Julie Howlin, Writer: Running in the Family (Excerpt)

'Try it,' Loretta urged. 'See if you can knock the tin can from that post.'

'I don't know how,' James protested.

'Concentrate. Will it to happen.'

James tried, mainly to humour her. He didn't believe for a second he could move the can by willpower alone. Years of studying science had convinced him of that.

As James expected, nothing happened.

'Doesn't look like I've got special powers after all,' he commented, 'so I definitely won't be trying flying.'

Loretta frowned. 'You should be able to do these things. I cannot understand why nothing happens.' She sighed. 'I suppose it must be down to that powerful human brain of yours - it can alter reality to fit what you believe, and you don't yet believe in your powers.'

'If you say so, Loretta. I don't have time to work on it now. I'm meeting Julia, I have to get going, or we'll be late for the party.'

'Of course. Maureen's party. I have been invited too - I shall see you there.'

James walked across the campus, his hands in his pockets, deep in thought. Loretta was at best mistaken and at worst, taking him for some kind of ride. Who knew what went on inside that alien head of hers?

As he reached Julia's door, he put it to the back of his mind. He wasn't going to let Loretta and her crazy ideas spoil his evening. He was determined to enjoy the party.

'Dance with me?' James asked Julia as the band struck up a slow, romantic song.

'Can you manage it?' she asked.

'Still trying to be my nurse, aren't you? I can dance to slow numbers. I'm not sure I should attempt the jive just yet, but this is fine.'

Julia smiled and let him enfold her in his arms. It felt good. He drew her closer; she rested her head on his shoulder. James was about to close his eyes and savour the moment when he saw something in the corner of his vision. It registered somewhere in his mind as out of the ordinary.

He looked up to see what it was. A tall man strode across the room. He wore black from the toes of his knee-length leather boots to the high collar of his long, swirling cape. His face was obscured by a gold mask. Definitely out of the ordinary. He stood in the corner, watching everyone. Periodically, he glanced towards the door.

The oddest thing of all was that everyone else in the room ignored him completely. Nobody even looked in his direction. James, however, couldn't stop himself from staring. The man stared right back. Despite the mask, James knew the stranger was glaring at him. For some reason, he'd taken a dislike to James on sight. 'You see that guy in the corner?' he whispered to Julia.

'Which corner?'

'Over there.' He nodded to where the strange man stood.

'There's nobody there, James. It must be the way the shadow falls.'

'No, Julia, there's a man there, he's wearing a mask, but he's looking at me as if... You can't see him, can you?'

'No, James, I can't.' Julia's face took on a worried look. 'Let's go outside for a minute, get you some fresh air.' She led him outside, where she made him sit on the front step. 'Are you all right?' She looked him in the eye.

'I thought you agreed to stop treating me as a patient.'

'I'm not. I'm concerned. Any woman would be, if her boyfriend suddenly started seeing things.'

'Julia - those painkillers I've been taking - could they make me hallucinate?'

'I wouldn't have thought so, but you never know, especially if you took too many by mistake. You're feeling OK, though?'

'Perfectly; but I think I'll sit here in the fresh air for a while, anyway.'

Julia took his hand, worrying in silence.

Moments later, they heard voices. 'Are you sure he came this way?' a woman’s voice said.
'He must have, I can't see where else he could have gone,' a man's voice replied.

Julia gasped as the speakers came into view. They were dressed strangely. The man wore boots, slacks, a sweatshirt and rose-tinted glasses; he carried what looked like a gun. The woman was blonde, dressed in white boots, a short white tunic and a mask. James stared at them in horror.

'Don't worry,' Julia whispered, 'I see them, too.'

The woman turned when she heard Julia speak, and gasped, as if James and Julia's appearance was as strange to her as hers was to them. The man looked at them in equal astonishment before regaining his composure. 'Excuse us, please,' he said, stepping through Maureen's front door. Curious, James and Julia followed.

Maureen squealed when she saw the two newcomers. 'What the devil...?' Several other guests turned to look as well, hearing their host's distress. A couple of the braver male guests came forward to stand beside Maureen, looking threateningly at the strangers.

'Ah.' The man stopped in his tracks. There was a mere moment's hesitation on his part before he gathered his wits and said to Maureen, 'So this isn't fancy dress?'

'No, it is not,' Maureen said, haughtily. 'Who are you, anyway? This is my party, and I don't know you. Who invited you?'

The man opened his mouth and closed it again, at a loss to explain himself. 'Is there a problem, Maureen?' Loretta asked. The stranger saw her and seemed suddenly inspired.
'Loretta did, she told us it was fancy dress,' the man growled. 'Loretta, I want a word with you.'

Loretta looked baffled, but followed him out of the door. James followed at a discreet distance. He could tell Loretta didn't know these people any more than Maureen did, despite their apparent familiarity with her.

They didn't seem as menacing as the man in the corner, but James was sure they were connected with him in some way. Loretta might need rescuing; not that James had any idea what he might be able to do, especially since the man was armed.

'All right,' Loretta faced the strangers squarely. 'You know my name, but I do not have any idea who you are or what you are doing here. I would appreciate it very much if you would explain.'

'That's exactly what we want to do,' the man said. 'First, I must apologise for all of this, and secondly, please let me assure you we don't mean you or any of the guests at that party any harm.'

'Where did you come from?' Loretta asked.

'When did we come from would be a more appropriate question,' the man said. 'This will sound crazy, Loretta, but if anyone around here is going to believe this it's you. We're from the future. Thirty years into the future, to be exact.'

'Fascinating,' Loretta breathed, peering closely at him. 'I know time travel is theoretically possible, but... how did you do it?'

'We didn't, exactly. We were caught up in someone else's slipstream - albeit intentionally.'
'Why did you come looking for me?' Loretta asked.

'We didn't. It was lucky for us you happened to be here. You see, in thirty years' time, the two of us, you, and several others are all members of a crime-fighting team made up of people with exceptional powers and skills. It's called the Freedom League.'

'I see. You are the leader of this - Freedom League?'

'No. I am in charge of this particular mission, however.'

'I would prefer to deal with your leader,' Loretta said.

'I'm sorry, but that's not possible right now. There are a couple of good reasons why he's not with us; one, he's being held prisoner in a stasis field by one of our sworn enemies, and two, the laws of co-existence - two versions of one being cannot exist together in one time period. If that happens, the older version sickens and dies within a few hours. It would be suicide. We're not born in this time, but a younger version of our leader is alive now.'

'Could I not speak to the younger version?' Loretta asked.

'You could,' the man from the future said, slowly, 'but at this point in his life, he's going to know even less about what's going on than you do.'

James edged forward, listening hard.

'This enemy, a dangerous criminal, has stolen a time-travel device and an invisibility field generator.'

'Which means he could be lurking, unseen, in any historical period?' Loretta said. Any puzzlement or fear about the strangers had vanished now she'd heard their explanation. 'It would be like finding the - what is it you say - needle in a haystack.'

'Right - except the device has a range effect. We placed ourselves in his slipstream. He's in this time, and we're sure he's in this building. We followed his trail right to this door.'

'And if he has travelled through time again?'

'He can't. At least, not yet. The device has to re-charge. We have a few minutes to find him before he jumps to another time and we lose him completely.'

'And he is invisible?'

'Almost certainly.'

'Can any of you detect invisible beings?'

'Our leader, can, but...'

'He's in a stasis field,' Loretta finished for him. 'Okay, so we have to locate someone none of us can see.'

'So you'll help us?' the woman asked, eagerly.

'I will try,' Loretta said, 'but I can make no promises. I cannot see what is not visible, any more than you can.'

James stepped forward. 'Pardon me for interrupting,' he said, 'and for eavesdropping, but I couldn't help hearing what you said. If the person you're after was visible, would he by any chance be dressed completely in black with a cape and a gold mask?'

'Why, yes, that's Obsidian all right,' the man said. 'You - you've seen him.' It was a statement, not a question.

'He's in there. I saw him, nobody else seemed to. I'll help you catch him.'

'James, are you sure?' Julia looked concerned. 'He's probably dangerous.'

'Julia, before these people came along I was convinced I was going mad and seeing things. Thanks to them, I know I'm not. The least I can do is help them. Besides, it looks as if I'm the only one who can.'

'My friend James is gifted, as you are,' Loretta explained.

'We know,' the woman said.

'You know me in the future too?' James gasped.

'Yes.'

'One question. In the future – do I have special powers? Flying and energy bolts?'

'Yes. And you can see invisible things, as you seem to be aware already.'

'I'm learning all the time,' James said. He'd not even been able to even knock a can off a post so far, but it looked as if he would, one day, master the powers Loretta had assured him he had.

'Let's do this,' James said.

The man from the future gave him a tight smile. 'Thank you,' he said.

'Don't, James, he could kill you!' Julia cried, clutching at his sleeve.

The woman turned to Julia and said gently, 'He'll be all right. We couldn't have met him in the future if anything had happened to him now.'

'I hope you're right,' Julia said.

'We are. Trust us.'

The door swung open and slammed violently against the wall. Julia shuddered when she looked and saw nobody there. 'It's him,' James hissed. 'Get behind the wall, Julia - they didn't say they knew you in the future, so stay out of sight!'

The black caped figure stood in the doorway, glaring at them. 'What a nice little welcoming committee,' he sneered. 'Target and Ivory. And what have you managed to dig up from the past, I ask myself?' He spun around to face James, who took a step backwards. 'You. I thought it was you in there when I realised you could see me. Well, well. You know, at this moment, I am actually more powerful than you. From my point of view, that makes a nice change! What an opportunity! If I kill you now, I'll save myself a lot of trouble in years to come. Without their leader, that pesky Freedom League will never even exist.'

James backed away, his mind reeling. He was their leader in the future? He decided not to think about that. He probably wasn't going to survive to become their leader, in any case. He could only resign himself to his fate. Obsidian raised his hand. There was an aura around it, as if he was gathering power. Energy bolts from the fingers. Loretta had mentioned that, as had Target and Ivory.

'I won't let you kill James - you'll have to kill me first,' Julia threw herself between him and Obsidian, facing the caped man down like a cornered wildcat.

'Julia, don't!' James cried, intensely proud of her, but terrified for her at the same time.
Obsidian roared with laughter. 'A noble gesture, my dear little Julia,' he said, 'though it shows you cannot be aware of the extent of my powers. Your futuristic friends will soon tell you - I can control my energy blasts so they'd pass right through you, but still blow your boyfriend to smithereens! Nor do you seem to realise I'd just as happily kill you, but if that's what you want...' James grasped Julia's hand. At least they'd die together.

Meanwhile, Target had quietly positioned himself directly behind Loretta. He gave her an almighty shove, sending her stumbling into Obsidian. Obsidian roared with anger as the aura of power around his hand fizzled out.

'Stay with him, Loretta!' Target urged. 'His power won't work as long as you're within three feet of him!'

Loretta got the message immediately. She grabbed hold of Obsidian's cloak and held on tightly, resisting all Obsidian's efforts to dislodge her. Target drew his gun, while Ivory stood with one hand raised exactly as Obsidian had done. The same aura shone about her fingers, too.

'Now, Obsidian, hand over the time travel device, and the stasis-field control, and the invisibility field generator, or we'll shoot. Don't forget, Ivory can shoot through people too!'

Obsidian growled with rage, and dropped three small devices at Target's feet. Target swept them up into his hands. He pocketed two of them. 'This is our ticket out of here,' he grinned, holding up the third, 'back to the future. Loretta, when we activate this, you can let him go. He'll be too anxious not to be stranded in this time and succumb to the law of co-existence to bother attacking any of you. The Freedom League will be able to deal with him at the other end. Thanks, and we'll be seeing you. One day.'

Target tapped buttons on the device. Ivory stood beside him. Loretta loosened her hold on Obsidian's cloak. Sure enough, he didn't stop to attack, but dived for the shimmering, fading forms of Target and Ivory. When they'd vanished, the air in the spot where they'd been standing continued to waver and shimmer, like a heat haze. With a growl of frustration, Obsidian threw himself into it - and likewise vanished.

'Phew!' James said, sitting down heavily on the step with Julia beside him. 'Was all that real?'

'I fear so,' Loretta said.

'The Freedom League, eh? I'd better start working on whatever powers I have if I'm going to be worthy of them. At least I know I can see things other people can't.'

'I know now to stay away from you when you try,' Loretta mused. 'It is no wonder nothing you tried worked before - you were standing too close to me. I had no idea I had that effect on you. It is even news to me.'

'Personally, I only hope they get you out of this stasis thing in one piece,' Julia said.

'They will,' Loretta said, firmly. 'I am sure of it.'

**********

The above is an excerpt from my latest book, Running in the Family. If you want to know more about James, Julia and Loretta's stories, and more, the book is available now from Amazon and Createspace. Here is what you need to know:

Running in the Family

An alien craft approaches Earth. The alien on board is a fugitive, fleeing from an arranged marriage to freedom on our world. She befriends James, a genetics student, and shares her knowledge about the future of the human race with him.

A science experiment gone wrong gifts James with superhuman abilities; but they come at a price, leading him to mentor others like himself. He founds a group of amateur heroes called the Freedom League.

The Freedom League suffers a string of losses and tragedies; it seems doomed to failure; but one of its members, Peter Mayfield, has vowed to form a group of his own. He is determined to keep his vow, despite having lost Rosemary, the one person he wanted by his side to help him.

Lizzie Hopkins is a talented young athlete and dancer. Peter sees her in action and guesses her exceptional abilities are far more than they seem. He offers to train and mentor Lizzie - but her mother is violently opposed to his suggestion.

As soon as she is old enough, Lizzie takes matters into her own hands; she seeks out Peter and his group for herself. She soon makes a discovery which shakes her world at its very foundations. Her search for the truth will resolve many unanswered questions, but it will also stir up old heartbreaks dating back to the Freedom League's early days.