Spark - Chapters 1 & 2
Chapter One
Gun shots ring out through downtown San Francisco as three men in black suits race through the streets. The object of their pursuit, covered in a hood,
barely avoids the bullets as he bounds over anything in his path.
"Shit, shit, shit" as he just barely collides with a hot dog cart while turning a sharp corner out of an alley way. It's early morning. There's people everywhere. "Have to get cover. Too many people, who knows where I"ll end up" he mumbles. He spots a trolley heading near him, he hops to the back just as the agents emerge out of the alley behind him.
They holster their guns. One of the agents makes a call and a black car with government plates pulls up in front of them. They eye the street ahead of them, and reluctantly get into the car.
Across town, Jace is late. He wakes up with a dart. "God dammit" he exclaims seeing the time on his phone. He jumps up and scans his bedroom. It's a complete mess, clothes everywhere, a computer desk that appeared to be used more than his hamper, and a rusty bike slumped in the corner. Jace lived a modest life, solitary for the most part. He avoided large crowds at all costs, he took a job at a co-op by the bay. He unloaded the ships as they brought in fruits and vegetables. His athletic, but slim build, was as a direct result of his multiple jobs like this. Anything he could do to stay active, and avoid people.
He rushes out the door, granola bar in mouth, bike on his shoulder. Just as he kicks off the curb a man in a hooded sweatshirt rushes past him nearly knocking him over. "What the fuck, dude?!" Jace yells to him, the obviously rushed and frightened man turns back to him and exclaims "sorry!"
"Diiiiick" Jace says as he balances back again onto his bike, he sticks his AirPods into his ears and begins to ride.
It was a breezy spring day, Jace's ride was an easy one, pleasant. As he rode towards the bridge, he noticed a lot of police presence. Cop cars, marked and unmarked, zipping past him. As he arrived at work, he parked his bike and made his way into the office as fast possible to punch in. The usuals were there, Marleen at the desk greeted him with her crooked smile and the waft of cigarettes and diet coke perfume she always wore. Jace nodded, politely, and grabbed his card. As he headed out to the shipyard he passed by Rob, already pulling crates from a recent shipment.
"You're late, again!" Rob playfully shouted
"Yeah, I just can't seem to get to this dream job on time." Jace sarcastically shrugged back.
Rob was the stoner type, always a mess, but always happy. He would often spend lunch breaks ranting about some conspiracy theory or a "mind blowing" TED talk he had watched on YouTube. Today was no exception.
"So, like, immortality, is real. Ok. But it's not how we think it is. This guy, like Thanos or something was talking about"
"Wait" Jace interrupted "Thanos is the dude from Avengers, Rob" The lunch table erupts in laughter as Rob continues his rant anyways. Just as Rob's rant began to get more boisterous, a large crash was heard from the Golden Gate bridge just above the shipyard. Everyone fell silent and looked up to see the commotion.
Jace, Rob, and a few of the other workers rushed up to see what was happening. There were government vehicles everywhere, men in suits with guns all surrounding the hooded figure from earlier. Jace moved to the front of the crowd. The agents had the man surrounded at gun point towards the side of the bridge. He had his hands raised and was yelling back to one of them, seemingly the one in charge.
"I don't have it!" He yelled
"We know you know where it is, Marik, just tell us." The agent reasoned back.
Marik peered over the edge of the bridge as he slowly backed up towards the ledge. Just then, another man emerged from one of the vehicles. This man did not appear to be an agent. He was dressed in a lighter colored suit, older, more like a professor and less a government type.
"That's the Thanos dude I watched" Rob whispered to Jace, who at this point had completely forgotten was still there.
"Shh" Jace quipped.
The new man walked slowly to Marik, talking quieter than Jace could hear. Marik looked distressed now, not as calm. The older man appeared to be reasoning with Marik, motioning for him to come forward, away from the ledge. Marik instead stepped up onto the ledge. The agents all began shouting, the older man motioned more frantically to Marik.
Marik took one last look over the edge, locked eyes with Jace, then gracefully and calmly leaned back plummeting to certain death. The older man just lowered his head as the agents began to shout and scramble looking to the crowd. It became deafeningly silent, as if in slow motion, Jace saw everyone but heard nothing, except the impact of Marik's body on the water. A spear of pain shot through his spine and into his head. With a rush, as if time was catching up, everything became louder, and more frantic. The sound of the crowd, the sirens, was like a bomb inside his mind. His eyes tilted back as he began to black out, collapsing into the arms of his co-workers.
Chapter Two
Jace awoke in his bed. His head was pounding and felt as though it was five pounds heavier. He slowly swung his legs off the side of the bed, and sat up. The rush of blood almost knocked him back down. He noticed he was wearing the same clothes from work yesterday.
"Yesterday...wait" He started to remember "What the fuck happened yesterday!" then, as if answering someone else he continued "The bridge, what was that about?" The entire day ran through his head in reverse, once again, he looked at his phone.
"God damnit!"
As he raced off to work on his rusty bike, his head still throbbed. It was like shouting inside his mind. For a moment he saw a flash of white and swerved into traffic just barely missing an oncoming car. He pulled off to the sidewalk to collect himself and catch his breath. Just as he was about to push off and ride again he glanced across the street. Quickly taken back, he thought he saw the hooded guy from yesterday.
"...Marik?" Jace blinked and focused in on the figure. "Idiot. YOU. ARE. LATE." He sped off back on his way, ignoring the mirage. "Damn, I must've smacked my head, or had one of Rob's brownies" Jace chuckled to himself. He pulled into the shipyard. Marleen was waiting for him at the front door just outside.
"Jace, honey, why are ya here? Ya should be resting, kiddo!" Marleen rushed to assist Jace off his bike.
"I'm fine, just a splitting headache."
"Don't be ridiculous, ya need more rest, and some food, come sit down" Marleen guided him to her desk.
"I'll be ok, I slept for like ten hours, I probably was just dehydrated."
"Jace, you were out for two days. Rob and I kept visiting you, trying to get you to eat and drink. You would wake up sometimes, act as if you had no clue who we were or where ya were. Ya scared us!"
This hit Jace like a ton of bricks. He immediately sat down at Marleen's desk. His head began swirling again. A flash came to him, he was standing in a war, World War 1, through his eyes he sees him running in a field. Other soldiers around him, yelling, gun shots and explosions everywhere. He could almost smell the blood and gun powder. As he gets over a trench he sees other soldiers running at him. German soldiers, rushing in, screaming, chaos everywhere. He raised his gun and began firing. Then a sharp sting in his chest, he looked down to see the blood on his hands, and rushing from his chest.
Jace snapped awake grasping at his chest, shaking and staring at his hands. As his eyes focused he realized he was back at the shipyard. Marleen was standing over him, a look of worry on her face.
"Maybe I should go home" Reluctantly he got up, and headed out the door.
"Lemme get ya an Uber sweetie. Rob will drop off yer bicycle later"
Jace slumped into the car, just staring at his hands. He had never felt anything like this before. It felt real, he could feel the bullet enter his chest, feel the warmth of the blood on his fingers.
"Where are we headed?" The driver asked.
"Oh, right..." Jace gave him the address, leaned back into the seat and stared out the window.
Back at home, Jace piece by piece stripped as he stumbled toward the shower. He was having another vision, this time he was in ancient Egypt. inside a tomb, he was sneaking toward something, it looked like a book on a pedestal. He looked behind him and saw another man with him. He almost recognized him when he looked in his eyes, familiar. He quietly moved toward the book, just then a noise from behind. He spun around to see a spear sticking through his friends chest, turned back toward the book to run and a slash of a sword across his face jarred Jace back to reality. He was on his knees, just outside his bathroom, head down. A tear dropped from his eye. Was he mourning his own death? What was he seeing? He didn’t understand what he was feeling, why this was happening to him. He collected himself and got into the shower.
As the water ran down his face he started focusing on his visions. Even though the two visions he had took place centuries apart, it felt like he was the same person the entire time. They almost felt like past lives, but he dismissed them as a side effect of shock, and assumed they were from movies he’d recently watched. The Egyptian one was clearly from playing too much Assassin’s Creed: Origins. He spent far too much time playing video games and watching movies than any normal person should. Yes, he decided, it was finally happening. His solitary lifestyle had finally broken him. He was having a nervous breakdown.
As he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around him, he wiped the fog off the mirror and gazed at himself. Something was off. Wrong. He looked like himself, but, something was different and he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. He turned his head side to side, trying to figure out what it was. Finally, he saw it. His eyes. They were, different. Not his eyes, the color, the shape, everything was wrong, but still surprisingly familiar. As if he’d been looking into these eyes for years. But that can’t be possible. He must have a concussion, or something. He decided it was best to head to a doctor.