The woods looked washed out, color saturation turned down and light levels turned up to compensate. Every surface was evenly illuminated, leaves, bark, ground all shared the same quiet brightness. Shadows couldn’t find any purchase from which to cast. Not under the leaves, not beneath the undergrowth. Everything felt two dimensional.
A man stood at the edge, looking in towards the center. No shadow fell behind him either. He was dressed for work, a faded denim shirt rolled up to his elbows, heavy work pants worn with age and use, leather boots scuffed. His black hair loosely pulled back with elastic that had long since stopped stretching.
“It is time,” a voice said.
The man closed his eyes and exhaled out his nose. “Again?”
“Yes. Use Sakla’s system to locate the scion.”
He opened his eyes, dark brown and observant.
“And if he doesn’t want to be found?”
“Then the cycle completes,” the voice said. “We will try again.”
The man nodded once. That answer had not changed.
The light withdrew. Shadows returned gradually, as if the world were remembering how to behave.
Leaves darkened. The ground gained depth. The air felt heavier, less precise.
The man adjusted the strap of his satchel and stepped out from the trees.
Chaos reigned around him. Children in pastel clothes tore through the grass, scooping up plastic eggs. Parents hovered at the edges with coffee cups, cheering intermittently and issuing half-hearted warnings they had no intention of enforcing.
The man took a step forward and nearly collided with a toddler in bunny ears.
The child hissed, then scurried away.
The man paused. Then continued.
He reached into his satchel and withdrew the tablet. Its granite face was smooth, the edges reinforced with duct tape after an incident involving a cherub, coffee, and a generous interpretation of “touchscreen.”
“Ah,” he said quietly. “Easter.”
Movement at the edge of his vision. A small shape charging toward him with absolute confidence.
He looked back to the tablet.
“Max.”
The chihuahua skidded to a stop in front of him, tail wagging furiously, tongue out.
He knelt without hesitation and offered a brief scratch behind the ears.
“Hello, Max.”
Max vibrated in approval.
The man reached down and picked up one of the abandoned eggs. Inside was a treat sized for a much larger animal. He regarded it, then glanced back at the tablet.
“This is not proportionate,” he said.
He handed it over anyway.
Max staggered off under the weight of his prize, entirely unbothered.
Standing and brushing his pants free of grass. The man returned his attention to his tablet. Time to work.
He tapped open Seth’s file
Name: Seth Abrams
Status: Pending Scion Review
Location: South Bend, Indiana
“He’s not even in Chicago anymore?”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Ok, South Bend isn’t too bad.”
The man looked at his map, then towards the train station. There were so many kids to wade through, and parents, and at least two volunteers in bunny suits that drew kids like moths to a flame.
Church bells rang in the distance.
The man tucked the tablet back into his satchel, adjusted his shirt. “I guess sooner is better than later,” and started the trek towards the station.
A family sat on the bench, kids eating candy while their parents watched a video.
“Twenty five years on Earth.
“Twenty five years in prayer
“I know you’re asking what’s really going on?
“Tomorrow…
Joshua paused and pressed his fingers briefly to the bridge of his nose.
“Please don’t,” he said quietly.
“…the waiting ends.”
“The UNBOXING begins in…”
As he moved past the families, conversations bent around him, briefly and without disguise.
He sighed.
People were louder than they realized.