My Protagonist, Max, first discovers the power of the "Monument"From Chapter 2: STONEDHe rubbed his eyes trying to rub away the pain. So Rosette was a Beta Gamma; the sister sorority of Max's ex-fraternity, Rho Phi Gamma.“At least I know they haven't forgotten about me.” he mumbled. It had turned out to be the "perfect" day after all. Now if only he could get some sleep, maybe tomorrow would be different. Out of the elevator and down to his apartment to find Mr. Alt waiting for him at his door."Madigan! There are no pets allowed in the building! You know that...""Hey! Mr. Alt, today is not the day." Max was slightly surprised at the way he snapped back."Don't you raise your voice at me boy! I'll..."Max waved his hands. "Mr. Alt I am not in the mood for a lecture all right! I don't have any pets. I can barely afford to feed myself much less anything else. Okay?" But Alt continued yelling even as Max moved past him and opened the door."Damn thing has been howling all night! And another thing..."And Max closed the door. He closed his eyes and uttered under his breath..."Please GOD, let that be it.""mrrr" and Max opened his eyes and looked down. The big gray cat sat there in front of him, waiting patiently. He just stared for a moment and then he looked past the cat to the window beyond. It was open."I did not open that window. Not in the middle of winter. How did... who let you…" He shut up as the cat walked over to his couch and leapt up. The feline then pulled Max's jacket off the couch and let it fall to the floor. Out of the pocket fell the small stone."What?" Max whispered. The cat then walked away from the jacket but not far. It sat about a yard away and waited... staring at him. Max stared back,then stared at the stone,at the cat,then again at the stone and then walked over and took a closer look. It appeared to be the same piece of debris that he had stepped on back at the museum, but it was not broken. Slowly, watching the cat all the while, he bent over, picked up the stone, and looked at it. Exactly like the stone he had broken at the museum the night of the murders. How had it gotten into his jacket?His thumb rubbed over the etching on its face and suddenly the hairs on his arm stood on end. The cat leapt to its feet with an excited, alert look. Max snapped his head up.The room was lit up, like midday. As the street outside the museum had been. Max looked to the window to find that light poured in from outside."What's going on?" Looking down for the cat he found that it was gone. He looked around the apartment until he saw it on the windowsill looking back at him framed with sallow but bright moonlight. When he started forward and then the big cat leapt from the window."Crazy son-of-a..." Max ran to the window but did not see the cat anywhere. The entire city, however, screamed at him. It was bright and alive in a way Max had never seen before. He could see clearly everything in the alley below his window. Dozens, no scores of voices, resonated up the alley in between his building and then from all around. There was a couple arguing somewhere in his building beneath his window, and another making love somewhere above, there were children laughing down on the street, and sirens in the distance. Then there was a kaleidoscope of sounds: tires screeching, someone listening to their radio, a dog barking, birds flapping their wings, wind scrapping across the rooftops, the smell of cooked vegetables, slight flowery fragrances wafted every so often, cigarette smoke, spoiling garbage, and the smell of the Great Lake over all."WoW." He was squeezing the stone tightly and forced himself to relax."mrrrrr" To his right there was big gray, sitting on the neighbors sill. The cat’s eyes shone clear silver, and were rectangular. They peered into Max’s own and then...*COME* and the big cat leapt down into the darkness until Max lost sight of it against the building. Farther down below he could see the gray shape moving on some structure he could not make out. How had it gotten down so fast? There was nowhere safe for it to leap from Max’s windowsill for about four floors. That’s when he saw the air conditioner sticking out of a window about three floors down and two windows over. How had the cat made a jump that far though? How had it landed without breaking its neck? Why was the air conditioner getting closer?The shock hit him like a bolt of electricity as Max realized that he had thrown himself from the window. Icy wind ripped across his body as he fell toward the air conditioner. Just as at the student center he found his body acting on instinct. His legs came forward, feet framing the air conditioner in his line of sight.Strangely he was not afraid. The cat was somewhere down below and moving.CLANG!Max hit the air conditioner and bounced off, flying across the alley toward the other building. His body tumbled in mid air and, in the split second that he was facing his old building, upside down, he thought he saw the air conditioner falling out of the window. Instinct straightened out his body and he flew feet first into the neighboring wall where he coiled against it shedding the momentum. He pushed off at an angle back toward his own building and turned, again in mid air, head over feet.Max could see the fire escape; saw that he was going to over shoot it by about a foot. Instinct slowly merged with conscious thought and he turned his head ever so much. This caused his body to rotate away from metal frame. There was no time to glance but he could see the roof top of the smaller building next to his own in his peripheral vision. There was movement along that roof top; the cat. His muscles tightened as he past the outside railing of the fire escape then in one burst his body exploded outward, his legs slamming against the rail. His feet hit the rail squarely and pushed him off toward the rooftop.Muscles contracting along his body caused him to twitch and jerk. Somehow this kept his feet under him and aimed his body at the roof. It was not until a second before he landed that Max felt anything resembling fear.THUD! The gravel flew when he touched down and he skid a few feet n his sneakers. But his legs held him and he only had to touch one hand down to keep his balance. Slowly he stood and looked back up toward his building. Almost ten floors down he had fallen, but he was not hurt… …breathing hard yes, but hardly winded.What the hell was he thinking?What made him jump out that window?Cold freezing wind slid across his calves and up his legs chilling him horribly and freezing the sweat on his body. Everything was cold, save for his hand.The Stone! It was warm. Hot really. What was this thing? The symbol etched into it seemed even more familiar to him now than before. It was rough on the face but smooth along the edges. This, all of this, had something to do with this stone.It felt like bone.Somewhere far below and behind him, the air conditioner smashed into the ground.
You need to be a member of Blacksciencefictionsociety to add comments!
Replies