Sam Sawyer Chapter Eight

Sam could see in the dark, every dark, any dark. For him there were no black rooms. But most importantly the blackest room, the human mind was for him, filled with light and truth. Details, facts, past deeds, hidden bodies, miserable secrets were always just one emotion away.

When fear reached out desperate to be discovered. It reached out to him and told him everything he needed to know…

Sam held a folder full of horror and heart break and hopefully a bit of closure, if such a thing exists, in his right hand. He released it into Detective Williams mailbox then disappeared as quickly as he came. If a camera recorded his mailman act. It would only record a smudge. But there was no camera. Only a mailbox full of grisly details, that would close at least a dozen missing person cases, more than a few of them children.

Sykes was a pedophile desperate to want women, hence the rage after his failed rape attempts. Every murder was the result of his vile pathetic attempts at being what he thought a man should be. The Earth was infested with such vermin. Well that was about to change.

His civic duty fulfilled, Sam streaked through the midday sky punched through a floating island of white slid to a hover high above the clouds and savored the beautiful miniature landscape far below. Squares and patches of a dozen different shades of green, gleaming oval mirrors of blue all stitched together by slender threads of black pavement and blue waterways stretched and curved out of sight over the Earth’s bowed horizon. The blinding sun peeked over his right shoulder-his only companion.

He wished he could share this with Kathy. But it was much too soon for that. Three months of healing had finally brought her back to her home and job. But had not really brought her closer to him.

They were seeing each other, but not really. She was addicted to his newness and he to her goodness. He sighed as the cloud field slid northward revealing more of the Earth below and leaving him alone in the vast empty blue. If loneliness had weight, he would be falling out of the sky like a rock.

This new emotion wasn’t pleasant, but it was motivating. If there was a way to become more than a project to her, he was determined to find it…

As much as Sam loved the sky, he loved the woods just as much but in different ways for different reasons. Flying gave him freedom beyond anything he had ever hoped, but clouds aren’t the best cover. Birds, however, aren’t the best witnesses. Still it was only a matter of time before someone spotted him. He needed a costume. Costume, the very word made him cringe. He had spent his entire life hiding, trapped, behind a façade. Besides, leotards and cartoon colors were not his thing. As much as he liked comics and fantasy, he could not stomach cosplay. Grown folks playing dress up, uh uh. At least he was the real thing.

Oh well, so far as he knew, there was still time to come up with something he could tolerate. Who knows maybe he could cloak himself in invisibility? He did have perfect, telescopic night vision. Too bad crime happens during the daytime too.

Thankfully, there had been no truly vicious crimes, no rapes, abductions or murder of harmless innocents. His mind had been strangely still. It was nice, but troubling. Maybe Kathy was a one -shot deal. Maybe he wouldn’t need a costume after all. Maybe he fulfilled his purpose three months ago? Clearly, he was not tuned into the whole world. No alarm bells no patrols either, crime fighting was proving to be a bit boring. But that was good, no terror is a very good thing. He certainly did not feel free to go out find bad guys. He seriously doubted he could. He would simply have to wait for some poor victim to scream out to him from the darkest place they had ever been. He wouldn’t wish that on anybody. Still when they finally called he was determined to be ready.

Oh well he still had the woods. It had its own kind of freedom. And it was beautiful cover that always took him to another place, the world of faces and eyes could never match. Which was why he was walking his favorite path this sunny afternoon.

Gleaming shafts of noonday sunlight pierced the thick green canopy. They were beautiful, surrounding him, enticing him?  An odd urge swelled deep within. He suddenly he found himself plowing through the knee- high underbrush, then sailing above it. Flying now, he zipped between the trees until he was hovering two feet from a particularly large column of light.

Apparently, his hybrid alien body was still transforming. It was suddenly responding to his need the same way ones’ lungs breath, mindless and automatic.

Right now, he needed to hide his identity. But as he sidled up to beam’s translucent glow, he was struck by its golden luminance, how it reminded him of a fountain. A new desire began to swell within his breast, a thirst for light, a deep yearning for energy only the sun could provide.

Easing down to the spongy pine straw carpet he extended his right arm until his hand was completely engulfed. Warm soothing energy slowly permeated its’ bare skin, which was now glowing white as an LED bulb. The Sun was entering his body; euphoric, intoxicating. Overcome with desire, he threw his head back and let it pull him in. Like a leaf caught up a slowly churning tornado he corkscrewed straight up through the forests’ shadowy greyness spiraling toward the leafy hole in the forests’ thick canopy. He was now a puppet hanging by a navel string and nothing else.

12 P. M. that afternoon Kathy Wyatt was eating lunch, at Castle Hayne Elementary when the veil broke, at least for her. Seated at a picnic table, she could look out over the playground and watch ‘her children’ play. It was her favorite time of the day. Watching her two dozen happy boys and girls playing beneath a cloud flecked blue sky always reminded her of what was important. This morning like all the mornings since her rescue had been out of focus, fuzzy with distraction. Questions about Sam swirled in her head like bees in a hive, busy, busy, busy, trying to piece together a sturdy symmetrical honeycomb of chambers in which she could sort out and neatly place her feelings, which were a tumbling mish mash of uncertainty.

The clean simple picture of children at play had filled her field of vision and calmed her mind, reminding her, her old life did not end three months ago. Of course, it did…

She was just about to chomp down on a bologna and cheese sandwich when a strong fingers clamped down on her left shoulder and yanked her out of sight in plain sight of two other teachers. Jessie Morris and Mick Daniels two thirtyish fellow teachers blinked at the empty air Kathy had just been sitting in.

“Did you…” they asked each other at the same time, “yes I did. “They answered simultaneously.