Caped (Book 1): The Burdens of Fate (6 page)

What. The. Fuck?

Kaylie
Horn
-

Hey girl, we're finally on the plane! I can't
wait to get my feet on the ground again, I don't mind the heights but cramped
spaces definitely freak me out. We're expected to land sometime within the
hour, thank God it's not a long flight. I stuck a rock in my pocket just so I
could fiddle around when people aren't looking, I'd planned on taking it out
during the flight but suddenly don't think it's such a good idea, we'll see.
Kinda sucks I can only move rocks though, it would have been nice to be able to
move anything, but that's kind of like someone complaining they didn't win
enough in the lottery.

Side note, my brother keeps giving me weird
looks. I wonder if he suspects anything. Doubt it, maybe I'm just thinking too
hard about all of this, can't wait to get to L.A. and relax.

That's all for now, lady. I'm going to try to
take a nap before we land. I'll try to get back to you later tonight though,
ok? Later!

Anyacelis Maye -

Hello all present to witness my return to the
blogosphere! It's been a while hasn't it? And my my my was the world turned
into a daytime soap opera. Okay, maybe that's going a little far but none the
less...

Onto the meat and potatoes, has anyone been
downtown and seen the protests outside of congress? I mean, seriously? I thought
we lived in a civilized society? There are two blocks full of people down there
with sign posts and megaphones, the cops are down there keeping everyone
civilized. Though, aside from some intense yelling and bottle throwing, there
hasn't been anything too outlandish. To be honest it's a little unreasonable,
and nearer to the more extreme side of thinking it makes me wonder if these are
partially staged.

I understand the fear of people with powers
(are we calling them powers yet?), but most of these people are ordinary
Americans, not so much "ordinary" anymore but none-the-less without
malevolent intentions. Yet these fearful and ignorant people are acting as if
every single person with powers is an escaped convict or street-corner thug,
and they couldn't be further from the truth. I think we, as a nation, need to
calm down and take things as they come, instead of going on this modern day
witch hunt for people who less than a week ago we considered our equals.

Your thoughts? Let me know below!

Laurie
Stahl
-

It has been my experience that through the
course of human history men are often unaware of the gravity their actions will
hold, the splitting of the atom easily comes to mind. How then does one proceed
when there's been full disclosure as to the consequences of both your actions
and inactions? To a moral and just human being it would seem the choice had
already been made for you, especially given the fact that the day may
eventually come were action is required on my part if for nothing more than personal
survival, and if that be the case I'd wager most would rather die heroically.

The oddest thing was explaining to the kids why
I'd suddenly wanted to visit LA, not that I gave them the actual reason; I'm
not ready to have that conversation just yet, but I should’ve given a little
more thought to my pitch. They're worried about me blowing through my
retirement savings while I'm worried about having a world to enjoy retirement
in. Still, I don't like them to worry about me, I put them through enough as it
is; but I raised them well. It's comforting knowing you've sent two strong
individuals out into the world. I'll always have that to smile about.

I wish I knew what to pack, needless to say I
won't be wearing my Sunday's best, it's not every day I'm asked to dress for
war. I've got time to figure it out, I'm just anxious. My flight arrives in Los Angeles around sunset
tomorrow and I'll be taking a cab to meet Edward at a diner on the outskirts of
town the morning of.

It's hard to wrap my mind around it. I can't
believe I'm a part of this, and regardless of the outcome, I appreciate that my
presence was requested.

Kaylie
Horn
-

Hey girl, we're settled! We went to see the
Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Chinese Mann Theater. We just came back to the
hotel to get ready for dinner. I'll fill you in on everything sometime
tomorrow, kay? Hugs and kisses, bye!

–
3/17
–

Alvin
Turner
-

Tomorrow, tomorrow. I love you tomorrow, you're
only a day away...

I often wonder where people find the time and
motivation to protest, I stopped by a couple of places this morning; DC, NYC, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, and of
course L.A. The
air was thick with fear and so much passion I could feel it grinding against my
skin. Though it was nice to see people like me out their letting their voice be
heard, even if they were extremely lacking in numbers. Ants screaming at an
elephant. The size of the crowds, and the signs, were the only distinctions.
You'd think people would've figured out we're just as scared, perhaps even more
so. If it's not one civil rights fight it's another, and to think, I thought
I'd lucked out by being born after all that drama. Yay me.

It's all just pointless divisions of a whole,
I'm still human, I still hurt, feel, love, fear and hope. If someone excels at
a task, he's asked to perform it, not condemned. And if handicapped they are
assisted, not discarded. Such backwards thinking nowadays, I guess there's
always hope for a better tomorrow...

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
creeps in this petty pace from day to day until the last syllable of recorded
time." Yeah, "tomorrow," you're only a day away.

Edward
Otep
-

From jobless to driven in a week and a half,
who could have thought? One interview after another, hoping and searching,
wondering where exactly I went wrong, and not "should I" but
"could I" have worked harder? No. The answer is, “No.” And a bad
economy has no conscious, but perhaps fate does. Rent late, bills past due, and
nobody left to borrow money from. Yeah, it feels good to not be in that place
anymore, and I'll fight heaven itself before I'm there again.

So here I am, standing at the forefront of a
future it seems only I can see the inconceivably, mind-boggling, physics-
breaking reality of. I want to tell the world and to let them know we're not to
be feared, that now is a time for unity. Unfortunately that is a lesson mankind
will learn slowly through many trials and even more errors.

So the sun sets on the third day of nationwide
protests, with attendance on a steady incline. Counter protesters, which have
been present since the beginning, have also occupied their own areas from which
to voice their concerns, mostly referencing established civil rights laws. But
are their fears well founded? Possibly.

Recent crime statistics gathered since the
prison breaks earlier this week are surely on their side, but are these
abilities really making us more violent? Doubt it; people are just more willing
to act on these already present tendencies. But it does make me wonder how law
enforcement can expect to prosecute offenders when there may be no physical
evidence.

It'd be wise for our congressmen to take a slow
and steady approach on delegating new laws. What we're witnessing are the
birth-pangs of a country; no, an entire world, trying to adjust itself to an
unforeseeable situation.

I've spent the better part of a week making
sure tomorrow goes as smoothly as possible, the only thing I have left to do is
wait. And for a man who can see through it, time is definitely testing my
patience.

If nothing more at least I've arrived in L.A.,
a monumental accomplishment after forgetting a bag at home, almost missing my
flight thanks to confusion with someone on the do-not-fly list, a situation
which made my blood run cold because I thought the black suits were going to
pop out and cart me off, and finally, a highly annoying man by the name of
Herbert White who insisted on telling me, in detail, about his stay in a mental
institution. A place I'm not entirely sure he should have been released from.

My nerves are shot and the anxiety alone
assures insomnia will get the best of me. I could have even sworn I felt the
room move earlier, trippy shit. I definitely need to relax.

It's not carelessness that has kept me from
contacting everyone, still essentially strangers, to confirm their arrival. No,
it's exactly the opposite. I've made sure that what little contact was made was
used to its maximum potential, and at some point I've got to start trusting in
my ability.

As sure as I watched Laurie Stahl fall to his
"death," they'll arrive tomorrow. It's the same reason I haven't
alerted any authorities. No matter how decent their intentions would be, their
involvement would only serve as a catalyst for more bloodshed, something I'm in
the business of preventing, not producing. That's not to say their won't be
any, but I've dotted my I's and crossed my T's, as best I can anyway. I'll let
God settle the rest.

Still, this could very well be my last entry,
if so, let it serve as documentation that a least one man cared enough to try.
And if this is to be my final hours, I can't let it pass without telling those
closest to me how much they mean.

I guess I'll see you when I see you. Peace.

Dennis Shaeffer
-

Traveling is one of the greatest things a man
can do with his life, to explore new cultures and expose one’s self to
alternative ways of life. I encourage everyone to do it. The world is more than
just these five to ten mile bubbles our lives are often trapped within.

However, with traveling comes one major
obstacle: Flight.

You see I've never been a fan of flying, the
cabins are too small and I'm always hitting my head on something or getting
stuck beside some unhygienic schmuck. You know, bathing should be a requirement
before boarding a plane. Just once I'd love to hear, "I'm sorry sir, you
cannot fly today. Your stench is repulsive." Even if I were just walking
by I think I'd slip them a fifty or something. I can't be alone in this, am I?

But I'm not going to lie, even after fifteen
hours of hell in a steel cabin, Tokyo
was definitely a sight to see. Not saying it was on my list of top places to
see, some people are obsessed with the place, but it sure has its charm. It's
like a smaller version of Time's Square, except it's everywhere. Light, lights,
and more lights, and the view from our room was amazing. Thank god I wasn't
coming out of my pocket for any of this; and for an international fugitive she
sure has an excess of funds. I asked her for a rough figure of how much she was
working with, to which she replied, "Enough." Followed by a flippant,
"So, how do feel about having to kill a man?"

Just so you know, I'd heard it perfectly fine,
but she said it so nonchalantly, and in that
you're going to be doing this soon
type of way that it took a
couple moments for it to truly register. In short, it was the calmest freak-out
I've ever had. To avoid suspicion of course.

But honestly, what the fuck, mate? "Oh, by
the way"? Was this honestly how she chose to tell me I was about to add
murder to the list of things weighing on my conscious? It was the first time I
glimpsed the colder side of her character, and definitely intimidating.

To be fair, I knew it was coming someday. I
knew I wasn't going to keep my hands clean forever. It just wasn't possible. I
just wished I could have had a bit more of a warning, a little lead in. And
that lead me to very relevant question...I can see the future, that's my thing,
my skill, my talent, why the fuck didn't I see that coming?

I was half-way around the world in a sky-high
hotel room with a socially inept woman, unrelenting in her quest to create a
better world, but couldn't come to the logical conclusion that at some point I
needed to actually trust her instead of going along out of the fear that she'd
end me. That, and just how did she know where this guy was going to be, could
she see the future? I was vocal about his. I was legitimately pissed off; my
wife feared for my life, I feared for both our lives, and I was pretty sure the
NSA, FBI, CIA, or MIB were going to show up at my doorstep and cart us all
away. And this woman didn't even have the decency to be honest with me? Hell
yeah I was vocal about it!

And she quickly returned the aggression. The
pleasant woman I'd known every moment since had very quickly vanished, causing
every ounce of courage I'd managed to gather seem as if it had never been. The
room began to tremor lightly, the lights pulsing through various degrees of
brightness.

"You are psychic, right?" she growled
slowly, her head cocked slightly, trying to comprehend the misunderstanding.
Backing me into the couch sitting in the middle of the living room area. I
nodded.

"And you have one of these, right?"
She reached into her rocket and pulled out a little gold encrusted, blood-red
octagonal shaped gem, about the size of a dollar coin. In my shaken state it
took me a moment, but I did, but...

"But what?" she interrupted, growing
visibly more annoyed.

You see, Joe had given me a similar gold
encrusted gem, but mine was blue. I told her that I didn't have one, since Joe
had specifically told me not to tell anyone he'd given it to me.