JFB Chapter 1: Before It All, Part I

                “Rye, come inside. Quick! It’s not safe out there tonight.” A woman with a bent back gazed warily through the darkness, lights from the nearby streetlamp glowing in the distance. Two barefoot boys sat on the sidewalk, an assortment of toys about them. The woman tightened her shawl and said, more to herself, “They say Fear and Deceit are passing through town.” When the trees sent whispers upon a passing wind she tightened her eyes in suspicion and then locked them on Rye again, who had shown no sign of moving.          

         “Now! Or Deceit will sneak up and take you, with no one there to help you when Fear eats you for supper!” the woman said angrily. Rye finally looked up, deep brown eyes shining from his dark tan face.

         “Toby will be here to save me,” Rye replied defiantly, motioning to his companion. Toby looked up with a grin, straightening as Rye’s mother eyed him malevolently.

         “If you would like to place your life in the hands of a scrawny ten year old, then so be it,” she shot to her son, who lost a little of his confidence.

         “Well, he’s my friend,” Rye declared, but his mother nodded her head in indifference. Rye and Toby began to gather their toys in defeat, but knew that a friendship would count for something, even if it wasn’t tested till a fatal moment they may never come to know in their close-reaching minds.

         “Where’s Eva?” the woman bristled once more. “The Reapers are looking for her.”

         “Over at the park.”

         “Again? Go get her. Quick!” Rye’s mother demanded. “Then come straight inside,” she added, and disappeared into the glowing warmth of her home. Rye muttered some indiscernible complaints as he trudged toward a well-worn path beyond the homes and deeper into the park beyond. When Toby did not join him in a few moments, Rye looked back. Toby smoothed back his hair and examined his nails in a regal manner, ignoring Rye’s confused stare.

         “What are you doing?” Rye asked, implying that Toby was acting like an idiot.

         “I,” Toby began in a haughty voice, “am Deceit. Master of trickery, secret treasure hunter, and the best criminal in all the land.” Toby kept up his mischievous stance as he passed Rye up on the path, comprehension dawning on Rye’s dark face.

         “Well then, I’m Fear, the scariest monster in the world!” Rye proclaimed, raising his arms to form claws. “And I’m going to eat you!” he shouted, catching up to Toby and almost pouncing on him, if it weren’t for the fact Toby knew what was coming. It was a game played over and over by the neighborhood kids, away from the adults’ disapproving eyes. The two boys laughed as they plodded on the rest of the trail, their voices carrying up as carefree as youth comes, though darkness was building with the setting sun.

         

         A lone sign was posted at the street corner. It was a warning in bold letters of the rumor that had passed through the big city of Yorkton for days, even reaching traveling ears. It warned people to lock up, especially at night, for Fear and Deceit were believed to be in the area. Rough sketches stared out from the poster, two attempts to portray the notorious criminals. A shadowy face was drawn for Fear, and some blurry marks hinted that the artist didn’t know whether to give him horns, fangs, or large ears. A slightly clearer portrait of Deceit showed a goateed man in his middle ages. At the bottom was a few notes, a desperate effort to put something factual for the town to see. 

         The current Fear and Deceit were registered as Virtues on April 15, 1999 in the town of Novi Meska at the ages of eight. An intense search effort is ongoing and their personal papers are kept confidential to the public. Their powers are of the most supernatural and they are to be avoided at all costs. We have reason to believe Deceit can change appearance at will. Any reports of unruly Virtues, including any sign of Fear and Deceit, can be reported to your local police. For a list of other registered Virtues, visit the official offices of Novi Meska.

         Two tall figures examined the poster quietly. After a few moments, one of the young adults moved to retie his muddied boots, his freckled face shadowed. The other rubbed his chin, startling blue eyes flicking over the sign once more. Finally, a sudden grin broke his concentration and he turned around. His tan face moved into the light, and the golden tips of his hair shined in the glow of the city lights.

         “Confidential. We stole those papers ages ago, and they just don’t want to admit it!” He motioned to the sign and the portraits. “I don’t like my goatee much.”

         “It was your idea, Felix,” the shadowed man spoke, waiting beside a fire hydrant, and suddenly catching sight of his reflection in a store window. “Red hair,” he muttered, “why did you give me red hair?”

         “Well, I just won’t use it again,” Felix said, but his eyes were still on the goatee. His gritty smile had a charm to it, with a hint of wit, secrecy, and excitement. Or rather, it could twitch his handsome face into any form with practiced ease, with a furrowed brow to bring it back to the man of nineteen years he was. “They’re getting better with you, Jake,” he laughed. “The fangs are a new addition.”

         The other man’s face became stormy, a trace of the true Jake underneath the shock of freckles, as he looked to Felix, who seemed the only person alive to dare conversation with the such a suddenly shadowed and mysterious form as the one beside him. A man such as Fear.

         “You wish,” Jake smirked, ripping the poster down.

         Night had fallen.

         

         The Yorkton Museum was at the center of the metropolitan city, the wide entry stairs opening to a wide sidewalk with Yorkton Hill Park just across the street. There were still a multitude of cars ending their evening commute home and some stray individuals were enjoying the pleasant breeze. Many chose to ignore the extra police vehicles roaming about, the same treatment they turned toward the Virtues. The girl finishing her vanilla ice cream needed not to worry about strange creatures such as Freedom, Vanity, Greed, Fear, or Deceit tonight or any other night. Their city was perfect; perfectly ignorant that times were changing and people were never what they seemed anymore.

         

         Felix must have flicked his head back and forth ten times, looking all around, before Jake said anything.

         “What?” Jake hissed, squinting past the small crowds of people. Some even looked back, but to gape at Felix, striking in his sharp navy blue suit. He was his true self for now, unrecognizable thanks to the numerous disguises he was always in. Jake crossed his arms, slightly uncomfortable in his own disguise and the way he could fit right in.

         “Oh, nothing,” Felix replied, realizing Jake had paused beside him. Throwing a quick smile to a group of staring girls nearby, he walked on. Jake sighed and caught up to him in a few quick strides, unnaturally swift and quiet. His hands reached for his pockets when he remembered he did not have any, so he settled with crossing his arms once more as they approached the Yorkton Museum.

         Jake’s keen eyes spotted an isolated figure standing to the side of the stone stairs, hidden in shadow. Glaring at the shape for an instant, Jake turned on Felix.

         “What is Merrick doing here?”

         Felix stiffened, but slowed as his face began to blur. He looked to Jake, transformed into a slightly shorter man with cropped graying hair. Everything about him had changed, except for his piercing blue eyes, now slightly agitated.

         “I just mentioned it,” Felix said defensively, avoiding Jake’s scowl and adding, “Look, I don’t want to bump into him either. He won’t even notice us.”

         “What does he want anyway?” Jake asked.

         “The usual.” And with that, the newly disguised Felix swept toward the stairs, ignoring the concentrated stare the shady man gave him. Jake rubbed his face as he waited a few moments, currently beside a trash bin, watching the hidden man. Felix got lucky, flashing a grin as he passed into the open door of the museum. Merrick had a habit of hesitating when he wasn’t quite sure. Which meant he would redouble his examination on the next passerby: Jake.

         Appearing confident, Jake calmly made his way to the stairs, checking the watch Felix had decided to give him that night, and began up the steps. The staircase was easily twenty feet wide, but Merrick was out of the shade and making his way diagonally toward the ascending Jake in a moment.

         “Would you happen to know the time?” his rough voice asked, sounding more demanding than polite.

         “Ah, it’s just nine o’ clock,” Jake answered in an upbeat tone. Then he felt it, that salty feeling in his mouth, that unnatural desire to tell the hulking figure beside him what he really wanted to know. A lesser Virtue might have caved in to Merrick’s powers, but Jake knew to ignore it. Raising his left hand in farewell he began to move on. “Best be going, someone’s waiting for me.”

         Merrick’s eyes flick to Jake’s left wrist, where Jake knew he would see nothing. Felix had recently learned to disguise the mark of a Virtue, making their wrists appear totally normal. Devoid of the brusque “V” they had borne since they were eight, to show the world that, yes, they weren’t one of them. They were Virtues.

         But Merrick saw through the purposeful wave, and Jake felt him watch his back as he made it to the top and passed the tall stone pillars at the entrance. After all, it was no mystery to other Virtues that Felix was a master of disguise. What Jake didn’t know in Merrick’s lingering gaze was the mystery surrounding himself, the legend of Fear at Deceit’s side, hardly showing his true face to anyone. Bristling as he reached the light of the inside, Jake crossed his arms and quickly looked about.

         “Are you by yourself?” a petite lady at the entrance desk asked Jake as he approached. “The Exploratorium exhibit is the only area open and that will be closing in  a half hour.”

         “Umm.. Yeah, that’s what I want to see,” Jake mumbled, gazing down the empty hall beyond the desk.

         “Are you sure? That will be twenty five dollars.” The woman eyed him, as if redheads shouldn’t want to go to Exploratoriums this late in the evening. But twenty five dollars was out of his pocket in a flash and he moved on, ignoring the ticket the woman waved at him.

         “Mister!” she called, but rather faintly. He was gone. Raising her eyebrows, she clutched her sweater and went back to her book.

         Jake was walking along a winding hall with burgundy carpeting, scanning the branching pathways for any sign of Felix. He passed a couple of guards, but none with blue eyes, all pointing his way to the Exploratorium. Then just as a small crowd came into view, shuffling into a dark hallway decorated with stars and moons, Jake spotted a hall to the right with a guard that appeared to be locking a gate to an exhibit. Swerving from the main hallway, Jake recognized his eyes as he came closer.

         “What took you so long?” Felix asked, now a lanky guard with sandy hair. He was reaching into his pants pockets, replacing a key he had tried to open the gate with moments before.

         “Merrick knows it’s us,” Jake flatly stated. Felix wasn’t fazed, looking hungrily through the gate into the large room beyond. Jake was sure it sparkled in Felix’s eyes, though the lights were dimmed within. “Which one?”

         “It has to be one of the crystals over there,” and Felix pointed to the left side of the room, where glass cases enclosed vases, jewels, and art carvings. “Okay, I saw this guard walk away when I came in so just watch out for him,” Felix explained, noting his disguise. Without another word, he put a hand on Jake’s shoulder and Jake felt his vision blur. He didn’t need a mirror to know he was now a precise image of the guard Felix had been seconds before.

         “The pennies didn’t work?” Jake asked mockingly, as Felix, now his normal self, examined the gate once more. Felix flashed him an angry look, but before he could retort, Jake gripped the gate and closed his eyes. A chill fell down Felix’s spine but he was used to it, and watched as Jake’s closed eyelids darkened. He looked almost as if he had two black eyes, and again Felix could see his friend of eight years underneath the disguise. Smoke twirled from his outstretched arm, and winded along the metal bars, first surrounding them, and then becoming them. Jake let go, his eyes back to the innocent hazel of the guard’s once more.

         “Fifteen minutes,” Felix said, stepping through the gate, now a semblance of smoke that swirled around him and then reformed.

         “Ten.”

         “Seventeen.”

         “What do you mean seventeen…”

         “Thirteen.”

         “Done.” Jake let a few more shadows uncurl from his fingers and they sailed into the darkness of the room, covering the hidden cameras Jake’s sharp eyes knew were there. He watched Felix sweep toward the jewels and briskly walked away, making his way to the Exploratorium. Idly watching was not his thing.

         The starry pathway led to a domelike room, where yawning children were directed to the exit by their parents and a number of doors along the circular wall led to different rooms. Easily avoiding the children, Jake strode to the middle, where a circular railing guarded a huge model of the planet Saturn. As he eyed the thin wires suspending Saturn’s rings in the air, Jake thought that this place wasn’t right. Maybe close, but Felix wouldn’t find what they were looking for.

         Some Virtues thought their powers a curse that forever hindered them from living a normal life. Those were of the first generation, the first person to be keeper of a certain quality. But the line of Virtues has been going on for centuries for some, developing over time. The title Virtue only came to be a mere 50 years ago, and along with it a string of laws to protect people. It was law that any known Virtue must be marked, could not stand within twenty feet of anyone if commanded, and could not reveal anything personal about any given person unless granted permission.

         The law increasingly failed to control such a vague race of people. Their powers could only be discovered by themselves and many went unmarked, even unaware of their own strange powers. Most, however, discovered it as children, just as Jake and Felix had. Maybe by chance they were chosen, as all the others seemed to be, so by chance their lives were defined as different. Not that this brought them down. They had never known a normal life, but were sure to not let the world forget the time Felix Rayner and Jakob Bloom were Virtues.

         Glancing at his watch, Jake saw the minute hand click to eleven minutes gone by. Throwing a lone custodian a glance (he was staring first), Jake made his way back to where Felix was. Turning down the corridor, he realized several pennies were glinting from the ground. With a furrowed brow he glanced through the smoke bars and saw a huddled shape in the distance. He was about to whisper, when he realized it was Merrick. Before the middle aged man in his own shabby suit could turn, Jake whisked back through the hallway.

         “Damn pennies. What was he thinking?” he muttered, shoving some pennies to the side with his foot. Looking up when he reached the main pathway, Jake came face to face with the guard he was disguised as. A look of horror spread across the other man’s face and he began to yell.

         “Well, I was going to say hello…” Jake muttered, seeing several guards hustle their way. Fury stole across his eyes, as the original guard continued to shout, and Jake clenched his fists. Shutting his eyes, a cold breeze rushed through the hall and he was suddenly outside, trails of smoke following him.

         “There you are!” Felix exclaimed, again as the short man with graying hair as he grabbed Jake’s sleeve, still as the guard. As they raced down the stone stairs, the alarm sounded from within the museum, breaking the evening calm. “That is not our concern,” he said airily. “Merrick’s after me.”

         Jake glanced down and saw Felix’s pockets bulging where the pennies had been. He tried to keep his focus on the sidewalk in front of him, but his eyesight kept blurring as Felix repeatedly transformed them into various people, all outwardly innocent of just committing a crime. Falling in with a group of worried people staring in the direction of the museum, their trail became impossible to follow. Except by Merrick.

         Jake felt the salty feeling in his mouth before he turned to see Merrick swiftly following them.

         “Felix! You’re not getting away. We made a deal-”

         “No, we did not. You tricked me into letting you in on this,” Felix hissed, not slowing his pace, currently a stocky teenager with black hair and cold blue eyes. The wrinkles on Merrick’s forehead deepened as he pursed his lips in frustration. They rounded a corner and Jake followed Felix into a group of loitering people outside a café.

         Suddenly, a powerful hand grabbed the sweater Jake was disguised in, and he was separated from Felix. He was back to the redhead Merrick had interrogate outside the museum, and Jake realized Felix must have ran out of ideas. Merrick pushed Jake away from the nearby people and stopped him at another street corner. The salty taste was on Jake’s lips as he spotted a police man across the street. Felix was nowhere in sight.

         “I know who you are,” Merrick grunted in Jake’s ear. He was held in place from behind with fists clenched, limbs stiffened. He had never been this close to Merrick, and didn’t know how to fight back. For Merrick was Power, a Virtue who chose to keep to himself except when he saw a chance for personal gain. As Fear and Deceit became more notorious, they had to keep avoiding Merrick and his controlling powers.

         Jake remained silent as he felt a gun poke him in the back. “Nowhere to run now, is there? You know, I wanted to work with Felix years ago, but he ditched me, just like he just ditched you.” Jake’s nails dug into his palms as he tightened his fists, fighting the pressure he felt over his whole body. His skin froze as his own powers welled up within him, his breath coming out as mist.

         Wisps of brown hair fell into Jake’s eyes and his heart froze. Felix had told him that part of Merrick’s control gave him the power to seep another Virtue’s power away for a while, if he got close enough. His disguise was fading as the police officer headed their way after chatting with a jogger. Jake’s slacks turned to slim, dark blue jeans and a black coat swept across the back of his knees. If Merrick had been facing Jake, he would have seen the cold hatred burn in his eyes as shadows surrounded them. Jake, who did not flinch at the feel of a gun and had forgotten the taste of fear, felt his heart quicken as his true appearance leaked through his disguise.

         Merrick bent closer, equal height to the now tall Jake. “Now everyone will know your face.”

         Flashes of all the fears Jake had subconsciously seen that night played before his eyes. The guard who had shouted, immediately afraid of his duplicate self, the lady at the museum front desk with an uncanny fear of big dogs, the various people on the sidewalk afraid of everything from heights to taking chances. Jake let it all pulse through him as the shadows about his eyes blackened, his skin looking paler than ever, with the only thing visible between the strands of his hair being a beam from his eyes; he truly looked like a phantom from a dark fairy tale. He never found out what Merrick was afraid of, but he was going to make sure next time it was Fear.

         Jake unfurled his fingers as wisps of smoke shot from his hands and rose up over them, dense and foreboding. Merrick fell backward with a yelp, a shot resounding into the night. Then all went silent as all of Yorkton saw their deepest fears play before their eyes, seen only by themselves as everyone’s breath was taken away in one fell sweep. The electricity flickered out, cars swerved, and people fell to the ground clutching their hearts. A block away, the graceful Felix fumbled up the steps to an apartment. The police officer shaded his eyes and kneeled on the sidewalk. Children burst into tears as monsters became real, while cats and dogs yowled in lonely alleys. The very trees creaked and swayed as Jake became the impenetrable darkness of Fear. He forgot his own name or any trace of his human existence, only feeling the pungent fear he had instilled in the air, threatening the lives of the city.

          In years to come, this moment came to be known as the Great Fear, nicknamed the Lost Heartbeat, or to the most ignorant, simply the blackout of Yorkton on May 11, 2009.

         And as swiftly as it came, the moment passed. Lights flashed back on, people steadied their breathing, and Felix opened the door to the apartment. By the time Merrick looked around himself, the street corner was deserted.