Joshua Graham - Terminus

NICK LEFT THE WAY A HUMAN WOULD, through the front door and out to the sidewalk. Concealed by the shadow of a camphor tree, he focused on the Coronado Bridge until he felt the concrete vanish from beneath his feet.

A cool blast of air rushed over his face and raked through his hair. It wasn’t teleporting but he was flying at superhuman speeds. He looked down to make sure he wasn’t casting a shadow over the bridge.

As he approached the bridge, a sharp pain stabbed his head—the effect of his supernatural powers draining away. Losing balance, he gripped his head between his hands.

The landscape spun as he hurtled down to the water below.

He felt no impact, no splash, no suffocating water in his lungs, but Nick knew he’d plunged beneath the bridge. When he regained his bearings, it became abundantly clear that he was between realms.

Sort of.

He wasn’t drowning, but his clothes felt damp. The water seemed neither cold, warm, nor heavy. He drifted in it but didn’t sink or float, the only sensation was the pain now gripping his skull like a vise. It overwhelmed him every time he tried to teleport to dry land.

Large shadows passed over as did the sound of motors and a cruise ship’s horn. The briny dampness became tangible in his mouth, his nose, and pressed against the surface of his whole body. He was slipping through into the physical realm and uncertain he could control it.

He thought he heard someone calling him. The voice itself wasn’t audible, but in his mind the earnest cry evoked images of Clara, Sophia…and Hope.

He turned his head, hit a concrete post. Before he could react, the darkness engulfed him utterly.

WITHIN THE BOWELS OF CABRILLO STADIUM, Yuri crimped the final wire to arm the second of two nuclear devices strategically placed under the stands of the plaza level on the north and south sides.

“There.” He handed the remote detonators to Dan and Gunther, the two hulking men who’d overseen the activation. “After retina scan, use this button to arm, this one to begin countdown. Scan retina again, then press blue button to abort—”

“Abort?” Dan glowered at him.

“Just in case. I made very simple, even child could—”

“That’ll be all,” Gunther said. He and Dan lifted him up as if he were made of straw.

“Hey!” Yuri struggled, but it was no use. In a few seconds he was in the locker room being slammed against the doors.

“What the hell? I make delivery, set up configuration. Why—”

Gunther opened the door next to Yuri’s right ear, pulled out some neatly wound cord, and started tying Yuri’s wrists behind his back.

“After delivery I get paid! I had deal with Lena Walker!”

“These are Lena’s orders,” Gunther said.

Dan got a roll of duct tape from the locker and wrapped it twice around Yuri’s head, tightly sealing his mouth. Just when Yuri thought it couldn’t get any worse, Gunther fashioned a noose around his neck and threw the other end of the rope over a pipe high above them. He started pulling on the rope.

Screams choked off, eyes bulging, heart about to explode, Yuri dared not move as the rope grew tighter.

Didn’t matter.

He knew what was coming.

He shut his eyes.

Heard Sascha say You’ll never amount to anything.

Heard himself say I’m sorry, Mommochka.

The last thing Yuri heard was the sound his neck made when it snapped.

THE IMPACT THAT CAUSED THE DARKNESS eventually ended it. At first a flash of white light, then the dancing flecks that swam around Nick’s head, then the realization that he was mostly in the physical realm but not to the point that he couldn’t exist under water without drowning.

The damage from that concrete pillar felt real enough, though. As he drifted in the depths, a sharp throbbing pain from the bump surpassed all other sensation, which meant the pain of his draining angelic powers had subsided.

For the moment.

Right above his head, a trio of sea creatures swam past him. From their horizontal tail flukes, he could tell they were mammals—dolphins or some other sort of porpoise.

How long had he been unconscious?

Judging by the scant trickles of light that made it to the murky depths, evening had fallen. He’d spent several hours submerged at the bottom of the bay which Hope had almost made her grave.

Time to find that pendant.

With the sand barely registering the presence of his feet, Nick trudged toward the spot closest to where he believed Hope had attempted her fatal swan dive.

He knew the prospect of finding anything but debris and fish muck in those dark depths was about as good as finding a diamond in a junkyard.

He had to try.

Even if it brought on more daggers to the skull. He focused on the image of Hope touching the place on her neck where her pendant had been. Sure enough, a skewer of pain impaled his left eye socket, which throbbed exquisitely.

A dark gray harbor porpoise swam over to watch him. Just past the sleek frame of the porpoise, he saw something shining in the distance. It looked almost like a penlight lodged in some kelp around one of the bridge’s pillars.

Pushing through the ever roiling water and ever increasing pain, Nick slogged over to the flickering light, glad the porpoise was following. He was exhausted, the pain now so intense he almost released the mental image of Hope.

The porpoise swam closer to the light.

Nick took a deep breath—and a few more steps.

Just enough:

The jade pendant hung on a gold chain dangling from a barnacle. Its design was a traditionally entwined dragon and phoenix, but there was nothing else traditional about it. The pendant glowed— with a golden light that cast no physical rays, nor did it glint onto the face of the porpoise clicking joyfully while she remained close at Nick’s side.

He reached out and let the pendant float up under his hand. In order to take hold of it, he’d have to become fully physical—his hand, at least. He wasn’t sure he had the ability or coordination to do that now.

But he wasn’t about to give up, now.

As he released the image of Hope, the pain lessened if only marginally. He slipped his hand into the physical layer, lifted the pendant, closed his fingers around it, and pushed it into his pocket. But the sudden compression in his chest and the saturation of frigid water in his clothes alerted him to a troubling realization: He had not been able to control his entrance into the physical realm.

He couldn’t retreat to the safety of the spiritual layer without losing the pendant. Nor could he swim to physical safety if he remained in his current state. Already the pressure of the watery depths was crushing him. His eyes felt like they were bulging out of his head, his lungs were desperate for air.

He looked over to the porpoise, projected his need for help as best he could.

She swam over and presented her dorsal fin. Nick grabbed it with both hands.

// THANK YOU //

When they finally broke through the surface, the porpoise sent a heavy mist through its blowhole and swam toward shore.

Nick held on like a man on a self-propelled boogie-board.

“I suppose I’m going to have to learn how to swim, one of these days,” he called out.

The porpoise clicked and chattered.

Five minutes later Nick stood on the sandy shore bidding farewell to his aquatic friend. Despite the pains he’d taken, the lingering aches and nausea, the teeth-chattering chill that ran like ice through his drenched body, he felt grateful. And amazed at his good fortune in surviving the plunge and retrieving Hope’s pendant.