Copyright 2014 JC Wallace
Before we get to the weekly flash, I have news! My previous flash story, Diventando: The Vessel is now available as an eBook from Amber Allure! Get it here.
Now onto the flashing! Each week a group of authors participate weekly in Wednesday Briefs Flash Fiction. Each installment is 500-1000 words long and is posted to our blogs each week. After you read the latest in my story, click on the links at the end to visit the other flashers.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Levi tossed and turned most of the night. The dark eyed
man, his touch, the crushing pressure in his presence. Was it even in the realm
of possibility that another person could create such a mind-crushing, physical
reaction in Levi’s body because to say it aloud was just…crazy. No. His mind
was playing tricks on him in his assent into madness and he was grasping at
explanations based in reality. So why had the man touched Levi? Strangers
rarely go around touching each other. Well, Levi had been crying out in pain.
Maybe he’d been trying to help. But Levi couldn’t forget the surge of energy –
bone crushing electricity – that had rushed through his being when that dark-haired
harbinger of death had laid a hand on Levi. Coincidence? If so, it was a scary,
unbelievable coincidence.
And what about the woman’s reaction in the store? Now
that was beyond scary. It was as if her aged eyes had looked straight through
to Levi’s soul.
‘Hollow. Empty. Unfeeling.’
“Not even human,” Levi said aloud to the darkness. “Senz’anima.”
Those words rang with familiarity in his ears. Italian.
How did he know that? And where had he heard them before? School? Yes. But
where? In class. Dr. Winston’s Philosophy 101. An article they had discussed in
class, what was it about? He threw the covers off, switching the light on. In
his closet, he pulled out boxes that Logan had packed away from his dorm at
Plattsburgh State. Levi hadn’t even been able to return to get his belongings
so Logan and Melissa had made the trek to retrieve his stuff.
Sifting through the boxes of books, notebooks and papers,
Levi knew what he was looking for, if only he could lay his hands on it. His
philosophy folder and his philosophy book didn’t hold the answer. His notebook.
He sifted through the pages of handwritten notes. At first, the pages were
filled with extensive writing for each class he’d attended, each dated. As he
flipped further, the dates became farther between. Classes he’d missed. The sections
of notes getting shorter, spoke of the anxiety and panic following him into the
classroom, becoming his sole focus.
Scanning his notes, he turned page after page. That word
was there he knew it but when had it been discussed in class. Then it caught
his eye, on top of the page dated October twenty-fifth, in between
doodles of some strange symbols he had no recollection of drawing.
Senz’anima -
soulless.
Nothing else was on the page. He flipped page after page
but nothing else was written about the word. Closing his eyes, he tried to
remember the content from the article but the word was all he could see.
He frowned. Why would that old woman call him that?
Levi rose with the notebook and grabbed his laptop,
taking them both to his bed. Sitting back against his pillow, he typed the
Italian word into the search engine adding the quotes. The search results were
in Italian. Opening another window, Levi pulled up Google Translator and with
the translated page, he searched the short synopsis under each search result. One
was a chapter of a fiction book, another about vampires, a question pertaining
to the soul-stealing Dementors in the Harry Potter novels, a Facebook page
mentioning the words, another proclaiming the Euro as soulless money. Levi had
to chuckle at how the word soul was attributed to so many different subjects,
but nothing he saw recalled the article his teacher had passed out and
discussed.
Switching to the English translation, he typed “soulless”
into the search engine. First, a definition of “soulless” from a dictionary, a
Victorian romance with the same name, a band in Cleveland Ohio, a computer
game, more books. Back to the definition. 1. A person lacking sensitivity or
humanizing qualities. 2. Lacking facility for deep feeling. 3. Heartless;
mechanical.
Damn, if that didn’t speak directly to the very essence
of who Levi was except, maybe the part about lacking humanizing qualities.
Maybe the old woman was empathic or something and had sensed the emptiness, the
lack of emotion in Levi. This didn’t make him soulless and did little to reassure
him of the woman’s intent.
Levi typed “soulless person” into the search engine. A
word in the title of the first website smacked against him.
Psychopath.
He let out a nervous laugh to ease the tension inside but
what if…? No way. Yet, after what he’d felt toward Noah, a savage raging primal
anger laced with the covetous desire to own him and destroy him all at the same
time, definitely sounded like a psychopath.
A notification box popped up on his computer screen. A
Facebook message from Dr. Winston? It wasn’t odd that she’d sent Levi a message
since they chatted online often. What was
odd was the timing.
Levi clicked on the box and the message opened. Levi gasped
covering his mouth with a shaky hand.
“I know about the man who is following you. Come to my
office at noon tomorrow. It’s urgent."
##
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