Defenders of Shadow and Light: Ghost Thief

by Jason Levine

  “Thanks,” Murray said as he walked to his apartment door. As he opened it up, he looked back to see Ruth’s door close. A few clicks signaled that Thomas wouldn’t have any more late night excursions.

  Murray entered his apartment, locked his door, and placed his backpack on his kitchen table. Well, it would be his kitchen table if he had a proper kitchen. His kitchen area, dining area, and living room all sort of blended together. They weren’t quite one room, but also didn’t really seem like separate rooms either. He had been living in this apartment for eight years and he still couldn’t figure out where the rooms began and ended.

  True to the building’s factory past, Murray’s ceiling had duct-work running all along it. It didn’t provide heat in the winter or air conditioning in the summer. It was just there. It did, however, make for an excellent hiding spot.

  Murray took out a step stool and opened a hidden compartment within one of the tubes. He pulled out a small safe and placed it on his kitchen counter. He twisted the dial on the door. 9-17-14. The safe opened up. Inside, Murray examined his cash reserves. He took the money from his backpack and placed it into the safe. Closing both up, Murray put them back into the hidden compartment.

  After closing the vent, and putting away his step stool, Murray walked into his bedroom. It was a simple setup. A queen sized bed dominated the small room. To the sides were a dresser and a nightstand. On the wall close to the foot of the bed and the door leading in was a new TV–a splurge from one of his earlier jobs. At far end of his bedroom was the door to his bathroom.

  Murray picked up his phone–which he never brought with him when he was out for a “nighttime pursuit.” He spotted a text message from Gordon.

  “How did it go?”

  “Not well,” Murray replied.

  “You didn’t get the stuff?” came the text message reply from Gordon.

  “I got it. And delivered it.”

  “They stiffed on payment?”

  “No. But the police showed up. I barely got away.”

  “You still have the money, though, right?”

  Murray chuckled. Gordon always did put the money first.

  “Yes,” Murray typed. “Don’t worry. I’ll wire you your cut tomorrow.”

  Murray put his phone down and stretched. He’d love to just pass out but he needed a shower first. He tossed his clothes in a hamper in the corner and walked into his bathroom. He turned on the shower’s water and waited for it to heat up. The good thing about showering so late was that he didn’t need to worry about sharing hot water with a dozen other residents.

  Murray emerged from his hot shower and wiped the steam from his bathroom mirror. He tossed the towel aside and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Normally, Murray would watch television for awhile before going to sleep. Tonight, though, he was just too tired. He collapsed into his bed and exhaustion overtook him. In moments, he was fast asleep.

  Chapter Five: Giant Flying Thomas Head

  Murray tossed and turned all night. In his dreams–nightmares would be a better description–he was running along a dark alleyway. Ahead of him, just out of arm’s reach, was a briefcase full of money. He finally cornered the briefcase, but as he grabbed for it, it jumped through him.

  Suddenly, the scene dissolved. Murray found himself floating in front of Thomas’ head. Except that Thomas’ head wasn’t connected to his body at all. It was just a giant, flying Thomas head. Above and below him was nothing but darkness.

  “Open the gift, Murray.” Thomas’ head boomed.

  The tufts of hair sticking out of the opposite sides of Thomas’ head started growing longer and longer. They stretched out and wrapped themselves around Murray’s waist and chest, pinning his arms by his side. Murray tried to kick the hair to get them off, but the hair tendrils stretched out of the reach of his legs. The tendrils began squeezing. Murray couldn’t breathe. He felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

  “Santa is here. Hold your breath!” Thomas’ head shouted.

  Below them, from out of the darkness, a chimney rose towards Murray. Thomas’ hair pushed Murray down towards the chimney so fast that what little air was left in his lungs was forced out. As panic set in and his lungs ached for the smallest breath of air, Murray plunged deep into the chimney.

  Murray awoke on the floor, pinned between the side of his bed and the wall. He sat upright quickly and gasped for air, his heart threatening to pound out of his chest.

  He walked into the bathroom and turned on the water in the sink. Murray splashed his face with cold water, trying to wash away the memory of the nightmare.

  On his third splash of cold water, just as he felt like he was calming down, nothing hit Murray’s face. Murray’s hands had been filled with water, but somehow all of it had fallen out of his hands and splashed all over his bathroom counter-top. For a split second, Murray wondered whether he was still dreaming. He could have sworn that the water had fallen through his hands.

  Murray tried touching the wall and found that it was solid. He cupped his hands under the water and it pooled in his palms. Shaking his head, Murray turned off the sink and picked up a towel. He dried his face, placed the towel down, and started to exit the bathroom.

  The first sign that something was wrong was a tightening in Murray’s chest. Almost instinctively, he took a deep breath of air. Then, Murray’s feet left the tiled floor. Weightless, he flailed his arms and legs. He reached for the doorway but his arms passed right through the frame.

  Murray tumbled end over end through his apartment. He left his bedroom through the TV and the wall it was mounted on and floated through his living room. His legs kicked through the duct-work on his ceiling. Murray reached the far wall of his apartment. He tried to grab hold of his sofa, but his fingertips went right through it.

  Murray found himself in Ruth and Thomas’ apartment. Below him, Ruth laid fast asleep on a twin bed. She was covered by a heavy quilt, completely unaware that her neighbor was floating above her. The room was sparse. Just some functional pieces of furniture and a photo of her with a man wearing some kind of armor. Had Murray’s lungs not been aching to take a breath, he might have wondered more about why the man seemed to be glowing.

  Ruth’s door burst open and Thomas ran in.

  “Ruth, wake up,” he shouted sounding surprisingly lucid. “It’s happened. We need to use the general dampener.”

  Ruth opened her eyes, saw Murray floating above–his face slowly turning blue–and she jumped out of bed. Acting quickly, she opened a drawer in her nightstand and pulled out a small disc shaped device about a foot in diameter. She placed it on the nightstand and pressed a button on the top. The disc hummed to life. Blue light emanated out the sides. Suddenly, Murray fell. He landed on Ruth’s bed with a loud thud, gasping for air.

  Ruth reached under her bed and took out a duffel bag. She unzipped it, rummaged through the contents, and pulled out four small, bracelet sized rings and one larger ring. She tossed two of the smaller rings to Thomas. They each opened a ring and closed them around Murray’s wrists. Then, they repeated this with the other two rings on Murray’s ankles. Ruth opened the big ring and closed it around Murray’s neck. She pressed a button on the ring on Murray’s left wrist. The bracelet glowed the same shade of blue as the disc. Ruth went from ring to ring pressing buttons and soon all of the rings were glowing. Ruth turned off the disc as Murray struggled to his feet.

  “Are you okay?” Ruth asked approaching him.

  Murray backed away.

  “Who the hell are you two?” He demanded.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” Ruth replied, smiling. “You’re the one who just floated into my bedroom.”

  “I have no idea what just happened.” Murray said. Murray held up his arm with the glowing blue bracelet. “All I know is that this isn’t the sort of thing a normal person just happens to have lying around.”

  Ruth shrugged. “Let’s just say that this isn’t our first time dealing
with someone with… ah, unusual abilities.”

  “You’ve seen people passing through walls before?”

  “Actually, no. But we’ve seen a lot of things that are out of the ordinary.”

  “Out of the ordinary?” Murray replied. “I just floated through my apartment and into someone else’s bedroom. I’m no scientist, but the last time I checked, that was pretty impossible. What the hell happened to me? Did you do this to me?”

  Ruth laughed. Thomas nodded at her. Ruth grabbed some clothes and left the room.

  “I assure you that we had nothing to do with your change. You were exposed to something that caused this. It caused you to generate a reality distortion field around yourself.”

  “Reality distortion field?”

  “Yes,” Thomas confirmed. “Obviously, passing through walls as you just did is quite impossible. You are generating a field that rewrites the laws of physics.”

  “How long will this last?”

  “In most cases, this condition is permanent.”

  Murray looked at the bracelets on his wrists and ankles. He ran his fingers around the collar. It was a thin metal. Probably no more than an inch and a half wide. Grooves were inlaid in the metal, out of which shone a soft blue light. It felt like a metal tie around his neck. He always hated ties, but decided then and there that metal ties that glowed blue were the worst. He didn’t care if they kept him from going intangible again. He wanted nothing more than to pull it off immediately.

  “So do I need to keep these on for the rest of my life? Because they are a little on the conspicuous side.”

  Murray imagined breaking into a facility while wearing this. The blue glow would give him away almost instantly. He didn’t even want to think of the job interview questions that they would inspire were he to try to go straight again.

  “No. We should be able to get you something easier to wear soon enough. Eventually, you’ll learn to control these abilities so you won’t ‘ghost’ unless you decide to.”

  Ruth walked back in the room fully dressed. For the first time, he noticed that her earrings glowed a faint blue. It was easy to miss and write off as just the light reflecting off of blue stones, but now that Murray knew what to look for, he spotted it quickly.

  “You’ve got that reality thing too, don’t you” he asked Ruth.

  “We both do,” Ruth answered.

  Murray looked Thomas up and down but couldn’t see anything glowing blue.

  “And you’ve got it under control enough that you don’t need to wear these things?“

  “Thomas doesn’t need to control his powers most of the time,” Ruth explained. “As for me. Well, I’ve got it mostly under control.”

  “So is there a special school or something I need to go to? Kind of a Hogwarts thing? Or am I going to need to learn this all by myself?”

  Murray imagined a big school packed full of people who defied reality. Given that he mostly preferred to keep to himself, this sounded like worse torture than not being able to breathe as he passed through walls.

  “There is no big school or grouping of people like us,” Thomas answered. “In fact, that would be extraordinarily dangerous.”

  “Why is that?” asked Murray.

  Thomas looked worried. His eyes shifted down to his feet which he shuffled around the floor.

  “We don’t usually talk about it,” Ruth answered.

  “Suffice it to say that there are elements that don’t like our very existence,” Thomas added. “Large gatherings make us easier to spot so we remain as distributed as possible.”

  “So no superpowers Hogwarts, then,” Murray concluded. “I’m on my own to learn this stuff.”

  “Not exactly,” said Thomas. “There is someone we know of who can train you. He should be able to help you learn how to control your powers. For now, you should return to your apartment and try to get to sleep. You can meet us here at noon tomorrow and we’ll take you to him.”

  “Problem,” said Murray. “I locked my apartment door and kind of forgot to take my keys when I went on my little trip. I’m locked out.”

  This wasn’t really a problem, Murray thought. A couple of paperclips and he should be able to pick the lock on his door with no problem. Still, he thought it might not be wise to let on that he engaged in criminal pursuits. Normal people tended to disapprove of this sort of thing. He had no clue what super-powered people would do.

  “That’s no problem,” said Ruth. “Just go back the way you came in.”

  “I don’t know if you noticed, but I have no control over where I go when I’m… I guess ghosting is as good a term as any. Besides, wouldn’t I have to take these things off to ghost? Even if I did take them off and manage to ghost, how would I ‘de-ghost’ and keep from ghosting again? I could suffocate or wind up in someone else’s apartment.”

  “That second part is easy,” Ruth said. “These bracelets can not only suppress your abilities, but can be configured to activate them. It might take a little tuning, but once we get the settings right, they can activate your powers for one minute. You’ll have enough time to go through the wall back into your apartment. Just be sure to hold your breath.”

  “And how can I be sure that’s the way I’ll head? I could just as easily float out the side of the building and then drop down to the street below.”

  “I have a feeling you can guide the direction in which you float,” said Thomas. “When you first floated before, where were you headed?”

  “I was in my bathroom going back to my bedroom.”

  “And which direction is your bathroom relative to your ghosting journey? Was it a straight line?”

  Murray thought about it for a second. He had gone from his bathroom, straight into his bedroom, right into his living room, and then through the wall to Ruth’s bedroom. It wasn’t quite a straight line, but it was nearly so.

  “Just about,” Murray answered. “So all I need to do is walk towards that wall and I should go through to my apartment?”

  “That’s my theory,” said Thomas.

  “I guess I don’t have much of a choice,” Murray said. “Let’s start.”

  Ruth pressed a few buttons on the bracelets on Murray’s arms, legs, and neck and walked away as the blue light faded away. Murray looked at his hands. Nothing seemed different.

  “Here goes nothing.”

  Murray held his breath and walked towards the wall, his hands in front of him. He stopped as his hands pressed against the wall. Murray leaned on the wall, but it–and he–seemed as solid as ever.

  “Let’s try another setting,” Thomas said.

  Murray backed up again. Ruth pressed more buttons on his bracelets and moved out of the way again. Murray took a deep breath and began walking towards the wall again. For a second time, he walked into the wall.

  Thomas and Ruth conferred and tried a third setting. For the third time, Murray held his breath and walked towards the wall. Halfway there, he felt his feet leave the ground. He was floating. Murray shut his eyes tight as if opening them would cause him to de-ghost in the middle of the wall. His lungs ached to breathe fresh air, but Murray didn’t dare attempt to breathe. Finally, he felt himself fall. Luckily, his landing was a soft one.

  Murray opened his eyes and let out the breath he had been holding. He looked around as he fed his lungs the oxygen that they so desperately desired. He was back in his apartment and had landed on his bed.

  Chapter Six: Junkyard Guru

  Murray did not rest well for the remainder of the night. His bracelets and neckwear were enough to strain his ability to sleep as it was. The times that he did get to sleep, he had nightmares of floating high above the Earth, unable to breathe. Murray lost track of the number of times he woke up expecting to be floating and intangible. Thankfully, the bands worked and kept him solid.

  It wasn’t until 10:30 before he finally dragged himself out of bed. Murray was glad that Ruth and Thomas had said to meet at noon. He was also happy that he had showered t
he night before since he wasn’t sure if the bracelets were water proof. The last thing he wanted was to short them out. Floating through random apartments would have been bad enough, but doing that while naked? He made a mental note to ask Ruth and Thomas about this issue.

  After brushing his teeth, Murray put on some clothes. This was a tricky job with the collar and bracelets so he wound up opting for a loose fitting polo shirt and a pair of jeans that were slightly too big for him. It wasn’t the height of fashion, but it would do. Finally, he had a quick breakfast before heading to Ruth and Thomas’ apartment. This time he planned on using the doors and the hallway instead of his living room wall.

  He paused at his door. What was he getting himself into? He still didn’t know much about the two. They obviously weren’t who they had said they were. Then again, Murray hadn’t told them the whole truth about his profession. Could he trust them? Would they try taking him into some lab somewhere to be dissected and studied?

  Murray shook off that last thought. They had the means to neutralize whatever it was that this “ghosting” thing was. They could have brought him in last night. Ruth had left at one point. She could have called for backup and he would have been at their mercy.

  They could have also ambushed him back at his apartment. With the bracelets and collar, he’d have been a sitting duck. Instead, they let him go last night and there was no sign of a capture team yet. Murray resolved to keep his eyes open. He’d play along for now, but would keep alert for any threats along the way.

  Murray checked the hallway quickly. He really didn’t want to explain his collar and bracelets to random neighbors. Once he was sure it was empty, he entered the hallway, locked his door, and walked to Ruth and Thomas’ apartment.

  Ruth answered the door and quickly ushered him in. She was wearing blue jeans with a black shirt underneath a red jacket. Over her shoulder was slung a large blue purse.

  “Let’s get rid of those things,” she said as she disabled and removed Murray’s collar and bracelets.