Glimmer is one of those stories that fell into my lap and refused to go away. I was a high school junior without a first period class when the story sparked. I loved getting to school early and would sit under a huge tree with dark red flowers and read or write. I used to have a green binder filled with papers where I would write story ideas. Glimmer was one of those. I literally have no idea where it came from or why it started the way that it does, and I have since lost those handwritten pages. But it was a story that stuck with me. It’s relatively…
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Glimmer, part 16
Eddara City Explosives Lab, Eddara City Schuyler looked around. It wasn’t the sort of lab he had expected. There were no tables, but there were plenty of computers. Devices of all sorts were lying around, none of them touching. The scientists were not wearing the usual white coats, but silver body suits with Cryma-Crystal masks. The seven scientists turned to look at him in surprise as he appeared in their midst. All of them stilled immediately. “What is this place?” Schuyler asked. “It’s the Glimmer,” one of the scientists whispered to no one in particular. Several of the other scientists nodded jerkily, all too frightened to move. “What is this…
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Glimmer, part 15
Nolton-Coris Lab “Did you see this?” Dr. Connors exclaimed angrily as he read the morning newspaper on his computer. “That Nikolay Rogers.” “See what?” Dr. Larkin asked, walking over to his partner’s desk. “What’s Nik done this time?” “Defiled our good names, that’s what!” “Get up, Adam. Let me see for myself.” “Go ahead. It’s right there.” Dr. Connors vacated his seat and stood behind his chair as his partner sat down and began to read through the story. Schuyler still sat on the table next to the unconscious man the two doctors were still in the process of killing. He watched as Dr. Larkin’s face clouded with anger, contempt,…
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Glimmer, part 14
Eddara’s Voice, Eddara City It was night and Nikolay Rogers was the only staff writer for the city’s newspaper still sitting at his desk. He had hoped he would have it done and on the way to the presses that night, but he had fallen behind. There was so much he wanted to include and knew he had to cut something out. It didn’t look like his story would be tomorrow’s headline news. He sat staring at the screen stretched across his desk. The story was finished, but it was still too long. He nibbled at his thumbnail and started reading through it once more. There had to be some…
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Glimmer, part 13
Nolton-Coris Lab, Eddara City, Terrastis Schuyler was escorted to the Nolton-Coris Lab by the same guard who had escorted him up and down that hall in the prison. The lab looked no different from any of the others, but it was smaller. Rather than being a network of smaller labs, this one was a single lab used solely by the two men he had told his story to. The two men stood at the entrance when Schuyler and the guard arrived, Schuyler’s arms still bound. Both men had dark eyes, but one was darker haired than the other. The one to the right wore the glasses that had always glinted…
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Glimmer, part 12
And that’s how we found you, one says. Yes. Thank you for your time, Schuyler, two says. I don’t say anything. There is nothing left for me to say. I had told them my story, just as they had requested. I owed them nothing more. Tomorrow we’re going to take you to our lab, two says. We want you to show us how Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell created you and your fellow assassins. Where are Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell? I ask. The two men look at each other. We assume they’re dead, one says. Nearly everyone on Earth is dead. Much of Earth is scorched, the oceans are…
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Glimmer, part 11
It was hot, and Schuyler thought it was summer. But he had seen snow elsewhere and knew it was winter. It was the fires that raged all across the city that made it hot. People were scarce these days. Corpses littered the streets. No one was safe from the assassins and the explosions. Countries had been wiped out and more would follow. Schuyler walked through the streets, stepping right through the fires and feeling nothing but heat. His clothes had long ago burnt off, just as the clothes of the other three assassins had. There was no need for clothes, for decency, modesty. Everyone was either attacking everyone else or…
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Glimmer, part 10
For the first time, I dreamed, I say. I dreamed impossible dreams of my family. Happy dreams. Good dreams. Could you estimate how long you were dreaming for? one asks. No. And you had no idea what happened while you were asleep? two asks. No. When I awoke, though, I saw a young woman I had never seen before. She told me she was Aryelle. She told me she and Dr. Harris had removed everything Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell had put into me. They were replaced with new brain tissue and new devices that should make up for being mostly dead. Jen, Erika, and Dionysius had also agreed to…
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Glimmer, part 9
Mad. Crazy. Insane. People are crazy. Glad I’m not a person like them anymore. Why do they want to know my story? Been locked up here for a long time. No one bothered with me before. Why now? Why them? What’s going on? Craziness. Insanity of people. Must be that. Can’t stay here much longer. Restless. Need to kill. Must get revenge. Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell must die. Must die. Must die. Always die. Can’t die. My death never comes. Always alive. Why do they want me? Need me? Why? Always ask. Never know. Never, never know. Crazy. Mad. Insane. Madness for humans. Not human anymore. Can’t be human…
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Glimmer, part 8
We didn’t know where we were going, had no idea where we would reappear. One of us would think of something and we would reappear there, or so we assumed. So you had no idea where you would be, one states, for confirmation. None whatever. What were your options? one asks. To get out, escape. What about Mari? two asks. We never thought of Mari, only ourselves. What happened to you after you left the lab? one asks. We appeared in Central Park. It was night and there was no one out. It must have been in those hours between midnight and dawn when no one is outside. None of…
