Caped (Book 1): The Burdens of Fate Read Free Page A

yeah, and I can walk through walls.

Edward Otep (Cont.) -
    ...Eventually Laurie grasped the gravity of the
situation and, after a change of wardrobe, we returned to the Trump
International Hotel and Tower. His mark on the place was still evident out
front, cordoned off with police tape along with a two man security detail. We
managed to make our way into the building without incident and said our
uneventful goodbye in a crowded elevator full of unsuspecting people. "L.A.," he said with
a chuckle and small hint of wonder, "...I'll be there."
    I smiled in relief, nodding with acceptance as
the door closed, "You better be."
    Continuing upwards I found myself continually
amazed by how strikingly ordinary he was. There stood this wrinkled old man, a
few inches shy of six feet tall, no hint of a demanding presence, and as easily
lost in a crowd as any other. It was a revealing epiphany; the world hasn't
changed, just the people in it.
    And just like that the first chapter on Laurie
Stahl had closed, and quickly transitioned to my first brief encounter with
Alvin Turner.
    At 3:13am I made my first call to Alvin's land line,
something I knew he wouldn't answer because he'd later tell me the many places
he visited his first night. I'd written down and rehearsed all I needed to say,
but just before the *beep,* the slip of paper vanished from my hands. It took a
moment to process exactly what had happened but the message was received, with
the exception of my call-back number, which I promptly left.
    It was a ghost story without the ghost, one
that left me feeling extremely vulnerable; an unexpected result.
    It was the dead of night and although my body
was clamoring for sleep my mind refused to rest, flaring with heightened
periods of awareness due to the Everest sized proportion of the task before me.
I am extremely hesitant to sleep. Should I afford myself such a luxury or do I
persevere to the point of exhaustion? Until my head hurts and my body aches, is
that not what real heroes do?
    Yet I'm constantly reminded of a vital fact,
that I am not a hero. Not yet. I'm a single man living in very non-fictitious
situation. I have no Batcave to retreat to, no backup, and at this moment, few
souls alive that would even believe the events of my day. Tonight I sleep in a
hotel, alone. I now live with the reality that I'm not insane, a fact that is
both comforting and terrifying. In six days we'll be tested for the first time,
a test I'm not sure we can aptly prepare for.
    – 3/13 –
    Michael Serna –
    Journal Entry
#1,372
    Everyone's talking about Japan's "Flying Man!" phenomenon, a
compilation of amazingly clear and lengthy videos straight out of Tokyo that have gone viral in just a few short hours. Literally
hundreds of people were able to catch video and take photos of him before he
flew off. They've got it on security cameras, news cameras; I'm surprised it
hasn't shown up on Google Earth yet!
    I don't know what to think. We've seen hologram
technology move by leaps and bounds, anyone remember Tupac showing up on stage?
Technology is constantly improving so we can't just blindly trust our eyes
anymore.
    So, is this excellent viral marketing for some
unannounced superhero movie Hollywood
loves to churn out these days? A crazy expensive hoax by dedicated individuals
looking for their fifteen seconds of fame, holographic project, optical
illusion, swamp gas? Or the craziest of all, could it possibly be real?
    I don't know which crowd I fall into yet but
I'm definitely counting it as a hoax one way or another, and I'll definitely be
keeping my eye on it.
    In the highly improbable off-chance the videos
are legit, this does make the recent disappearance of eight inmates at the
Upstate Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in upstate New York,
seem just a bit more interesting, especially since they're stubbornly refusing
to release the names of the missing inmates while openly acknowledging their
hesitation to call this as a jail