Dark Flame (Strange Gifts #3)

CHAPTER ONE

Phillip “Flip” Cho

“Alice, I’m telling you I know what I saw. That boy moved a dresser across the room without physically touching it or moving his own body!”

Fan Cho was not a man prone to exaggeration or emotional outbursts. He was a tall, lithe man with a calm demeanor, even in the most difficult times. His shock of jet-black hair flopped over his forehead, and he pushed it back in frustration.

“Fan,” Alice whispered, “that just doesn’t make sense. He’s a boy, for God’s sake! A big boy, but still, he’s only eight years old! How could he possibly move a dresser, which easily weighs over one hundred pounds, across a room without a sound?”

“I know that, Alice! That’s why I’m fucking freaking out!”

Fan dragged his long fingers through the mass of thick, straight black hair again. Silver threaded the once ebony locks, but he still looked like the same sweet boy Alice had met many years before.

Whoa! The ‘f’ word from Fan Cho? Alice knew it was serious now. Her sweet husband never cussed. It was one of the many reasons she married Fan, not the least of which he was handsome and tall, unusually so for his heritage.

Alice and Fan met in her first year at Stanford University, both engineering students, but Fan was a PhD candidate. He stood out for his height, and she stood out for, well, everything.

Alice, Samoan by birth, moved to the San Francisco area at the age of two. By sixteen, she was nearly six foot tall and almost one hundred and eighty pounds. By the time she met Fan, they were the same weight and nearly the same height. He didn’t care. The woman with huge brown eyes and cascading mahogany hair, falling to her waist in massive waves, was all he could think of.

On a late fall afternoon, while rushing to class, the handsome graduate assistant stopped her outside the engineering building and asked her to meet him for coffee after class. She was certain it would be a discussion about a class project or grades. Instead, it turned out to be an actual date. The kind where a young man held your hand, paid for the coffee, and actually looked you in the eyes and asked questions that he was genuinely interested in getting a response to. The next hundred dates were the same. He made her laugh and made her feel things she had never felt before.

Three days after graduation, they married in a small private ceremony off the coast of California. Their families gathered around them, more in protest than in celebration. Neither side wanted them to marry outside their culture, but Fan and Alice were in love, deeply in love; that wasn’t something that happened every day.

Fifteen years later, they were both successful engineers working for the Department of Defense when Alice found herself unexpectedly expecting. She was thirty-eight, and Fan was forty-two. Doctors said he would be a big boy, but little did they know he would be their only chance for a family.

At nearly thirteen pounds and twenty hours of excruciating labor, Phillip would be their only child. Alice would be unable to conceive again. But, oh, how their big baby boy was loved! Alice and Fan put everything they had into giving their son the kind of life he deserved. As a baby, he was curious and intelligent. He walked early, talked early, and certainly moved quickly.

When Phillip was three, the DOD assigned them to a special project at Sierra Depot. Although they were only there two years, Alice always felt like something else was happening at the Depot that they were unaware of. The project seemed simplistic in nature and beneath their skill level, but it was steady work with excellent pay and housing. Still, it seemed that the Army Corps of Engineers or Seabees could have performed the task they were handling.

Phillip seemed delighted to constantly play in the annoying pink dust found on base, somehow making his behavior odd and uncharacteristic yet still childlike.

Now, four years later, they were having the same argument about their young son. Large objects moved mysteriously in and around their home. No explanations, no tracks, no signs of anyone or anything. Other than the presence of Phillip.

“Fan, please calm down and lower your voice,” said Alice. “I-I know strange things are happening with Phillip, but he won’t talk to us. I think he’s afraid. If we yell, he’ll think something is his fault and won’t open up to us.”

Fan looked at the pained expression on his wife’s face and grimaced. The last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt Alice Cho. His beautiful, sweet Alice. Her long, wavy black hair was now speckled with gray making her more beautiful than ever. He nodded and let out a long slow breath. They would need to find a way to reach Phillip and help him.

“Mom? Dad?” said Phillip, standing in the doorway. He was over five feet tall at only eight years old. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” He folded his hands behind his back and shuffled his feet back and forth in front of him.

“Son, I’m not mad you moved the dresser, but how? I didn’t hear anything; I didn’t see any marks on the floor. How did you move that heavy thing?” Fan was genuinely curious from a parental interest and an engineering interest.

“I-I just thought about it, and it moved.” Phillip looked down at his feet, praying that his parents would hear him, that they would understand what he was saying. He had the coolest ability ever, and if they could understand that, then maybe he could go to a superhero school or something and really become something special.

“Phillip,” said Alice softly, “it’s not okay to lie to us about this. Just tell us the truth.”

“I am telling you the truth!” he yelled. He clenched his fists at his side and knew he had to show them. “I’ll show you I’m telling you the truth.” His face flushed pink, and the determination in his eyes let Fan and Alice know their son was serious.

“Phillip…”

Fan stood and started toward his son and felt a slight shaking in the old wood floors of their home. He watched his son staring at the massive bookshelf lining the wall of the living room. His intense gaze and focus never wavered, the bookshelf constantly in his line of sight. Fan couldn’t believe his eyes. The shelf lifted, all the books wavering back and forth. Alice clasped her hands over her mouth, staring at her son.

The bookshelf moved away from the wall and into the center of the room, crowding Fan back to the sofa with his wife. As easily as it had lifted, it settled on the floor, and Phillip stared at his parents, a small drop of sweat beading on his forehead. His parents could only stare, darting their eyes to him and then back to the bookshelf.

“I-I don’t do it all the time. I just…”

Fan looked at his son, his brows furrowed in a deep concerned wrinkle. Whatever the boy did, it would certainly not be good for their family. If anyone found out about his abilities, they would take him from them, and Phillip would become some lab experiment.

“You must never do that again, Phillip,” said his father calmly. “I don’t know how you’re able to do this, but if anyone were to see, it could end badly for all of us. Especially you, Phillip.” He said the words with nothing but concern for his only son.

“Fan!” said Alice quickly.

“Alice, you know I’m right. I don’t know how Phillip acquired this skill, but he can’t show anyone else. Is that understood, son?” Phillip looked sad and disappointed. He hoped his parents would understand, but they only looked at him as a freak. He nodded and turned to walk back into the bedroom.

“Wait!” said Fan with a slight smile, “Could you please put the bookshelf back?” Phillip looked at his father, a small grin curving the older man’s lips.

“You said…”

“I know what I said, young man,” smiled Fan, “but you did it; you put it back. And Phillip, you’re grounded for the next week. You should have come to us sooner and told us. If I ever find you doing that again, the punishment will be more severe.”

“Yes, sir,” he said politely.

As easy as breathing, the bookshelf lifted once more and was gently set back in place. Phillip turned and walked down the hallway to his room, softly closing the door to his bedroom. He focused on the dresser, moving it back to its original place, gently setting the large item against the wall.

They don’t understand me. This is the best gift ever! I could do all kinds of cool stuff. I could help people and… and… do all kinds of cool stuff!

It would be only a few years before Phillip thought exactly the opposite. His gift was a curse, and he didn’t want to show anyone. He wanted to escape.

Initially, he thought football was his way of not only using his size and strength, but it would also be his way out and a way to potentially use his gift without others noticing. But, when even his college teammates suspected there was something different about Phillip, he left the team and college. After traveling for a year, he saw an Army recruitment poster and thought, ‘Why the hell not’?

Six months later, he was in the middle of the worst firefight ever. Men were dropping like flies around him all because of some idiot decision by a commanding officer. It was supposed to be an easy in and easy out, but nothing in this place was ever easy. The large, armored vehicle lying on its side provided no cover from its current location. Phillip focused his attention on the vehicle and let it roll back and forth, finally coming to a stop in front of their group.

No one said anything, just looked back and forth at one another.

“Earthquake?” said Flip.

His teammates just nodded, but he knew they didn’t believe him. They had no way out unless they could get some serious firepower.

Looking to his left, Phillip noticed a big, muscled soldier with a weapon in each hand taking down enemies like ducks in a carnival. He watched as the soldier’s ammo ran out and then noticed three dead insurgents, their weapons lying near the bodies.

Looking around the area, he decided it was worth it. With just a flick of his head, the weapons were airborne and silently placed behind the other soldier.

“Hey,” he whispered, “hey, buddy! Look!” he said, pointing to the ground.

The man turned and looked at the neatly stacked rifles behind him. Not wanting to question the gift, he picked them up and immediately put them to good use.

Three more times, Phillip found dead insurgents and weapons that either he or the other men could put to good use. In a final burst of need to end their battle, he flicked his wrist, collapsing the building holding most of the insurgents. His teammates believed it was one of their mortars, but Phillip knew better.

Two hours later, Phillip headed back toward base, but not before the stranger caught up with him.

“Hey, man,” said the large man jogging toward him, a big grin spread on his face, “I don’t know what happened back there, but thanks. That was pretty spectacular. If you ever want to talk, I think we have more in common than you might think.”

“I don’t think so, man,” he said calmly, looking down at the other man. The man was big but not as big as Phillip. He easily had two to three inches in height on him and forty pounds of bulk and muscle mass.

“I understand. I’m Kane, by the way, Sgt. Kane Jackson.” The man extended a big, rough hand caked in dirt and blood. Flip looked down at his hand, back up at his face, and shrugged. Gripping his hand, he nodded.

“Phillip Cho, but they call me Flip.” There was something familiar about the man, although Phillip was certain he’d never seen him before, ever. Yet when their hands connected…

“Flip,” he grinned, “thanks, brother.”

He still held his hand in a firm grip, and the big man eyed him suspiciously but squeezed it. A million emotions flashed across Kane’s face, and Flip pulled his hand back quickly, feeling a sizzle of energy. It wasn’t sexual or filled with anything malevolent, just an unexplained zing that sent small bits of electrical current up his arm.

“You’re a good man, Flip. I hope we meet again.”

With that, Flip watched the big man walk back to his unit. They would see each other often after that, and now, here they were in Wyoming, chasing down pink fairy dust, witchcraft-like skills, and one very evil woman.