MISSING TIME: "313" Volume 1 of 3

MISSING TIME: Prologue

Prologue

"You were on the bus with me."

The bass was pounding loud enough to shake his head apart, but Ryan's eyes stayed fixed on her.

His tongue flicked his teeth as he watched her body undulate in her little gray dress.  Dirty blonde hair trailed all the way down her back, the tips just brushing her ass.

That ass, he thought to himself, running a hand through his hair.

I'm gonna ruin that later.

As if on cue, the girl turned around.  She almost seemed to search the crowd around Ryan with her eyes, bright green eyes.  There was no way he could see them from here, but he did.  Then, with a strange certainty, the eyes settled on him.  She looked right into his eyes, and she smiled.

Oh yeah, Ryan thought and grinned, I'm about to fuck this bitch up.

She maneuvered up to him with impossible grace, weaving her body up against him, passing through the throng of dancers, pressing him against the wall, and proceeded to grind against him, causing Ryan to feel his cock wake up and go rock hard.  Ryan swallowed, and put his arms around her.  He tried to dance with her, but she held him that way, he was not sure exactly how.

"I'm Ryan," he said.

She grinned, a twinkle in her striking green eyes.  "I know."

"We should get a drink," Ryan whispered in her ear.

Once he got her to the bar, it would be easy to get the pill into her glass.  He had done it before.  Then it was just a matter of getting her outside to his car, once the pill started to kick in, and he'd be good to go.  He could do whatever he wanted.  He looked down at her body, thinking of all the things he would do to it.

"I have a better idea," she said.  Her green eyes flashed.

Something happened.

Something was not right.

Her eyes were all he could see.  They were all around him.  Running inside his head and keeping him trapped there.

She laughed, and her voice, inside his head, said:

HHOW ABOUT WE HAVE SOME REAL FUN, YOU FUCKING SCUMBAGG

Ryan tried to speak, but nothing came out.  His legs were moving on their own, walking him toward the door, with the girl following after.  He tried to scream, to wave, to do anything to stop from going with the girl, but his body would not obey him.  When he got to the door, his impulse was to reach his hand out and push the bar, but her eyes (those striking green eyes) flashed in his mind, and he found his head bowing forward.  He smacked the door with his forehead, knocking it open but causing a spray of color to cloud his vision.

"Baby!" she said from behind him, and he felt her hot hands take his arm.  She laughed to the bouncer at the door, "He's had a little too much to drink, poor thing!"

Ryan tried to scream to the bouncer but he couldn't even see him, much less say anything.

"You two need a cab?" a male voice nearby asked.

No! Ryan screamed in his head. Help me!

"We're fine," she said sweetly, "our car is right outside."

KKEEP SCREAMING I LOVE ITT

By the time Ryan's vision cleared, his legs had taken him to his car, and his hands had fished the keys out and opened the doors.  He handed her the keys and got in on the passenger side.  As he climbed in, he saw a guy getting on a motorcycle near the front of the bar.  He tried to shout out to him, but again he couldn't say a word.

NNO ONE CAN HELP YOU SO JUST GET USED TO ITT

She drove the car out on Highway 10, toward the edge of town.  There was a bridge across the river there, and once on the bridge she pulled the car over and stopped.  Ryan got out of the car against his will, shutting the door behind him.

The girl got out and walked around the car.  The light from one lone streetlight over the end of the bridge fell on her, illuminating the terrible look on her beautiful face.

SSO YOU WERE GONNA FUCK ME UP, HUHH

Please I'm sorry please please please, Ryan begged inside his mind.

WWHO'S THE BITCH NOWW

Ryan began taking off his clothes. First he pulled his pants down and kicked them off, then took his shirt off, tossing the lot over the railing.  They floated down to the dark water below.

Her green eyes consumed him.  He stepped up next to the railing, taking care to bang his arms and legs against them painfully.

Ryan turned around and faced her, leaning back up against the railing, pressing his anus against a particularly painful metal protrusion there.

The girl laughed, and just then a light fell on her.

The motorcycle rolled to a stop some twenty yards from them, and the man stepped off, removing his helmet.  He was the same age as them, early twenties, dark skinned African-American, bald, wearing a dark jacket over plain white T and jeans.

"Whatever you're thinking of doing to him," he said, "don't do it."

Help me! Ryan screamed inside his head, the freezing bolt or whatever it was pressing into his rectum. Oh God please help me!

SSHUT UPP

 "Who the fuck are you?" she asked.

"You were on the bus with me," he said. "You were on the bus, right?"

For just a moment the green eyes, which were all Ryan could see, cracked open and he saw a terrified little girl on a school bus.  In the middle of the night, the bus -- but then the green eyes came back together and he saw nothing again.

"Who.  The fuck.  Are you?"  she asked again.

"I can feel you," he said. "That's your thing, huh?  Getting inside people's heads?"  He glanced at Ryan.  "Controlling them?  I can feel you in there, trying to take over, but it isn't working.  That's kind of my...thing? I guess?  My power.  Things don't hold on to me.  If I think hard, I won't even be here. I'll be back home.  I don't know how it works."

"The fuck are you talking about? WHO ARE YOU?"

"My name is Kevin?  You remember?  You're Becca, right?  You were on the bus with me that night."

"SHUT UP about that!"

Suddenly, from somewhere to Ryan's right, a spotlight activated.  Kevin and Becca turned toward it, covering their eyes.  Ryan tried, but couldn't turn his head.

A shot rang out, and Becca fell, her head a ruined red mess on the pavement.

The green eyes vanished from Ryan's eyes, and he fell to the ground.

"Stop!" Kevin cried. "Why are you doing this?"

Ryan lifted his head, his exhausted muscles in agony.  Until now, he hadn't realized how hard his body had been fighting itself.  He could barely move.

A second shot rang out, and Ryan thought he saw Kevin's head flinch, but he was unharmed.

"Why?" Kevin shouted again.

A third shot rang out, and then a fourth, and fifth, Kevin flinching each time.  Shots rang out faster and faster, like microwave popcorn cooking to a crescendo.  Bullets slid off Kevin's body, riddling the car, the motorcycle, the bridge itself.

Kevin closed his eyes, and was gone.

Ryan turned his eyes toward the spotlight now, blinded, terrified, and his vocal chords finally, finally began to obey him.

"Nnng.  Nunngghh! NNNN!! NOOOOOO!!"

A final shot sounded.

End Prologue

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 (c)opyright 2013 by J. David Clarke