by D. Levesque
About three years ago, I was introduced to LitRPG and GameLit, and well, HaremLit. And I have not gone back. I have bought and read so many books on Kindle. I won't mention the numbers. I have wanted to write a book from a pretty young age, since I had lots of imagination and ideas. But I was always under the impression you needed a large publisher. I was wrong. Instead, I decided to put my thoughts to paper, as it were, and this started my new career as an author.
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Silver Magi 1 - Chapter 1
I hated working the night shift. The time I spent working my night shifts was mostly coding away on things that most of the day staff hated doing. But at least it kept me with a job. And honestly, I’m good at it. Few loved to dig deep into the code that the ‘programmers’ updated every week. Working as their bug reporter/finder sucks at times. It’s almost like they didn’t care and hoped I would catch it all. They were sloppy as shit. I had been working on this last line of code for the past four hours, trying to find the error in it. Sighing again at the unfairness of it all, I grab my coffee and take a sip. Shit, it got cold again.
Getting up from my chair with my mug, I head to the table behind my desk where we keep the microwave, and warm up my coffee for thirty seconds. Waiting for it, I think back to my meeting earlier today before my shift ended at 8 a.m. The manager of the company came in early just to have that meeting with me. It was supposed to be a meeting for the job opening as a daytime programmer that I applied for last week, when one of our programmers took a job offer with a big tech firm. That left an opening. I had been working for this company now for the last ten years and figured I had it in the bag. I was their top debugger and thought I could finally move on up the chain within the company.
Well, they proved me otherwise. I had studied the company system at home for the last couple of days. I knew the system inside and out. I know our goal, our product. Better than any other person, I felt. But all that got destroyed within five minutes of the interview. My manager said I was too precious to lose as a debugger on the night shift. Fucking asshole. He went on and on about how good I was. How I fixed so many bugs and saved the company so much money for their clients.
The microwave goes off, so I open the door and grab the now hot cup of coffee. I should learn to drink the shit while it’s hot instead of forgetting about it while coding. Sitting back down, I look at the line of code on my desk. Instead of working on it like I should, I rub my eyes. Seriously, I need a break. I should do a small run around the building. Usually, when I find I am stressed, taking a run around the building of our campus calms me down. And honestly, that interview is still pissing me off, the manager is pissing me off, and this line of code is pissing me off. Just then, my phone goes off, telling me I have a text message. Must be my manager checking up on me again. Swiping the smartphone open, I see a number I don’t recognize. Who the heck is this? Opening the messaging app and going to the chat, I start to read the message.
You don’t know me, but you need to leave the building you are in right now. Your life is in danger! You need to go as far as you can from there. Seriously, someone is on the way to kill you, Brandon. Please, you need to listen.
Staring at it, I think, what the fuck is this Shit? God damn telemarketers are getting bad. What’s next? They’ll tell me that to call them off, I need to send them my credit card number? Blocking the number, I stare back at the code on my computer screen and decide I really need a break. It’s 3 a,m., and it’s close enough to my one-hour lunch break. I usually just sit in the lunchroom on the couch and catch up on some reading, but today I think I need that run, because now I am adding telemarketers to the things that piss me off tonight.
Heading out of the office of four desks that I work in with other coders, I walk towards the elevators that will take me to the main floor and the men’s locker room to change. My coworkers find it odd that I run. Most coders are not anything like me. I don’t look like a typical coder, though I wish I did, if it would stop women from hitting on me at work. Being a geek and being 6 foot 4, slim with an athletic build, doesn’t help. I also have blond shoulder-length hair. I’m not trying to impress anyone, I just don’t want to waste time cutting it. It’s not that I don’t want to date, I just haven’t found the right woman. Period. I dated on and off after college, but at 32 now, I don’t think I will find my ideal partner. Most women are just so damn shallow.
Walking by the security desk, I wave to the guard who is there. Not sure why we have security out here in the middle of nowhere. Not like our company has any secrets to hide or protect. Going down the hall towards the back of the building, I enter the door that says Men’s Locker Room and go to my locker. Good old #3. It’s been my locker since I first started working here ten years ago. In fact, I think my anniversary for my 11th year is coming up next month.
Getting out my running pants, runners and t-shirt, I change into those from my everyday work clothes, which are jogging pants, some kind of geek t-shirt, (today it says ‘Dune’ on it), and runners. But they are different ones. These are for running. Those are for working. Coworkers honestly don’t understand. Why would I run in my work clothes and sweat and wear the same thing again? Putting my hair into a ponytail, I shake my head, close my locker and head back out. Since I am near the back of the building, I go out that way.
Once I am outside, I breathe in the Florida air. It’s hot tonight. I would say close to 80F. Tomorrow will be a scorcher. Christ, I hate June weather. At least running at night, the humidity isn’t as bad. Crap, I forgot my damn phone and earbuds upstairs. Fucksakes! See what happens when you get distracted, Brandon? Screw it. I don’t feel like going back up. At least I didn’t forget my ID lanyard and get locked out. Again. Shrugging, I slowly stretch as I walk towards the side of the building. Once I turn the corner, I start to pick up my pace from a walk to a jog.
Just as I am about to hit the front of the building to run down the 5 miles of the street to the major road, I hear a screeching of tires. What the fuck is going on, I think to myself. Heading past the building and looking at the front entrance, I see a black SUV with two enormous men in black combat fatigues come out of the car. They are tall; about my height, but wide where I am not. These guys look like fucking linebackers. But what stops me in my tracks is the fact that they are carrying weapons in their hands. Handguns. They must hear me since I am only about 100 yards away from them. They turn towards me, and one of them holds up a smartphone, looks down, and looks back up.
“That’s him, grab him!” I hear the driver yell to his partner.
What the fuck do they mean I am him? OK, I don’t care who the fuck you are, but if you see someone that looks like these guys holding up guns and saying, “That’s him, let’s grab him!”, you will not stick around. Turning on my heels, I head towards the back of the building. I do not know who they are or what they want; all I know is I don’t know them. Goo
d enough for me. Just as I am going around the corner of the building, I hear a loud gunshot. In front of me, the wall of the building shatters in a shower of cement, exploding from an impact point.
Holy fuck, are they shooting at me?. Why the fuck are they shooting at me?!? Hearing them running behind me, the fear I feel gives me a burst of speed that sends me around the corner before I hear the next gunshot. Shit, I need to get into the damn woods and hide! This is fucking nuts. Who are these assholes? Are they cops, and they got the wrong guy? Running as fast as I have ever run before, I head towards the back of the building and the treeline. It’s dark back there, so maybe I can hide from them.
I make it to the tree line. Suddenly there are more gunshots, and the surrounding trees explode with bullets. Thinking about what I always see people do in army movies, I zigzag left and right, hoping they don’t hit me. For the next couple of minutes, I try to escape these fucking crazy men. What the hell! After a while, I finally hear nothing, so I stop and hunker down to catch my breath. I am not sure how far I am from the back of the building. We are in a private area, and I know behind us is just forest and swamp for miles and miles. Breathing slowly and deeply, I try to catch my breath, but my heart is still racing, and I am sure it isn’t from the running.
Then to my left and behind me, I hear them. They are trying to be quiet, but I can hear them easily. They aren’t even breathing hard. Goddammit. They look like linebackers. They should at least be winded! Getting up again, I run forward, and this time I head away from them, trying to see if I can circle towards the building. Maybe if I can get to the building security guard, he can call the cops to find out what is going on, and maybe tell Thug-One and Thug-Two to leave me alone.
“He’s heading back towards the building!” one thug screams.
What the hell! How did he hear me? I was quiet! I might be a nerd, but my parents, before their deaths, used to take me camping all the time, and Dad used to show me how to run quietly in the woods. Slowing down, I head away from the building again, but going slower also means I am quieter.
“Shit, I lost him. I can’t hear him anymore!” the same thug yells out to his partner.
“What do you mean you can’t hear him? Use your fucking ears. It’s what we pay you for!” thug two screams at him.
“I am using my fucking ears! I don’t know how he is doing it, but I can’t hear him,” he screams back at his partner.
Even though they had stopped so they could yell at each other, I haven’t. I keep heading away from the two of them. Once I am sure that I am far enough away so that they don’t hear me, I run faster, and I circle back towards the building. After about fifteen minutes, according to my watch, I slow down and walk instead. About five minutes later, I see the lights from the building in front of me. Good, finally, I can get into the building and ask the security guard to call the cops.
When I’m just about two feet from the treeline, a sleek black shape comes out of nowhere and grabs me and throws me hard onto the ground. A hand goes over my mouth to stop the scream I am about to let go. I try to struggle, but holy shit, this person is strong! I can’t even move. They’re lying on top of me, my stomach pushing into the dirt. The person has their arm around my throat, and their other hand is covering my mouth. There is just enough pressure to send me a message to stop struggling, or they will choke me. I stop fighting, and the pressure eases off slightly. Then I feel them lean down towards my ear, and so softly I can barely hear it, a very female voice says, “Do not move and keep silent, or we are both dead.”
What the fuck is going on here, I think to myself. I have two thugs shooting at me for a reason I do not understand. And now I have this ninja lady who came out of nowhere, put me to the ground like I was a five-year-old kid. From the chokehold, I can tell she is strong. Much stronger than me, and I’m not a pushover. I might be a geek and a coder, but I still go to the gym regularly and run daily. Only because, as my dad said, I would never know when a situation would come up where I would need to run. He used to joke that he was getting me ready for the Zombie Apocalypse. That was another reason he showed me survival skills, and things like what I was doing earlier, running quietly in the woods.
A noise to my left brings me back to my senses. Closing my eyes, I try to figure out the direction. It’s coming from just slightly in front of me. When I was thrown onto the ground, the ninja lady had turned me away from the building, so that meant the thugs had somehow followed me. How? I was damn quiet, and it’s too dark to track me, even if they had wanted to. You can’t see shit. I try to get up to run again, but the hold around my neck jerks very hard, as if to say, don’t you dare. I nod, yes. I get it, don’t move.
Slowly the hand moves away from around my mouth, but it’s pressed to the back of my neck. Then slowly, the arm around my neck eases and slips away. I naturally try to get up, but she presses down on my neck. Hard. Jesus, this lady is strong! Instead, I just put my head back down. I hear the thug again, and I can tell he is moving slowly. Trying to be quiet, I assume. But somehow, I can still hear him walking around out there. How is that possible? Even when I was with my dad, my hearing wasn’t that good. Must be the fear making my senses more acute. Hell, I can even smell the sweat off this ninja lady. I can tell she is afraid, but excited. How the fuck do I know what that smells like? The night gets darker, and looking up, I can see that some cloud is now covering the moon. Then the ninja lady does her trick, and she isn’t there with me anymore. Looking around desperately, I can’t see her anywhere.
Suddenly the thug I heard moves closer and sees me in the dark.
“Well, well. Finally stopped, have you? Good, my partner should be around soon. But I am taking the kill for this one, not him. I will enjoy the reward for bringing you in dead,” he says with a big evil grin on his face. Lifting his handgun, he aims it at my head.
Before I even have time to react, there is a snarl, and out of the woods on the side of the thug comes the biggest dog I have ever seen. It snaps its jaws around the man’s throat and bites hard, causing the man’s screams to cut off, and all I see is his blood everywhere as the dog pulls away from the thug. Then hear him gurgle, holding his hands to his throat. After ten seconds, his hands slip away from his throat limply, and he falls over dead.
There is a gunshot and the dog yelps in pain, but then it’s gone into the woods again. Just then, the thug's partner comes through the trees, handgun pointing at me, and he is pissed.
“What the fuck have you done to O’Leary?!” he yells at me, like I had something to do with it. “They didn’t tell us you had a fucking dog. At least I shot the little shit. Now it can go die in the woods.”
Going to his partner, he puts his hand on his neck. I assume to check for a pulse. Not finding anything, he looks through the man’s pockets and grabs the man’s wallet and whatever else he finds there. He then reaches into the man’s shirt, grabs a chain his partner was wearing around his neck, and pulls hard on it, causing the chain to break, and he pockets it. That is just gruesome. All this time, he still has his gun aimed at me. I am so fucking scared. I just sit there, my back against a tree.
“Sorry, it’s come to this kid, but your parents done fucked up,” he tells me.
“What the hell is going on here,” I yell at him. “Why have you been shooting at me! You must have the wrong guy. I work as a coder for a company that I am sure doesn’t have any secrets.”
“Oh, you stupid fuck. I can’t imagine dying without knowing why. But hey, that’s not my issue. I am just following through with the contract. My job was to find your parents and kill them, and then to find you and kill you. But your parents beat us to it, and now the only loose end is you, kid.”
He comes and squats in front of me, with the barrel of the gun still pointing towards me. He takes a deep breath before he continues.
“But, since I am about to kill you, I will let you in on a secret. The Organization should have killed you when you were born. Because now we have to deal with a
ll this shit. But hey, I came out of retirement for this. It’s a nice chunk of money,” he says with a smile. “But seriously, kid. No hard feelings, it’s nothing against you, but your heritage.” With that, he lifts the gun and points it to my head.
I close my eyes since I don’t want to watch my own death. I am so scared, but I am also so angry, so livid at feeling helpless like this. I can feel a well inside me that I never felt before. Something that is telling me to push. Reaching down into this well, it feels like time has stopped. Slowly the forest around me fades away, and I am transported to somewhere else.
Opening my eyes, I am standing in an ancient ruin. The place is old. I can feel that it’s older than anything we, as humans, have ever found. Turning around, I see an animal sitting on a stone throne. It’s a vague shape, and I can’t tell what it is from here. Slowly, I make my way over to stand in front of it. I was never stupid. I don't know what is in front of me. But I know I need to show it respect. Kneeling down on one knee, I bow my head towards it.
“Mahna, mi medo,” it says to me. Somehow, I can understand it. “Welcome, my son.”
“How am I able to understand you? And might I ask who you are and where I am?” I ask the shadow animal.
“Ah, they do not teach you the language anymore? You humans have changed much these past centuries,” the animal says in a deep, gruff voice.
Suddenly, in front of me is the biggest wolf I have ever seen in my life! This wolf is about three times as big as any I have ever seen in any zoo, or even on television. It stands as tall as me at the shoulders, and it is sitting down! Its coat is so silver, and so healthy that it glows. But what truly gets me is the size of its paws and its teeth. Shit, I will die here too, I think.