"Your father isn't crazy" a voice whispered in the dark.

Jordan sat up in bed and looked around. She could see in the dim light that it was going on one am- and that the patter of rain was striking the window pane. Shaking off the feeling that she had been having a night mare, 20 year old Jordan Black stretched and slid her feet over the edge of the bed before padding bare foot into the kitchen for a glass of orange juice.

It had to be that she was just a bit hungry before she went to bed. A stack of saltines gave the salty sweet crunch that she needed and she felt herself beginning the bliss buzz.

The rain picked up its patter against her windows as she slipped back under the blankets, crackers in hand.

"Your father isn't crazy" the voice, a mans, said again.

Maybe he wasn't" thought Jordan, But she certainly was feeling that she was for that moment...

Dawn came. Jordan yawned as she regarded the clock. It was just 5 am. As of late she couldn’t explain why she was getting up at that hour. It just – happened.

‘I have to see him… to know’ she thought to herself as she flipped the covers off of her legs and slid her feet into her thongs. She always wore the thongs in the morning, wore them into the shower and around the house- ever since she saw the spiders had begun to invade her home. She supposed they were eating the ants, or something and for the most part they left her alone (only one of them had dared to challenge her and got the business end of her shoes for its troubles.)

She had a stab of guilt, She hadn’t seen her father in years. She still got updates from the hospital, but, it had been difficult before- When she was younger, her grand parents took her to see her father – at first frequently, and as the years went on, and his madness – increased- the visits became less frequent until they stopped all together. She did write him, when she was in school, telling him everything that she had done and how much she missed him. When she graduated from high school she had to work and then college came around and her grand parents were even less willing to take her to visit. Being dependent on public transportation made visits even harder. But she made it a point after graduation from highschool to move closer to where her father was- just- just because even though she hadn’t gone to visit, she still felt closer to him. The college she attended was in the same city, and she reasoned that she could visit him when she had time… It had been two years and the time had never come.

Today though, after what she had heard last night, she had to know.

She – needed- to know.

It was a day off from her studies. While she had work on a paper due in a week, she’d done the bulk of it and would be refining the paper after re reading her notes.. The weather was supposed to be good – A trip to see him would – be good.

Or devastate her completely.

She showered, dressed then grabbed her back pack. She shoved her apartment key into her left front pocket, with some money, and in her right pocket, her bus fair. If she hurried, she could catch the 520 cross town. A tall thin dark skinned woman stood at the bus stop with a thin brief case. She smiled and nodded to Jordan. “Your up early.” The woman said still smiling.

“Oh, you know, term paper research Life of a student is never done.” Jordan said smiling back at the woman. They had ridden the bus together since Jordan moved into the town- but, it was odd that the woman happened to have the same schedule that Jordan did. She worked at a business across the street from the school. Normally Jordan would have taken the bus that ran an hour later.

She hadn’t counted on the bus being as crowded as it was that early. Something- the way the woman looked at her, as if expecting her to say something about her dreams caught Jordan off guard. Something about the way the bus driver looked at her caused Jordan to step back as the woman stepped forward and up the bus step. Jordan stepped back further and allowed three others to get onto the bus before her, then at the last moment, shook her head and said “I will wait for the next one.” The Bus driver nodded and closed the door. Jordan saw the startled look on the woman’s face as it pulled away from the curb. Behind Jordan, dust swirled. Strangely Jordan felt relief. Jordan stepped back from the curb and found herself ducking through the alley, She had taken time to study the bus routes, and the subway She could just as easily get there with using the subway, but something before had scared her from the darkness. The feeling was even stronger as she walked by the entrance of the terminal.

“Take the 547 cross town” the man’s voice said. “You will be safe.” There was no one around Jordan when she heard that. But, somehow , she trusted that voice and when the 547 came around the corner she got on it. It passed her home stop and she found herself pulling down in the seat avoiding the searching glance of the tall dark skinned woman who was franticly searching for something- Jordan perhaps- before speaking into a cell phone.

“lord love a duck what have I fallen into?” murmured Jordan to herself.

“You can’t go back to your apartment” said a man’s voice- it was different than the voice she heard before and it was coming right behind her. She turned and looked into a face that was familiar. He held his finger up to his lips.

“I don’t have much time Jordan. Your father committed himself to keep you safe from them.- but it seems that they have decided to keep you in their sights anyway. They know you are becoming suspicious…”

“What do I do?”

“Don’t use your cell, or your credit cards, they can track you…” he began.

“Why now?”: she asked She knew she didn’t want to know- but she had to.

She watched him shrug.

“Because everything changes when you turn 21.” He said gently .”They are hoping that the power you have inside you will manifest and stay with you past your 21^st birthday. – If they can’t get your powers to manifest by then, and control them, they never will.

“I’m hearing voices” she said in a soft whisper. She watched him sigh and tilt his head.

“Did you hear voices before?” he asked gently. She shook her head.

“No, I would only see things that weren’t there – or that others couldn’t see. “ Peter Watts shook his head.

“It doesn’t work that way. You don’t jump from one skill to another with out having them together.” He regarded her a long time. “Though there are electronic methods to making people think they are hearing things- sub harmonics.”

“So- it was someone on a mic doing this to see how I would react?”

“Possibly” he said softly “But they don’t know that you know that now. Only trust what you can see Jordan.” He said before getting up and moving down the aisle of the bus.

To be continued…