Author's Note: I originally wrote this story, as I needed a break from the direction thoughts and tangents of my other story, Project: Prometheus. Mainly to help keep my ideas fresh and unique rather than getting bogged in recurring thought patterns. Also, the chapter outlines have been piling up, and I needed to get this one out there. I set this story in modern day, but with its own unique science fiction aspect to it, one which I have always been fascinated with.
For those who may not know, I wrote this story up a few years ago, while I was on vacation out in the Caribbean. I continued on with it for a while, then the direction of the story kind of got away from me and I had to shelve it. My mind had hit a wall with how to resolve such a conflict and it has remained untouched until today!
This story has now been retooled and revamped to be within the standard I set for all of my stories! Was drumming up some other chapters for my main three when I remembered this story! Once I started thinking about it, I couldn't get many of these new fresh ideas out of my head and had to get them down!
Now that I have, I can say with complete confidence that this tale will proceed forward, with other chapters soon to arrive! Like Wings of Fire and Return of the Blood Reaver, this will be on my side story rotation, as the main tales I am known for will take precedence over this one. Now, shall we begin?
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Air blowing through his lungs like a bellows, Tomas kept pushing himself to reach the top of the hill. The mid-spring sun beat down on him in its intensity, forcing him to sweat. A light wind blowing from the north kept the worst of the heat at bay. The forest path he had come off narrowed as it snaked up the large hill.
Steeling his resolve, the young man increased his pace as he lengthened his stride. He kept pumping his knees upwards at a furious pace. Tomas kept pushing himself, knowing his goal was near. Using his toes, he dug into the soft earth and propelled himself forwards. His stride continued eating the distance from where he was, to the apex of the hill.
Mere seconds later he stopped, having reached the top of the hill in question. Looking down at his wrist, Tomas checked his watch and couldn't believe what he saw. He had crushed his old time by a good three minutes! Lifting his arms, he let out a shout of exultation, basking in the moment. He was happy that he could push himself that far and still come ahead as he had.
Taking a moment, Tomas steadied his breathing as he stood and surveyed the surrounding area. As he looked on, he saw that pair of ladies he passed on the trail a while back. They were heading back into town, the two on a run similar to his. Though he had been focused on his goal of reaching the top of the hill in record time, he had noticed their hungry glances.
Tomas Brykonov was a tall man, standing at six feet, with a lean musculature, though he wasn't lanky. His black hair was cut and cropped short and it went with his electric blue eyes. It was those eyes, which were one of things that drew women to him. His blocky face was handsome enough and his Russian heritage stood out plain as day. Despite his ancestry, he identified proudly as a Canadian, having been the second generation of his bloodlines born here.
Though he seemed as normal and average as any young man his age could be, Tomas had a secret. For as long as he could remember, Tomas could sense and understand what exactly what people were feeling and from that, could guess what they were thinking about. He never could understand where this ability came from. The only thing he could explain was that it existed.
He could sense the general direction of what people were thinking, and each feeling or thought had its own marker. It took him a few years to figure it out, but once he had, it was easy for him to understand what people were feeling and when they were feeling it. This made his ability to blend in with practically any social crowd reasonably easy, as having a sixth sense like that made it insanely easy to navigate these crowds.
His powers had their limits though, which frustrated Tomas. He couldn't read people's minds outright, and their direct thoughts were always a mystery. On top of which, there were people he wasn't able to read at all. He called these people 'Rocks', as that's what they were to him, as unreadable as a rock. Tomas was extra careful around these sorts of people, as they often were total enigmas to the man.
This was a limitation that Tomas had tried to clear up and get past, but everything he tried didn't work. He figured that as far as his abilities were concerned, this was the limit for them. It annoyed Tomas that he had these limits, but he quelled his bellyaching after a while. But he supposed having some idea of what people were thinking was better than none, like normal people were relegated to doing.
The interesting thing about this was that he was never wrong about what his sense told him. Growing up and able to feel these things was odd. As he grew, he knew other children he met couldn't do what he could. At first, it weirded him out, and he often wondered why he was like this. He was sure that if he chose a good friend to share his secret with, that he could finally have some level of normalcy.
He tried telling one classmate he felt he could trust about this, about how he knew these things on instinct. That was back in Grade Four, when he believed his friend Markus would understand. He told him about the various emotions that ran through their classmates as they looked at and interacted with them. At first, it seemed like Markus was cool with it.
Instead, what had happened was everyone shunned and ostracized Tomas at school. He tried to talk to people, but they ignored him, not wanting to be anywhere near the 'freak'. As he wondered why people were treating him differently, he overheard a snippet of conversation. Primarily about what Markus had told people about him.
It got to where many kids, even the older ones, believed the vicious rumors that Markus had spread around school. Even several teachers had looked at him funny. The feelings and emotions he was reading from them were even worse than what his classmates felt about him. Once his parents found out, they pulled him out of school and the whole family moved to an entirely new area. He then got a stern talking to, about how not everyone would understand what he could do. That he needed to keep it a secret.
Considering Markus' betrayal, Tomas had no issues keeping this to himself. Going through what he did, didn't have him wanting to experience that again. Since then, it had been just him and his parents who knew, until his parents had died. His mom back when he was twelve, then his dad, not long after he had turned sixteen.
He had some form of 'family', though he didn't trust them. About a year after his mom had died, his dad met another woman, Vanessa. She made him happy enough and had a daughter herself, Sabrina, who was older than Tomas by at least two years. For the first time since his mother had passed in the car accident, they were a family again. That was until Anton Brykonov died. It was then and only then that Vanessa's true nature was revealed.
She showed her true colors as an outright and total bitch. Vanessa had little to no interest in Tomas and only wanted the house and money that his father had spent his life building up. With her snakey lawyer, she had wrested Tomas' inheritance away from him and they left him with nothing.
Despite being Anton's son, Vanessa was his wife and was granted everything that should have been Tomas'. Being a minor, he had no real backing and no money to fight back with. The whole debacle had left a bitter taste in Tomas' mouth, and he would have been forced to live on the street. Had it not been for his grandfather, who was in the hospital when Anton died, Tomas would likely have been on the streets with nothing but the clothes on his back.
Dimitry Brykonov was an odd and eccentric man, but was the grandfather you read about in storybooks. Kind, caring, gentle, but he could also be a hardass if he thought you were being lazy. He took Tomas in after what had happened and looked after him as best as he could.
Though he was quite advanced in his years, Dimitry was still a spry old man, with all the vigor of an adolescent teenager. His grandfather, owning his own home and having a decent nest egg set aside, had dipped into it a bit. Primarily to help Tomas out, as he only had a little money set aside from the odd summer jobs he had worked.
Tomas had saved a sizable sum by himself, enough to put himself through university. Dimitry supplied the money needed to stay in the dorms and for some food. Anything additional, such as beer money, Tomas would have to earn himself. If it hadn't been for that lying and conniving bitch that was his stepmother, he would have been far better off.
'Well, no sense in dwelling on the past
,
'
Tomas thought to himself as he finished his breathing exercises. Once he had put himself back in a normal breathing pattern, Tomas started down the hill, retracing his steps back through the local trail. He glimpsed the uni buildings in the distance as he made his way to the forest floor, picking up the pace.
Another fifteen minutes saw him back in the city, on the outskirts at least. The university was built out on the edge of the city, out of the way of most living areas and industry. The area selected was quiet to keep all the hustle and bustle and assorted commotion to a minimum. It afforded the students enrolled there the capability to focus more on their studies. Though a few clubs and pubs had sprung up in its wake, it was still a quaint little place.
Tomas had just made it to the campus from across the road, right by one of the local bars, Loopy Jack's. It was a favorite hangout spot for students who were out of class and had little else to do but socialize. He had noted a lot of folks in there despite the hour, all of them getting their drink on. Tomas smiled to himself as he made his way across the grounds to the dormitories. Soon, he'd be drinking up a few beers himself.
Despite the dark and depressing thoughts that had permeated his conscious mind, today would be a good day. Not only could Tomas feel it, but he also knew it because it was his birthday. Twenty-two years old today and his friends, from both on campus and off, were throwing him a party. He had only been informed of it last night and was delighted that everyone he considered a friend had gone to all the trouble.
He was more than halfway to the dorms when he spotted what appeared to be trouble. A bunch of jocks surrounded a nerdy-looking East Indian guy. Judging by his stance and the look on his face, they weren't being friendly. He deviated from his run, not only to avert anything that might happen to the boy, but also to defend a fellow nerd/geek.
