228 Invitation of a Higher Power
228 Invitation of a Higher Power
I remembered standing in the aisle, fluorescent lights buzzing softly overhead, while Nicole held up two cradles like the choice somehow decided the trajectory of our entire future.
“Is this color good or should we go with this color?” she asked, tilting one box, then the other.
Both were the cheap plastic kind with rounded edges, pastel colors, dangling toys sealed behind clear packaging. Cute. Lightweight. Brittle. I could already imagine the faint stress lines forming if someone leaned too hard against it. Compared to the wooden one a few feet down the aisle, it felt temporary and disposable.
“No,” I said, tapping the plastic box with my knuckle. “We go with this one. The one you have to assemble from some manual.”
She smirked, already knowing what I meant. “You will make it work.”
That settled it.
We finished our shopping without interruption, no whispers, and no stares that lingered too long. It still felt unreal, walking through a store like anyone else, pushing a cart filled with baby supplies instead of weapons or contingency plans. My notoriety should have made that impossible. It would have, if not for my psychic abilities smoothing the edges of perception, nudging attention elsewhere. A suggestion here, a blind spot there.
I didn’t know if I could ever live a normal life without it. The thought felt almost… dangerous.
I drove us home, hands steady on the wheel, to the small, modest house I’d bought with money that technically didn’t exist. It was untraceable and shifty. But it was ours. You had to start somewhere. The neighborhood helped with tree-lined streets and well-kept lawns. It was the nicer part of Markend, something I was only able to afford, because of my money and power.
Raising my son here felt like a gamble. Markend had a way of sinking its teeth into people. Still, I figured we’d see where that took us.
Nicole helped unload the car, carrying boxes inside while I handled the heavier stuff. One of the rooms was already half-cleared, and she immediately got to work baby-proofing it, moving with careful focus. Our son was still in the tube, still growing, still distant in that abstract way that made him feel both real and unreal at the same time. But every cable cover we installed, every corner guard we snapped into place, was a promise to the future.
While we worked, she broke the silence.
“So,” she said casually, “should we give Ron a second name?”
I paused, holding a screwdriver midair. “What name? You mean like a nickname? We already got the abbreviated and cute Ron. How about Ronny? Ronnie? Ronbun?”
She shot me a look. “No, like a real name.”
“Like Ronald West Caldwell or something.”
She snorted. “Now you make him sound like a cowboy.”
“Ronald ‘Ron’ Caldwell?”
“Nah.”
“Ronald Silver Caldwell.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Someone’s getting jealous.”
Before I could respond, the air shifted. Onyx appeared first, leaning against the doorway like she’d been there the whole time. She was wearing a leather jacket, sharp grin, and had an attitude turned up to eleven.
“Fuck you, Nick.”
Silver followed, more quietly. She stood near the dresser, hands tucked into the sleeves of her sweatshirt, smiling with a softness that contrasted Onyx completely. “Ronald Silver Caldwell,” she said. “I like that.”
I added quickly, trying to keep the peace, “We can name the next one after you, Onyx.”
Onyx straightened. “I gotta pick the name.”
“No,” Nicole said instantly.
Unlike before, when they’d been hazy, half-formed hallucinations born from her psychic instability, the two of them were now crystal clear. Edges defined, presence solid, as if they were rendered correctly this time. Not figments, not projections… Instead, they’ve become psychic constructs, standing in my house like they belonged there.
That unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.
I looked at Nicole, concern slipping through despite my efforts to stay neutral. “Are you sure you’re doing fine?”
Since the pregnancy, she had been recovering well. Better than expected, honestly. But something had changed. Her psychic abilities had grown sharper and stranger. And her hair once a single shade was now split clean down the middle, half white, half black, like her mind had decided to make its divisions visible.
“I’m fine,” she said, brushing it off. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
Silver hovered near the scattered parts of the cradle, eyes bright with an eagerness that felt… new. She bent down, picked up one of the plastic supports, and held it out to me.
“Let me help,” she said.
I froze, staring at the piece in her hands. “Oh shit… you can pick things up?” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Even Nicole paused, mid-motion, frowning. “Since when can you do that?”
Onyx scoffed from the doorway, arms crossed, clearly offended. “Didn’t we promise to each other we’d keep it secret just a bit longer? You know, surprise them when they’re making lovey-dovey, so we can join in the fun?”
Silver’s eyes widened, all innocence. “But I want to help.”
Nicole was unimpressed. “You need a time out, pervert.”
She didn’t hesitate. One sharp psychic motion and Onyx vanished, gone in the blink of an eye.
Nicole turned slowly to Silver. “Now,” she said flatly, “explain.”
Silver tilted her head, playing it cute. “Tee-hee… I don’t know?”
Nicole sighed. “I know a time-out doesn’t scare you, and I’d feel guilty doing that to you. But there are different ways for me to make things tough.”
Before I could comment, Nicole grabbed Silver, pulling her in close. With the aid of her psychic abilities, she rapped her knuckles against Silver’s head. I’d known for a while that Nicole could interact with them like this as her powers grew, but seeing it so physically… it hit different.
What unsettled me more was the implication. If Silver and Onyx could now interact with the physical world too…
Honestly? That sounded kind of awesome. Ahem.
Nicole and Silver lost balance and tumbled to the floor, rolling awkwardly, Nicole ending up on top. She pinned Silver’s arms down, glaring.
“Tell me what you know.”
Silver looked away, cheeks flushed, her neckline exposed as she mumbled, “C-Can you be gentle?”
Nicole cursed. “You think we’re shooting some erotic drama, huh?”
I facepalmed.
It was ridiculous. Amusing. And if I really thought about it—if Silver and Onyx were just hallucinations, or fragments of a power—then what I was witnessing was Nicole essentially arguing with herself.
…Still.
They looked kind of hot together.
“I know, right?”
I flinched.
Onyx was suddenly beside me, elbow propped casually on my shoulder like she’d never been banished at all. I hadn’t even felt her arrive.
Nicole snapped her head toward us. “How are you back?”
Onyx grinned. “Oh, I have a theory. But first, I’m gonna enjoy this.”
She leaned in closer, wrapping an arm around my neck, pressing herself against me in a way that felt unsettlingly real. She licked my cheek full-on tongue, playful and provocative.
Of course, she was a psychic construct. So it wasn’t that… icky.
…Maybe.
Nicole lost it.
“Hey! No eating without my permission!”
She lunged toward us.
Silver yelled, “No fair! I want in the action too!” and grabbed Nicole’s ankle just as she charged.
Nicole went down hard right on top of me.
The room exploded into chaos. Limbs everywhere. Shouting. Laughing. Fighting over me like I was some kind of prize instead of a very confused man pinned to the floor of a half-finished nursery.
Part of me liked the attention.
That part of me scared the hell out of the rest of me.
Anyway, I tried to escape.
Keyword: tried.
I probably didn’t try hard enough, for obvious reasons… ahem. Somewhere between intention and effort, gravity, limbs, and poor self-control conspired against me. We ended up in a tangled mess on the floor, arms and legs everywhere, my shirt half-undone, Nicole in much the same state, the others mirroring her movements like reflections that refused to behave.
That was when a portal snapped open.
Guesswork stepped through.
We froze.
He froze.
For a man whose entire power revolved around guessing outcomes, his timing was catastrophically bad.
He turned his head slightly, stiff as a board, then faked a cough. “I didn’t see anything.”
I spat back automatically, “Of course not. You’re physically blind.”
Silence stretched, thick and awkward.
Then someone bumped into Guesswork from behind. A second presence squeezed through the portal, fabric fluttering dramatically. It was his portable portal maker, the cape known as Gloryhole. She took one look at the scene and gasped, eyes wide, hand flying to her mouth.
“Yuck! Don’t you have any shame?” she blurted. “Doing it so obvious in the daylight? Boss, I didn’t know Eclipse was that kind of person, you know… D-Did he buy those hookers?”
I stared at her, incredulous. For someone who was a former prostitute who had basically intruded into our home uninvited, she sure had the gall to talk like that.
Onyx shifted, clearly about to do something violent or at least creatively cruel, when Guesswork stepped forward quickly, hands raised.
“C-Calm down. Please don’t kill her,” he said in a rush. “She’s important to the SRC now. Also, she might’ve grown arrogant because of her recent promotion to Director of Logistics. Glory, you idiot. It’s Eclipse’s woman. Apologize.”
Glory blinked. “Huh? Who? There’s three of them.”
Guesswork hesitated. “…It’s a three-in-one situation.”
“I don’t get it.”
Silver, who rarely showed any anger, smiled softly, sweetly, and dangerously. “Three in one?” she said. “You think we’re some kind of coffee?”
Guesswork swallowed. “Uuh… yes?”
Nicole snapped her fingers. “Sounds like a fun metaphor.”
Silver brightened immediately. “I’m definitely the sugar, right? Because I’m sweet!”
Onyx scoffed. “Then Nicole is the coffee, because she’s bitter and emo.”
Nicole shot back without missing a beat, “No, you gotta be the coffee. You’ve got the spice and punch. I gotta be the cream, because I cream a lot. Get it?”
I didn’t want to get it.
Somehow, through sheer willpower and the survival instinct of a man desperate to reclaim dignity, I managed to extract myself from the pile. I stood up, fixed my clothes, buttoned what needed buttoning, and rubbed the bridge of my nose.
Sometimes, Nicole’s brand of crazy really got to me.
I looked at Guesswork, who was still standing there, visibly regretting every decision that led him to this portal.
“What do you want?” I asked flatly.
Guesswork finally seemed to get his bearings.
“The top dog wants to see you,” he said. Then he winced. “Well… there are five of them, so it should be top dogs… or something. Ah… no, wait. I guess there’s only four of them now. Ugh. It’s hard to explain.”
He pressed his fingers against his temple, visibly strained. “They put a lot of restraints on me. Stuff that stops me from revealing sensitive information about them. Bottom line—” he pointed vaguely upward, “—the highest authority of the SRC wants to meet you.”
I felt my jaw tighten. “Now? Of all times?” I snapped. “What do they want? I already made a promise to deal with the Entity when it comes to it. If anything, I’m getting impatient.” My voice rose despite myself. “You promised me your side would keep track of it, keep a lookout. I’ve been waiting very patiently, despite my literal death looming on the horizon—”
“Calm down, Nick.”
Nicole’s hand wrapped around my arm, grounding me. Silver held my other arm as well, her presence cool and restraining. Onyx, however, stepped forward, placing herself squarely between me and Guesswork, eyes sharp, posture openly hostile.
“Listen,” Onyx warned, “you better have the location of that bastard, or I will kill you. We still got a wedding to plan!”
Guesswork lifted his hands quickly. “Calm down! It’s… it’s part of the reason why I came here.” He swallowed. “But first, you have to meet my bosses.”
Nicole’s grip tightened. “I’m coming along.”
“You can’t,” Guesswork said immediately.
She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”
He hesitated, clearly fighting whatever bindings were squeezing his brain. “Because… they don’t like you.”
“Excuse me?” Her tone dropped, dangerous and cold.
Guesswork grimaced. “It’s difficult to explain. And… sheesh… I don’t know how to put this nicely without the bindings literally killing me, but…” He gestured helplessly. “You led Nick astray.”
“Hey!” I barked.
I turned to Nicole and placed a hand on her shoulder before she could explode. “It’s fine,” I said firmly. “This is a talk that has to happen, one way or another.”
She searched my face, clearly unhappy and suspicious. I leaned in and kissed her forehead, holding her close to me.
“I’ll be back soon,” I said quietly. “So don’t think too much about it.”
Even as I said it, I wasn’t sure if I was reassuring her… or myself.