Tangled Intersections (7 page)

The silent chant restarted
in his head and his hands began to shake from the veracity of his
need.
Kill Rister. Kill Rister. Kill
Rister.

“
Come down here and get
me, or Ballantine dies.” The camera clicked off.

Grison lifted his head and
looked around. Nobody seemed to be staring at him or to have heard
his conversation. Dumbly he stared at the empty screen once
more.
But how is this possible? I saw him
die. I saw it! Have I gone mad?

Not wanting to contemplate the last
option, he headed for the lift. Surely someone in security would
help him. They had to be there now. All he had to do was notify
them. Everything will be fine.

But it wasn’t fine. He was drawn to
Rister like a magnet, desperate to end his life. If he could just
get rid of Rister, he would be free to live as he chose. Damn him
for escaping. None of his other victims head fought back so
cleverly. Now it was time for him to die.

Grison stepped off the lift and found
the security hallway empty once more. The lights were not only on,
the place was lit up like a sun. He listened at the door to the
cell chamber but heard no movement within. Standing well to one
side, he waved his arm in front of it. The doors whished open.
After a moment’s hesitation, he walked in to find everything as it
should be. Ballantine sat at the desk reading her notes. Rister
glared from behind the screen.

“
What the…?” Grison
stopped, dumbfounded. This wasn’t part of the game. Rister had
broken the rules.

Ballantine rose from her chair.
“Hello, doctor. Come to visit our patient today?”

Grison backed away slowly, keeping his
eyes on Rister the whole time. The doors whished open and he passed
through them out into the hall. As he stood there, the lights
clicked off. A sick, terrible feeling that he was imagining all
this but that there was no escape turned his blood and bones to
thick slurry. In one raw second, his life flew before his eyes at
zoom speed.

Yes, he wasn’t perfect.
Yes, he’d made mistakes. But was that really so bad? Had he really
done anything wrong that other people didn’t want him to do as
well? Gritting his teeth, he began to breathe though his trembling
lips.
Kill Rister. Kill Rister.

“
Stay focused,” he
whispered.
“Do what has to be
done.”

“
Oh yes. What has to be
done is final, permanent.”

The nasally, low pitched voice
lacerated Grison’s last hold on control. He pivoted, putting his
back against the wall and peered into the darkness toward the
little devil’s direction. “Please, don’t.”

“
Don’t what? Kill Rister?”
A floating form emerged from the dim black. It wore a green helmet
and skirt and its shirt was red. In its hand it held a four foot
single pour sword. It swept a graceful long arc in front of him,
the blade tip glowing red hot.

Grison’s knees knocked as his bladder
strained, wanting to empty. But he’d not defile himself here, not
this way. There was still a chance he’d make it to an honorable
death. Mentally he held onto that with a vice grip.

“
March,” the being
commanded.

Grison stumbled down the hall to the
intersection, the sword point hovering by his ear.

“
Now, get in the
lift.”

He entered, and the being followed. It
hovered in the far corner, glaring at him. “Where are you taking
me?”

“
To kill
Rister.”

“
But he’s already…” he
stopped from saying more and hung his head in confusion. “I saw
it,” he mumbled. “I did.”

The little green alien snickered. “Did
you now?”

“
I did.” He insisted, his
voice rising. At that moment the lift opened admitting them to the
same hot floor Grison had visited earlier. He found himself in the
same spot, near the transporter engine room, and the heat just as
unbearable as it had been earlier. He tugged at his shirt, pulling
it away from sweaty skin.

“
We both know that’s a
lie, don’t we?”

“
N-no. It’s n-not, he’s
dead.” His teeth chattered as he barely got out the
words.

“
Liar.”

“
No!”

“
Imposter!”

“
No! It’s isn’t so... it
….”

“
Pretender!”

Next to him the machine started up. He
felt the rumble of the powerful engine under his feet. Again, he
thought about the dying star. How long it would take it to lose its
light. Only after untold thousands of years would it finally wane.
Taking such a long time to die was almost equal to immortality. But
for humans, the closest they could come was dying so suddenly, they
never became aware of death. A laugh bubbled up inside him and out
his lips. What an absurd thought to have with Marvin the Martian
pointing a knife at your being.

As the transporter heated, the lights
flashed, changing from blinking blue to solid red. First, the
blinking blue sped up, then, there was a shrill alert beep before
it changed to a solid red. The alert blared over the loudspeakers
in multiple languages simultaneously.

“
Warning. Transport in
progress. Warning. Stay clear of marked path. Failure to do so can
result in injury or death.”

The line lay thick at his feet, like a
blood stain heading down a floor drain. So deep, so pure. He wished
that was what he could do to Rister: turn him into a blood red
stain. Hate bubbled up inside him. Hate for Rister. For the man who
deserved to die, but so far had escaped his sentence. Clever, so
clever that man. Always plotting and planning, always one step
ahead of the game.

Whiiiish
. One person went through
the transporter and it powered down just slightly, in preparation
for the next passenger. Grison wondered about their destination.
Where were they going in such a hurry? Why didn’t they simply wait
for the next ship?

Ah, but part of him
understood the impatience.
Run, devil,
run!

To his left he sensed a movement, but,
mesmerized by the elliptical waves of the transporter beam, he
didn’t turn his head. He anticipated the small green creature would
torture him some more. That was fine. At least that wasn’t a
surprise. But then he had to look. Felt compelled to turn and see
the person standing there who was shorter than him, stouter than
him and definitely as crazy as him.

“
Hello,
Rister
.” The doctor
snarled the greeting, his voice so deadly and loud that it made him
jump out of his skin.

Looking into those determined brown
eyes, his options withered to none. This was the end of the
line.

“
Isn’t it time you
died
?” He said it with a
grin, an evil one.

Fear shocked him back into
his own body. There was no place else to go. No escape. But he had
to get away from Grison. Had to. Had to.
Run, devil, run!

The engine hummed louder, readying for
one more transport.

As the power ratcheted up and the blue
line readied to turn to red once more, Rister took a chance that
the force field had weakened and stepped into the beam with one
last thought.

It won’t hurt for lo—

Doctor Grison woke to the sound of the
overhead ceiling comm.

Attention all Nidi Station
habitants. There has been a transporter accident at Corridor C
Section 511, Intersection 12.

A video opened, showing Rister
stepping into the transporter beam nanoseconds before the force
shield went up. Rister, being blasted to the only destination he
deserved – the hot molten center of Mira Tri Lucius. Grison
shuddered at the sight despite his relief that Rister could torment
him no more. Above him, the message droned on.

This area is closed until
further notice. You will be notified when access is restored. As a
reminder, please obey the station’s safety protocols. Watch for and
avoid flashing red lines on the pedestrian walkways. Failure to do
may result in personal injury, or even death.

The closing slogan for the
station’s newscast sounded, then the whole thing repeated in
language choice two. Grison reached up, clicked off the monitor,
and flopped back on the bed. Sweat dotted his brow and under his
clothes. Watching the video had made him sick to his stomach. Made
him question the life he was leading. What his work really amounted
to. For some reason, going back to his regular job seemed the wrong
thing to do. Instead, he ought to stay here, on Nidi, and invent a
new life for himself.
If Rister can do it,
so can I.

Sitting up in bed, he decided that
today, he’d go to the bar for a nice cold ale.

One Last Thing

Thank you for
reading
Tangled
Intersections
. I’ve written some sci fi
romance stories, but this is one of my first science fiction. I
hope you enjoyed it. Now you have the opportunity to rate the book
and share your thoughts through an automatic feed to your Facebook
and Twitter accounts. If you believe your friends would enjoy this
book, I’d be honored if you’d post your thoughts.

I’d also be eternally grateful if you
posted a review.

All the best,

Eva

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About Bio and Links:

Eva Lefoy met Leonard Nimoy at an
early age when he signed her mother’s grocery list in the town’s
tiny airport. A life-long love of all things science-fictiony was
born.

She also writes erotic romance in many
different pairings, but prefers, overall, to spend her days
drinking tea, hiking and doing yoga.

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If you enjoyed this sci-fi
tale, try out her first work, part of a collection,
here:

Tentacles

This short horror anthology packs a
big punch. Four short science fiction stories of tentacle monster
mayhem and destruction to keep you awake at night wondering if
you’ve already been the next victim…

Solar Pioneer – by Eva
Lefoy
During the ten-year war, a remote scientific station on the edge of
the galaxy has all but been forgotten. Tired of the war, cruiser
pilot Coop takes the mission to re-establish contact with the team,
but soon has to rescue himself from the clutches of a crazy
scientist and a monster capable of keeping alive forever his
wildest nightmares. Science Fiction Horror. 6,400 words.

Mr. Sweede – by D.R.
Larsson
Through a telescope, some galaxies may not look like much, but the
full spectrum of beings still lurk within. Some live, learn and
love within it. Some are travelers. Some hunt. But not all hunters
look like predators. Some look just like us. Some were our best
friends. Mr. Sweede was everyone’s best friend. Or so they thought…
Science Fiction. 3,000 words.

Zaural – by Eva
Lefoy
Captain Zaural Shuri is sent to respond to an emergency hail on
Andvari, a colony of former inmates, after a colonist is killed by
the planet’s indigenous species. Once there, she must battle her
ex-boyfriend, bizarre creatures, and her own fears to unravel the
tangled web of clues before she loses her grip on reality. As if
reality was ever what it seemed. Science Fiction with mild adult
sexual content. 11,000 words.

The Sacrifice – by Haley
Whitehall
One night Aveda, a scullery maid, is dragged out of bed by ruthless
pirates and hauled on board their ship. She fears she will be sold
into slavery or worse, but their plan is even more sinister. Down
below, a monster she never imagined existed awaits the decision
that will change her life forever… Science Fiction/Historical.
2,500 words.

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