Obscure Undertones

Ronny was dazed as the concussive blasts were parping over his roommate’s TV in the apartment they shared. It was the middle of summer, and Anthony had been watching a space invasion play out on TV. He didn’t care how loud it was. Ronny owed him the rent money.

Ronny sheepishly threw on his work clothes and met Anthony for his regular mid-morning confrontation.

“You got the rent money yet?”

“Listen I know what you’re going to say. I don’t have time for it. I am going to be late for work.” He wasn’t late at all. A newly acquired defense mechanism had Ronny trying to duck these ‘coaching sessions’, which lead to him not being around the apartment as much.

He threw his shoes on and started towards his lackadaisical employment of running boat trailer shuttles up and down the river. Here, he could just hang an ear on the radio, and keep his focus in front of him while passively, putting through traffic.

He lived on the edge of a city, where they get all the seasons, and all the colors that go with them. He walked to work as he was in close proximity to it.

Since he left early to avoid the confrontation, Ronny thought he’d head through the edge of town. It was the longer way, but he had time to smoke a little marijuana en route. In his eyes, it was an agreeable way to start the day off.

While he wasn’t particularly familiar with this course he’s traveled, he knew of a mall that was approaching. Behind this was a lane you could pass through that was shut off from the bustling storefronts.

That’s the spot, he thought, behind there, and I’ll head right to work after. No one will even notice.

Ronny made his way behind the mall and found a dumpster that he stood beside, hoping to obstruct any view of him.

Without looking he quickly pulled out a joint he rolled from the day prior and partook on this hurried procedure for his low-pressure results.

After a few quick inhales, Ronny began to notice that he wasn’t the only one in the vicinity. He was hearing voices from around the other side of the dumpster. There were voices of two men, one stood out with a profoundly deep tone.

Not wanting to get caught, he quickly threw down the joint and softly crept to the edge of the bin, and peered at where the words were coming from.

A man stood tall and sturdy like a giant post buried deep in the ground. He wore a long coat that appeared to be bathed in dark blue with a hue of violet. He wore leather gloves and a brimmed hat of the same tone. He wore mirrored aviators that complimented his expression of steel.

The blue titan was talking to another man unseen from a corner that protruded from the mall.

Ronny pushed his focus forward, trying to hear what the men were saying as he was intrigued by the well-kept beast.

“---name?”, Ronny made out just one word, but could tell the behemoth was asking the man for his full name.

The police? was his only thought, not fully convinced the cobalt colossus was law enforcement.

The hulking indigo entity then pulled out a little black notebook from inside his coat pocket.

Ronny stayed fixed to what was going on. He watched the man write something in the notebook, assuming it was the name of the unseen individual.

Flipping the notebook shut, he raised it in the air instead of putting it away, as if the man of lapis were taking a picture. A glint from his sunglasses twisted into an aura of bright, white light, bursting from the notebook.

An absorbing black void began emanating from the back of the notebook and started ripping a hole open into reality, slowly stretching, but staggering to widen, reaching to grow.

Ronny’s eyes widened in disbelief. He could not look away. His hand began autonomously reaching for his phone to take a picture of this unhinged scene.

The man from behind the wall gasped, and ran towards Ronny’s direction. Ronny’s own face matched the man’s expression of fear.

Drawing taller and wider, the vacuum grew beyond the length of the great man who unleashed it.

The frightened man was not fast enough. Mid-leap, he was swallowed whole by the darkness that towered behind him. Ronny, unattentively positioning his phone to take the picture, observed this with his mouth open and in shock. He stared off, looking through the incident that had just taken place, until his vision came back into focus, only realizing the display of energy had receded. Looking back towards the corner where the spectacle started, his eyes met with a reflective glare of aviator sunglasses.

The gleam focused on Ronny, just as his camera phone snapped a picture, unknowingly leaving the flash on.

>CLICK<

“Who’s there?”

Overwhelmed, Ronny didn’t answer and kept his stance, still trying to put together what just happened.

“Stay where you are!”, the voice bellowing in Ronny’s direction, the man began to make his way towards him.

Ronny pulled himself from his trance, turned around and began to throw his legs in front of him, only to tumble throughout his first few steps. He adjusted quickly, caught tread and took off, heading in the direction from where he came, and doubling back to work the easier way. Looking back, he noticed the man was following him. However, he was not running. The way he moved seemed mechanical and cold, but with intent. He did not look back until he felt he lost his pursuant.

I’ll just head to work where I can at least tell someone what happened and contact the police. His plan echoed in his head for a moment while he caught his breath.

Pounding the pavement the entire way, Ronny had a chance to reflect. What did that notebook do? Who was that man? Why did it happen? These being only some of the questions that plagued his consciousness, the number growing as his high wore off from the run.

Proceeding up the back entrance of the shop, he rushed straight into the office of his supervisor, and tried to explain the events of that morning.

“There’s a man-, he was behind me! I think I hav-“

“Can it wait for a second?” He shrugged off Ronny’s behavior as he normally would have and became just a little annoyed. He pointed to the front of the store. “There’s someone out front, here to see you.”

“Uhm. Who?”

“He didn’t give me his name. Some huge guy wearing blue”, still aiming towards the front.

The same frozen fear from earlier washed over Ronny for a second time that day.

“Take the third shuttle today. Go, get out of here! I’ve got work to do.” The supervisor nudged Ronny out of his office until he ended up outside, facing the shut door.

This is not happening. Screw this. Slowly taking out his phone, Ronny began to dial the number to the local police. He almost had the whole number in.

“Hey Ron! What run did you get today?” a coworker had approached Ronny, whom he considered amicable.

Ronny had completed the number and hit send.

”Your friend out front is trying to get something to you, before you head down the road, I think”

“What?”

One ring.

“He said he had some money for you… were you short for lunch today, or something?”

Second ring.

Money?

“RPD how can I direct your call?” The officer was hastily met by the sound of Ronny’s own voice.

“Sorry I dialed the wrong number” Ronny hung up the phone. He quickly had the number redialed in his phone ready to hit send again. He motioned towards his fellow employee, “Hey, can you do me a favor and wait here for me?”

This became the only solace Ronny had in this uncomfortable situation; a pre-dialed phone, and his unknowing colleague in the other room. Ronny staggered with determination to get to the bottom of this. Enough was enough. Ronny concluded himself that if the blue bastard was going to produce his people-swallowing light-show again, that he wouldn’t have stopped at the desk by the front door.

Cautiously emerging from the back of the store, Ronny grabbed a nearby paddle. The man in the blue suit appeared locked-on to him from the back of the store, which was far away enough for Ronny to question if the man could see through walls.

He approached the vacant front desk without saying anything, carefully shuffling his steps. He could see as he drew closer, the formal attire under his coat: a tie, and a white collared shirt. He was also carrying a briefcase. Ronny wondered if the briefcase would come alive just as the notebook did.

“Hello, again”, the broad voice of the man shook Ronny, ”You may have a lot of questions right now. If it’s the case I haven’t curbed your curiosity already, then I am going to make this easy for you.”

The unknown man set the briefcase on the desk, opened it, and reached in. Ronny flinched.

“$20,000 for your phone.”

From the briefcase, the man pulled two stacks of banded one-hundred dollar bills. He placed it in front of Ronny. He had almost forgotten that he had taken a picture of the man upon their first encounter. The man in the blue-violet suit was right. Ronny was full of questions. He decided to make it count.

“The other man, in the alley… is he- “

“No, he is not dead”

“How did you find me?”

The man lifted his hand to point directly at Ronny’s chest. Ronny looked down and realized he was wearing his work shirt. The name of his place of employment on the front and back.

“Your co-workers helped filled in the blank … Ron”

Ronny reluctantly obliged, the $20,000 remained on the desk, and with abrupt mystery coming just as it left, the imposing enigma fashioned in blue left.

Still full of unrest, Ronny didn’t want a certain giant stalker, with a portal to who-knows-where that fits in his back pocket, to know much of anything about him.

Tucking the money into is pockets, Ronny walked home without saying goodbye. He left his job, just as he left his unsuspecting coworker in the back room.

He walked all the way home, and quietly stashed the money under his mattress. $20,000 was a lot for Ronny. It was at the very least a chance to start over.

Ronny took a week off, started looking for a new apartment, then decided to take the extra step in securing that his chance would be a successful one.

He went to the police station to file a report.

Calling ahead of time, the officer he spoke to on the phone set up a time for him to meet with a Detective Rojaz. Ronny thought it was an unusual name but it didn’t deter him.

As Ronny was led into the detective’s office, he noticed that Detective Rojaz was not small. He was a much larger man. His shirt and tie almost looked as if it were painted on, his glasses were thick and distorted any view of his eyes. It reminded him of the confrontation that he was there to discuss.

Ronny met the detective with a quick handshake. Upon sitting down, he noticed a long coat of crimson red hanging up next to the office entry. Next to it, a matching brimmed hat. On the corner of the desk were a set of leather gloves of the identical color.

The detective approached his coat and pulled a little black notebook from the inside pocket, and returned to the desk.

“Ronny or Ronald? What is your full name?”