The Heart System

Cold hit me like a wall. Real cold, the kind that gets into your lungs and stays there. Snow was coming down in slow, fat flakes, drifting sideways in the wind, settling on the sidewalk in a thin white sheet that was already getting trampled gray near the curb. The streetlights were still on, doing nothing useful, glowing pale orange against the gray morning. My breath came out in clouds.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

I dug it out. Tuck.

”Yo, T,” I said. ”What’s up?”

”Hey, the boss wants you here, man. I think you forgot to pay for the cigarette you took from the back.”

”Ah, shit. I put the money under the counter. Behind those porno magazines.” I said. ”Forgot to put it in the register.”

”Let me check... one second... which mag... oh, yes. Found it. Alright.”

”He angry?”

”Well, not now. He is right beside me.”

”Just tell him I’m sorry. My shift starts half an hour, anyway. Will be there soon.”

”Alright.”

The line clicked dead.

I kept walking. The snow was getting heavier, muffling everything, the traffic, the birds, the whole city, until the only sound was my own boots crunching and the wet suck of slush under them. A delivery truck rolled past, tires hissing. Some old woman in a plastic bonnet was out salting her steps like the world was ending.

The morning light was that ugly flat gray that made everything look like a photograph left out in the rain.

My phone rang again. Ms. Komb.

”Hey, Ms. Komb,” I answered. ”Sorry, I couldn’t make the computer go faster. It’s actually an SSD problem.”

”Oh, I didn’t call you because of that,” Ms. Komb said. ”I’m... I’m getting some gas smell, I think. You were here with Ivy yesterday. Have you noticed any weird smell? I called Ivy just now and he said no.”

”I... didn’t.” I shrugged, even though she couldn’t see it. ”Where does it come from?”

”I don’t know... maybe I’m going crazy. This work stuff is killing me.”

”It’s probably nothing, Ms. Komb,” I said, reaching the bus station. ”I, uh, I’m at the bus station. Sorry, gotta go.”

”Okay. Take care.”

”Yep.”

The bus was already there, idling, coughing gray exhaust into the cold. I jogged the last few steps and hopped on, swiping my card at the reader.

It was packed.

Standing room only, bodies shoulder to shoulder, all of them bundled in damp coats that steamed in the heat. The windows were fogged white. Up near the back, a cluster of elementary school kids sat squished into two rows with their mothers standing over them, little backpacks, little boots, little hands gripping the seat backs. One of them, a girl with pigtails, was drawing on the fogged glass with her finger.

No seat for me. I grabbed the overhead bar and settled in.

The bus lurched forward.

For a while it was normal. Stop, start, stop, start. People getting on, people getting off, the whole tired morning ritual. Snow streaked sideways across the windows. The heater blasted my knees while my back froze.

Then I noticed the guy next to me.

He was ordinary-looking. Gray coat, scruffy beard, nothing worth a second glance. Except he wasn’t looking out the window or at his phone. He was staring at the kids in the back. Just staring.

And smirking.

His hand was down at his crotch. Not resting... ugh... playing. Rubbing, adjusting, in that slow absent way, like he was warming up for something.

What the fuck...

And then it happened.

Everything stopped.

The bus didn’t brake, it just stopped, mid-motion, like the whole world had been yanked out of time. The wheels quit turning. The fog on the windows quit drifting. The girl with the pigtails had her finger frozen mid-stroke on the glass, a smile stuck on her face. The mothers hung suspended over their kids. Some guy’s scarf floated in the air, not falling, just there.

I couldn’t move. Not a muscle. My arm was locked on the bar, my legs locked to the floor. I was a statue. Everyone was a statue.

Except him.

The scruffy guy straightened up, easy as anything, and walked down the aisle.

He strolled past frozen bodies like they were furniture. Past a man mid-yawn. Past a woman frozen reaching for the bell. Right up to the back row, to the little girl with the pigtails.

He put a hand on her shoulder.

Then he leaned down and licked her cheek.

Tongue dragging up the side of her face while she sat there frozen, big eyes staring at nothing, not reacting at all.

And something in me boiled. This guy was a fucking monster.

Then the bastard straightened up, reached down, and unbuckled his pants.

Just dropped them. Right there in the frozen aisle of a frozen bus. His penis was out, hard, bobbing in the cold air, and he didn’t seem to care one bit.

”I LOVE THESE POWERS!” he screamed. ”YES! YES! I’LL FUCK ALL OF YOU, YOU SLUTS!”

I tried to move. Nothing.

’The fuck is this? Magic?’

The rage climbed higher. Up my throat, into my teeth. I clenched so hard my molars creaked. Then I squeezed everything I had into my chest and let out a grunt.

”Hnnngh...”

That was all the noise I could make. But it was something. I focused. Found a finger. Just a finger. And I pushed. It moved. Barely, a twitch against the bar. Then the whole hand.

The guy reached out with his free hand, going for the little girl again, fingers spread, ready to grab her shoulder and pull her close.

That’s when I moved.

I launched off the bar and slammed into him.

He let out a startled yelp and we went down hard, tangled, crashing into the frozen legs of the passengers. He hit the floor and I landed on top of him, knees pinning his arms, the world snapping back into slow motion around us.

He didn’t hesitate.

”HOW ARE YOU...”

His hand flashed to his pocket, pulled a knife, a little folding one, cheap, silver, and jammed it into my stomach.

Pain ripped through me. Hot, sharp, spreading. I grunted and looked down at the handle sticking out of my gut. Fuck, I wasn’t expecting this.

Then I grabbed it, yanked it out, and drove it into his neck.

He made a wet, gurgling sound. His eyes went wide. His mouth worked like he was trying to say something and only half of it came out.

”How... can... move... you... I’m... god... the heart... sys...”

Then he went still.