Eavesdropping

Callum

Callum woke to a pitch dark room and groaned as he threw back the blankets and swung his legs out of bed. He was always pulling back the curtains, but they always seem to close again. Damn these old buildings and their quirks and creaking floorboards.

Padding over to the window he pulled the right side back and looked out at the city lights, 12 floors up gave him a brilliant view. With a deep feeling of wanderlust he pushed the window up and sat himself on the window sill. He leaned his back against the frame and swung one leg out and let it dangle as he put the other up with his heel against the bottom and his toes up against the opposite side of the frame. With one bent arm resting on the up thrust knee he leaned his head back against the wood and wished he could just pack a bag and leave, but he felt like he had unfinished work here still.

As his eyes took in the view below and beyond him, he let his mind drift back to what he overheard earlier that day.

~#~

He had been minding his own business at work when he heard her voice. He could always hear her, the walls of the place must be paper thin or the building had strange acoustics or something. One thing is for sure, when she was talking to herself her voice sure carried.

She had received a new piece and was checking it over. He couldn’t quite see it just then but if he moved just a little maybe he could.

“Another paradox, how could a primitive people get carvings of that quality on the inside of the thing, I don’t see any seams on the outside….” she said speaking to herself.

He moved his head to the side trying to see round her but she moved and was again blocking him.

“Move bitch,” he whispered.

Her head tilted and her body stilled as if she had heard him. He held his breath hoping she didn’t find him eavesdropping. He watched her shake her head as she decided she hadn’t heard anything and he started to breathe again.

She took the piece with her back to her desk and placed it down before tuning to her computer and opening up a new tab to start her research.

He huffed, she never finished that last piece, that was her all over. Flighty his mother would call her.

The hairs on the back of his neck seemed to spike suddenly alerting him to another presence.

“Brother it is fortuitous to see you here.”

Callum looked around but couldn’t see the person who had spoken to him.

“Who are you, where are you?” he whispered hoping she was too far away to hear him.

“I am everywhere, inside of you, surrounding you, guiding you. I am your saviour. He who will bring you back from the brink.”

As he listened to the words Callum got the feeling that they emerged out of the mouth of the speaker in one form, then swirled and drifted much like smoke when it is caught by a breeze would. The words then reformed into something he could understand, although spoken in an accent he was unfamiliar with.

“I don’t understand, show yourself,” he hissed.

“Can it be? Is it possible? You do not know your power?”

~#~

Callum swung his leg carelessly as he sat in the window. He wasn’t worried about falling. Death didn’t scare him. The world had taken on new light after his strange conversation earlier that day, although he wasn’t sure whether or not he believed it all yet. He had a little research of his own to do now.