Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Strange Truth

She lay in bed, listening to the slow, drip, drip, drip of water pattering against the windowsill. It had rained the day before and maybe it was still drizzling. As she lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling, she watched as a beam of light, from the road below, chase a shadow across the ceiling. She felt uneasy, uncomfortable, wishing again for the distant thrumming of an engine as they passed through the nothingness that was space.

Maverick hadn't been back to earth in years now, and she found that she didn't enjoy the experience.

She continued to watch as the beam of light passed and the shadows returned to their position of supremacy.

Dim green light emanated from the digital cock on her nightstand casting the room into an eerie green glow, not good enough to illuminate the room, but just bright enough to turn a coat slung over the back of the chair into a hunched creature lurking at the foot of her bed. She squeezed her eyes shut hoping that maybe the feelings would go away, but the discomfort persisted

She hated it.

Ever since she could remember she had felt like this, a small animal continuously hunted by.... Soemthing.

Another beam of light passed over the ceiling, and another shadow danced by, chasing the light away and leaving her in blackness again. Maverick didn't want to move, afraid the shadows might notice her, move in towards her. She could feel them....

Searching for her.

Architect she hated this planet.

What was wrong with her.

It too all her will to push past the discomfort and stand from her bed. A childish part of her worried she would feel a cold hand wrap around her ankle from under the bed, but nothing happened. The shadows didn't creep in towards her, but still that uneasy feeling persisted, like she was being watched.

Maverick grabbed her boots and her coat, slipping into them as she headed out into the brightly lit hotel hallway. The light helped, but it didn't completely chase the feeling rising up inside her. She didn't know where she was going but she didn't want to sit in bed any longer waiting for soemthing to happen.

She thought about heading to the spaceport and taking a shuttle back to Luna, but even thinking about it felt silly.

She walked down the stairwell listening carefully to the quit echo of her own footsteps, before passing out the doors into the lobby. The night auditor was there in the back room, she could see him through the open door, watching soemthing on a holoprojection. Still, despite the presence of another human.... She felt oddly alone . She turned from the lobby and headed out the automatic doors into the warm night air.

The sensation was worse out here, and the long, empty streets seemed so dark.

She walked up the small sidewalk, listening to the roaring of sirens in the distance, and took a seat at the railway bench stop. She glanced over her shoulder sure that there was someone there, but she must have been wrong as she saw no one.... And nothing lurking in the shadows behind her.

"Bit late fore a walk."

Before she knew it Maverick had a knife in her hand and was on her feet ready to gut the thing that had intruded upon her, swirling to face....

"Ramirez."

Ramirez held up his hands eyes wide slightly, "Woah uh..... as much as I find the idea of you holding me at knifepoint kind of sexy, maybe you should put that thing down." Maverick lowered her knife, and glanced around, peering behind Ramirez, who looked like he had gotten dressed in a hurry.