Shadows in Light

I awoke to hear my phone trilling near my ear, I felt like I’d barely gotten five minutes sleep. At that moment I wanted to smash it into tiny pieces maybe burn the pieces, but I grabbed my phone and looked at it bleary eyed. Nothing made sense on it, so I just gave up and answered it.

“Hello?” I asked grumpily.

“Ryan?” Came a feminine and faintly Irish sounding voice. It took me a few moments to place a name to the voice.

“Bianca?”

Her voice gained a teasing edge to it, “Did you forget to save my number?”

“No? I saved it after you called Gordon to give me praise.” I looked up at the clock I had on a table. Jeez, it wasn’t even eight am yet. Too early.

“Glad to hear. Look, I’ve got some work I need doing? You mind coming over? Today?”

She paused for a moment, and I considered it. My money had taken a dive over the last couple of days now, with all the recent taxi rides, I could do with the extra money. Something for emergencies too.

But I didn’t want to screw Gordon out of money either. She must have sensed this as she cut me off before I could speak, “I’ll still pay Gordon don’t worry, I’ll just pay you direct. He said he didn’t mind. Please? I’ve been trying to get hold of you for a couple of days. I’ve got a party in a day or so, and I need this doing before tonight.”

Damn, I had hoped to go hit Danielle and Rachel’s place today, see if I could find anything that could help me find out why Alice had been taken. Maybe who had taken her too. But money changed priorities unfortunately.

“I can be over in a couple of hours or so? Should be there before eleven at the worst.”

She said something I didn’t understand, but the relief in her voice was something I understood. “Thank you, Ryan, I look forward to see you soon.”

She hung up and I was left on my couch groaning. I wanted a long sleep, I could have slept all day in truth, but I spent the next thirty minutes getting up, getting ready, and using my limited time to make myself a simple sandwich.

I spent almost the entire time cursing her, cold water and the world, before I started packing my bag. Despite looking like an over-sized man purse I carried it everywhere with me these days. I found it handy. I put in some lunch, change of clothing, then after some thought I put in one of the three guns I now had. I left the one I’d picked up off the now dead guy here, taking the new one. I loaded the clip up, making sure the safety was on. I hid that under my spare clothing in my bag.

There was no way I was going out without one today.

The bus journey was long, and not as quiet as I would have liked. More people than last time were going from Seattle to Everett, so I ended up sat next to someone who kept looking out of the window, then when they spotted me in their peripheral vision, they gave me faint look of surprise.

People were talking to each other, on phones, listening to music on their headphones. It was a cacophony of noise that gave me a headache and left me wishing I were still in bed even more. I found myself closing my eyes and trying to ignore the mass going on around me, trying not to let it get to me.

As we hit stops along the route I got shoved and knocked around as people got on and off the bus too, the people barely noticing that they’d done it, and not one of them apologized to me for doing so that didn’t help my mood.

When I finally reached my stop, I couldn’t wait to get off, grabbing my bike off the rack and started through Everett. Today it didn’t give out the sleepy town feel, there was a mass of cars, and people moving around. People were focused on their own thoughts and desires, and I ended up having to dodge several cars on the way to Bianca’s and truthfully, I was extremely irritated as I stopped in front of her house.

Okay, I’m lying. I was furious.

It never does to go into a client’s home ‘irritated’, and it wasn’t the first time I’ve had a bad trip to see a client, so I sat on my bike watching the world go by, and Bianca’s house. Trying to distract myself and think about things. I found myself thinking about Bianca’s house.

It was too fancy for this street, yet it was a nice-looking house. I did long to have a house of my own. Not anything fancy like this, but something that was a proper house, not a hidden place under a shop. Something right for me.

I let my mind wander in that thought for longer than should have, but it helped calm me enough to head up to the porch, lock my bike up and knock on the door. The craggy grumpy fellow opened the door a couple of minutes later, peering up at me through barely open eyes before he stepped aside to let me in, pointing down the corridor to where the kitchen was. Nodding a thanks to him I wandered down to see Bianca.

The kitchen smelt delightfully of coffee once again, coupled with cookies, and Bianca was sat at the table. But today she wasn’t like Bianca I’d met last time. That happy confidence she’d radiated, was today replaced by quiet anxiety. It was perhaps caused by the man sat opposite her, watching me as I entered the kitchen.

The guy was huge. When he stood up, he was going to tower over me. He had broad thick shoulders and running over him was a couple of leather straps that as I moved to sit down revealed to me a couple of gun holsters. That were filled with guns. He had a completely shaven head with several deep looking scars running through where his hair should have been. His ears stuck out of the side of his head like cup handles. His eyes matched mine in color, but I felt lacked any of the niceness that mine held. His seemed cold and hard, and stared at me without blinking, much like a reptile does. His nose was almost completely flattened to his face, likely from being punched many times. He gave me a smile, but somehow it lacked any warmth. Maybe it was the silver metal tooth that he had replaced in his eye tooth.

Bianca rose when I moved over to the table turning to face me and took my hands, giving me a nervous but pleased look to see me. “Ryan, good to see you again. I am so sorry about this, but I was desperate for your help.”

There was more to her words than what she was saying, and she was shaking as she took my hands. But I felt that I couldn’t say anything in front of this man, so I gave her hands a squeeze.

“No worries Bianca. Lovely to see you again.”

She looked just like before, wearing slightly dirty and ripped clothing. Today though she was wearing a bracelet that sparkled in the light, along with a necklace that was almost down to her stomach. She motioned to her visitor.

“This is ... John. John this is Ryan. He’s a laborer that does some work for me.”

John rose out of his chair, and proved my theory correct. He was over seven foot tall, towering over everything and everyone in the room. He moved over and thrust out a hand to me.

“Nice to meet you Ryan”

I took his hand and had to deal with him almost crushing it as he shook it. His own hands were heavily scarred from something. I doubted it was physical labor, and felt it was more likely hitting things.

Bianca shifted a little on her feet then asked quietly “Coffee Ryan?” as John finally let go of my hand. I nodded as John thumped his way back to his chair and sat down. The chair creaked warningly from the weight, sounding moments from collapsing under him. Bianca sat opposite him, leaving me to pick which end of the table I wanted to sit at. I thought about it for a second then sat down between them.

Bianca poured me a fresh coffee and passed it over, fidgeting with a cigarette lighter for a moment before she pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

“I’ve got some fences and trees that were damaged a few nights ago. Like I said, simple work but I need it done before a party I’m holding soon. I’ll pay extra for the hurried nature of it”

It sounded good. Money and extra money would keep me going for a while longer, let me feed myself for a few days, possibly longer without issue. A long-suffering part of me wanted to spend the money on something like say... a way to heat up water for showers.

I nodded in agreement and was about to reply when Bianca started ringing. She jumped at the sound, then pulled it out answering it “Yes?” she paused for a moment listening before she replied, “I’ll be right there” and hung up. She looked between the two of us “I’m sorry. I need to go and sort this out. I’ll be back shortly okay Ryan then we’ll go over what I need you to do. Just relax and enjoy some coffee. I’m sure John will keep you company”

John gave her a nod and she gave me a quick grimace before she hurried out of the room. A few moments later I heard a door open and close and she was gone. I turned my gaze onto John who was staring at me without blinking again. Faintly disconcerting that even in Bianca’s house, he was running things. And worse than that, I’ve seen dummies in shop windows blink more.

“So, you are new to Seattle then?” John asked me

I shook my head “No. I’ve been here for a few years now. Came here after some issues cropped up for me. Just stayed out of the way of everyone. Just met Bianca a few days ago when she hired me through a labor company.”

He frowned for a moment, looking at me curiously, “So you just popped out of nowhere?” There was an element in his voice that rang as he asked me.

I barely paused as I replied, “Yup.”

“You just met Bianca?”

“I met her Monday.”

“How?”

“Gordon sent me over here as a laborer to do a job in her garden.”

“Who is Gordon?”

“Nice guy who owns a company.” I pulled out a card and passed it over to him. He looked at it for a moment then dropped it on the table.

“And you knew no one else here?”

That question caused me to pause. “Well. No? I know people?”

“Who? How?”

“Gordon. He runs the Laboring company I work for. Like I said, he’s how I met Bianca”

John shook his head, looking annoyed, sitting forward staring at me without blinking. His voice got louder, ringing more in my ears, snaking its way through my mind “No, I meant who did you know before you introduced yourself to Joseph that is like yourself.”

“No one? At least to my knowledge.”

“Why did you come here then?”

“I looked at a map for a fresh start. Here looked like a good place to start. I came here.”

“You did not have any reason for coming here then?” He asked, his eyes unblinking locked on mine

“No. Seattle just seemed like the place for me.”

John frowned sitting back. I felt something on me. Something that felt familiar. I tried to think about what was going on and clicked on to the fact I’d been answering his questions without thinking. What the hell.

“What did you just do?” I asked him.

He shrugged, “Was curious. Guy like you doesn’t normally appear out of nowhere. Heard a little about you from Bianca. She said you used Shadow. But she said you reacted like a newborn.”

I felt angry, but quite frankly, this guy was over seven foot tall. And looked like he’d been through a few wars on his own. I didn’t have much I could do in the end, so it was my turn to shrug at that one. “People keep telling me that. But I can’t comment on it.”

He chuckled slightly “That is what they all say.”

I didn’t particularly like what he’d done, but I was in someone else’s home. Doing something rash seemed like a poor decision overall, which meant I had to stomach it.

John poured himself another coffee, watching me still with those unblinking cold eyes “You know, I could do with a worker if you’re interested. I have got some jobs that I need doing.” He looked out of the window at the garden and smirked, “And it would not be a laboring job either. Proper jobs for someone like you. Better paying too.”

It was certainly tempting; I’d been an office worker before all of this. Laboring was exhausting work. And normally a day or two work never paid as well as Bianca did. Getting paid for something that wasn’t laboring was tempting.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked quietly

He smiled at me, still lacking any depth and warmth. “Well, I need to get a package delivered if you are interested? Nothing illegal don’t worry, just need it moving from one of my places to another and do not want to use anything mortal. Get it done for me and I will pay you. Just a couple of grand minds. Do it well, I might have more for you.”

Jeez. He made two thousand dollars sound like small change, but to me that would give me a huge buffer to work with. Even if I didn’t get another job from him, it would mean I didn’t have to worry about things quite so much. I was tempted. Very tempted I couldn’t lie. My instincts were telling me this was a bad idea, but it wasn’t something I could pass up. He pulled out a card and wrote on it before passing it over.

“There is no rush on it. It is not an urgent thing. Next day or so? Just go to this address and tell them you are to take something to Ginger. Then give them this,” He wrote on another card before passing it over “They will give you it to deliver.”

“What is it then? If it’s not illegal?”

He waved his hand “It is just some paperwork and the like. After the mortal systems lost one of my shipments, I stopped using them. The Forgetting has negative effects that can cause issues for simple things like that. I would rather have a personal hired courier do it, that will not have those issues. Deliver it quickly. Do not open it, lose it nor get lost. Simple.”

I took the cards, looking at it. On the first he’d written his name ‘John McWilliams’ on it, along with two addresses, one marked as the pickup, and one as the drop off location. They weren’t great, but it wouldn’t be too bad to do when I got back to Seattle. The second card had a string of Chinese symbols.

“Okay, I’ll pop by. I could do with the money.”

John nodded “And I would be happy to give you more work if you get this done. All well-paying. I have some clubs and could always do with someone willing to do odd job work.”

Maybe he wasn’t as bad as he looked. I mean we’ve all had those thoughts about people. We start out thinking someone is an asshole, and then he turns out to be okay. Of course, sometimes it goes the other way around.

Dammit, I wanted money. I wanted to feel a bit of security, and a couple of grand would go a long way towards making my life easier and more secure.

I looked up from the card to see him watching me still with that never blinking gaze. It felt like he knew literally exactly what I was thinking. It wasn’t going to change why I was here though; I had promised to do a job for Bianca, and I was going to do it. It was the right thing to do after all.

“You have clubs?” I asked him.

“Well, I have got a few business interests. Clubs. Shipping. Things like that. Simple places that make money without a lot of effort by me. Joseph gave me the land to work with when he took over Seattle. You do a good job for me; you can get in his good books. I know you have got issues there.”

He wasn’t entirely wrong there and having friends with someone who was friendly with him would certainly make my life even easier. This was wise wasn’t it? Everyone wants an easy life to get on with. Rather than having to fight for every little thing.

“I don’t get why I’ve got issues with him in truth, I showed myself when I knew. I know that ignorance isn’t considered an excuse so I’m thankful for his kindness in letting me off with what I’d done. But it felt like I’d done more than that.”

John looked at his coffee, swirling it as the big man thought. It didn’t look out of place on him interestingly. He wasn’t a stupid man, he thought about things before he did them. He was clearly weighing what he should say to me before he replied

“Joseph is just suspicious. It is his job to be, especially after taking over the Western US. There is a lot of people who might be trying to oust him somehow. If I were him, I would be thinking you were being used by them somehow.”

Interesting point of view. Perhaps there was a lot of people who didn’t like Joseph. Still, I wasn’t going to get involved in them. I had no reason to.

“I’m not involved in anything against Joseph.” I said looking right at John

“I believe you.” He replied.

Huh, I knew in my bones he was lying to me there. But why would he think I’m lying? I wasn’t involved in anything for god’s sake! This town was messed up.

John finished his coffee and got up “Look, I have got to get going. Can you pass on my apologies to Bianca? And my thanks for helping me out. I must get on with something. Oh, tell her that her debt is sorted too.” I got up with him and shook his hand, which was only slightly less painful than before

“Sure, I’ll pass it on for you. Have a nice day, and I’ll be by when I can to deliver that parcel for you OK?”

John nodded and picked up a jacket, slipping it over his shoulders to hide his guns then stomped his way on out leaving me alone in Bianca’s kitchen, pondering a messed-up situation overall. I had to find some way to sort out Joseph so at least he’d leave me the hell alone. I’d start this with another cup of coffee from Bianca’s handy French coffee press.

I was only a few minutes before Bianca came back, glancing to the door as she did “Did John leave?”

I waved at the empty seat, “Yeah. He said to pass on his apologies for leaving, and the thanks for helping? And your debt is sorted too.”

She took a deep breath before moving over to the table and joining me at it for a few moments before she slumped over it resting her head on her arms.

“Is something wrong Bianca?” I asked her, shifting to sit next to her

She sat up shaking her head “No. Not anymore. I’m sorry okay.”

Huh. What was she sorry for? Unless.

“John wasn’t here by accident, was he? Someone told you to get me here for him?”

She nodded looking away shamefully for a moment before she lit up a cigarette “I had problems with Joseph. When I saw you, I saw a way to resolve my problems. I called him up and told him about you. A couple of nights ago, John rang me up and told me to get you down here again where he could see you. He’s one of Joseph’s good allies.”

Ah. Guess this made sense. She looked at me with sad watery eyes “I’m sorry okay? I’m just, well I’m tired of having trouble. I thought that calling you in would be enough. I never meant for it to go further. I swear it’s all done now though. I made them agree to it. Any time I call you up in future it’ll be for work that I haven’t had to set up deliberately. Yes, that does mean I have work. I had to go break a couple of lovely trees and bits of fence to make sure I had a legitimate reason to call you up. And I’ll pay you of course.”

I guess I could understand it, even if I didn’t like it. She wanted an easy life like we all did. And no harm had come from it. Hell, I’d gotten a job from one of Joseph’s good allies. Which did mean if I did well for him, I could get things sorted for me. Today held a lot more promise that it did when I’d been woken out of my slumber.

“I forgive you Bianca. Don’t worry about it anymore.” I told her, patting her hand a little awkwardly. I wasn’t sure what to do in this kind of situation. I wasn’t used to people trying to apologize to me for doing things wrong.

She sniffled a little, and pulled out a handkerchief, dabbing at them gently for a moment “First of all, you need food. You look hungry twice, so let me help with that. Don’t argue with me young one. I’m well older than you.” She pointed her finger at me glaring at me, her Irish accent coming out stronger as she did.

I grinned and held up my hands in surrender. She nodded in victory and got up, heading out of the room and came back a couple of minutes later with a bottle that was filled with orange substance that was swirling through water. She put it on the table in front of me, then moved over to her refrigerator, opening it up and started pulling things out of it.

I picked it up looking at it curiously and wriggled it around. The orange stuff didn’t mix into the water any more than it had already.

“What is this?” I asked her tapping the glass bottle.

She paused in her preparation of eggs, blinking at me for a moment, before she nodded, mostly to herself. “You really are new, aren’t you? It’s” She paused for a moment considering, “Energy for want of a better word. I can tell you’ve used up a lot of it recently. That’ll last you a while if you’re careful with it. Just pour a little of it into your coffee. It’ll be like a shot of caffeine for your other side Ryan.”

I looked at it for a long moment then shrugged. What the hell I thought before I poured a little of it into my coffee. It disappeared into the mixture with a faint hiss that sounded like something being dropped into acid. That wasn’t exactly encouraging, but nothing came off it smell wise when I raised it to my face.

I risked a sip. Holy crap. It tasted like coffee, but there was an after feeling that you never get anymore as an adult. It was like when I woke up on the last Christmas with my Father still alive. Knowing the living room was filled with presents, a day with them both. It was all I could do to stop myself dancing in my chair like a hyperactive kid, instead I downed the rest of my coffee in as few as gulps as I could.

This was fantastic.

Bianca looked over at me and laughed, filling the room with warm echoing laughter that made me smile “You look so happy right now. Imagine how happy you’ll be when I tell you I’m making you a traditional Irish fry-up breakfast. People drool all over the place for my breakfasts.”

Soon enough I had a huge plate that was twice the size of my head in front of me, with Bianca joining me next to me with an equally large plate. They were both filled with bacon, eggs, sausages, white and black pudding, hash brown, baked beans and toasted soda bread with a fried tomato sat on top of it all. It looked and smelt like absolute heaven, and my stomach growled. I hadn’t seen so much food in so long, never mind eaten it. She started digging in herself, apparently having not eaten much herself earlier. I didn’t manage to eat the whole thing, but I gave it a good go. She however managed to eat the whole thing with a happy expression on her face the entire time.

“I’ll pack that up for you to take home. Have a rest to recover before we move on to work.” I gave a nod, resting back in my chair. It took me about thirty minutes before I felt anywhere close to ready for moving, but as it was getting closer and closer to sundown, I thought I should get on with the task she’d called me here for.

She interrupted my lazy moment “That stuff you took; it’ll help you out okay? Keep you going, but nothing comes for free. It’ll last a while, probably about 8 hours or so normally, less if you use up your energy. At the end of that, you’ll need to sleep. A proper night’s sleep and all that. Try and use it for when you need it.”

Wasn’t that bad a deal.

She gave me a sunny little grin and led me out into the garden, showing me a section of fence that had been badly broken by a falling tree branch from a nearby tree. A couple of other branches high up in the tree were cracked, hanging over the garden itself. I was going to have to scale up the tree, cut them down and get them down carefully without any more damage, then remove and replace all the broken panels, before finishing them with a new coat of paint to make them all match. Awkward work. I was going to be lucky if I get this done before sundown in truth. I told Bianca as much.

“Do you want to do some of it then come back and do the rest?” she asked me, although her face had a little worry at the answer to this.

I pondered it for a moment, but I figured I could get it done in one day, even if I hit the night with the painting part.

“So long as it doesn’t rain, and you’ve got a light out here, I can paint the fence and get it all done today don’t worry”

She gave me a relieved look and led me over to a shed where the various gardening tools were waiting for me. I took a deep breath and started up as she went back inside. This time I only had one guy watching me, and he didn’t seem any more interested in me today than he did last time I was here. But I felt that meant he was watching me like a hawk.

Climbing a tree as a child is easy. Any child can do it. But climbing a tree with a set of rope, and tools to cut and sort a broken branch is never easy. Add to that old age, a full stomach, and a modest concern about falling out of said tree, it took me longer than I’d like to admit getting up the tree. And perhaps longer than I’d like to admit getting it all done. Getting down was quick though. Thankfully not as quick as it could have been.

It was dark with the moon rising by the time I’d done, but for once the winter weather paid off and it didn’t rain. The paint job was done properly, if I do say so myself, and inspected by Bianca before she gave a nod.

“I wasn’t joking, I do have a party in a couple of days, and they’re all so picky about these kinds of things. One little thing out of place and they bitch for months afterwards. I’m so thankful you were able to sort this out.” She pulled out her phone and showed me a text message on it that was from Gordon confirming his payment for the job, then pulled out a wad of money and shoved five hundred dollars into my rather shocked hands.

“Call it a repayment for this Ryan? And a hope we’ll be friends in future.” She surprised me with a violent rib creaking hug that left me gasping for air. Damn that woman had strength.

We went back inside where I was rewarded with coffee, a big cold box of food, followed by another box of freshly baked cookies. She was feeling guilty about all this. Still freshly baked cookies! Win for me there. My bag was barely able to hold everything though.

Leaving the house, I went to get my bike from where it was on the porch, and as I was unlocked it, I noticed that both tires were flat. Oh great. Just what I needed. I knocked on the door and got Bianca looking at me confused.

“What’s wrong Ryan?” She asked me

“My bikes got flat tires.” she peered around the door at my bike locked on her porch and grimaced.

“That’s not good. Do you have a puncture repair kit on you?” she asked me. It was one of those things I kept meaning to get but kept forgetting.

“Guess not huh? Well, you can leave it here until you can get back with one?” she said thinking for a moment. “Or I can bring it to you tomorrow? Meet you somewhere with it? Save you lugging it back tonight. I want to go into Seattle early tomorrow anyways.”

I considered that option, truthfully, I’d rather she gave me and my bike a lift home today. But it was kind of late, and she was going out of her way if she did this for me.

“That would be great. Give me a call tomorrow and I’ll work it out with you were to deliver it?”

“Do you want a lift to the bus stop?” she asked me.

Again, I wanted to say yes at this offer. But I felt like she was doing enough for me already, so I shook my head.

“No, it’s not that far to go. And I could do with the exercise. I’ve got cookies to eat too.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow Ryan. Be safe”

I waved and walked off her porch onto the street, starting to navigate through the streets. How the hell had my bike gotten TWO flat tires? It looked fine when I got here. Had John messed with it? That didn’t make any sense to me. Why would he be bothered with my bike? Why would anyone. But someone must have?

I was too wrapped up in my thought to notice my instincts where kicking in big time until they were almost jumping up and down screaming at me. I jerked my head up and looked around. Something wasn’t right here. What the hell was it?

Then I saw him. He was across the street looking right at me and gave me a wave of greeting.

Oh, crap. Eli.