Cory rocked his legs in bed trying to fall asleep. It wasn't because of worry, or anything like a girl that kept him up. He had been having the weirdest dreams lately. He bit his lips. Right now the room smelt of incense; jasmine to calm the mind.
It was dark, but a little light from outside made it in, through a thin curtain. It painted a dry hazy feeling on the inside. Cory had placed a cup of warm water on the night stand besides himself. That was because he heard that warm water would stop nightmares on some forum, and now he gave it a try. He opened his brown eyes and water from the sea reflected in them…
He swam until he saw land. And waited on the shore patiently; the sand felt fake. The water was easy to swim through, even though he couldn't swim.
But now came the weird part.
A gray towering head rose from the blue sea, high enough that it made waves that touched him at the waist. It was a man with thick eyebrows and an otherwise normal face. The black eyes focused on Cory.
"What do you desire from me?"
He fell back into the sand in shock. And ran. For some reason his movement felt heavy, it was like running under water.
"Mr. Thompson. I can give you what you always desired. But you have to pray for it."
He ran even harder against the weight; eventually his breathing got heavier. And soon he had keeled over.
"Please…ha…please….don't kill me. I don't know why you're after me?"
"I come to offer power."
The head smiled. Its lips seemed hard, it was like they'd never made that shape before. It was a four hundred meter smile.
Cory paused in the sand. And finally considered that this might be real. He had heard rumors of something similar on the internet. But they all sounded like modern folklore to him.
But what if this was real? He'd have the world to gain. And, if it were just a figment of something being wrong with his mind, he would lose nothing.
"Can you really make me a sorcerer?" He thought for a second, he wanted to say, 'what do have to I give you', but truthfully he would give anything.
It smiled even wider.
......…
Brown was his favorite color. His bed sheets were cream, the curtains were butterscotch, a nice flavor, and his bureau, and the table, were dark lacquered wood. Casey spread his clothes out on the bed.
The top was blue. A dress shirt with small boats riding on waves of blues. He went to the closet and the hard part now was choosing the right shade of brown. He also needed to match the shirt with the right pants. He settled on something light brown, with a few pockets, and swapped the shirt with a solid red dress shirt. He closed the outfit with a boat shoe. Of course, it was brown.
Casey got the ironing board, and iron, and added creases. He always found fun in dressing up. He gave off a stiff personality vibe, but that didn't mean that he didn't have shallow parts to him. Everyone had those.
He made quick work of a bath and getting dressed. And waited down stairs for his father. Casey sighed. He'd probably gotten it from him. Although, in his opinion, his father took the love of clothes too far.
He sat up straight to scroll through his OurBook feed. He wanted to make a conscious effort to be there for his friends now. They had been shut out for so long now, that he wasn't sure they were his friends. And the recovery might have confirmed that thought. No one had looked for him. No one besides Joshua and Henry. People He thought of as coworkers. Casey sighed tiredly.
It was a pain… a pain that was better off being hidden for now. This wasn't something new. And, he shook his head. He wouldn't remember it now. Or allow his emotions to abduct his mood.
He scrolled. There were a few posts with memes that were genuinely a mood lifter.
There were missed messages from weirdos online too. So many things that had been missed. Finally he saw a tabloid from Rock Sound, just to the east of them. Of Old Providence.
The poster was anonymous. Casey leaned over as he read. The feeling of the stiff fabric creasing made him aware, and he stopped at that certain point.
'Missing children in Rock Sound. There have been an increase in abductions in our communities. We've tried everything we can to get more help. They're targeting our kids, and our mayor Gavin Wiley, won't address it. '
The comments corroborated it. They also mentioned some unbelievable things. Like some of the kids bodies were found later missing limbs. And that some had never been found. Someone mentioned that those missing were all young sorcerers. Casey's breath was racing by the end of the thread.
"Dad I'm gonna warm the engine until you're ready!"
So he sat in the passenger seat and read the comments. They loaded on his mind… and Casey leaned into his seat.
His father locked the front door, and came into the car. They drove only a little while before he slowed down.
"Is something bothering you?"
"You can tell?"
"Of course I can."
"It's mostly… that earlier I saw something about some kids online." Casey sighed. "Can we do anything about that? I mean the missing kids. Sorry, it's on my mind." He sat up straight. "And someone said that they're only going after sorcerers. Who deals with the people like that?"
"Since it's magic, or aberration related, it should be the Department of Special Interest."
His father made a left as he passed the tallest pole leaving Royal Lane. Their neighborhood.
Light hugged Casey's face just long enough for his father to see his pained expression.
"I wish I could do something myself."
They passed a lesser known pole, and he saw his father's expression. It was the longest he had ever looked at Casey in silence. His father seemed gentle.
"You're not ready yet, Casey. It's dangerous and you're still injured."
"When I'm healed, can you train me some more?"
His father smiled. "Yeah. Who else would do it?"
There was still a lot of distance to the church to go. The pole lights painted the darkness with little low hanging stars.
Trees on the lane were sparse, and singular. Long shoots passed by in patches, and patches. Casey watched them roll by continually. They gave a comfort. Soothing his nerve. The A/C and silence were like a drug.
......
Kiana wore white tonight. Really to be specific, it was eggshell. She felt the color wasn't hard to match at all. It could suit brown, or silver. But she had done even better. Kiana wore lady pink heels. The pews were red, and brown wood. The pulpit matched those colors too.
And the air was filled a flavor of cinnamon incense. She had burned long before the service would begin. Cinnamon to settle the spirit they said.
By now the scent had settled too.
She stood at the door welcoming the members as they came in. She knew them all so had smiled at each of them. They knew her too, and the night went by smoothly.
At the moment she only waited on Mr. Knowles. He looked alright, for his age, but she always thought it mattered too much to him. He kept coming late to church too. And he… wore a little too much cologne…
She thought of his son, she missed him so much. Certain people were inseparable from who you were; from the smallest memories that you had, Casey felt like those people. Probably because of how protective he was with her. She noticed two men coming towards her, that pulled her from her thoughts.
They walked under the white awning. The path had a red carpet that ran from there, broke to allow the door to swing open and continued up to the pulpit. Because of this they walked one in front of the other. The first man came in.
"Mr. Knowles it's great to see you sir. You can sit….. is that Casey with you?"