Available Darkness Season 1

few years back, I’d found some magick users from my home world, people who helped me claim something of a normal life. The only thing is, with me, there was no guarantee it would stick. I’d already reverted once, for some reason, so I could never be entirely certain I would have a normal life.”
    “When I met you,” John continued, “I tried like hell not to fall in love. I didn’t want to bring this chaos into your life, believe me. But I fell hard, and dared to dream we could live a normal life.”
    He fought the tears, dropped the magick, and was left staring into Hope’s wide, beautiful eyes. He prayed she wouldn’t run. Prayed she would accept what he said, and what he was about to say.
    “I can’t protect us any longer, not without risking Caleb. I need to stop him. But before I can do that, I need to protect you in case I don’t make it back. I need to wipe you.”
    Hope’s eyes narrowed at the phrase that hit her with the blunt force of a head-on collision.
    “ Wipe me? What?”
    “The only way to protect you is to erase your memories and have you start over somewhere else. Like a witness protection program, but you won’t have any memories of your old life. Since I won’t know where you are, there’s no way Jacob can find you.”
    “Take my memories away? All of them? You can’t erase me!” Hope said pulling away, a look of disgust on her face. “No!”
    “If I don’t, you are in danger,” John pleaded, “Jacob has found you, he can sense you. He will find you and use you to get to me. He is evil beyond anything you’ve ever seen. He killed our mother, and he will kill anyone to get what he wants. Anyone. The only way to get him off your scent is to wipe you.”
    “No,” Hope said turning away, “you can’t erase me! I’d rather die than have every memory I’ve ever had stolen from me.”
    “You don’t know what you’re saying,” John said. “You have no idea what he’s capable of.”
    “No,” Hope said, arms folded, “I won’t let you.”
    “I’m not giving you a choice,” John said.
    “Fuck you!” she screamed, the first time she’d ever said anything even remotely so harsh to John. “You can’t do this to me! What about my family? My friends? They will come looking for me.”
    John shook his head, “We will wipe them, too. Remove memories of you.”
    She stared at John as if he were the monster he was.
    Her voice laced with accusation, she said, “You have it all planned out, don’t you?”
    “I didn’t want it to come to this,” he said, “believe me. I’ve got enough money, fake IDs, and people in place who will help you start over.”
    She snorted, and started towards the exit, “No, I’m not letting you. This is my life! You don’t ‘wipe’ people’s lives away!”
    As she reached the doorway, Larry stepped forward with a skinny, dark-haired pale man with impossibly bright golden eyes—Adam.
    Hope fell back, her eyes frightened like a trapped animal.
    “I’m sorry,” John said as he came up behind her, put his palm to the back of her neck, and let her drop unconscious into his hands.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 6 — Caleb Baldwin

    Caleb met his partner, Wu, for dinner where they discussed putting a tail on the suspicious man from earlier, John. While Caleb hadn’t mentioned how John seemed so familiar, Wu agreed that he thought something was definitely going on.
    Wu agreed he’d get right on tailing John if Caleb took the morning shift. Perfect—Caleb felt half dead anyway.
    He left the car with Wu and took a cab to the hotel. On the way back, he retrieved his personal cell phone to check for messages from Julia. The empty mailbox underlined his loneliness.
    Caleb noted that he seemed to miss his wife most when he was on the road and unable to see her. Yet, when he was home, he’d routinely stay late at the office, oftentimes not seeing her for days at a time, save for the moments they’d pass one another like ships in the morning and night.
    He hit three buttons and listened to her last message, from two days earlier.

    “Hi, honey, I’m running late. Carol and I stopped for coffee. Let me know if you want me to bring you anything. Oh, who am I kidding, you’re probably still at work. I love you. See you around eight—if you’re home. Bye.”

    He glanced at his watch: 8:20 p.m., and wondered if he could catch a flight home and surprise her. Then he remembered that he’d be trailing John in the morning; he’d never get back