Watching boxing or mixed martial arts was always fun. I am not sure if I ever could get in the ring and try to fight with someone in that way. It always seemed too brutal and I would have been afraid that with all the adrenaline and emotion I would not be able to stop.
Sitting Indian style in my little room with my keepers behind the wall sized mirrors watching me, I felt at ease knowing the time was close for me to leave this place. A plate of food was sitting on the desk next to the bed. Not a single bite had been touched. Something was coming and I could feel it near. Food would only upset my stomach more.
Looking around for any sign, my focus was on the mirror in front of me. It would be about a month before leaving the room and the facility, but there were a few things were going to happen first. One of them was starting to show in front of me as black smoke clouded up in the mirror.
Two red glowing eyes appeared in the middle of the darkness the beady little Christmas lights. A deep man's voice was starting to call out to me from the cloud. He was here and I knew before he spoke what he wanted from me.
"Michael," the raspy voice was saying from the billowing black vapor.
It was time, "Hello, Baal," said very calm and pleasant. "Is it that time?" knowing the answer to my absurd question. This was his only reason to show up.
"Yes, Michael. Let us do this right. You know where I am." He was right. My eyes closed to see him standing in the living room of the Playhouse.
Focusing on the Playhouse living room, I easily moved and was standing by the bar, leaving the room behind completely. There was no reason to be split for this. It was time to do this at full strength.
Imagining the alarms going off in the building right then was in my thought, though pushed back. This was more important. It was time Baal knew what I had been learned over the past several years.
"Hello, Michael," Baal was standing in front of me in an all white suit, red tie and his cane.
"Hello, Baal. I see you still carry that cane around with you." A little conversation before this unfolded would be good on my mind. Relaxing was important and made things come easier.
"Of course. I feel it adds a certain sophistication to my look. What do you think?" he held the black cane up.
"If sophistication is what you are looking for, shouldn't you be wearing glasses as well?"
He snapped his fingers and silver framed stylish glasses appeared on his face. "There. How is that?"
"Nice. It suits you." Feeling that the pleasantries were about to come to an end, I walked behind the bar. "Would you like a drink?"
"By all means. How pleasant to have a drink with ones adversary," he crossed the room and sat at a stool at the bar top.
"What do you prefer," pointing at the bottles on the shelves.
"The XO would be very nice, please." Cognac was easy enough to guess since it went with his materialistic nature.
Pulling down the bottle I grabbed a sniffer from the overhead rack and poured him a glass. Putting it down in front of him his hand lit on fire and he picked up the glass to warm it up. After fifteen seconds or so he took a sip. My glass had vodka over ice.
"Mmmm. Warm Cognac. Very pleasant indeed," setting the glass down on the bar. The vodka hit my lips as he spoke. "So, should we have an audience for this event, Michael? I know some people that would just love to see you." He snapped his fingers again.
On the couch Bob, Remy, Matt, my parents and the kids all appeared, bound and gagged. Remy and the kids were all crying. It was obvious he was up to something so this did not surprise me all that much. Looking over at him with a sour expression, my eyes shut.
Bob and Remy vanished and then reappeared sitting in two chairs, my parents were on a different couch, Matt was sitting alone and the kids were gone. All gags and bindings were gone from their mouths and hands.
Looking back over at Baal, "Sorry, the kids were late for school. But, since you need the attention, this group will do just fine for the moment. Wouldn't you agree?" Bob and Remy laughed.
Taking another sip, "Yes. Although having the children here would have been that much better, school is school and there is no reason to miss it. Even for this," he announced in an arrogant tone.
Sipping the vodka, I looked at the glass and then to Matt. My hand was empty and Matt was holding the drink. It did not take much time for him to drink the entire glass empty.
"Thanks, mate. I needed that." He smiled as Baal looked over at him.
Everyone in the room looked scared by the events taking place. Tension in the room had gone up dramatically and they too could feel it. Remy's heart was beating so fast that a rabbit might have been by to check on its counterpart.
Not wanting to keep everyone in the room against their will, "Do any of you wish to leave? You do not have to stay for this." Looking around at their faces they were surging with fear and curiosity.
Matt broke the ice, "I'm good to stay if you don't mind."
Bob looked over at Remy sitting in her chair. She gave him a loving glance, "We'll stay, too."
My mother seemed more excited than expect, "We're staying to watch you kick his ass, Michael!"
Baal laughed. "That is one great support group you have there. Do they understand the gravity of their decision, though? That is the real question here."
Matt stood up, "Look, this main floor is gigantic," he gave me a wink, "we'll all watch from up there." He pointed to the catwalk running around the send level of the house.
Matt motioned to everyone in the room to head for the stairs. Each one of them stood up and followed Matt to the top. Spreading out to get a good view of the scene, they walked down around the railing.
Baal took another drink and finished his glass. Waving my hand, all the furniture vanished. My mother gasped in surprise from the second level. To have something there and not, especially with so many people thinking size matters, could be quite shocking.
Baal threw his sniffer at the bottles of alcohol behind me. As they shattered and started to rain down liquid, my eyes closed and the alcohol went up stream back into the bottles which had shards of glass flying back together to fix themselves. Even the sniffer was back together in my hand.
"Now, that is not proper behavior for a guest in my house, Baal," Matt snickered from the rail. Lifting my hand, all the bottles disappeared just like the furniture. Matt gasped this time with all the bottles and glasses moved to the walkway behind him.
"Thanks, mate!" he was grinning from ear to ear.
"Everyone better get a drink. Anyone want popcorn for this?" asking sarcastically.
Baal got up and walked across the empty floor to the other side of the room by the stairs. Spinning around he whipped fired at me with his hand. Walking through the fire which did not burn at all, my hands went out and I told the fire to leave.
"You have already tried that one." It was the same as before. He was good at the same tricks which he repeated.
His eyes went completely white and it was easy to guess what he was going to do. For some reason, deep in my chest, not wanting him to get discouraged, I let it happen. Layer upon layer of ice covered over me as it built up until I was buried under a giant block of ice. Feeling no icy cold on my skin, I just stood there doing nothing. After all that it was just a hope he was feeling better about himself. These feelings just kept popping into my chest randomly and over rode my logic.
It was a little boring of standing in the ice not being able to see anything. Closing my eyes my body split. Materializing a bowl of popcorn another me was on the rail next to Matt. Taking a bite of popcorn before anyone knew I was standing there.
"How's he doing?" asked Matt sarcastically. Splitting myself from there, I was sitting at a stool at the bar with more popcorn. The me upstairs offered some of the contents of the bowl to Matt.
"That's pretty impressive!" Matt took a handful and crammed it into his mouth.
"Yes, it is," the me at the bar said.
"I enjoy doing it most of the time," the me on the walkway said. "It is really fun to read two books at once," more laughter from Matt.
Watching my parents from the bar, they were looking down and up and down trying to figure out what was going on. A crack ran down the middle of the block of ice. It was slow starting in the middle and heading in both directions. It stopped at the top and bottom as the block started to violently shake.
Cracking and crunching were coming from the block before it exploded ripping the ice into tiny shards and pieces. A third me was standing in the middle with my arms out. Looking toward the bar me and waved. Seeing it in my head was kind of dizzying like having a mirror facing another mirror.
"Do you really want to keep doing this?" saying with a smartassed laugh.
Baal raised his cane and twirled it in one hand above his head. The wind around him picked up and formed a funnel cloud around his body. Dust was attracted to him as me moved toward he like the Tasmanian devil.
When he was about a foot from me, my hand went out and a pulse jetted from it as the tornado stopped and Baal flew back from me and hit the cement wall at the back of the room with a resounding thud. Reaching my hand out I pictured crushing the cane which broke in his hand. Spreading my fingers quickly the cane shattered into thousands of splinters. Before they could all land, my hand closed and all the pieces reformed into the cane in his hand again. I clapped from the bar and the balcony. The me in the middle of the room just bowed.
"Thank you. Thank you!" Matt was laughing so hard he choked on the popcorn. Patting him on the back he coughed up a kernel.
"Thanks. Damn popcorn kernels!" he sputtered a little more.
"Baal, this is not going to work. Do you have something else or is that it?" it was just getting boring. Showing off for the family in some kind of freak show was not the plan.
Turning bright red, his eyes looked extremely angry. Smoke snaked up from the bottom of his cane swirling around him. He vanished into the cloud and then the cloud disappeared on top of itself. He appeared briefly in the corner behind the bar and then on my right. A punch was coming in slow motion and as my left hand twitched, time slowed to a crawl right before he made contact. Moving around behind him and lifting my foot I let time go and speed up just as it made contact. At the bar I through a kick to his face and he landed face up on the floor.
"Nice shot," Bob said as he took a sip from the Jack Daniels in his glass.
"Yeah," I said from next to Matt. Matt spit his drink out from choking caused by laughing.
Baal raised himself up in the air. He pointed his hand at the catwalk which started to shake and shimmy. Everyone on the walkway started to yell, except for me. All six of my eyes were glowing blue as I pointed at the floor and pictured the walk stabilizing and held it there. From the middle of the room, I pointed up at the ceiling and pictured it coming down on Baal and yanked my hand downward. The entire ceiling of cement and my office and the dirt above came down on top of him. Waiting a couple seconds, I pictured it all going back up and fixing everything. Lifting my hand it all returned to place as if it never happened. Baal was on the ground seriously dazed.
I closed my eyes on the balcony and focused on the middle of the room. From the bar I focused on the room and let go of the bar and the walkway. There was only one of me in the middle of the room as I walked up to Baal on the floor and reached down to help him up.
Grabbing his hand, our skin touched. It was an incredible burning sensation running through my entire body as every muscle was clenched. Yelling with Baal, after a couple seconds we pulled away from one another.
"Guess that is not recommended then," shaking my head trying to clear out the cobwebs.
"Look, Baal, let me explain something that I do know about myself," waving my hand out nonchalantly and the furniture reappeared. "Here is how I'm going to explain it," placing my hand out and pointing downward making a swirling motion with my index finger.
Images in my mind were of the couch braking up into very tiny particles and looking like dust. It started to break up and swirl into the air. After a few seconds the entire couch was a finely separated dust over Baal. Wiping my hand in front, it turned into a couch of a different make and style with a red color. Then, waving again, focusing on it and the color faded to white and then came back in as blue. Slowly letting the couch settle on the ground, my image was complete.
Placing my left hand in the air, my index finger did the swirling motion with my right pointed at it. My hand started to break up into small particles all the way up to my elbow. My mother shrieked from above us. You could still see the silhouette of a hand with many spaces between it like a dot painting. Waving my right over it, it became a hand again. Just to be sure, all my fingers wiggled.
Pointing at his cane, focusing on it and waving my hand, it became an umbrella. Waving again, it became a sword. Waving again, it was a loaf of French bread. Then it changed it back into a cane. My mind was running more and more images, but it was already enough by the look on Baal's face.
"Now," pointing and lifting him up in the air, "do you want to see this to the insanity of the ending?"
"No, not right now," his usually stable voice was sounding very shaky. "May I please be let down?"
I dropped my hand and with it Baal. My eyes glowed and my heart raced. This was not the end of anything except this little demonstration.
"If you touch them again, Baal, you will find me tearing away one particle at a time," my voice was low and direct. "I am finished with you today," swirling my index finger, he broke up into a particle cloud. Throwing both open hands at the cloud all the particles vanished. My eyes rolled and came back.
From the walkway above, "Where did you send him?" Matt was always curious.
"The black sand cave in Hawaii," Matt laughed as he walked downstairs.
Waving my hand over the odd couch and it returned to the original structure and white with black color. Walking over to the bar, it figured there was no point in pretending as everyone walked downstairs, so waving my hand and picturing the liquor there and it was moved from the catwalk. Then, picturing drinks being made, I decided to test out letting everything work a bit. Bottles, glasses and ice were dancing around inside the bar. Remy, my Mom and my Dad all watched in disbelief. I turned around as the Grey Goose entered the fridge and the door shut.
Picking up the vodka, my eyes rolled and everyone's drink popping up into their hands. Walking over to the couch, my body gave out and dropped onto the couch. Taking a nice long sip and leaning back, my eyes slowly closed. Ice in glasses rattled as everyone strolled over and sat down near me.
Remy was deep in thought and the images of what she was thinking flashed through the back of my mind. She had a question as she sat there, but did not want to ask it.
"Yes, Remy," without opening my eyes, "whatever I want."
"What? Did you ask him something?" Bob asked looking at her.
"No, Bob. Not out loud at least," taking another sip with my eyes shut.
"What were you thinking of asking?" Bob was almost laughing as he asked it.
"I asked if he could make whatever he wanted." Remy was smiling.
All the around the room, heart rates were speeding. As their thoughts passed through my head, it became obvious that they were all terrified to upset me.
"Everyone, please, stop holding back what you are thinking and just ask. No one has to be nervous around me. I would never hurt any of you. Please, think out loud. Please! Think out loud!"
They all relaxed and started to smile. Waiting on the first question, I sipped the vodka slowly.
"How many times can you split yourself?" Matt's eyes were wide.
"I do not know," he looked disappointed. "That is the most I have done. But, if I took a guess, I would say however many times I wanted as long as my body can sustain it. It is like using up twice as much energy. When I am running around with you all day and then back in the room, I eat like it is for two people. Right now, with two, I can go about ten hours without being completely exhausted so I would think that four or five would be the most for a couple of hours. The hard part is seeing everything from different angles and then trying to control one me at a time, but also control all three at once. It is like having two mirrors facing each other and looking into one of them." They all seemed to understand that analogy.
"How'd you turn all this stuff into dust and then back?" Bob asked as he set his drink of the coffee table looking at it like it might disappear.
What to say, "I have to be careful how I answer this," it seemed best to shy away from the details. "I picture it in the back of my mind and focus on it and then, well, you saw what happened."
"Can you," my mother paused, "can you read our minds?"
"It is not like reading your mind. I do not enter your mind and see what you are thinking. It is like an image in my own mind that just passes through telling me what you are thinking. Does that make sense?" She nodded her head at me. "Okay, what else?"
"Can you move anything?" Bob asked sipping his drink.
"Everything I have tried, I have been able to move." Thinking about it more it was like asking it to move.
Judging by the looks, it was going to take some time before they all could calm down. They needed time to think about what had happened and process it.
Drinking down the rest of the vodka, "I have to get back. Do you want me to send you all back?" Everyone echoed a resounding yes except for Matt. "Okay. Tell me where I am sending you."
"We were at the house and I think it'd be good to be there," Bob said and Remy nodded her head in agreement. Closing my eyes and focusing on them being there at the house. When I looked again, they were gone.
"We were at home, but I don't think we'd mind being in Hawaii. That resort we were at for vacation last year was nice," my smile grew. Becoming a travel agent would be profitable. Closing my eyes and focusing on the resort in Kauai, my parent disappeared.
That left Matt. He looked at me and smiled. "I wish you could stay."
"In about a month or so, it will not matter. I will be out of that place," he understood, but it had been ten years for him. He had aged ten years and I had not aged a day. "You going to stay here?"
"Yeah. I want to hide and relax some," he said solemnly.
"Okay." I leaned over and gave him a hug. "I will see you this week."
"Okay, man." He sipped his drink and tried relaxing with his own thoughts.
Closing my eyes and focusing on the room, in the NSA building. Immediately, the smells of my room floated into my nose. The room was darker than it ever had been before. My keepers had always left the tiniest bit of light on for the cameras.
Even in the dark I knew where the bed was. Stripping off my shirt and lying down, my eyes closed and thoughts of Delilah down the hall from me danced through my brain. All of a sudden something did not sit right with me. Getting up and approaching the door, I tried the door handle and the door opened. Nothing was echoing up the hallway. Not a single sound as if it had been turned off.