Instructions by Anthony deGuzman Jr.

A voice called out in the deep recesses of his head. That voice was the voice of Jim delaCruz, head of operations in their unit... and a powerful psychic.

delaCruz' voice booms in Michael's head again. "The particular perp has been a thorn on our asses for the last six weeks. That was some real shitty work on your part. If you couldn't handle the one, who knows what'll happen the next time around? No, you are to return to headquarters and you will be assigned a senior officer as a partner until this perp has been captured. Have I made myself clear?"

Michael began to protest, realizing that to Rose that it looked like he was talking to the wall. Rose knew who it was. She never questioned it.

"You can't be serious! I blacked out back there! It wasn't my fault!"

"And that is PRECISELY why you will be assigned a senior partner. You are not equipped or prepared to take on perps of this magnitude without the proper... instruction."

Michael slumps on his pillow, dejected.

The voice booms one more time. "You will be expected to report in 3 hours. Oh, and tell Rose she will be part of the assignment as well."

Michael looks as Rose. "Jim says-"

Rose interrupts. "I know."

What?

“What’s going on?”

The thing got up from his broken cage, once rusted shut, now the door madly clanging against the side. Once a wall stood there, not allowing the passage of light to touch him. But there it was, or rather, wasn’t.

“Is that the sun?”

How long had it been? Was it years, hours, or even seconds? How long had it remained in there, eating whatever walked by, drinking water that dripped from the ceiling into a rotten cup covered in mold. How long? When did it give the little hairs that came off of the cup names? And when did they start talking back? It exited the cage and walked past the broken wall. The sky was a deep red, as if the other side of the sky was on fire, and the color of the flames were getting past the veil. In his chest he could feel it getting lighter.

“That’s what we call fresh air.”

It turned, there was another thing standing there on the other side of the wall. Covered in dark robes with a large hood draping over the eyes. All that could be seen of the thing’s face was his grinning teeth, sharp as a lions.

“You don’t remember anything do you?”

The thing backed down.

“You don’t even remember who I am do you? Or even your own name?”

The thing was thrown back into the rocks, rubble and the miraculous weeds that grew from the cracks.

“What is my name? Did I ever have one?”

“Yes, you did.”

“Get out of my head!” the thing shouted to the hooded man.

“You had many names, Alex, Mary, John, Rose, Michael, Hassan, Amy, Loki, Ra, Jacob, David, Billy…”

The hooded man went on and on, his voice droning out. Names upon names, flooded the things head. Finally not able to take it anymore, he picked up the gun.

Clothed in leather and jeans the man stood outside the church, his weapon drawn. And the other end of the street stood a man with his gun drawn.

“Goddamnit Michael shoot him!”

“What?”

The sound of a gun and the bullet breaking through the empty space filled his ears. Then came the feeling of it lodging into his chest. Instincts kicked in for him and he began to curse and scream. The man on the other side almost looked dumb founded, but quickly ran off before anything else could be said. Michael (“So that’s my name?”) promptly fell to his knees and planted his face into the dirt. After the ringing went away he heard the scurry of footsteps rushing towards him.

His eyes opened, the first thing he saw was a hooded man leave the room. No one seemed to notice him. Then he saw the girl asleep in the chair next to the bed. Her dark skin glowed gently under the candle light. Slowly her eyes opened and she smiled upon seeing Michael awake.

“Good, I knew you’d pull through.”

There was a slight pause, and Michael found her fist quickly planted itself in his face.

“Now can you explain to me how you fucked that up?”

“Goddamnit Rose! I’m still recovering here!” (“Wait, how did I… how did I forget?”)

“Well that’s what you get for blanking out on us over there and almost getting yourself killed,” she got up and retrieved his clothes, “That’s another one that got away.”

“Another one from the other side of the mountain?”

“Yea, ever since that day, they keep coming down and doing terrible things…”

Michael got up from the bed stood next to Rose. He smiled at her and kissed her gently on the cheek, “Don’t worry,” he told her has he threw on his clothes and grabbed his gun and sword, “tomorrow I’m going up there to see exactly what’s going on with those folk.”

“Oh is that what you think you’re going to do?”