Jack And Anna - Back To Winnipeg

9. An Extranormal Evening-2

She raised a trembling fist and let her fingers uncurl to reveal a business card in her palm. It should have been crumpled after the way she’d been holding it, but the paper was surprisingly smooth.

Anna took it, running her thumb along the embossed lion in the upper-left corner. It was painted gold with a brilliant, red maple leaf behind its head like a halo. She had seen symbols like that on other documents from the Canadian Government. But the agency in question was unknown to her. “Jack, what’s the Bureau of Extranormal Phenomena?”

Her husband grimaced. “There isn’t one,” he said, coming up behind her. “At least, I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

Her next surprise came when she searched for the agent’s name and discovered that none was listed. The card offered only a vague title. “Administrator 457.” There was no address either, only a phone number.

Holding the card up to the light, Anna narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t right.” She passed it to Jack. “Carrie, I don’t believe this man is a government agent.”

Slumping against the wall, Carrie groaned. “He said that they were keeping an eye on me,” she mumbled. “He said that he knew I talked to you, and if I told anyone else what I saw…”

“He threatened you?”

Sobbing, Carrie grabbed something off the floor and shoved it toward Anna. It was a scorched photograph. The image was blacked out as if it had been held over a fire. Only a pink flower in the lower-left corner remained.

Tears streamed over Carrie’s face as she trembled. “That was my son!” she croaked. “I always kept that picture in the little cabinet. He told me to go and get it! He knew right where it would be!”

Carrie suddenly went rigid, her dark eyes latching onto Anna, imploring her for reassurance. “He held up the picture, and it caught fire in his hand! He said that if I told anyone else what I saw, that would be me!”

Slowly, Anna stood up, the anger flaring hot within her. Someone posing as a government agent had come here to intimidate this woman? Well, she would put a stop to that pretty damn quick. “What do you think, Jack?”

“I think this is getting weirder and weirder.”

“What do you mean?”

Jack stood there with his arms hanging limp, the card held between two fingers. He chewed on his lip as he searched for a way to explain. “Carrie just had an encounter with another urban legend. They’re called the Men in Black.”

“You mean those silly Will Smith movies you made me watch?”

Passing the card to her, Jack turned around and shuffled over to the window. He hesitated before answering, peering out at the street as though searching for something. Finally, he closed the curtains.

A lump of anxiety settled into the pit of Anna’s stomach. Was he really that afraid? After everything they had endured over the years, could this silly bit of Earth folklore have him that spooked?

“The actual legends aren’t cute and goofy like the films,” Jack said. When he spun around, his face was resolute. “They go back about eighty years. In the mid-twentieth century, UFO enthusiasts generated quite a bit of hype. Roswell was still fresh in everyone’s memories, and people were watching the skies. It wasn’t long before other stories started to pop up.”

“Such as?”

“The UFO enthusiasts were publishing articles in magazines and going on radio shows. Some of them claimed to have been visited by government agents in black suits who warned them not to discuss what they had seen. There were even reports that the Men in Black possessed unusual abilities.”

“Like spontaneous combustion?”

“Among others.”

Scowling, Arthur shook his head in disgust. “It’s all a bunch of crap!” he growled. “Random cranks looking for attention!”

Folding his arms, Jack turned to his father with a raised eyebrow. “Would you describe Carrie as a random crank?”

“Well, no, but…”

Raising a hand to silence them before they started bickering, Anna shifted her gaze from one man to the other. “I think we can all agree that something unusual is going on here,” she interjected. “The question is what? Let’s break it down in terms of what we know. Any guesses as to how our boy might have set the picture on fire?”

Jack answered her with a shrug and a puzzled expression. “A carefully-placed Heat-Source might do the trick. Maybe he was a Field Binder.”

“Maybe,” Anna said. “But if the legends are true, these Men in Black have been operating for decades, and Field Binding is very new. At least in this galaxy. I’m thinking some concealed tech might be the culprit.”

“But that doesn’t explain how he knew the picture was in the cabinet,” Jack protested. “A Field Binder can see through walls.”

“Can you tell us anything else, Carrie?”

The other woman let out a ragged breath. “Only that he seemed to be very tired after he burned the picture.”

Any fear Anna might have felt was gone: replaced by calm resolve. “We’ve seen all of this before,” she insisted. “In our travels, we’ve encountered any number of devices that could explain these strange abilities. These Men in Black just dress it up with a little extra flair. All we have to do is-”

Carrie bolted to her feet, turning toward the back of the house. “It’s here,” she whispered. “God, have mercy, it’s here!”

“What is?”

Whirling around, she seized Anna by the shoulders. Her eyes were frantic, her face deathly pale. “The creature!” she hissed. “It’s been here a few times now. I get a…I get a feeling when it shows up.”

Gently, Anna guided the other woman to the couch. “Sit down.” Carrie was happy to obey, plopping herself down on the cushions and studying the floor under her feet. “Stay here. We’ll have a look.”

The little kitchen had wooden cupboards and an old, white fridge with colourful magnets on the door. A window above the sink looked into the backyard. Anna peered through the glass, but she couldn’t make out anything specific. Just a bunch of shadows with the wind sighing through the trees.

Her Spatial Awareness could not penetrate solid objects even if those objects happened to be transparent; it was more of a tactile sense than a visual one. Her reflection in the window pane might be getting in the way. “Jack, kill the lights.”

He did so, plunging the kitchen into darkness.

Anna soon realized that Carrie wasn’t just overreacting to the stress of her strange encounter. Something was out there. And it was watching her.

wasTwo yellow orbs floated in the distance. If she had to guess, she would say they were more than six feet off the ground and small enough to be eyes. They never blinked, never changed position. They just watched her with unwavering malevolence.

Bracing her hands on the counter, Anna leaned forward and matched the creature stare for stare. “Jack, stay with Carrie. Keep her safe.”

He nodded.

With deft fingers, she activated her multi-tool and ordered it to perform a full scan of the environment. That done, she unclipped the metal disk from her gauntlet and tossed it to Arthur.

The poor man fumbled as he tried to catch it, the device clattering on the floor. He let out a string of curses as he stooped to pick it up. Anna was forced to remind herself that not everyone could see in the dark. “Go around the side of the house. Scan the creature, but try not to let it see you. And don’t antagonize it!”

“What are you gonna do?” Arthur barked.

Anna felt a sly smile coming on. “I believe Captain Picard would call this ‘first contact.’” Before either of them could protest, she opened the back door and stepped out onto the deck.

It was pitch black. Only Spatial Awareness allowed her to sense the outlines of the trees. A gentle breeze swept over her, leaving gooseflesh on her bare arms. And those eyes regarded her with cold curiosity. She could feel Seth’s growing apprehension. On second thought, maybe it wasn’t the wind that caused the goosebumps.

Raising her hands above her head, Anna descended the creaky, wooden steps. “It’s all right,” she said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The eyes didn’t react.

“Can you understand me?”

Should she interpret the lack of a response as proof that it could not? Perhaps the creature was just being cautious, refusing to indulge her attempt at direct communication until it could be sure of her intentions. She might do the same if she were trapped in some strange dimension with bizarre physics.

It was hanging back, remaining inside the woods, refusing to enter the backyard. Given its willingness to make its presence felt on previous visits, she had to wonder if it might be toying with her. Then again, she might be perceiving ill intentions where none existed. In the animal kingdom, a steady stare was often treated as a challenge, but who was to say it was the same wherever this thing came from?

The creature had several opportunities to attack Carrie, and yet, it had never done so. Maybe it was searching for help. Maybe it was reluctant to approach the denizens of this peculiar dimension. So, it tested the waters, appearing just long enough to see how the humans would react.

Step by laborious step, Anna moved toward the forest, halting when she was halfway across the yard. She kept her hands up so that it would see she meant no harm. “You don’t have to be afraid. We can help you get back home. If you can tell us anything about the world you came-”

A shrill, blood-curdling scream echoed through the night. The creature leaped and soared out of the woods with its arms outstretched, a pair of leathery wings extending from its brawny shoulders.

Anna jumped with a trickle of Bent Gravity, flipping over the beast as it sailed past beneath her. She landed in the grass and spun around, watching as her enemy crashed to the ground. For a moment, it was curled up on itself, membranous wings folded around its body like a cocoon.

Then it stood up and turned on her.

The creature was massive: nearly seven feet tall and covered in scales from head to toe. Sharp, blade-like spikes protruded from its muscular arms.

massiveIts face had a crooked mouth and two large pits for nostrils. And those eyes! Those horrible, yellow eyes. Worse yet, a pair of horns sprouted from its forehead and curled backward over its skull.

Anna backed off, instinctively adopting a fighting stance. Her blood ran cold. “The Dragon Man?”

This thing was a monster from out of Leyrian folklore: a cryptid that people had been whispering about for centuries now. It was supposed to haunt the forests in the southern regions of Amvoralis.

LeyrianIt circled her, moving back toward the trees while Anna moved toward the house. She didn’t want it getting anywhere near Carrie. It seemed to be sizing her up, trying to decide how it wanted to proceed.

The sudden flash of the patio light startled it. From the corner of her eye, Anna saw Jack and Carrie watching from the kitchen window.