B.E.C.K.Y.: Am I A Superhero?

My Life Was Normal

Okay, so this is going to sound weird, really weird, but it is all true.

I have a voice in my head.

No, I am not schizophrenic,  and I don't have a split personality. That's really just a Hollywood creation anyway; actual cases of true split personalities are very, very rare. So I don't walk around talking to someone who is not there, or imagine another person living in my head. 

I actually do have another mind inside my head!

No, I don't need to be locked up or put away. At least, I don't think I do. After I tell you my story, you may think I should be. At this point I am really not sure who, or what I am anymore. 

Sometimes I wonder if I am still human.

The media calls me a superhero. Someone called me "The Silver Shadow," and it stuck.

What a stupid name!

Okay. 

Stop.

Take a breath.

Rewind.

Let's start at the beginning.

My name is Alex Winger. I am a 28-year-old History and Social Studies teacher in British Columbia, Canada. I own my house, like to jog and keep fit, and my downtime is usually spent reading; I love adventure novels with an archaeological element to them.  I don't own any pets, and I don't have a girlfriend. I love board games. I am 5'10 with dark hair and dark eyes, and I have been told I have rugged features, whatever that means. In a word, I am about as normal and unremarkable as you can imagine. I live a simple life, and I like it that way.

At least I did.

Then, it happened, and Becky came into my life.

Is Becky a girl? Oh, I wish he was!

Sorry, getting ahead of myself again.

Anyway, one night, I was out jogging. I had driven to Stanley Park in downtown Vancouver. Let me tell you, the Sea Wall is a beautiful place to jog! You get the ocean rolling along on one side, and the greenery of the park on the other. And, if you are lucky, you might see seals bobbing in the water. But you do have to watch out for coyotes and bears. They like to wander through the park sometimes and, if you startle them, things can get scary!

So, I was jogging along, and feeling good. After a bit I crossed the road that runs along the edge of the park, and took a path I knew not a lot of joggers chose. It cut through some of the thicker woods, and I loved how peaceful it was. 

It was a beautiful summer evening, so I was not worried about bears as they usually come around in early spring as they are waking up from hibernation. Coyotes were a slight concern, but only mild, as I felt confident I could deal with a couple of them if I ran into them. 

The evening was gorgeous; a cool breeze off the ocean rustled the leaves and kept me cool. My heart beat steadily in my chest with an easy pump as I ran. My blood pulsed through me, my breath was strong in my chest, my legs had that nice warmth to them that tells you you are working hard, but not too hard; the perfect point to be at when you are jogging.  I felt great!

I had been going on the path for a few minutes, knew I was at about the halfway mark, and was looking forward to finishing, going home, and relaxing with a new book by one of my favourite authors. I was not going to mark papers tonight. I was going to relax.

When I first saw it, it was just a soft blue glow in the air hanging before my eyes about 10 yards up the path. It was like some kind of big, misty, eerie balloon cloud, with smaller orbs inside the larger, more loose general orb shape that I first noticed. It just hovered there, as if waiting for something; an azure mist that seemed way too still to be normal.

I probably should have turned and run the other way. That would have been the smart thing to do.

Yeah. Sometimes I'm stupid. 

This was one of those times.

Curious, I stepped closer to it. At first, I wondered if it was a willow-the-whisp; a gas pocket ignited by static electricity in the air. I knew they appeared at times, and folklore told all kinds of things about them. But they usually showed up in swampy or marshy areas, and I did not know of any reports of phantasms like this in Vancouver's history. To make it even stranger, there was no marsh around the park. Besides, whisps usually moved, floated, and this was just sitting there, in the air, hovering, like it was waiting.

That was the weird part, the scary part. There was a very real sense that, whatever it was, it was waiting for something. I felt like there was an intelligence in the mist, sentience that was very, very present.

"You really should turn and run away now." A voice in my head said. That time it was my voice, and I should have listened to it.

*Human subject identified. Male. Good health. DNA structure sound. 99.5 % match. Host status: Acceptable."

Who was talking? I heard the voice, it was like a robot simulating human speech; cold and inhuman but with emotion and thought behind it.

"Um....Hello?"

It was the only thing I could think to say. I mean, how do you respond to a floating blue mist that is talking to you?!

*Contact intiated. Activating.*

Activating?!

Oh crap....

Now I turned to run! I had to get away fast! 

But, even as I turned to run, there was a bright blue flash, a feeling like I had been electrocuted and......

and.....

nothing.