DARK LIGHT:
A WORLD WITHOUT HEROES II
From: Dale Sherman
She felt herself falling. Falling downward into the darkness. Unable to breathe.
Susie woke with a start, laying facedown on a soft surface. She attempted to push herself up, only to find dizziness engulfed her and her arms giving out from under her.
After her head hit the surface, she recognized that she was in a bed - something that she had not slept on for many years. It was a large bed with a soft mattress and three overstuffed feather pillows. At least, she believed there were three pillows, as the room was in almost suffocating blackness. She slowly flipped herself over, creating an aching sensation in her body as her back hit the cool sheets. The sensation passed as Susie stared up into the darkness, making out only a faint image moving in a circular motion near the ceiling.
As Susie determined the shape to be a ceiling fan, she tried to piece together her thoughts while sleep slowly ebbed from her mind. She recalled being in a battle with the Ancient Ones, and attempting to save the school principle, but little after being poisoned by one of the creatures. She seemed to remember Caravello telling her that they could go home and things would be fine; yet, that must have been only a dream and the room certainly was not "home." Not to her, at least.
Her heart raced at the possibilities of where she was; yet her body could not match her thought-process. Instead of leaping from the bed, as she wanted, her arms and legs slowly reached out to the edge of the king-size bed. With concentration, she managed to scoot her body over on the bed to the edge. In doing so, she felt the perspiration on her back touch the cool, dry sheets, sending a brief, sick shiver up her spine.
Shifting her legs over the edge of the bed and pushing herself up, Susie sat motionless in an upright position as she tried to lift her head. She could barely feel the shag carpet under her toes as her legs dangled above the floor, and she immediately wondered where her shoes were. She was glad to know that her clothes were still on her body - she could not see them but could feel them at least - but anxious over the thought that her shoes were gone. It was a disturbing thought to Susie, as she knew there was a chunk of time missing from her memory of recent events.
Taking it as a cue to move, she opened her eyes and tried to hop off the bed. Her knees felt weak and her joints stiff when she stood, while a wave of mild dizziness hit her as she tried to adjust to the darkness around her. She then spotted the door to the room to her right, the golden light from outside the room highlighting the door. Focusing on the door helped steady her, ebbing the nausea to a degree.
Susie moved towards the door with steps that were slow due to her strength and cautious due to her concern of what she would find outside the room. Her arms in front of her, she finally reached her destination and took a small breath before opening the door.
The sunlight in the small hall outside the door flooded into the room, temporally blinding her and certainly did nothing to help her headache. When she opened her eyes again, she could see dust twinkling in the rays of the sun that filtered through the hallway of what looked to her to be an apartment. The room she had been in was at the end of the short hall, with one doorway to her right further up the hall, and what appeared to be a living room beyond the hallway. She could make out an overstuffed black leather sofa in the room up ahead and it seemed very inviting in her current state of mind. Yet, the threat of danger reminded her to focus on more immediate issues. Seeing no one around, Susie stepped outside of the room and began working her way down the hall.
Reaching the doorway to her right, she cautiously opened the door, working her right arm into the room in order to find the lightswitch on the wall. The room brightened with the flick of a switch and Susie saw that it was a small bathroom with a shower off to one side. She turned the light off and closed the door as quietly as possible.
She was about to move further down the hall when she heard a clanging sound from up ahead. Her steps became slower as she moved down the remainder of the hall. The clanging of metal stopped as she entered the living room and she pushed herself up against the wall as she moved towards the direction of the noise, which now consisted of footsteps moving back and forth in an adjacent room off to her right. As Susie reached the entranceway to the next room, she stopped and held her breath, listening for the sounds to stop. She tried to draw up her remaining strength, ready to face anything when the time would come for her to act.
After what seemed like minutes to Susie, the noise stopped and she sprang from her hiding place and with two broad steps found herself in the room. She stopped in her tracks, however, when she saw that the room was the kitchen and the noise was coming from the man standing at the stove, his back to her. The man was dressed in black casual pants, black loafers and a black, button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. She knew instantly who the man was and put one arm up against the refrigerator to her left as she covered her eyes up with her other hand, sighing at the amount of tension she had put upon herself over what turned out to be the principal.
Gene, who had been reading the side of a Lipton's Iced Tea box while standing at the stove, turned around when he heard Susie sigh. The smile on his face was more sarcastic than genuine as he spoke. "Well, good morning, sleepyhead. Or should I say, 'good afternoon?'"
"Mmmmhhhharrrfffixteee?" Susie muttered, her hand still covering her eyes.
"Hmmm," Gene paused for a second, a finger to his lips in concentration. "No, I can't say I understood what you just said. Why don't we try that again."
Susie felt her weakness drifting off as anger filled her. She lowered her arm and bitterly spoke the words at Gene, clearly and precisely. "What happened? Where are we?"
Gene placed the box on the kitchen counter and opened his arms as if displaying the apartment off like a prize in a game show. "We're in my fabulous apartment."
Susie ignored Gene's attitude and darted her eyes around the apartment as she spoke. "How did we get here?"
"Don't you remember?" Gene asked, putting his arms down.
"If I remembered, I wouldn't be asking. Don't be bloody stupid." Gene had not expected Susie's wit to come back so quickly and was briefly thrown from his thoughts. "Well, after that thing attacked you back in the field, you started having problems and were kinda in and out of it. We were just about to be attacked by a couple more of those creatures when I remembered that you 'supposedly' could teleport us out of there with a wave of your hand. Like when your friend sent us from the school to the field."
Gene expected a nod or some recognition on Susie's part. When he received only a blank stare, he continued.
"So I managed to ... uh ... manipulate you into sending us 'home.' We got here last night."
Susie showed no reaction to Gene's news. "Where are my shoes?" Gene pointed to his right, over the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room and towards the sofa. "They're there by the couch. When I took you to bed last night I took them off."
"Took me to bed last night!" Susie took a step towards Gene.
Gene immediately threw his hands up in front of himself, waving them back and forth. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You misunderstand. I didn't touch you. I mean, I did touch you, but not in that kind of way. You collapsed when we arrived here. So once I knew you were okay, I took you to the bedroom and put you to bed so you can sleep it off."
"Why didn't you just leave me alone?" Susie spat out the words.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Perhaps you would have been more comfortable sleeping in a lump by the front door. Look. Check out the sofa, you'll see that I slept there last night. I didn't come anywhere near you."
Susie glanced into the living room to see that a pillow and blankets were folded neatly on the sofa.
"Believe me, I wouldn't touch you like that in a million years, Sue-see. And I certainly don't make it a habit to take semi-conscious women to bed."
"Uh-huh," Susie said, not believing a word of it. "I would think that's the only way to get women in bed with you, Simmons."
"My name is not Simmons!"
"Oh, my apologies, Mr. Goodbar."
Gene was tempted to continue, but paused instead. He looked into Susie's eyes. "Look. This isn't getting us anywhere. You've been through a lot and so have I. Why don't we both take a step back for a few minutes. If you want, you can take a bath or a shower and I'll fix us something. When you're ready, we can talk about what has happened and what will happen next. Okay?"
Susie stayed motionless for a moment, then nodded with sincerity. "Okay," she softly said. "Fine. Maybe a chance to collect our thoughts might be for the best. I may not agree with most of what you've said, Simmons, but I won't argue with you on that one."
Susie started moving out of the kitchen and back to the hall when Gene called after her, motioning with his right hand. "There's towels under the sink in the bathroom, and -"
Susie cut him off with a shout from the hall. "I'll find them."
Gene lowered his arm and stood still for a moment. When the teakettle began to whistle, he jumped back, then moved to turn off the stove.
"Damn," Gene said under his breath. He shook his head and moved the kettle over to another burner, then picked up the iced-tea box from the counter and opened it.
Susie stepped out of the shower and hung the wet towel up on a rack. She moved over to her clothes that hung on a hook on the bathroom door and began dressing. When she was done, she turned around and looked in the mirror.
She looked at the image reflecting back at her with a grunt. The clothes were tattered and bloodied from the fight; her hair was a jumbled, wet mess; and the bags under her eyes and paleness in her skin displayed the sickness she still felt in her body from the attack as well. She shook her head in disgust, then closed her eyes as a warm reddish glow encompassed her. When she opened her eyes, she grunted again. Her clothes were now clean and of a darkish blue and her hair was groomed as well, but her face still showed all the signs of fighting and suffering that she felt inside of her.
"Oh, god, girl," Susie slowly spoke with a defeated smile as she leaned on the bathroom counter and looked closely at her face, "you look like bloody hell."
She sighed. "And feel like it as well. And pass it on."
A cast-off thought made her makeup appear around her eyes, but with resignation Susie smiled and the makeup disappeared again.
Straightening up and facing away from the mirror, she looked at her back to see that the scars from the attack were already fading away to faint reddish lines and she felt glad to see that at least one physical change was for the better.
She walked into the hallway. When she reached the living room she saw that Gene was sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed and a book in his lap. He held a cup of hot liquid in his right hand as he flipped through the book. Susie also saw that a mug of liquid was sitting off to Gene's right on the coffee table in front of the sofa, along with several books scattered on the table. She moved over to the sofa and sat down on the opposite end, picking up the mug and sniffing at the beverage.
Gene had looked up from the book when Susie sat down and noticed with some annoyance at Susie's inspection of the mug. "It's tea. I just made it."
Susie glanced at Gene then put the mug up to her lips for a sample taste.
"Be sure to drink it all, sometimes the poison settles," Gene casually remarked.
Susie took a small swallow and made a face. "Gah, I know what you mean. This is horrible. What is this?"
"It's tea." Gene felt slightly offended. "It's better than nothing and I figured you would want tea."
"Why?"
"Well ... uh, because you're from England and all."
"And tea's the only thing we ever drink? I'm surprised you didn't make any cucumber sandwiches or crumpets." Susie absentmindedly took another sip from the mug.
"Well, you're drinking it, so it can't be that bad."
Susie ignored the remark and continued to drink her tea, while Gene went back to his book. After a few minutes, Susie cleared her throat and looked at Gene.
"So. What exactly happened?"
Gene closed his book and looked up at Susie, leaning back into the sofa. "Well, as I said, you were out of it and we were being attacked -"
Susie stopped him with a wave of her hand. "That part you've already told me. I mean, what exactly happened once we got here."
"When we got here, I had to drag you -" Gene thought about what he was saying and decided to go into a different direction. "Once I knew you were going to be okay, I came out here and fell asleep on the couch. I woke up about 10 this morning and checked in on you, but after that I just let you sleep."
Susie nodded her head. "And that's it?"
"Yes. I swear to you that I didn't take advantage -"
Susie slightly smiled. "No, no. I didn't mean that. I'm just surprised that Blackwell or the Ancient Ones did not attack us once we got here. It would have been a perfect opportunity."
Gene had not thought of that possibility until Susie mentioned it. "How would they know we were here."
"I suspected for a long time that Blackwell had a way to track us. He always seemed to be a step ahead of us most of the time. Compound that with the fact that we disappeared from the battle when we did, I would think that Blackwell would have known we were here."
"I see your point." Gene said. "Nothing happened, however. At least, as far as I know. I did leave for a bit earlier today to pick up my car at the school and make a couple of stops along the way."
"You couldn't have stopped at a coffee shop along the way, could you?" Susie smiled.
Gene felt some resentment at the remark, but seeing that Susie was could possibly be teasing him instead of starting an argument, he moved on. "When I got back here everything looked normal, so I don't think anything happened while I was gone."
"Hhmm," Susie held the mug with both hands as she gathered her thoughts. "Maybe we were wrong then about how Blackwell has been able to keep track of us."
Gene inwardly felt relief that Susie had not asked how he had picked up his car when he left his car keys back in the past somewhere. It was a stupid thing to do, but it did deflect the monster from killing Susie, Gene thought. But he did save her with his actions ....
No, Gene corrected himself, he had not saved her. Susie saved herself when the creature's attention was diverted, but she probably would have been able to do so even without him throwing his keys at the Ancient One. It was just an idiot move on his part and showed quite well that he had no idea as to what he was doing. It was just luck that he managed to get them out of there when he did, and even there it was due to Susie's transporting abilities. Topping that off with the fact that Susie probably would not have even been hurt if he had gone off into the distance when the battle started and it all added up to his own failure in things so far.
Fortunately, he always kept an extra set of keys around the apartment in case he lost them. When he woke up that morning, he had gotten dressed and called a cab to drive him over to his car in the school's parking lot. After coming back to the apartment, he called in sick, checked on Susie and then went out again. So he was productive, he reminded himself.
Of course, if Susie had not transported them inside of the apartment, it would have been pretty bad. Nothing like telling the landlord that he lost his keys when he had an unconscious women in his arms. It would have been the perfect topper to his sorrowful moves, Gene thought to himself.
Gene was so involved in chastising himself that it took him a moment to realize that Susie was talking to him.
"‹All of these books for?" Susie said, bending forward and picking through the pile of books on the coffee table in front of them.
"Hmm?" Gene attempted to keep his concentration on what Susie was asking.
"What are all of these books for?" Susie placed the mug on the table and picked up a couple of the books. "Rolling Stone History of Rock Music, 1979 Music in Review, Forgotten Bands of the 1970s ...?"
"I wanted to find out a little more about you and the others," Gene held up the book he had in his lap. "I didn't recognize any of you when we met, but once I learned you were in Colors Out of Space I remembered a couple of your songs. It was the first hint that maybe there was some truth to what the four of you were saying back in that field.
"The only problem was that I couldn't remember what happened to your band after the early 1980s, so I called in sick from work and went over to the public library to pick up a few books to do some research. You may want to check them out, you'll probably find them of interest."
Susie picked up one of the books and opened it to a point that Gene had marked with a piece of paper. A two-paragraph entry about the band was there along with a black and white photo of the band from their early days. Susie looked at the foursome in the photo and ran her fingers over the image of one person in the photo.
"Stu," Susie said with a tinge of sadness. "Poor Stu."
Gene did not notice Susie's comment, leaning towards her to look at the photo himself. "I didn't realize Caravello was not an original member of your band. He seems to be the leader for you all."
Susie shook her head. "No, Paul came along later. After ... certain things happened. Stu was our original drummer. He was with us until 1980."
"None of the books state what happened to him," Gene noted.
"No," Susie sighed. "They wouldn't."
With the silence that followed, Gene knew he had reached a dead-end on the topic.
"So," Gene asked, "when Stu left, Paul was brought in?"
"Yes. To be honest, I wasn't too sure about what to do. It seemed so quick to find a replacement after ... after what had happened. But Blackwell convinced us that the only way we could continue as the guardians would be if we could find a replacement. Morpheus agreed. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to bother with it, so the others went searching for a new drummer. Paul got picked."
"And that's when the band released your final album in 1981?"
"Yes. After that, things started getting out of hand with the Ancient Ones. Then we finally found out that Blackwell was behind it all. That he had manipulated me - us. That ...."
There was silence again in the room. After a minute's pause, Susie spoke up again. "I'd rather not talk about this right now."
"I don't know if there's a good way around talking about it," Gene opened up the book he had and held it up so that Susie could see it as well. "We may be able to find a link as to why you four became Guardians and not us."
Susie looked at Gene incredulously. "I thought you didn't believe any of this."
"I didn't." Gene flipped a page in the book as he spoke. "Not until I could get some evidence in front of me that could support what you're saying."
"So seeing isn't believing for you," Susie put the book she had back on the table.
"Seeing isn't always the truth. But when the facts start piling up around it, then one should rethink what they've discounted. When we arrived here in my apartment last night, and seeing that you injured ... well, I realized that I may have not been reading the situation correctly," Gene continued to flip through the book.
"So you admit you were wrong." Susie smirked.
"No, only that I had no reason to believe at first." Gene closed the book and gave Susie a stern look. "What would you do if some creature attacked you out of the blue and then you got zapped to another time in order to be in a battle of monsters?"
"I would believe it," Susie stated.
"Because you've lived it for so long. I haven't. My only conclusion I could arrive at in being in such a situation was that I was hallucinating or going nuts. You expect to change someone's view of reality in a flash and not expect them to think something is wrong?"
"Your Paul and Peter seemed to take it well," Susie shot back.
"Yeah, well, I can't speak for them. I can only speak for myself. Besides, what's the point of arguing? I agree with your story now." "How do you know that the books aren't false as well?"
Gene paused, contemplating Susie's question.
"Let's get back to the subject." Gene flipped open his book and laid it on the table in front of them. "Every mention of your band stated that you were signed to a new record label in the mid-1970s. Is that right?"
"Yes, yes," Susie said, knowing Gene was never going to admit defeat. "It's true. We were one of the first bands hired for a record label called Sierra Madre. Blackwell put the label together as a front for the Elders' work on Earth. We had originally gone to CBS and tried out there, when we were offered the contract with Sierra Madre. When we signed, we found out about the Talismans and became the Guardians."
Gene flipped the pages of the book until he came across a photo of the band members of Colours Out of Space at a party with Blackwell and several other people. Gene pointed at one man in the background of the photo who was looking wide-eyed at the camera. The curly-haired man was wearing a plaid leisure-suit, his shirt undone to the navel and gold chains around his neck. "Do you know who this man is?"
"That's Parker." Susie said the name with obvious distaste. "Herb Parker. He was a representative for CBS."
"Yes, that's right." Gene nodded.
"What do you mean?" Susie looked up from the photo to Gene.
"When our band tried out for CBS in 1972, Parker was the one that came to our audition. We thought we stunk, but Parker put in a good word for us and we were signed to CBS for two albums. Without him, we wouldn't have had a chance to make it."
Susie realized what Gene was saying. "But Parker was the one that got us our contract with Sierra Madre."
Gene leaned back into the sofa. "Go on."
"We had auditioned for CBS, and Parker was there. A few weeks later we heard from Parker, telling us that he had defected to Sierra Madre and had played our tape for the president of the new company. We were signed to the new label within the week."
"And Blackwell was the president of the new company, right?"
"Yes." Susie put the book into her lap and looked intensely at the photo. "If only we knew." She turned her head to Gene. "So you believe Parker did something to you three to stop you from becoming the Guardians?"
"It's definitely a link." Gene said. "I don't recognize anyone else in the photo or in the bios I read about COS with the exception of Parker. Smarmy little putz. Turned on us when it came time to do the second album."
Susie closed her hand lying on the page, crumbling the photo up as she spoke. "Bastard. I would really like to get my hands on him. If only we knew where he is now."
Gene felt a bit hesitant in responding, then decided it was best to continue with his thoughts. "It couldn't be that hard."
"Why is that?"
"Because he's now the head of Sierra Madre."
Susie's eyes narrowed at Gene. "How do you know?"
"Because I read the papers." Gene placed a few of the books from the table to the floor and pulled out a recent issue of Billboard. "I still get Billboard, and when I saw the photo I remembered that I had read a recent article about him recently. The guy still makes my skin crawl."
Gene scanned the large magazine and then placed it on the table so he could point to a particular article. "Took me a while to find the right edition." Gene's voice trailed off as he searched through the magazine. He stopped and pressed his index finger against a particular photo and the caption underneath. "Here, ' ...celebrating 20 years at the independent record label, CEO Herb Parker blows out the candles of the cake made especially for the starstudded Sierra Madre occasion ...."
Susie pulled the magazine off the table and looked at the photo above the article. It showed an older Parker in a pale suit and glasses, blowing out candles of a humongous cake. Gene leaned over and chuckled.
"Jeez, look at that hairpiece. What a schmuck."
Susie read from the article, ignoring Gene's comment. "It says here that he 'still takes a hands-on approach to the company after taking over in 1984 and still works out of the same office he's had since the mid-1970s.'" Susie looked over at Gene. "So we know where he is."
"Yes," Gene countered, "but we have no way to getting to him. I doubt we could get in to see his secretary, much less set up an appointment to see him. Perhaps I can do some checking around and see what I can come up with."
"We don't have time for that." Susie sternly spoke. "By the time you get anything done, Blackwell is bound to tell Parker that we're on to him."
"You don't know that," Gene said, lowering his voice as he spoke. "Parker may not even know anything about the Guardians. It may be a fluke."
Susie laughed and shook her head.
"Look," Gene said, trying to calm down the agitated Susie, "you can't just go waltzing into his office. There's no way we'll get past security at the building."
"Who needs to do that?" Susie reached for her shoes and started putting them on. "I now know where the little wanker's at. That's all I need."
Gene sat back in the couch for a moment in reflection. He then stood up and looked down at Susie as she was tying her shoes. "If Parker really does know what is going on, you could be in danger. I'm going with you."
Susie continued tying her shoes as she looked up at Gene. "Did I invite you?"
"Did you invite me when you kidnapped me yesterday?"
"That was different. You could have been hurt then if we left you here."
"Isn't that still true?" Gene's voice was serious, even though he felt satisfied that Susie had provided just the answer to help him state his case. "If Parker does know about everything, and something happened to you, I would be up a creek. At least with you I'll know what's going on and you won't have to come back and save my ass if something comes up."
"Instead, you'll be right there for me to save your arse," Susie responded without thinking. It was a statement that Gene did not care for, but he decided against arguing the point at that moment.
Susie got up from the sofa. "Okay, you're on, Simmons. Just stay out of my way."
"And for the last time, I'm not -" That was as far as Gene got with his statement before Susie grabbed him by the hand and they disappeared from the apartment.
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Copyrighted (c) 2000-2001 Dale Sherman / KISS ASYLUM
Artwork by Larry Blake
We kindly ask that you please not reproduce this feature without prior consent!
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