by O'Brian Gunn
“That interview took place earlier this year on the fifteenth of March. After Sean left, I asked myself if what he had said was true, that it was okay if I wanted to see him dead. Truthfully, I still haven’t come up with a sensible answer.
“Sean Pierce, unfortunately, took his own life early this morning. He was found in his home in Portland with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and twenty-three letters of apology, including one to his wife, Emma.
“I’m Lamar Koehler, and I hope you’ll join me next week when I sit down with the First Lady, Janelle Dial. Good night, America.”
FADE OUT
EPISODE THREE: Victims of the Eureka Timebomb
L E O
HE opens his eyes and squints at the clock.
7 AM. He should be up and getting ready for work right now.
He rolls his eyes to the sun swelling behind the curtains, listens to the sounds of traffic rolling past his window. A horn honks, tires squeal, brakes protest, and someone shuffles by on the sidewalk outside, dragging feet.
He rolls his eyes back at the clock.
7:01 AM. He should be in the shower with Francie right now.
His eyes drift closed and the world goes black for a single moment. He opens his eyes again and sees that twenty more minutes have passed. The steady stream of water is suddenly shut off and he hears the bathroom door open. Feet pad across the carpet and he feels the bed dip on the other side.
He breathes in Francie’s smell and listens to her towel her hair dry.
Motionless.
The mattress shifts.
“Leo.” She waits. “Leo, I know you’re awake.”
“Morning.” He scratches his arm.
She looks over a bare shoulder at him. “You going to tell me why you suddenly quit your second love, or am I going to have to wait two more days?” She goes back to drying her kinky locks.
“I didn’t quit, Francie, I’m on a leave of absence.”
A dresser drawer opens. “I’m really trying to be understanding right now, give you your space.” The drawer slides shut. “But this left in the dark thing is testing my patience, Leo. You come in and tell me that you quit without any explanation whatsoever and I’m supposed to just sit here and accept it. You know I trust you, baby, but you’ve got to give me something to work with.” The scent of shea butter clings to the air. “You aren’t—” She cuts herself off, steels herself before continuing. “Are you having suicidal thoughts again?”
Leo remains silent on the other side of the bed. He sniffs and shifts his legs beneath the sheets, motions fused with an undercurrent of tension. “Trying my best to keep the dark thoughts at bay.” The words are barely audible.
The warmth of Francie’s hand on his back is like a kiss of sunshine. “Leo, I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it until the day I die, but I want you to come talk to me if it ever gets to be too much. Please.” She wraps her arms around him, squeezes. “Or at least talk to someone else, if not me. I don’t want to lose my king or have him drowning in sorrow.”
He turns his head to look her in the eye. “I promise.” He kisses her. “My queen.”
Ten minutes later after Francie finishes getting dressed, she kneels down in front of him with her generous afro swaying and parted on either side.
He stares at her.
She takes his hand, kisses it. “Do not sit in this apartment all day, Leo. Your brooding, your pondering, your soul searching, your whatever-it-is-that-you-do-to cope, do it outside in the fresh air, clear your head. You sit in this apartment for one more day and I’ll burn it down with you in it, I swear I will. We haven’t filed a claim on our renters insurance yet.”
It makes him grin.
“There’s my shining star.” She kisses him on the mouth. “We can cook dinner together when I get home.”
Francie stands up and washes the air in her sweet perfume. She slips out of his sight and he listens as she grabs her keys and bag before shutting the door behind her.
Leo looks around the room as if noticing it for the first time. He sits up, brown sheets sliding down his naked chest, and braces his elbows on the mattress. He yawns and stretches.
Then he plops his head back down on the pillow and sleeps until noon.
The keys slide from Leo’s hand onto the table by the door. He pushes the door shut and slips out of his jacket. He checks the phone. No messages. He flips through the mail. Nothing new.
“Want one?”
He jerks so hard he nearly dislocates his shoulder. “Motherf—” He lets out a panicked breath and takes a calming one as his heart chisels Morse code into his sternum. He turns and finds his beloved on a stool with a bottle of beer in hand. “Francie, what are you doing home?”
She laughs and brings the beer bottle to her lips. “Well, welcome home to you, too. Boss lady had her baby shower today. Told them I was going down to my car for the Diaper Genie.” A shrug. “Didn’t go back up. Hope someone else got her one.”
“The way you scared me I’m gonna need a Diaper Genie for myself.” He hands over her mail. “I’ll get started on dinner.”
She hops off of the stool. “I’ll help.”
“Baby, I can do it.” He cracks open the refrigerator.
She arches a brow and puts a hand on a well-rounded hip. “I know you can do it, Leo. Just let me help.” They stare at each other for a while.
Leo finally steps away from the fridge, leaving the door open, and goes to the cabinets to retrieve two pots and a pan. “There’re chicken breasts defrosting in the sink; you’re better at seasoning than I am.”
“Damn right I am.” She shuts the door with her hip and a laugh. “Last time I let you season the vegetables I thought I was going to—”
“I’ll tell you what happened.”
She stands with an onion in a plastic bag and a Styrofoam carton of mushrooms in hand. She puts them on the counter and unwraps the mushrooms. “I’m listening.”
He sighs. “I don’t know how to say this, Francie.”
“Then just say it.” She glances at his bandaged hand as she grabs a knife and cutting board and starts slicing mushrooms.
“A few weeks ago I was looking at a sample of my blood. I’ve been feeling sick lately, but not in my...not in my body.” He pauses before running water in the pot. “But I found something that didn’t...doesn’t belong there.” Leo looks in Francie’s eyes. Thoughts eddy across their surface.
“Leo, do you—” She breathes for a moment. “Do you have can—?”
“Nonono, it’s not that.” He looks away. “Or maybe it is. I don’t know.” A scoff. “I’m a biochemist and I have no idea of what this is in my blood. But I do know what others think it is.”
He grabs his phone, unlocks, swipes, taps, and hands it to her.
“GENETICISTS ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE ORIGINS OF ALPHA-OMEGAS”
Francie shakes her head, brow frowning. Then her lips part a bit as it becomes clear. She looks at him. “You’re telling me you think you’re an Alpha-Omega?”
In response, he sets the pot on the stove and fans his fingers open, skin stretching tight. A small globe of silver-blue force flashes for a full three seconds over his palm before dissipating.
Francie’s mouth falls open.
“I can’t control it yet. From what I can tell, it’s fundamentally a solid force that I can emit from any part of my body.”
“Like a force field?”
“Yeah.” A smile twitches at the edge of his mouth. “Like a force field. I was afraid to tell you because I...thought that you would—”
His next words are smashed between a kiss that washes away the slight trembling in his body.
“If you think something like this is going to make me reject you, Leo Kennington, then maybe you don’t know the woman you fell in love with.” The raw relief she sees in his expression makes her reach up to touch his face.
He kisses her palm, hands around her waist. “Thank you, baby.” He enfol
ds himself in her arms, chin resting on her shoulder for a moment before slowly pulling away from her.
“But I still don’t understand why you’re taking time off.” She watches him lean against the counter watching the water begin to boil.
“I can’t control this...this burden yet. Flare ups at—” He feels the flesh of his right hand shivering smaller. A globulous glaze of energy coats his hand down to his forearm before sizzling out into the air and evaporating like steam inches from his skin. Leo shakes his hand out, massaging his palm. “That keeps me from doing my job, makes it dangerous for me to be in the lab. Might as well come to work sick.” He studies the slow-boiling excitement of the water in the pot. “It was either take some time off and try to learn to control this or put myself, other people, and our medical research at risk. But...” He makes a fist, kneads it against the counter. “But working in the lab was my anchor, kept me rooted. Since I saw my active A-O gene, I can feel my old demons breaking through the walls I put up around them.” He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. “The joy and excitement of work gave me something to focus on, kept the lights on up here.” He taps a finger at his temple.
“Leo.” Francie rubs his arms, her face drawn.
“Francie, I don’t know where I am. I’ve been lost for twenty-eight years and I didn’t even know it.” He tilts his head back and squeezes his eyes shut. “I…I can’t control my emotions, my reactions, and now I can’t even control my body.” He holds his arms out. “It feels like someone’s run off with me.”
Francie frames his face in her hands. “You are magnificently blessed, Leo. You’re not lost, you’re just turned around. I’ll be your map.” She takes his hands in hers. “I’ll guide you back to yourself.” She puts her head on his shoulder. “I’ve heard of a place in Mercurmont you can go where there are others like you, a kind of support group. It’s called—”
Light of the Sun & the Moon. An outreach for the genetically reawakened and those touched by their light. Be welcome. Leo shakes his head as he reads the sign and walks into the gymnasium. “Francie, where the hell did you send me?” He mumbles the words to no one.
Minutes later he is in a circle created by smiling/ unsure/ worried/ grim/ open/ empty/ uncomfortable faces. A short man stands up and walks to the middle of the gathering, pushing up his glasses with an index finger before speaking. “Hope everyone’s doin’ all right today. For those of you that are joinin’ us for the first time, welcome to Light of the Sun & the Moon. This is a safe place where Alpha-Omegas can come when they’re feelin’ afraid, confused, or just unsure about who and what they are. But this isn’t a group exclusive to A-Os, it’s also for the family and friends of A-Os and for anyone who just wants to be educated about people like us.” A pause and a good-natured smile. “Yes, I know it may come as a shock to some, but we are still people. Hell, some days I ask that same question about you non-powered folks.”
A wave of laughter.
“Now, let’s get started, I’ll go first. My name is Marlon, and I’m an Alpha-Omega.”
Leo sits back and listens. Forty minutes later, a woman named Vanessa finishes speaking and takes her seat, and Leo feels the weight of Marlon’s eyes on him. “See some new faces joinin’ us today.” He offers Leo a friendly pull of lips. “Care to say anything?”
Leo stands, hesitation making his motions jerky. “Hi,” he clears his throat, “my name’s Leo.” He gives them a smile that he doesn’t feel. “I found out a few weeks ago that I’m different. I was—am a biochemist.” A nostalgic smirk splits his face. “I had big plans for myself, big plans for my future.” He looks down at the tiled floor, eyes slowly tracing the cracks in the pattern. “But all of that started to change before I realized it when I studied a sample of my blood and found this...this anomaly in my genes. Felt like it was looking up at me and laughing because it knew that all of my carefully laid out plans had just been shot to hell.” He looks at the circle of faces with a numb expression. “It’s just—” He takes a deep breath and starts again. “It’s the idea that a single gene, something that can’t even be seen with the naked eye, is keeping me from being who and what I want to be. It’s confused me about...about what I am. Our genes are what make us who we are physically, and, in some cases, they’re who we are mentally. I feel like I’ve been betrayed by myself, my own body, and that’s hard to convey even to my girlfriend.” He finally lifts his head. “I hate myself for being an Alpha-Omega.”
His words resound. Silence reigns.
Some look away, others stare at him while a few shake their heads in shame.
Leo takes his seat and listens to more stories of people like him, people whose abilities have made their lives better, made them outcasts to their friends and family, made them subjects of public ridicule, or haven’t changed their lives at all.
When everyone has said their piece, Marlon speaks up. “I just wanna say somethin’ to Leo.” Leo looks up. “Ain’t nobody here who can argue that havin’ an active A-O gene is easy, a’ight? It can fuck up our lives as easily as the wind blows. But you gotta remember that this is your gene, your body. It’s like your arms, legs, or feet. They’re yours, what you were born wit. Now you can sit ova there and wallow in self-pity and self-hate, or you can pick yourself up and overcome what you see as a curse and make it into a blessin’.
“My gene allows me to make sparks, something about ampin’ up the natural electric current in my body. I can’t do anythin’ cool like conduct electricity just—” He lifts his hand and several sparks snap in the air above his open palm. “—that. It’s pretty useless as far as powers go; I’m always blowin’ out light bulbs. Don’t expect me to be kickin’ bad guy ass anytime soon. But being an Alpha-Omega ain’t no different from bein’ black, Jewish, gay, mentally disabled, or, hell, poor. There’s always someone else like you in the world, you just gotta look hard enough.” He pauses. “We’d love for you to come back again, Leo, we wanna support you. But we also can’t have you here if you’ve already decided yourself a quitter.” Another pull of lips that loosely resembles a smile.
Leo nods.
After the meeting is over, he hurries for the door, taking a deep breath once he’s outside. He’s down the stairs and walking down Sherman Street when he notices the person next to him.
“Pretty intense group, huh?” The woman says to him. She pulls her black hair back into a ponytail.
“’S all right I guess.”
She stops and holds out a hand, beaming. “My name’s Emma.”
“Leo.” They shake.
“Yeah, I remember.” She tilts her head back at the gym.
He slides his hands in his pockets. “I’m sure everyone remembers me.” He looks out at the boarded up storefronts across the street. “Narcissus’ wayward brother.”
Her eyes narrow a bit. “I don’t think any of them expected someone like you to show up. I’ve been coming for about a month, my sister’s an A-O, and so far, everyone in that room is either proud, unsure of what they’re becoming, or driving themselves crazy worrying about what’s going on inside of their bodies.” She shakes her head. “They think they’ve got it so hard, they should try being a woman on her period and then come back to a meeting.”
Leo smiles.
“She wouldn’t tell me, but when my sister first found out, I think she felt the same as you.”
“She ever get over it?”
Emma juts out her bottom lip a bit. “I believe that she has. She just...she glows now, and not because of her ability. So I understand how you feel, Leo, but at the same time I have to agree with Marlon. People come to these meetings for support. They want to be helped and they want the truth, but they want it on their terms. Not saying this to make you feel bad.” She lifts a shoulder. “I just think it’s better this way.”
He nods.
“Take care of yourself.” Emma pats his arm before walking in the opposite direction.
He watches her for a moment, contemplating. Then he turns and w
alks away, crossing Belaire and Chambers when he notices the small crowd gathered in the parking lot of The Lakes. Police cars are scattered behind the gates as officers cordon off the area and CSI units enter and exit the building with cameras, satchels, and small forensics kits.
A news reporter stands just in front of the gate.
“—was reported a few hours ago. Authorities have yet to render a statement, but what we do know is that the victim was found with knives embedded through both wrists and a single stab wound to the heart.
“Neighbors report that they heard arguing from unit F-2 a couple of nights ago around nine and sounds of violent fighting soon after. We’ll keep you updated as information becomes available. I’m Carmen Alexander with DCBN News. Back to you, Sam.”
It all looks small and insignificant and foolish from up here.
Nothing is real.
Leo sits with his thighs to his chest and his arms wrapped around his knees as a chilled bottle of beer dangles between his index finger and thumb. The sun is setting to his right and from here, downtown Dominion City looks like nothing more than steel and glass and concrete gilded in sunlight. Evening traffic trickles down Lynord Street. Bone-rattling thumpa-thumpa bass from a white Humvee blasts down the avenues of Cade District, booming up from below as the local glitterati walk down the pristine streets. He looks to the east towards Oswyn, home of Dominion University and Sankosha Stadium.
“Tell me why I’ve never come up here before.” Leo turns and looks at the man beside him reclining in the small hammock set up on the large patio.
“You mean Cade District?” The bottle finds its way to the man’s lips.
“No, I mean your apartment. This view is spectacular.”
“Come out here almost every day and sometimes my mind still doesn’t believe my eyes. Don’t think it ever really will.” A pause. “Just like I don’t think I’ll ever get used to you not coming into the lab every day.”