Freewill

An unimaginable crime.

An unexpected hero.

An unbelievable reward.

Simon lived a comfortable life: a steady job; a wife that shared his interests; an active social life. Yet he knew deep down that something had gone awry; that perhaps the contentment he felt with his life was an illusion. That gnawing discomfort falls to the wayside, however, when his world is shattered after he crosses paths with a monster hell bent on committing a heinous crime; and his act of heroism attracts the attention of a divine presence who grants him literally unfathomable powers in recognition of his sacrifice.

This sets Simon on an epic adventure of discovery as he tries to evade those furious at his heroic intervention, and shadowy government figures intent on discovering the 'secret' behind his new-found abilities. His quest will lead him to parts of the world he never knew existed as he experiences passion, joy, betrayal and heartache unlike anything he could have imagined. In the end, he will grapple with the question of if his 'gift' was in fact a curse, and if a man with his abilities can ever truly deserve happiness.

Freewill is the tale of a simple man given abilities which make him a god among men, and his journey to find the one thing his powers cannot grant... but which all men desire.

Author's note:

This novel is a work of contemporary fantasy adventure. I've split it into five sections for publication here.

For fans of the Dean, this novel began as a thought experiment along the lines of, 'what if Stranger was about a regular guy being granted that powerset, instead of a man born on another planet and raised by aliens (not to mention swapping out a frankly unforgiveable amount of bigotry found in that seminal work with a whole heap of on-page sensuality and a sprinkling of ideas inspired by other works of popular fantasy)?' and grew from there.

Make no mistake, this novel delves into some weighty subject matter. Trigger warnings for significant on-page violence (including a mass shooting and multiple hate crimes), depression and suicidal ideation.

All sensuality (on page or otherwise) takes place between characters who are eighteen or older.

Thirteen

Simon's slumbering consciousness gradually became aware of a commotion in the vicinity of his corporeal form. His sense of unease quickly rose to alarming levels, so he allowed his consciousness to repopulate his body. This done, his senses began making hasty reports as to what had taken place while he had been away. He did a brief check to ensure nothing had been damaged in his absence. Satisfied nothing was amiss, he sped his heart rate up and allowed his lungs to fill with air. He opened his eyes to find a sobbing Karen leaning over him, her tear-filled eyes shut tight.

"Good morning," he said pleasantly.

Her eyes flew open in horror, which quickly turned to shock before finally settling on gratitude. She gushed, "Oh, Jesus. Baby. I thought you were dead. I called an ambulance and everything."

"What do you mean?" Simon said with genuine confusion. "I was fine. I was just resting my mind, so I allowed my body to rest as well."

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" she practically shouted. "You weren't breathing, and your heart was stopped."

Simon was about to retort how ridiculous he considered her statement to be, but he managed to stop himself. Karen had never done anything to lead him to believe she was a particularly hysterical person, or even one prone to exaggeration. Something had truly scared her. He mentally reviewed everything which had transpired since he laid down next to her forty-three minutes earlier. The scene replayed in his head like something from a sports' broadcast. He saw himself letting the air out of his lungs and slowing his heartbeat before his consciousness went...somewhere. Where it went, he could not be sure. He only had a sensation of it being mysteriously untethered from his body. Thinking back, and truly concentrating on what had happened, he realized he had done all this as though out of habit. It seemed ridiculous in hindsight, but he had behaved as though he always mimicked death and left his body to sleep. And this was on top of the fact that he could now apparently get a half hour of sleep and have it feel like he had slept for ten hours.

All of this flashed through his head in eighty-six microseconds. He met Karen's eyes and pulled her into his arms. He said, "I'm so sorry honey. I never meant to scare you, but I promise everything is one hundred percent fine. Even better because the most beautiful woman in the multiverse is in my arms."

She sobbed quietly in his arms for a moment longer before saying, "I was so scared."

"I know, baby. I swear, I'll explain everything. But, right now, we may have more pressing concerns. How long until they said the ambulance will arrive?"

"I don't know. A couple minutes?"

Simon cringed and said, "Did you give them my name?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't I?"

"First off, honey. I want to assure you that you did absolutely nothing wrong. I'm touched by your concern."

"You're welcome, babe. What's the second part?"

"We need to leave this place immediately. Before the ambulance arrives."

An exciting seventy-nine seconds followed where Karen threw on her clothing and packed up Simon's laptop while he dressed himself and collected all of his various affects which he had carelessly strewn around the condo. They heard the wail of the siren as they reached the front door and heard the sound of the elevator doors opening as they fled into the stairwell.

Once they were safely in Simon's truck and headed away from the scene, he reached over to take Karen's hand. "Thank you, my dear. Rare is the friend who will unquestioningly do something preposterous to help a friend in need. I owe you, big time."

She squeezed his hand and said, "I wasn't drunk last night Simon. Unless you can get drunk off the world's best orgasm. But I'm certain I was in full possession of my faculties."

"I had no reason to think otherwise," Simon replied. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I meant what I said about falling for you. I know it's bonkers to tell someone that after one evening together. We haven't even been on a proper date, for fuck's sake, and you're already the best boyfriend I've ever had."

Simon pulled her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles gently. He murmured, "You make me happy, Karen," even though he would have much rather told her that, while the fact that she was falling for him made him happy, the fact that he was certain he had

fallen

for her made him even happier. But he could not fail to notice that she had almost deliberately avoided telling him she loved him, and he had no wish to scare her off by being too eager.

She gave him a ten-thousand-watt smile and leaned back into her seat. At length, she asked, "So, what now? And how come you were so freaked out about the ambulance people knowing your name? And why in the fuck weren't you breathing when I woke up? You scared the shit out of me, Simon."

"Again, I'm so sorry about that, honey. I genuinely didn't know that was happening. I guess all of those questions have the same answer. It's wrapped up in something that happened to me when I got shot. But, if I may be so bold, I suspect you are hungry, and we can't just drive around aimlessly forever. Do you have any thoughts of where we might go?"

***

An hour later, Simon and Karen were relaxing in her bed. She had taken in Simon's story with surprising calm. Simon reasoned that this was due to her firsthand experience with his abilities or perhaps even a byproduct of how they felt about each other. For his part, he felt very grateful to have someone with whom he could share his experiences.

As part of his story, Simon had shared the crossroads at which he had arrived with respect to how to generate revenue. At first, Karen was quite confused by his desire to leave behind a decent paying job which was relatively undemanding. But, as he elaborated on the soullessness of a job which required him to spend his days speaking with people who were spewing venom, she came to understand his perspective.

She said she wanted to do some digging on possible options for him and excused herself to work on her laptop. He let her go with a kiss, and took the opportunity to continue his market research in the hopes that this entire exercise would become academic. After roughly thirty minutes of quiet typing, she exclaimed, "Oh!"

Simon crooked an eyebrow at her and said, "Everything ok, sweetie?"

"Yeah, I just thought of the perfect idea. I've got a friend, an acquaintance really. Matter of fact, it's a guy who comes into the restaurant pretty frequently. Anyway, he's got a travel trailer that he wants to sell. He found a buyer, but it's a ways away. He was going to drive it up there, but I already heard him say he'd pay someone four figures to drive it for him. Not to mention whoever did it would get to use the trailer during the trip. What do you say, babe? You up for a few days of freaky RV sex?"

"What about your job?"

"Fuck my job," Karen said with a smile. "I'd much rather stay with you. Besides, I can't imagine letting all those savages stare at my tits and ass all day when I'd much rather you be fucking them."

"Well, that sounds like a pretty attractive proposition. How do I get in touch with him?"

Karen smiled and said, "I'll handle it."

"Thanks, honey," Simon said before kissing her thoroughly.

She smiled in return as their lips parted and said, "Anything for you, babe. Why don't I make some calls and see what I can set up?"

"Sounds good. I should probably make some calls as well."

Simon gave Hank a call to catch him up on the last day's events. Hank was thrilled about Simon's description of Karen. This was unsurprising to Simon. After all, his friend had been encouraging him to seek comfort in the arms of a woman other than Casey for years. What did surprise Simon was how much more interested Hank was in how Karen made him feel, almost as if Simon's description of her beauty was completely irrelevant. This struck Simon as strange, especially coming from his friend who was always quick to point out things like cup size or measurements in his own romantic conquests.

After finishing with Hank, Simon decided he should go ahead and touch base with the FBI as he had promised. He checked in with Karen to see if she wanted to tag along, but she said she had some things to take care of if they were planning on a road trip. Simon gave her a searing goodbye kiss and headed out to his truck with an irrepressible grin on his lips.

***

Upon arrival at the FBI's field office, he was escorted into the office of Agent Johnson. The diminutive man stood to greet him and indicated that Simon should sit.

"Coffee?"

"No, thanks. So, what's the program? Do I just sign you into my email and then I can go?"

"It's not quite that simple. Besides, I'd like to have you talk to one of my agents who has been working the group your shooter came from. She'll have you go through some pictures of known associates and give you a set of emergency contact numbers in case something happens. But before we get into that, I wanted to talk to you about some strange phone conversations I've had in the last day." Simon's only response was a blank expression, so the agent went on. "Yesterday, I got a call from the doc who was supervising your care at the hospital. I then spoke to her boss, and then about three more bosses until finally I was speaking to the chief operating officer for one of the biggest medical conglomerates in the country. They're quite anxious to find you, you know."

Simon considered his situation before replying, "Have I broken any laws?"

"Not that I'm aware of," the agent responded. "Although they tried to make some silly claim of theft because an ambulance was called on your behalf this morning to a location that was uninhabited. Although they did point out that the sheets were still warm."

"I have no wish to spend the next decade as a lab rat. As far as I'm concerned, they had exclusive access to me for over three months. That should be sufficient."

"Fair enough. Tell you what, if they do happen to catch up with you and you find their hospitality to be not to your liking, give me a call. I'll remind them of just how enthusiastically the FBI is opposed to kidnapping."

"I appreciate that," Simon replied sincerely.

Simon spent the next few minutes filling out a frankly shocking amount of paperwork, which all seemed like it could have been boiled down to something the side of a post card where Simon would provide his email credentials. He had already handled setting up a new email address and updating his few friends of the new way to contact him, so he unhesitatingly bid good riddance to the only email address he had had since college.

Agent Johnson pushed a button on his phone and said, "Send in Agent Rozzer."

Shortly the door opened to admit one of the tallest women Simon had ever seen in person. She was easily over one-hundred eighty centimeters. She also had light brown hair, which she had pulled up into a ponytail, and soulful hazel eyes. It also did not escape Simon's notice, even though Karen was all the woman he would ever need, that Agent Rozzer's attempts to use conservative clothing to hide her quite impressive breasts had failed rather completely. She took the seat next to Simon and stared wordlessly at Agent Johnson.

The latter frowned and said, "Well, out with it." Simon and Agent Rozzer looked at each other in confusion, prompting Agent Johnson to say, "I asked you to be prepared to brief Mr. York this morning."

"Yes, you did. And I am prepared to deliver the brief," Agent Rozzer replied in a throaty voice which reminded Simon of a redheaded knockout from an animated movie he had enjoyed in his childhood.

"So," Agent Johnson replied, clearly nearing the end of his patience. "What are you waiting for?"

"Even though this gentleman appears to resemble the photographs I have seen of Simon York, I have no way of knowing for certain that it is him. You also did not introduce him. It would be improper of me to make assumptions, considering the sensitivity of this matter."

Simon gained a newfound respect for Agent Johnson as he watched him go through what appeared to be multiple different mental exercises aimed at calming himself. At length he said, "Agent Rozzer, this is Simon York. Would you please brief him?"

"Of course, Agent Johnson," she said pleasantly. "Mr. York, would you accompany me to my office?"

After following the towering Amazon to her office, Simon was made to look through reams of mug shots. Agent Rozzer told him she had no expectation that he would recognize any of them, she merely hoped he would remember if he saw any of these faces in the future. Her expression indicated that she felt this to be an exercise in futility, but Simon found that it only took a moment of concentrating on each page before its contents were irrevocably committed to memory.

Once they finished with the mugshots, Agent Rozzer led him through a series of emergency procedures. These included phone numbers, email addresses and even a few physical addresses of safehouses Simon could seek out if necessary.

This complete, she led him back to the lobby of the building. In parting, she said, "Be careful around these creeps, Mr. York. They may seem like a bunch of dumb hicks. But the internet has given them an easy way to organize. And, as you have seen, they are plenty committed to their abhorrent cause. If you see any of them, don't be a hero. Just call in the calvary and keep your head down."

"I promise, Agent Rozzer," he said as he shook her hand. "I've had enough of the hero business to last a lifetime."

Fourteen

"Hey, babe?" Karen said plaintively from the passenger seat. "Why don't we pull into that campground at the next exit? I'm pretty bushed."

Simon shrugged and said, "We can if you want, baby. But I'm good to go to keep driving until we get there."

She leaned over and ran her index finger along the inside of his thigh. She reached up to nip his earlobe before whispering, "But if we drive straight through, how are we going to have freaky RV sex?"

"As always, my dear, you make an unimpeachable case. Ok, we'll stop. Do you want to get anything to eat before we park for the night? I don't think there's much in the way of provisions back there."

"Yeah, I am kinda hungry. How about you?"

"I could eat," Simon replied. He hoped she did not notice that he had technically evaded her question. Something he had noticed since the coma was that, in addition to needing much less sleep, he also needed to eat much less frequently. That being said, when he did eat, he usually found himself famished.

They pulled into an establishment with a name that made Simon smile from ear to ear. He said, "Bob's Country Bunker?"

"I guess," Karen replied. "Not much choice when we're pulling a trailer this long."

"Ok," Simon agreed, his smile still plastered to his face. "But if there's chicken wire in front of the stage, we're leaving."

Karen merely shrugged while Simon made a mental note to put a certain movie high into their queue of things to watch together. He handed her down from the truck and made sure everything was secure before leading her inside.

Despite the rough sounding name, the restaurant was perfectly nice on the inside. They were shown to a booth and in no time, the table between them was filled with food and drink. Their meal passed in companionable silence until a band set up on the stage and began playing.

"Oh," Karen exclaimed. "I love this song. Come dance with me."

"I'm not really much of a dancer," Simon protested.

"Come on, you big baby. I promise I won't let you look foolish."

She took his hand and led him out onto the dance floor. The song which Karen loved was a country standard which had been released around the same time as Simon's birth. He was normally not a big fan of country music, but he quickly forgot his prejudices as Karen ground her perfect ass into his groin. Simon sensed what felt like every eyeball in the restaurant zero in on Karen's beauty, and he could hardly blame them. Even dressed comfortably for a road trip, she was stunning.

The band transitioned into a slow song and Karen melted into his arms. Her body fit with his perfectly. He felt her hand slowly slide from his hip to the back of his neck and felt her head shift. He turned to face her, and their lips met. Her tongue eagerly invaded his mouth, heedless of the many onlookers. His hand slid down to her ass, squeezing it lovingly. Her mouth opened even wider for him, and he turned his head to deepen their kiss. He felt time slow down as it seemed their souls merged in the midst of the dance floor.

She broke the kiss breathlessly, and Simon reluctantly allowed his perception of the world around them to resume. He became aware of a mixture of wolf whistles and disparaging comments, the loudest of the former coming from a nearby woman who appeared to be in her mid-fifties. She leaned over to Simon and snippily told them to get a room.

"Don't mind if we do," he snarked.

He dropped a few twenties on their table and led Karen toward their RV. The sexual tension was thick as they drove to the campground. Karen's hand languidly stroked Simon's groin through his pants as he tried valiantly to back the trailer into their assigned space. It took far longer than Simon had hoped to make all the appropriate connections and he had nearly succeeded in calming down by the time he entered the luxury RV.