervous system under enough stress will nullify the hunger impulse.
Great, he thought as he scanned the shelves of the open refrigerator. I can’t wait to be hungry again.
He threw together some scrambled eggs, which ended up being overcooked. Then he spent the next two hours scrolling news sites on his wrist pad until it was actually time to leave for work. The usual news topics, the stock market, the war, as well as politics, weren’t interesting anymore, but he did his best to distract himself.
Just before it was time to leave, he heard a sound from his bedroom. He turned in the chair halfway to see Marvain sauntering down the hallway, still in her nightgown. Her face was sullen.
“What’s wrong?” Brandon asked as he stood up. In the back of his mind, he knew, but the question slipped out anyway.
Her mouth opened halfway, but gave up the attempt to form words. She continued forward into Brandon’s arms. He held the back of her head as she sighed deeply. They rocked back and forth for a bit, then broke the hug.
Marvain looked into his eyes. “If you do something stupid and die, I’ll kill you.”
Brandon couldn’t help but smile and snort. “I’m a scientist. I’m incapable of doing stupid things.”
Even Marvain couldn’t contain her smirk. He kissed her lightly on the lips, then whispered, “Love you too.”
She gave a small nod, as if giving him permission to go. He turned and went to the front door. As he walked through, he could feel her eyes on him, and with that came an odd mixture of anger at him and fear for him. He hoped the door closing behind him would snuff out that feeling, but it lingered as he got in his car.
The drive to the laboratory took much longer than it should have. It seemed as though he hit every red light, and he couldn’t react to the green light fast enough. And was it just him, or did everyone suddenly forget how to drive properly?
He parked in his spot and checked the time. He had arrived four minutes earlier than normal.
A voice spoke from the passenger seat next to him. “Somebody’s eager.”
Brandon jumped and banged his head on the roof of his car. “Shit!”
He rubbed his head as he glared at Zandith sitting next to him. “Why am I not surprised?”
Zandith raised an eyebrow. “You mean you bumped your head on purpose?”
“No,” Brandon growled, “I mean I’m not surprised you don’t have the decency to wait outside.”
“Actually,” he said, raising a finger. “I am.”
“No, you’re…” Brandon’s voice trailed off as he brought up his car’s security details on his wrist pad. It showed that the number of detected people in the vehicle was one. He looked suspiciously at Zandith and reached out a finger to poke him in the arm. Zandith pretended to be afraid, leaning away with his wide eyes darting from Brandon’s face and his finger. He pretended to flinch when the finger passed through the arm as though it were made of air.
Zandith’s illusion dropped the charade, looking smug. Brandon retracted his hand, rolling his eyes. It was a good illusion, for sure. The leather seat had been making subtle noises whenever the illusion moved.
Zandith put a hand to his chest. “Well, I’m flattered that you’ve now deduced that I have at least a shred of decency. I’m also flattered that you think I am smart enough to fool the security of your car.”
Brandon got out of the car, nearly slamming the door shut. “It wasn’t intentional flattery, I assure you.”
When he looked back at his car, nobody was in the passenger seat. Brandon started on his way to the main building. Zandith spoke to the left of Brandon, startling him again. “But, you see, I don’t need to be super-smart. That’s where you come in! It’s one of your many strengths. I mean, yeah, you are kinda narcissistic, not really a team player. You like getting credit for stuff, with your name up in lights. But look at you! Pushing the boundaries of education and teaching shit nobody else could have figured out for themselves.” He waved his hand in an arc in the air. “Aetheric Mechanics. Sounds nice, sounds advanced. Heck, I might have considered taking that class if I wasn’t already ten times as knowledgeable than you in the subject. But hey, you get an E for effort. Wait, isn’t that a failing grade? Isn’t that not even a grade? Doesn’t it go from D to F?”
“Yes,” Brandon mumbled, “because the very people who instituted education hardly knew the alphabet themselves. It’s why the system is so fucked up.” He glanced around the campus, making sure nobody was watching him. “Now, stop asking me questions. I doubt they’ll let me in if they catch me talking to myself like an insane person.”
“Oh,” Zandith said in a quieter voice. “Very wise, not insane. Got it.”
Brandon was curious if this was really Zandith next to him or just another illusion, but he resisted the urge to test again. He already knew Zandith wouldn’t let anyone else see him.
He tapped his wrist pad to the scanner at the front entrance. The doors were plenty wide, so he assumed Zandith would be entering with him. As much as he wanted to slam the door in his face, he didn’t dare act on that impulse. He sighed. Justice would have to come another day. Today, only crime and subversion were here to play.
As he walked down the main hallway, he heard Zandith’s disembodied voice in his ear. “So, which way?”
“I can’t get in without Rich’s authorization,” Brandon whispered.
“I’m sure you can give your boss a good reason for accessing the vault with my crystal.”
Brandon bit down his response. Zandith was correct there. He knew Rich himself still had his curiosities about the crystal. Being a strict law-abiding citizen, Rich had been very thorough with his efforts to help the police investigate the crystal and its origins.
He passed his office and turned the corner to Rich’s, then stopped. It was closed. He normally left it ajar when he was here. Brandon turned back as casually as he could, whispering loud enough hoping Zandith could hear. “That’s right, he doesn’t get here until about an hour after me.”
He went to his office door and unlocked it with his fingerprint. Zandith whispered behind him. “It’s okay, I’ll stand guard out here and let you know when he arrives.”
Brandon sat down at his desk, marveling at the oddity of the situation. The man outside his door, his enemy, would in fact come in here and defend him if someone crashed through his window and tried to kill him. Brandon shook his head. I should have thought of that beforehand. That would have made for a good opportunity to kill him.
He checked his email. There was nothing significant for him today. Nothing to give him a good excuse to leave the campus. Zandith wouldn’t let him anyway. He went over a few documents for one of the ongoing studies. This one was about figuring out how to date Aether crystals based on where they were found in the ancient strata. The study had just started, and so far, all the laboratories working on the study were trying to sort out conflicting data sets. He was thinking it might be possible to detect the slightest amount of energy drainage and correlate it with its size and surface area, but the figuring out of that formula was still months away, possibly years.
There were other crystals that weren’t in the vault. The lab was using those for the crystal dating study. Perhaps he could lead Zandith to those instead?
Brandon leaned forward and put his palms to his forehead. But how could I possibly fool him? He’d only accept the one covered in sigils. Maybe I could have security run into him? They would put up a good fight for sure.
He racked his brain for almost the entire hour for solutions, but found none that could deal with Zandith’s abilities. Then he remembered Marvain’s sarcastic words just before he left. Just don’t die. But how does he know Zandith won’t just kill him once he gets the crystal?
Well, if I said I wouldn’t pursue him… he thought, then shook his head. He wouldn’t buy that. I don’t buy that.
He resigned himself to fate, if there was such a thing as that. Maybe Rich would clue in on the situation before it was too late, but other than that happening, Zandith was going to get what he wanted.
A few minutes later, he heard Rich greeting someone in the main hallway. Zandith’s voice floated over to him. “He’s here. It’s showtime.”
Brandon sighed and stood slowly. He was on his way out of his office when footsteps approached from outside. It was Rich himself. He was dressed in a neat-but-casual shirt and black pants, similar to Brandon’s attire. His eyes were bright as he smiled under his trimmed mustache. “Brandon! Welcome back to the land of the free.”
He paused, looking at Brandon with concern. “Is something the matter?”
“Huh?” Brandon replied, forcing his expression to brighten. “Oh, nah, just a little tired is all.”
“If you say so,” Rich said, gesturing to the bend in the hallway. “Let’s talk. We gotta get you up to speed with what went on over the last three weeks.”
“Sounds good,” Brandon replied, following him to his office. He wondered if Zandith was trailing them or walking ahead of them. “I have already reviewed the recent progress on the crystal dating study. Looks like progress is slow?”
“Yeah,” Rich said as he entered his office. His computer woke automatically once it sensed is presence. “It’s difficult to determine where to start, but we are starting to think each lab work on a different variable so we aren’t repeating each other’s initial work the first time through.” He sat in his office chair while Brandon sat across the desk in the spare chair. “So we start collecting different data in parallel, then in the next phase we replicate each other’s work in parallel. It’s a bit of a meta-experiment to see if we can finish the study faster than the predicted timespan.”
“I’m good with that. We could find the relevant data quicker if we have teams looking at different areas, a bit like looking for a physical object.”
“My thinking as well,” Rich said as he checked his screens. He pursed his lips and nodded, turning back to Brandon. “However, we might be falling a bit behind.”
“Why is that?”
Rich gave him a hard look. “The aethometer.”
“What?” Brandon raised his eyebrows. “Broken?”
Rich tilted his head. “Well, it’s not absorbing the energy correctly, so it’s giving an incorrect reading. We tried to fix it with software, but if we want this study to be of the highest quality, then we need to purchase another one.”
“I thought we just got it last year.”
“We did, but we used it for the police investigation, remember? The crystal with the cryptic symbols? It pushed some circuits a bit too hard, and later on a few of them burst and damaged the sensors.”
“Damn.” Brandon bit his lip. He swore he could see Zandith out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t want to risk looking away from Rich. He was mostly transparent, leaning against the bookshelf. He was making a circular motion with his finger, motioning Brandon to get on with the operation.
Brandon leaned forward. “You know, about that crystal. I think there’s more we can do.”
“Not until we get a new aethometer,” Rich stated. “We can still work with the 3D model and the simulations.”
“But the simulations don’t match observed data, correct?” Brandon said, pointing at him. “I think I might have found a way to reconcile the data with the simulations. I just need the actual crystal.”
Rich stared at him for a few moments before shrugging. “Well, why not? You’ve surprised me in the past.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
In the corner of Brandon’s vision, Zandith did a fist pump and disappeared. Brandon thought he felt a slight breeze against his face. He blinked as he thought about what he just experienced. So he really was there, and he can’t teleport. Good to know.
Rich finished typing something into his computer. “Vault security is now active. You’re good to go.”
Brandon made a motion to stand, but hesitated, looking at Rich. Rich motioned to the door. “That’s all I wanted to talk to you about. You did most of your catching-up before this. We’ll talk more when you come back with the crystal.”
Brandon nodded and left the office, thinking, If I come back at all…
He made his way through the hallways leading to the vault elevator. After the thumbprint scan, he stepped in. The door closed a few seconds later, the elevator started descending, then Zandith appeared next to him. He was looking at the pristine metal walls. “Oooh, fancy.”
Brandon gazed at Zandith, wondering how such a vile human being could have the mannerisms of a child. The combination gave him the creeps. He could very well be standing next to a serial killer, though he didn’t consider Zandith to be one. He clearly had deeper motives than killing for the thrill. Whatever this crystal meant to him, it meant much more than killing.
“How did you make it?” Brandon asked.
Zandith shot him a questioning look. “Make what?”
“The engravings on the crystal. That should be impossible.”
“Ah, yes, I see,” Zandith said, putting a finger to his chin. “You think Aether crystals are indestructible at full charge. Not so. All you need is the right type of energy.”
Brandon’s voice rose a little. “If you know how to make it, then why go after this one?”
Zandith tapped a finger to his temple twice, winking. “Use your brain.”
“I don’t know!” Brandon shrugged with his arms. “You ran out of that energy.”
Zandith’s eyes widened and he jabbed a finger at Brandon. “Yes!”
“Not renewable?”
“No! At least, not within my abilities.”
Brandon nodded, trying not to show his surprise. He hadn’t expected Zandith to answer any of his questions, and so far as Brandon could tell, he was being honest. The elevator slowed as it neared the end of its half-mile descent underground.
“What does it do that other crystals can’t?” Brandon asked as the doors revealed a short hallway to the scanning station.
Zandith put a hand up between them. “Do shut up now. I’m tired of projecting an idle illusion of you for the cameras.”
He went invisible, but Brandon heard him whisper, “I’ll show you once I get it.”
Brandon’s eyes widened slightly. That’s not alarming at all.
He put his hand in the horizontal slot in the wall while staring into the eye-level camera. The inside of the slot went blue, then switched to green. The screen to the left showed his biometrics and iris scan were verified. All it needed was his voice signature while speaking the passphrase.
“Just let me in, bud,” Brandon said, smirking. It was an inside joke among the tenured scientists of the lab. There used to be human guards stationed as the last line of defense for the vault. One of the scientists trying to access the vault had been up for several nights in a row and had forgotten the passphrase. The guard wouldn’t let him in, even though he had done so countless times before. The story became legend in the lab, to the chagrin of the scientist.
Brandon had vowed to never again skip nights of rest.
The screen flashed green, and there was a dull thumping sound as the locks disengaged. The giant metal door split open. Rows upon rows of drawers covered the expansive room. Lining the back wall were bigger drawers for bigger objects. Brandon went to the console and typed “crystal”. Several numbers came up, each drawer of which contained one or more crystals.
He knew Zandith was watching, so he intentionally went for a vague search term. He made his way to the left; he vaguely remembered where he had put it, but not exactly. A few seconds later, the sounds of drawers opening came from the other side of the room. Zandith was getting frantic.
Brandon found the closest drawer with a crystal, but it was a normal crystal. Then he checked drawer 432. The red glow of the crystal was radiant, just as he remembered it. The sounds from the other side of the room stopped.
Brandon pick it up and closed the drawer. He ran his thumb over the engraved surface, the flawless symbols tickling his skin. It was a shame the lab was going to lose it. Not only was it anomaly among all Aetheric scientists, it was quite beautiful.
He saw Zandith’s imposing figure next to him, holding out a hand palm-up with the other behind his back.
“If you would be so kind?” Zandith asked with his chin raised.
Brandon looked at the crystal one last time and gritted his teeth. He reached out and set it in the open hand. He spoke as the fingers closed gently around it. “Just take the damn thing and leave. And hope you never cross my path again.”
Zandith chuckled, tossing the crystal in the air and catching it. “Or what, you’ll bore me to death with your theories?”
“Yeah,” Brandon muttered, rolling his eyes. “Don’t tempt me.”
“Tell you what,” Zandith said, casually waving the crystal at him. “Since you were true to your word, I’ll be true to my word. How about a demonstration?”
“Uh, no…” Brandon said, taking a step back.
“Oh, but I insist!” Zandith cheered, spreading his arms wide. He brought his hands back together around the crystal. “I promise, it will be a great insight for your research.”
“Have I not made it clear?” Brandon shouted, gesturing to the vault’s open exit. “Get the fuck out before I call security.”
“You know…” Zandith mused as he turned his back to Brandon, slowly walking away. “Master Domrik and I have something in common. We’re both fascinated by the human mind. It’s the ultimate enigma. It’s brilliant, yet deeply flawed. It’s capable of mass creation, and mass destruction.”
“You’re point?” Brandon asked, not impressed by his speech.
Zandith whirled around, glaring at him. “Chill out! I’m getting there. Now, where was I? Yes, the human mind. Powerful. So powerful, in fact, that most people don’t know how to use it properly.”
He produced two normal crystals from the inside of his jacket. He held them vertically in his hands with the special crystal pinned horizontally between them, one end pointed at Brandon. “That’s why they say, it can either be your greatest ally…”
The crystals in his hands began to glow. “Or your greatest enemy!”
He pulled his hands apart, and the engraved crystal hovered in the air, spinning rapidly on its long axis. Streams of red Aether fed into it from the crystals in his hands.
Brandon put up his hand, but he found he couldn’t block the view of the spinning crystal, nor could he look away. His forehead moistened with sweat. “What are you doing to me!?”
Then, fright gripped him as he heard Zandith’s voice all around him. “Welcome to the team, Specter Seven.”
The world shifted, and he put a hand out to stabilize himself, but he fell to his knees anyway. His eyes were still locked onto the crystal. It spun faster and faster. Geometric shapes flickered into existence around it, flowing in the same direction as the spinning. Brandon’s eyes stung from not being able to blink. There was an enormous weight on his chest and throat, making it nearly impossible to breathe. All he could hear was his own racing heartbeat and a low thrumming inside his skull.
The shapes flowered out into a bigger and more intricate pattern. It was a giant kaleidoscope of shapes with dozens of different shades of red. Then it flowered out again, and again. Each time, the thrumming grew more intense. The spinning mass obscured everything else in Brandon’s vision, even the crystal itself.
Suddenly, the motion stopped. The thrumming stopped. He could breathe again. Then, the complexity in front of him went three dimensional, some shaped extruding toward him a bit, others sinking back.
“What the fuck?” Brandon whispered.
A subtle wind picked up, then it rapidly increased over the next few seconds. The wind roared in his ears and stung the entire frontside of his body. The structure was getting closer. He was falling towards one of the extruded shapes. He cried out in terror and threw his arms up in front of his face.
When he slammed into the shape, anger and hate infused his limbs. Then everything was quiet. There was no wind.
All he heard was Eleanor’s voice. “I’ve very disappointed in you, Brandon. Quite honestly, I thought you were better than this.”
He cautiously lowered his arms, his eyes darting around her tidy office. He was sitting in one of her chairs. “What just happened?”
She looked at him in disbelief. “You yelled at a student for not being smart enough.”
He found himself shrugging and leaning back in the seat. “Well, some of them actually aren’t.”
“I see,” she said, scribbling on the screen built into her desk. “You can gather your things and leave. I’ll have your replacement by tomorrow.”
Brandon blinked. “What?”
She looked up again, this time a red energy emerging from the depths of her eyes. “You’re fired!”
The force of her voice hit him like a sonic boom, ringing his ears. He flew back out of the seat and crashed through the wooden doors of her office. He went tumbling through the air, the mess of red shapes swirling around his vision. He crashed into another extruded shape, this time getting a strong hit of betrayal and sadness.
He stood in the entrance hallway of his house. A crying and sniffing sound came from around the corner. He walked forward, peering into the living room. Marvain sat on the couch with her back to him. Her shoulders should with each fit of crying.
“Marvain?” Brandon croaked. As he walked around to get a better look at her face, he started to wish he hadn’t. Her eyes were blazing red from constant crying. Her cheeks glistened with tears. She brushed a lock of hair away and looked at him. “I trusted you.”
He thought hard, trying to see where she was coming from. “Honey, what happened?”
“What did you do with it?” she asked, venom in her voice.
“Do with what?”
She stood up and faced him. “Our money, Brandon.”
“I didn’t do anything!”
She strode towards him. “WHERE DID YOU PUT OUR MONEY?”
“I didn’t touch it! I—”
Her slap sent him hurtling through the side window. He fell headfirst into a lower extruded shape and landed in a heap on a carpeted floor, one with a familiar smell. He felt incredibly embarrassed.
“Get a good whiff, because that’s the last time you’ll ever see this carpet.”
Brandon opened his eyes. “Rich?”
He sprang off the floor and looked at his boss. He was standing in the entrance of his office with his arms folded, two guards behind him.
Brandon glanced at them, confused. “What’s going on?”
“They’re taking out the trash,” Rich answered, somehow looking smug and angry at the same time. “I always knew you were too good to be true.”
“Me?” Brandon pointing to his own chest. The guards were already sliding past Rich and reaching for Brandon’s arms. He tried to shake them off, but they were too strong. “What did I do?”
“You know what you did,” Rich said as he stood to the side. “We found the documents and the emails.”
“Hey!” Brandon shouted, fighting the guards to try to look back at Rich. “How could I have faked anything!? You did all those studies with me!”
“Most,” Rich clarified, “but not all. Enjoy rotting in prison alongside your likeness. Rumor has it fraudsters get along with each other pretty well.”
“Fraudster!” Brandon cried. “That’s such bullshit!”
The guards pushed him toward the front double doors and let him go. The white glass of the doors was blurry and opaque. He turned back and tried to push through the guards. “Hey, listen to me!”
The guards shoved their hands into his chest, and he flew through the glass, shattering it into thousands of pieces. He fell for what seemed like half a minute, into a deep, dark pit in between the shapes.
He landed on his back on a tiled floor. The feeling of despair seemed to make his limbs twice as heavy, almost like he had a toxin running through his veins. There was the regular beep of a medical machine, and the quiet whimpers of a boy.
He groaned as he got to his feet, then stared in shock at the boy in the medical bed next to him. Evan’s skin was pale, almost grey. Standing on the other side of the bed was Adam. Tear streaks flowed down his cheeks. He was mumbling incoherently.
Evan barely turned his head to Brandon. His eyes barely had any life in them. “Dad?”
“Evan…” Brandon was at a loss for words as he knelt and gently took his son’s hand.
Evan’s voice was weak as he spoke. “Why don’t you love me?”
Brandon’s jaw dropped. Words still eluded him, and he hated that he didn’t have an immediate response. “E-Excuse me?”
A single tear tracked down Evan’s cold face. “You never did, didn’t you?”
“Evan, why would you think that?” He looked at the doorway. “Nurse! We need a nurse! My son is dying!”
The instant he looked back at Evan, the machine next to him flatlined. Evan’s eyes went distant. Adam’s crying intensified, and he slammed the bed with his fist. “It’s your fault.”
Brandon continued to stare at the corpse of his son. Adam punched the bed harder. “It’s your fault!”
He looked at Adam. He was about to ask why when Adam drew his fist back. It was covered in a layer of Aether energy.
“IT’S YOUR FAULT!” Adam shrieked as he thrust the energy into Brandon’s chest. Brandon crashed through the opposite wall, but this time landed directly on another carpeted floor.
“Did you not hear me the first time?” Eleanor’s annoyed voice came from behind her desk. Brandon sputtered, trying to stand again. He put a hand forward. “Wait.”
“You’re FIRED!”
The blast pushed him off his feet, then something changed. It smelled like his house again. He scrambled to his feet. Just as he saw Marvain, she backhanded him. “Get out!”
He stumbled into the guards just inside the lab entrance. They put their hands on his chest and thrust him through the open doorway.
“What is happening!?” He yelled as he fell backward and knocked his head on the food of a medical bed. Stars played in his vision, and just as he got to his feet, Adam screamed behind him. “It’s your fault!”
The red blast hit him in the back. He slammed forward, and suddenly it was as if he was occupying all four situations at the same time. None of them seemed close to letting up their cruelty.
After being slapped, Aether punched, thrown, and fired a dozen times, he finally dropped to his knees. “Someone, help.”
One round of torture later, he lifted his face to the ceiling and roared with all his desperation, “SOMEBODY! HELP ME!”
The force of his words seemed to reverberate through the four torture scenarios. All motion and sounds slowed to a halt, though the pain remained. Then, a disk of blue light appeared directly above him. He stared at it in awe, and he had an odd sense of understanding. Not that he understood it, but he sensed it understood him.
The disk pulsed once, and a semi-transparent blue hand emerged. It reached down and extended its index finger. Brandon watched with complete bewilderment as it gently touched in between his eyebrows. At that moment, electricity shot through his body, though oddly it wasn’t painful. It was almost ecstatic.
He was thrown back to the floor from the interaction. The blue energy above dissolved along with everything else around him. In a matter of seconds, he found himself curled into a ball on the cold floor of the vault, in between two rows of drawers. The pain, both emotional and physical, was fading back into memory. Somehow, he just knew, even the physical pain had been an illusion. The only thing left over from the experience was the sense of pressure where the hand had touched him on his forehead.
He cautiously looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Yet. He started to roll over onto his hands and knees when Zandith’s confused voice sounded from his right. “Uuuuhhh, how did you break out?”
Brandon tried to stand, but a wave of vertigo pushed him to the side. He braced himself against a drawer as he growled, “Like this.”
He pressed the emergency button on his wrist pad. He glared with glee at Zandith, who had put the crystals away. “Security! We have an intruder in the vault. I repeat, we have an intruder in the vault! He has one of our special items. Stop him using any means necessary! He cannot leave the premises.”
He started for Zandith, but stumbled when the dizziness got too intense. The pressure on his forehead was still there. Zandith took off toward the exit, leaving a blurry apparition where he had been standing. Brandon looked between the two Zandith’s, confused. Clearly, the blurry one was meant to be an illusion, but that wasn’t fooling him. He ran straight through it and pursued the real Zandith.
“How!?” Zandith yelled from the hallway. Brandon turned the corner. The elevator doors closing already. Zandith put up a hand, and Brandon saw real fear in his eyes. “Nope! You can’t see me. I’m not here!”
The doors closed before Brandon got there. His momentum slammed him into the doors, and he banged his fist against them in frustration. He pushed the emergency button again. “Everyone, get ready! He’s coming out through the elevator.”
He slumped against the wall, trying to catch his breath. A minute later one of the guards replied. “Very funny, Brandon.”
Brandon brought his arm to his face. “Did you get him?”
“I never would have pinned you as a prankster,” another voice said.
“This isn’t a prank!” Brandon shouted.
“You sent us an empty elevator!” the first voice replied.
“No, I didn’t!” He slapped his forehead. “I forgot to tell you, he can create illusions and make himself invisible.”
“Really?” Rich’s voice sounded over the connection. “What else can he do, grow my hair back?”
Laughs came the guards. Brandon fought the smile trying to force its way onto his face. “Guys! This is not a joke; this is not a prank. He has the crystal. It’s gone.”
The call went quiet. Only Rich spoke. “We’ll talk when you come up.”
A couple minutes later, the elevator arrived at ground level. Brandon bumped his fist against his forehead. The pressure feeling was still there, and it hadn’t diminished at all.
The doors opened. Brandon stepped out and went to start talking, but was bombarded by several voices at once. For a moment, he thought the guards were conversing amongst themselves and Rich, but at the seconds ticked on, Brandon noticed something strange. Their mouths weren’t moving. Moreover, there were faint red clouds of energy next to each of their heads. Some clouds were bigger than others, but the voices seemed to be coming from the clouds instead of mouths. Each cloud pulsed faintly whenever its voice spoke.
One voice rose above the rest. “Hey!”
Rich snapped a finger in Brandon’s face. “What happened to you down there?”
Brandon tried to look at his face, but he happened to catch what Rich’s cloud was saying at that moment. It was even speaking in Rich’s voice. “God, what is this knucklehead up to now? He better not be pulling our legs. He even has that guilty look on his face. What the fuck is he looking at?”
Rich looked behind him, trying to follow Brandon’s gaze. He faced him again and waved his hand in front of Brandon’s face. “Hello! Lativa to Brandon!”
“Uh… um,” Brandon stuttered, trying to focus on Rich. He held up a finger.
“I think I need a glass of water.”