Available Darkness Season 1

Abigail understood. She was hearing John’s thoughts, but he was somehow able to both hear her and see through her eyes. She rose unsteadily to her feet and stumbled forward through the darkness. Branches and rocks dug into the flesh of her feet, so she tried to walk on the soft grass instead.
    “Do you see anything?”
    “No, not yet. Oh, wait,” Abigail said as her eyes found a narrow path where the trees were starting to thin. She thought she saw something illuminated by the moonlight, but needed to move closer. “I think I see something.”
    Abigail ascended the slope and the trees thinned more, revealing a water tower, its red light blinking every other second.
    “Did you see that?” Abigail asked.
    Silence.
    “John?”
    Nothing.
    Fear slithered up her spine as she glanced around, suddenly feeling exposed in the middle of the big black open. Alone, so utterly, completely alone.
    She wondered if she had imagined the conversation between her and John. Her head started to throb.

    **

    John

    The connection was severed before John was able to witness whatever it was she had wanted him to see.
    Damn it.
    He waited a moment, reaching out into the night, searching for her. He still wasn’t sure how he’d made the connections before — he just did. He hoped he could again.
    After a lingering silence, he decided to go vocal.
    “Abigail!” he cried out in frustration and fear. What if something happened to her? What if the man from his past had reappeared?

    **
    Abigail

    Abigail’s eyes grew blurry with tears as she looked around, hoping to see John.
    He has to be nearby.
    But as the darkness and silence continued, fear worked to erode whatever hope she was trying to maintain. She’d gone from a tiny prison to a wide open one, all alone, nowhere to go.
    Then she heard her name.
    At first she thought it was only in her mind, but then realized it didn’t feel like a whisper between her ears. It was less direct and far more distant, coming from the woods.
    “John?!” she shouted.

    **
    John

    John’s heart leapt in his chest. She was close.
    The steady hand of fate, or something , had led him to her. It was impossible, but no more unlikely than anything else which had made up his past 24 hours.
    “I’m here, on the hill!” Abigail screamed.
    “Stay there, I’m coming! Just keep yelling!” John shouted as he burst into a run, hurdling knotted branches and rocks like a forest native. His instincts had sharpened since his last jaunt in the woods. So did his night vision.
    Abigail screamed again, this time yelling, “Hello!”
    John smiled, even as the tears of joy streamed down his face. He raced up the hill and saw the moonlit clearing ahead. Then he saw her, standing beneath the moon’s spotlight, alive and in one peace — a beautiful sight for his sore eyes.

    **
    Abigail

    Abigail saw a flash of motion in the woods below, her angel had arrived. She cried out his name and broke into a sprint.

    **
    John

    Ten yards away, and all John wanted to do was embrace Abigail and never let her go. Hold her and protect her with all he had left.
    He didn’t question the almost paternal need to protect her so fiercely. It was as ingrained in him as the instincts which drove him. Still, he wondered, if his forgotten past included a child at some point, which had honed these feelings into something he couldn’t forget.
    Five yards away and suddenly — and only after they were locked into imminent collision — did they both seem to realize the danger their embrace would harbor for Abigail.
    Four eyes widened as Abigail tried to swerve left, and instead slipped and fell forward, launching herself toward John.
    John leapt up, narrowly missing her touch, and launched into the sky nearly 20 feet before crashing back to the ground and rolling to a stop.
    He quickly shot up and looked back at Abigail, who was lying on the ground motionless, hair spilled across her tender face.
    He ran to her, afraid she’d smashed her head on a rock, or worse… what if they had touched, but he hadn’t realize it? As John leaned down, he saw Abigail’s head moving up and down as she made some sort of strange noise. And then he realized that noise was laughter.
    She was okay.
    She looked up at him, the moon illuminating her face in such a way that it tugged at some phantom memory or emotion he could only call love.
    “You’re here,” she said, smiling.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 4 — Jacob

    In a room absent anything other than a