Titan: The Dark Path

Holes in the World

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The number of missing female Capitol University students is now five, according to District police. The latest, and fifth, disappearance was reported yesterday evening. Chelsea Walters, 18, was last seen leaving student housing on I Street NW on Monday evening. Ms. Walters' roommate reported her absence 24 hours later. Authorities report a number of leads in the case, but have provided no specifics.

All five missing women participated in the "Fast Freshman" program at the university, which offers summer housing and prerequisite courses for freshmen. There are approximately 500 students in the program. Authorities are questioning friends, faculty, and other student groups that attend campus during the summer months. The Journal has provided photographs of all five women and police encourage anyone with information to call the "Crime Stoppers" line: 202-555-8013.

When asked if District police had enough manpower to investigate the disappearances and the recent terror incident at the Hotel Monaco, Commissioner Anthony Cooper said, "Appropriate resources have been assigned to all investigations in our jurisdiction. And we are fully cooperating and collaborating with Federal officials involved."

Inquiries to clarify what constitutes "appropriate resources" were not addressed...

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Tim set the newspaper down. He wrote notes on a pad beside him. He thought for a few moments. His head began to hurt again and he stood up and paced, but the dull ache remained.

He was in Eric's room. The tome of Titan was on the shelf above the desk where Nancy had set it out of reach. Just looking at it exacerbated the pain. He and the "book" were not compatible anymore. He had the wrong tools. The book was calibrated for metric and he was using standard. Close, but not quite. The book was undamaged, but he felt like his brain had been stripped like a screw. He wouldn't do that again. Couldn't. He got more than he bargained for from the brief connection.

It was enough.

The missing girls still screamed in his head. They were still alive in some dark place. At least that's what he saw. It was always hard to read the Source. It was like sticking your face into a fire hose. Sometimes it showed you literally what it meant and other times there were simply images, noises, and sounds. He didn't know if he was seeing the past, the present, or the future. Tim had never been particularly good interfacing with the Source. It relied upon a level of release and vulnerability he wouldn't allow. He was always better going with his gut than his head.

Tim grabbed his pad of notes and took some aspirin from the bathroom on the way out. Nancy was in the living room standing in front of the TV with the remote. She was fixed on the screen.

"Look!" she said.

There was a news broadcast with a blonde, wispy-haired anchor standing in front of a bar. The news graphic read "Parkersburg, WV" with the accompanying logline "'TITAN' Sighting?"

"Turn it up," Tim said.

"...but, witness accounts vary. Generally, all of the people we spoke to, Don, described a large man with long hair who assaulted a waitress. He was, allegedly, someone they knew from town—no names have been released—but this man, the reported attacker, threw another young man through a window, which you can see back here." The anchor pointed, stiffly, at the building behind her as the cameraman zoomed in on a shattered window covered by crisscrossed police tape.

"It was at this point, witnesses say, that another man entered whose description matches several accounts from downtown Washington, D.C., in last Friday's prom terror incident, an individual witnesses called Titan. Authorities in the district and here in West Virginia continue to resist using that name, but no matter what you call him, this cell phone photograph clearly shows an individual who fits the other eyewitness descriptions as well as the few images released by D.C. police."