> Dan in Plureality 2

“His behaviour at that point,” Dr. James says, “is clearly rooted in a very basic dualism: science vs magic. For some reason he's undergone an epistemological crisis and chosen fantasy over reality.” 

Dr. Hannah tilts her head. “Maybe... You may be right, superficially. I bet that he thought of it in the same way when it happened to him. But the addiction is already apparent before all of this ritual and spell-casting. He was already invoking Captain Picard, to use their terminology, although he didn't understand it as such. He was drawing power from the rational, philosophical, moral world.” She points to her copy of the files. “Look, he even stopped smoking during that period. Once it was spent, once he'd processed the charge, he went looking for his next hit in the occult.” 

Dr. James' brow furrows. “So it didn't star there.” 

Ms. Amita shifts in her seat. “Daniel, I think it might be helpful for you to tell us about the year that you turned eighteen.”

*


For weeks I've found it harder and harder to think straight. My thoughts and emotions are in constant chaotic flux. I stay up all night, skip classes. All the drawings I've been doing, more than usual, have been of these twisted figures, anguished and tortured. In one of them I'm standing in the suit I wear at work – I sell men's clothing part-time after school – and dark, firery monsters pull at one side of me while airy, shining beings pull at the other. I keep noticing three crows on the walk home from school. I start to think that they're watching me. 

I write a story where a girl inducts a thinly-veiled version of me into a secret society. I have a crush on a girl but she's interested in another guy. At night, walking home from work, I often stop in a park thick with trees and call out to faeries, hoping they'll show themselves to me, and take me away.

My friends and classmates and teachers begin to notice my behaviour. Some of them ask if I'm alright, most find it eccentric and performative. After I see Jacob's Ladder at the local rep cinema I'm barely coherent for a week. 

Laying in the bathtub for hours, wandering around downtown, laying in bed, I imagine being visited by three people who teach me secret knowledge. They're in league with the crows. I know that I'm just making these things up but I can't stop. I can't stop making connections between random events, can't stop seeing people as incarnations of archetypal forces, can't stop feeling fucked up. 

One night I'm out by myself for coffee. I have a moment of clarity where I realize that there is no way that these mysterious teachers can be real, no way that they are ever really going to come for me - I guess that I thought they somehow were. But I can't have imagined exactly the course of events that will happen. Then I start to imagine that they are at home and that they suddenly become aware that I have psychically predicted their surveillance of me. I feel very anxious and leave the restaurant. As I walk home I imagine them getting ready, getting into their car, driving to intercept me. 

When I walk up my street there is a car parked in front of my house. I don't recognize it as belonging to any of the neighbours. Two people are in the front seat making out, so I can't see their faces. The third one could be hiding in the back. Feeling strangely calm, I hurry inside. 

Over the next few weeks I start to feel that the connections I'm seeing between things are fascinating. That the deep, mythical structures behind the behaviours of everyone I meet are exciting. That maybe the secret knowledge is true. And that maybe the real world is just as cool as a comic book.

***

Strangers Passing

Danny Leung dropped from the fence and landed in a squat; he had scaled the chain-linked fence that surrounded a LEGACY compound. He thought that he saw some movement in here as well, but he wasn't too sure. It could have been the moonlight shadows.

I'm slipping with age, he thought as he sneaked up to a shrub. He really didn't want to be caught in here without a search warrant, and he really didn't have probable cause. LEGACY was so tight with the government, it was hard to tell who was really in control.

For the past two days Kowloon had been hopping with secret information about a mysterious shipment that the LEGACY warehouse had received, and he just wanted to see for himself. With pistol drawn he moved towards the edge of a building. He blended into the shadows as two armed sentries strolled by.

They weren't really concerned about a breach; they were talking about some game that had gone on the previous night. Really lax in their job, secure in the knowledge that whoever was dumb enough to break in wouldn't ever make it out again.

It's going to cost them.

Danny made sure that the coast was clear and then proceeded to follow the wall; he nearly made it to the corner of the building when someone dropped down right behind him.

Damn.

"Don't fret," the voice said. "You must be Danny."

"How?" a stunned Danny spat out like a schoolboy.

"We have the same mutual friend," the woman said as she removed her mask. Her long raven hair seem to shine in the moonlight. "He's your friend on a flight."

Danny's eyes narrowed; he didn't know what to make of the whole scene which was unfolding like a deck of cards at a Vegas casino. He didn't know whether or not this woman was on the level.

"How did you know I was going to be here?" Danny questioned, ready with weapon to strike and flee.

"I learned never to question an order because I really don't want to know," she said with a sense of irony. "I was told to assist someone of importance right here, right now, and that there was going to be hell to pay."

"How can I trust you?"

"I'm Wraith," the ninja introduced herself.

Of Element's Gone

The assault force shifted into overdrive; the element of surprise disappeared when two of their members came through a window covered in throwing stars. No more subtlety, it was move and make your presence well known now. Dressed in black and in the cover of darkness they moved.

"Force Blue now!" someone said into a mike. "Element gone. Full bore time."

Three men came up to a door and kicked it open and began to scan the room. They weren't expecting to find Aqua hiding in plain site. She dropped to the floor and spun around like a top, taking the intruders out at the knees. One of them pulled his trigger and a spray of lead perforated the floor and into the ceiling in a connect the dots of death.

"Damn," Frank said as he stepped into the room and kicked one fellow in the head, pistol whipping another one who was starting to get up. "We have to move now!"

"Right with you, Boss," Aqua said as she flipped herself upright. Her over-sized gauntlets on her hands ready for serious action. "How many?"

"There's about four dozen," Trump said as he hopped down from a shelf. He had come in through the attic portal. "All of them armed and ready for some serious action."

"Thanks for the update," Frank replied. He took a quick glance out the window to see a series of black vans and unmarked trucks about. He checked his pistol and grabbed a few mags off the table and put them in his jacket pocket. He called up the stairs, "Goner. Angst. Let's bamboozle!"

Just Like Television but Without the Tele

Angst spun crazily down the rope, the leather gloves burning as she did. Though she had controlled her fall she was still going to feel the effects of it; they were cutting this one pretty close. Right now she was on an adrenaline rush and the pain would have to wait until later.

"Where are you?" Frank's voice came through the earjack.

"Somewhere between here and there," Angst replied in a whisper. She unhooked herself from the rope and moved into the air-vent. "Keep your pants on."

"Get a room," Goner's voice interjected. He was waiting for Angst to clear the shaft before descending.

"Maybe later," Angst shot back and laughed. "Ain't that right Frank, baby!"

"Come on, folks," The Professor's voice was stern. "We are still on the clock on this one."