Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2017 19:52:05 -0500
From: D B <donbon@gmail.com>
Subject: Forces of Nature - Chapter 1

Forces of Nature, Chapter 1 by DGB

This story is a product of my imagination and under my copyright, so no
reposting/publishing without my consent.  If you are not of legal age or
somewhere in which this document is illegal, please stop reading and focus
on getting someplace safer.

Have you donated to Nifty? I have: http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html

If you enjoy the story, I'd appreciate comments to donbon@gmail.com.

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"Dammit," Jake cursed under his breath as he shook his finger; he'd manage
to shock himself yet again on the doorknob. Jake locked the door and
dropped his keys on the table.  The shocks had been happening a lot more
often than normal lately, easily ten to twenty times a day.  They had
started when he left the hospital after the accident.

Or maybe it had been an incident, not that he could remember much either
way.  Jake was working late at the office that night two weeks ago trying
to wrap up a report.  At 25, he was the low man on the totem pole and
always seemed to get dumped on.  He was a civil engineer, which was a fancy
way of saying he did the same thing day after day.  There isn't exactly
anything new going on in structural analysis, just one code check after the
next.  When he was a kid he was good with numbers, and had never quite
outgrown the "tractors and cranes" phase, so when he headed to college it
seemed like a good career decision.

The summer before his final year he had done an internship at firm just
like this.  He could still vividly remember that it took exactly two hours
after orientation to have his dreams crushed.  As a junior engineer he
would never be allowed to talk to clients or design anything.  All he was
going to do all day was crunch away at numbers in his cubicle to verify the
work of others.

For Jake it was too late to change his major.  Well, maybe not too late,
but he'd have to have a conversation with his father.  A life of boredom
was an easy choice given that alternative.  His father had never been
cruel, but he didn't exactly show him any love either.  The nicest thing
Jake could say about the man was that he was a good lawyer, the perfect
tool of corporate America.

His mother had died giving him life.  He had never said it out loud, but
Jake suspected his dad resented him from birth, blaming an innocent child
for his wife's death.  His father had of course sued the hospital, and the
settlement was probably the only reason his father had kept him around.
His father always too busy to deal with him; he had been raised by a
constant string of nannies.  Anna had been his favorite, perhaps because
she stayed the longest.  She had appeared around his 13th birthday, but the
day after he turned 16 she was fired; something about being old enough to
learn to take care of himself and not needing a babysitter anymore.  At
least he had gotten to say goodbye, unlike the others that just disappeared
while he was at school.

And so he had endured finishing his degree and going to work.  Jake's dad
had surprised him by showing up to graduation, carrying his briefcase as
always.  After a firm handshake he had presented Jake with paperwork to
"close out" the trust fund.  It wasn't until that day that he even knew he
had a trust fund.  As part of the settlement over his mother's death, the
fund was setup to pay for his education and `help cover expenses' as his
father put it.

The fund had a little over $500,000 left, not much by today's standards but
still a nice chunk to get him set up in life.  He signed the paperwork on
the spot, sensing it would be one of the last times he saw his father.  The
paperwork transferred the car title, insurance, and cell phone bill to
him. They hadn't spoken since.

Jake had driven to the city and immediately looked for a place downtown,
figuring it would be better to invest his new found funds in a home rather
than renting.  He had fallen in love with a downtown loft complete with a
rooftop deck, several floors above a Chinese restaurant.  He dreamed of
throwing parties on the roof and inviting all his friends.  He had used all
the skills he had learned from years of dealing with his father to haggle
on the price, leaving him with a healthy account balance.  It wasn't enough
for him to be able to forgo work, but knowing he could tell his employer to
shove it at a moment's notice had provided the fortitude needed to face the
impending tedium.

In reality, in the three years he lived there, he had only had a coworker
over once or twice to show off the deck.  Jake had a hard time making new
friends.  Growing up it had just been him and his books.  Now it was just
him and his electronics, whether it was surfing the net from his laptop,
playing games on xbox, or just reading on his kindle.  The worlds he could
immerse himself in seemed so much more entertaining than the real world.
His gaming buds expected nothing more from him than to help slay orcs or
shoot aliens.  These people he had never met meant more to him than anyone
in real life.

There was one guy he had been playing games with for almost two years.
Jake was always excited to get a message from Alex asking if he was up for
playing a bit.  Alex, also known as starmage, even lived in the same town,
but they had never met.  Jake thought of suggesting they meet in person
early on, but he decided the relationship was best kept anonymous.  After
all he knew he was socially awkward, and really fairly average; 5'-11" with
broad shoulders and a tapered waist, dirty blonde hair he kept trimmed in a
short Caesar cut.  His weight fluctuated during the year around 200 pounds.
His father had told him once in high school that if he worked out a bit he
could have a nicely built body, so naturally he had refused.  Besides, he
had never been the best at sports.

And so they had just remained semi-anonymous gaming buddies. When no one
else was playing with them they would chat about their day to day lives,
new restaurants that opened in town, plans for the weekend, how bad traffic
sucked at rush hour.  Alex's rich baritone voice just entranced him.  One
night he even found himself telling Alex about his father.  Jake decided
meeting in person wasn't worth the risk of losing his friend, especially
since Alex never brought it up.

Jake had been thinking about Alex that night at the office. Usually they
would game Thursday evening, but there he was stuck at work.  All of his
coworkers had been gone by six, rushing home before a storm hit town.  Jake
had loved thunderstorms for as long as he could remember.  The more thunder
and lightning the better.  He spent many nights of his childhood staring
out the window as a storm raged on, the violent weather giving him a sense
of peace.

The rain was pounding the office window by the time he finished up around
10. Jake stood and took a well-deserved stretch while he waited on the
printer.  His manager was fickle, sometimes preferring a hard copy to edit,
sometimes digital, so Jake had learned to just give him both.  The lights
had flickered after a particularly bright flash of lightning, the windows
rattling from a sharp crack of thunder.  The office must have been near the
eye of the storm.  Jake could remember checking the printer to make sure
the power blip hadn't screwed things up when he noticed the window leaking.

Jake was shocked by the icy chill of the water on his fingertips as he
tried to trace the leak back to the source.  He had ended up leaning his
forehead against the window frame, his arm extended to near the top finally
finding a dry spot.

And then he woke up in the hospital in the wee hours of Saturday morning,
alone in the room with a throbbing headache.  It took several minutes
before he could think clear enough to push the nurse call button.  After
that it was a bit of a blur.

The nurses had rushed in to check on the newly awakened patient, followed
by a doctor shortly after.  The doctor had told him the he was lucky to be
alive after such a shock to his system, but now that he was awake he should
be fine in a couple of days.  Aside from being unresponsive the doctors had
found no other damage.

Jake hadn't actually heard what happened until his boss and a lawyer from
the office showed up mid-morning.  Apparently security had found him
unconscious on the floor by the window.  The building had been struck by
lightning, and the jolt must have electrocuted him and knocked him out.
Every electronic device in the building had been blown.  In fact the whole
block was fried.

The lawyer was there to make sure Jake wasn't going to sue the company.
Typical lawyers, exactly what his father would have done.  Jake signed the
papers just to get rid of the two men.  They had made him feel uneasy as
soon as they had entered the room, and he could just tell neither man
wanted to be there.  Since he never talked of family, his office hadn't
known who to contact as next of kin.  His father probably would have been
too busy to care anyway.

Jake ended up having to call a taxi to take him home from the hospital that
afternoon since uber was out of the question – even though someone had
collected his cell phone off his desk, it too had been a victim of the
storm.

It was mid-week before Jake had gotten the call that the office would be
open for employees to collect personal items.  Thankfully someone invented
automatic cell phone backups to the cloud, as he never would have been able
to replace all the phone numbers he had.  The office was going to be closed
at least a month while they rewired, and who knows how long it would take
IT to get new computers setup.

The elevators was still being repaired, but he wasn't prepared at all for
what he saw when he walked up the stairs.  The office looked like a bomb
had gone off with all of the cubicle walls flattened, spiraled out like
dominoes from the window he had been standing at.  He gave an involuntary
shudder when he saw scorch marks on the carpet.  He had been at ground
zero.

Jake was still in shock from that revelation as he headed for a check-up at
the hospital.  He had walked the few blocks uptown on autopilot, only
snapping out of it when the door had shocked the shit out of him as he went
in.  The doctor gave him a full physical and said he seemed to be in almost
perfect health for a guy his age.  Detecting an opening Jake asked the
doctor if the accident could be responsible for all the little shocks he
had been dealing with.  He regretted the question as soon as he asked it,
sensing that the doctor thought he was a nutcase.

And that was the other problem.  He could swear he sensed emotions coming
off people.  The lawyer had been impatient, the girl in the coffee shop
thought he was cute, the doctor thought he was crazy.  Maybe he was losing
it.

Nothing had really been able to hold his attention either. His favorite
books didn't draw him in like usual, binge watching Netflix was
unsatisfying; he hadn't even been on his xbox much. The few times he had
logged in to play he hadn't seen any of his friends on.  He had messaged
Alex on Thursday to see if he was up for game night, but no response ever
came.

This unexpected vacation from work was really starting to drag as well.
Jake had discovered he still didn't want to do all those little things he
had put off `until he had some free time'.  The only thing that still
entertained him was going people watching at the coffee shop he had just
gotten home from. Even that had gone pear shaped today.  Jake plopped down
into a recliner trying to figure out what all this meant.  He had gone for
a drink this afternoon just to get out of the house, buying a decaf latte
and a big chocolate chip cookie before taking a seat in the corner. It was
the perfect spot for people watching, with a view of the door and the line
at the counter.

His dad had occasionally taken him to work when the nanny was sick, always
with strict orders to sit in the corner and not make a sound.  Jake had
fallen in love with reading those days, the images the words could conjure
infinitely more exciting than the sea of men in dark suits around him.
Still, eventually his eyes would get tired and he devised a new game.  He'd
look around the office and start making up stories about what each client
was there for, or how the ship-in-a-bottle on his father's desk was
actually a memento from a great battle frozen in time.

But the last few days his stories had taken on a different tone.  When he
looked around the coffee shop he could figure out conversations just by the
emotions he felt coming from people.  Today had been his third day in a row
as he tried to figure out if he could really sense something or if it was
all in his head.  Maybe all this was a dream, and he was lying in a coma at
the hospital.

Jake shook his head to clear that thought.  He couldn't be going crazy,
surely there was an explanation for all this. Probably he was just bored
and his mind was playing tricks.  But that didn't explain the red headed
guy from the coffee shop.  Jake had just finished making up a story about a
couple in the corner, sure that they were going to head home and screw like
rabbits, when the man had walked in.  He looked to be about Jake's height
but trimmer, maybe a little younger. His green eyes stood out in stark
contrast to his pale complexion, spotted with freckles. The tuft of chest
hair peeking from beneath his t-shirt was evidence enough that the carpet
must match the curtains.

Jake had just started to try and come up with a story when the man looked
over at him. And that's when he felt it. Or rather, didn't feel it. He
didn't feel anything from the man.  Jake had become so accustomed to
feeling emotions from people that he suddenly felt confused by being able
to sense nothing from someone.  He had tried again, focusing harder but
nothing came to him. While he was sitting there trying to figure out what
was happening, the man had stared at him while he paid for his drink and
left.

He rubbed his temples as he sat in the recliner, trying to fend off the
headache that had started in the coffee shop.  As he started to relax the
pitter patter of rain hit his windows.  Funny, he didn't remember showers
in the forecast.  Probably a good thing he had headed home when he did.

Jake popped a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner.  Pizza was his go to
meal on Thursdays, with enough leftovers usually to snack on between games.
He had fired up the Xbox just in case Alex showed up this week.  He had
nearly given up hope a half hour later when he finally heard the Xbox
notification sound effect from his bedroom.  He quickly ran back to the
living room to see the party invite from starmage fade from the screen.
Jake quickly put on his headset and joined the party. "Hey man! I didn't
think you were going to be on."

"Oh man you have no idea how bad I need to game tonight.  It has been a
hellacious few weeks and I need to blow off some steam."

"Ditto. Let's go roast some noobs," Jake fell right back into the swing of
things.  Catching up with Alex had a calming effect on him, and they we're
joking like usual in no time.

"I really should be unpacking," Alex said after a while, "I just moved into
a new apartment downtown.  Have I ever told you I work for the observatory
South of the city?"

"Nope, but that explains starmage finally.  I've always been curious but
never wanted to ask."

"Oh yeah, that's it" Alex chuckled to himself.  "Anyway that big storm two
weeks ago screwed up some of the instruments.  I've been working overtime
to try and get everything back in order.  My lease was up at the same time,
so between work and moving I haven't had any time to relax."

Jake answered, "Oh yeah, I know what storm you are talking about.  It hit
my office and fried all the computers. I'm getting a month long vacation
while they try to repair the damage."

"Ugh I'm jealous. I could really use a few days to finish unpacking. I had
to go out for coffee this afternoon because I haven't found which box I put
the coffee pot in.  Somehow I managed to pack the machine and filters in
the same box, but not the pot!"

Their chat was interrupted by another friend joining the party and looking
to get in on a game.  It was sort of an unspoken rule Jake and Alex had
– the two of them had bonded enough to talk freely, but anyone else in
the group meant chatter stayed strictly anonymous. They didn't even call
each other by name when other people were in the party, it was just easier
to avoid nosy questions.

Jake winced Friday morning when he once again shocked himself catching the
door of the coffee shop as it swung open. Of course it was the ginger
haired man on his way out.  The man stared at him for a moment before he
said, "Look I don't know who or what you are, but this town is protected so
don't even think about making trouble."

"What the hell?"  Jake was dumbfounded as he watched the man walk away.  He
still couldn't sense any emotions, but he didn't have to in order to get
the thinly veiled threat.  More than that though he thought he recognized
the voice, but he couldn't place why.  Surely the man had mistaken him for
someone else.

Jake got a muffin to go with his mocha, but as he sat in his usual corner
life just felt off.  People watching wasn't as much fun after someone had
threatened you.  Maybe that guy thought Jake was making a funny face at him
when the door had shocked him, it was the only explanation he could come up
with.

Sunday morning Jake woke up feeling incredible, even though he had fallen
asleep in the papasan chair by the window.  The rain had started not long
after dinner as a gentle shower, but turned heavier as the night wore on.
The first clap of thunder had brought a smile to his face, and he had
settled into the chair to read a mystery novel.

He was in such a good mood that Jake didn't even pause when he shocked
himself yet again on the way out the door.  Maybe he'd even go for a
peppermint mocha this morning.  His good mood continued as he got in line
for coffee, tight up until the hairs on the back of his neck stood up like
he was being watched.  Jake pretended to act casual like he was stretching
as he glanced behind him.  Sure enough the guy that threatened him
yesterday was sitting by the window, staring at him.  Jake just sighed and
decided he'd get his drink to go.

Jake suddenly felt ill, a wave of heat washing over him, and before he
could react he slumped to the floor.  A moment later the heat was gone, a
sheen of sweat cooling his body.  The barista rushed around the counter to
check on him to see if he was ok.  He griped onto a hand that had been
extended towards him, grateful for the help getting up, and stood up to
come face to face with the mysterious red head.

"Hey man are you ok?" The question seemed genuine, "Let me help you home."

Jake just nodded meekly, his head a little foggy.  The man had put his arm
around his shoulder as they left the coffee shop, so Jake had just gestured
towards his loft, surely the man couldn't mean to do him harm if he was
helping him now.  Something felt so familiar about the guy, but he still
couldn't place the voice.  They walked in silence as Jake slowly regained
his balance.

"Well, this is me here.  Thanks for helping me get home, I really don't
know what happened," Jake said, still sounding unsteady.

"Do you have an elevator or just stairs?" the man asked.

"Stairs."

"Ok then let me help you up.  I feel so bad about all this, I'm really a
nice guy when you get to know me."

Jake was still too out of it to argue as they made it up the stairs.  He
was more shaken up than he realized, his hand shaking too much to put his
key into the lock.

The man had wordlessly taken the keys and unlocked the door before turning
to guide Jake onto the couch.

"I really am sorry about all this. I didn't mean to use that much power, I
figured you'd be able deflect it with no problem.  Even then I'm really
sorry I've been such an asshole to you. I've just been so stressed between
work and moving to a new apartment that I've been taking it out on
everyone."

Suddenly it all clicked into place for Jake, "Starmage? I mean Alex?"

"Jake?"

Alex jumped back when Jake had smiled in response.  He looked posed like he
was ready to fight, a shimmering light enveloping his body.  "Who do you
work for? Have you been hunting me down?"

"What?" Jake began to cry, one of his worst fears had been realized.  The
one person that was the closest thing he had to a friend had rejected
him. "I don't know what you're talking about. Nothing makes sense since
that damn storm."


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Author note: Yeah I know it's mean to leave you hanging right here ;)
Chapters 2 and 3 are already written though and will be submitted soon.  I
always like to hear your comments though, so drop me a line if you enjoyed
reading this.