Nicholas

-- Just so you know, if you haven't met Daman yet, you can read about him in the post before this one: Daman Slade --

Daman walked up to the luminous screen; its dark glow filling the room with a eerie and shadowless light. He reached out and let his thumb rest on a large button. It was time he learned the truth about that boy: who he was, what he could do. The one thing that Daman could not bear was the inability to understand a person, their motives and feelings. The boy Nicholas was unlike anyone Daman had ever encountered; and he wanted to know why.

The screen beeped as a message ran across the display. This was his one chance of understanding what the boy could do, by looking back and viewing those things that he had pushed down and hidden. Daman waited a few seconds, staring at the screen, deciding if he was really going to do this. He closed his eyes, nodded to himself, and pressed the button.

“-Memory Replay activated - please select memory to review-”

…

“-file “Nicholas-thebeginning.mem” chosen – please wait while the memory loads-”

…

…

…

“-file loaded – initiating Memory Replay sequence-”

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

“Daddy, why are we hiding? I thought those men were your friends. Why are they chasing us?”

The subway station is dark and lifeless. The few people present looked only at the ground, taking no time to notice their surroundings; New Dirsha is a rough part of town, the crime rates are high and at times like these, when the sun had gone down, it was unwise to wait too long in any one place.

“Daddy, why does my head keep hurting?”

No one pays any attention to the two figures in the shadowed corner; one older, with graying hair and a scruffy look, one young, no more than five years. They are shrouded in the darkness. Even the boy's voice, echoing through the station, is ignored by the ears of the commuters. None have the time, money, or compassion to give aid to the father and son.

“Daddy... can we go home? I'm tired and I hungry.”

“No! Nicholas, we cant go home! You don't understand what's at stake here!”

The boy, Nicholas, begins to cry.

“No, Nicholas, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout. I... I'm just under a lot of stress right now. Please, Nicholas, please stop crying.”

Sniffling, with tears in his large brown eyes, Nicholas begins to speak, “I don't want to run anymore. I miss mommy and Annie. Can't we go home and see them?”

“We can't go back, Nicholas. We can't ever go back.” A tear streak appears on the man's grimy face. “Mommy and Annie are gone. We don't have a home anymore.”

The man looks up, glances over his surroundings and looks back to his son's watery eyes.

“Nicholas, do you remember that day when I took you with me to the Lab?”

“Yes”

“What do you remember? What did we do?”

“I... watched the fishies in the big tank and I ate lunch in your office. And you took me to the big white room with the lights.”

“Yes, Nicholas, and I am sorry I did. I had been working on a big project at work for a long time, but my boss wouldn't let me test my machine on anyone. It was dangerous. But then I brought you and decided to test the machine with you while no one else was there. Do you remember how you used to wear glasses?”

“Yes, but after I went with you I didn't need to anymore.”

“You're right. That is what the machine was supposed to do. It helps fix people that don't work anymore. But I wasn't supposed to use it on you, Nicholas. And I hadn't tested it enough yet.”

“But isn't it good? Cuz now I don't need glasses.”

“Well, Nicholas. The machine kept on working after it had fixed you. It tried fixing parts of you that weren't broken. I tried to stop it, but I couldn't. It made you change. That's why you have your headaches and why we are running; because I wasn't patient and I did things that I wasn't supposed to do.”

“Is that why I can still see the lights when I close my eyes; the lights from the room?”

“Yes, the lights are still there. They live inside you, always trying to fix you and make you better, changing you.”

A man in a dark suit walks into the station. He is tall with a dark complexion, a large jagged scar running down his left cheek. He turns, seeing Nicholas and his father in the corner. He looks down at his watch and begins to walk in their direction.

Nicholas' father speaks, “No, Gregor, you don't understand. You can't do this.”

“No, Doctor, I think it is you who doesn't understand.” The man's hand reaches into his coat.

Nicholas' father senses what might be coming and moves to put himself between Gregor and his son. Behind him, Nicholas suddenly spasms, falling down to sit on the ground.

“Daddy, the lights are getting brighter. My head hurts. The lights are hurting me.”

Gregor's hand moves out from his pocket. He is holding a gun, a long black pistol. A shot sounds, echoing through the station. People begin to scream. Nicholas' father groans and falls to the ground. People rush by, trying to get away from the danger as quickly as possible.

“Daddy! The lights hurt. They hurt!” Nicholas is curled up in the corner, eyes tightly closed, clawing at his head. He has skin and blood under his fingernails; his own skin and blood. “Stop them from hurting me!”

Gregor reaches the boy and bends down to grab is arm. As his hand closes around the skinny arm Nicholas' stops crying and clawing.

“Daddy, help me...”

Nicholas' eyes snap open and a green light bursts forth from them, filling the subway. He is completely stiff, not a muscle in is body is moving. Gregor relinquishes his grip on Nicholas' arm and backs away. The light grows, now emanating from all of Nicholas, his eyes, mouth, even his skin, becoming brighter than a summer noon-day sun, and still growing.

Gregor shouts, “Whats going o-” Suddenly, he is thrown across the station by an unseen force, smashing against the wall violently before falling to the floor.

The light grows, filled with pain and rage.

“Daddy... please.”

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 

“- Memory reading complete – shutdown process activated”

Daman backed away from the machine, his hands shaking. Trying to process everything that he had seen. He stood still for a few seconds before finally getting control of himself. He started to move towards the door of the room but stopped suddenly as his mind caught a hold of another presence in the room.

“What were you doing in my memories, Slade?”

Daman turned to find the source of the voice and saw the present day Nicholas, standing in the corner with tight fists by his side.