Blaze of Glory - Chapter 4
Does destiny choose the person, or does the person choose their destiny?
He's supposed to be just another guy. Just another notch on Brian's belt.
But Justin has other ideas; a whole other master plan that's going to shock Brian about everything he's ever known.
One thing is for sure: whichever road Brian takes, his life is never going to be the same again
Chapter 4:
Brian was relieved to be home. If the day had started out in a bizarre manner, it had only gotten downright insane by noon. He had had no choice but to leave the office early after feigning illness; Brian was sure someone would have ended up dead if he had stayed a moment longer. Given the violence he had unleashed at the office for the few hours he had been there, Brian was certain that the bulk of his colleagues had been relieved that he had left early.
Justin, his talks of time travel, his obvious mental health issues, and then the gun, had left Brian feeling off-kilter. The way the blond had simply demanded obedience from Michael - and the way Michael had so easily complied - was scary and incomprehensible. In hindsight, when the day began in such an absurdist fashion, the best thing to do would have been to stay at home.
But Brian hadn’t done that.
The first flashback had come to Brian less than hour after he had arrived at the office. Brian had spoken to Cynthia, his assistant. They had each been drinking identical coffees. So far, so good.
Brian had then started reading a script for a television spot. Less than four lines into the script, Brian suddenly had a vivid vision of being in his living room, drenched in water, barefoot and bare-chested, kissing Justin. They were talking about liquid LSD, Justin had two small vials with him…the images, the conversation, the physical sensations had all flooded into Brian so fast that he felt disoriented. Brian could feel the water on his skin, even though he was sitting inside his office, dry as a bone. He could smell Justin, he could feel the kiss, though Brian was all alone. It was unnerving and…scary. The strength of the flashback, and the vividness of it told Brian that the events had actually happened, and that his mind was not reconstructing memories to be in line with what had happened after he woke up.
Brian had taken a walk around the office to clear his mind.
It wasn’t his mind that ended up being cleared.
Two visualizers had stopped Brian, asking for his opinion on a layout; sitting on his couch now, Brian could not recall either their names, or the ad that they had shown him. All Brian remembered was that he was annoyed at being stopped, and he hadn’t liked the work they showed him. Brian couldn’t remember what he had said - it was assuredly something rude and condescending. The whole exchange had only taken mere minutes.
He did remember taking the visual and pressing it into the chest of one of the men to dismiss them and their visual. Brian knew that he’d remember what happened next for a very long time.
The man had gone flying, hitting the wall and crumpling onto the floor like a rag doll.
Everyone had rushed about, shocked and surprised, but none more so than Brian. He hadn’t hit the guy, hadn’t pushed him. Brian was certain that all he had done was press a piece of paper against the man’s chest. Nevertheless, what had happened was equally undeniable.
There was no explanation for what had happened.
Everyone had stared, everyone had been scared, including Brian. He knew then that something very serious was happening to him, though he had no idea what was going on. Of course, Brian hadn’t let on to anyone how disturbed he was. He was his usual self; cool, outwardly calm and collected, giving nothing away. He had simply acted as shocked and surprised as everyone else, and at the first given opportunity, had escaped into his office.
Brian rubbed his temple at the memory.
Things had not gotten any better afterward.
Once he was safe in his office, more memories of the evening before had come flooding back. Brian had suddenly remembered in vivid detail being at the hospital, talking to Lindsay, standing on the ledge of the roof with Michael, Justin naming his son…his son.
The fact that he was actually a father was reason alone to have a mild nervous breakdown.
But that wasn’t all. Brian had remembered having a long, detailed conversations with Justin. A long, detailed conversation about how Justin had travelled…from the future.
Brian tried now, as he had at the office, to somehow block the memory out. He failed. All of this was enough to make one swear off drugs and alcohol for life.
Justin had told him a tale of travelling back in time from some godawful dystopian future in order to specifically find him, because…he was their saviour. That what Brian did in his life was going to change the entire goddamn future.
He had been stoned out of his fucking mind. He must have been stoned out of his fucking mind, Brian thought. There was no other explanation. How the hell else could he have gone along with such utter impossibilities? Even drunk and high, Brian knew that he generally practiced better judgment.
Brian was dying to have a drink, but, for the first time ever in his entire life, he was hesitant to consume any alcohol. In fact, Brian hadn’t drunk anything other than water the entire day, save for the coffee in the morning. And he had only had the coffee because he hadn’t known that his whole world was going to turn upside down.
Yet, there had been something so…earnest and sincere with Justin, when he had spoken to Brian. And of course, Brian now had other things to add to the mix. Other things such as now being able to actually recall flying around his building the previous evening. It was ridiculous, of course, for such an impossibility to be anything other than nonsense his mind had construed to confuse him even further.
But, thinking about it even now, it felt so real.
Then there was his apparent superhuman strength.
This was definitely not all his working out coming to fruition in some unimaginable manner. He pressed a piece of paper into a man, and had sent the guy flying into a wall. He had been speaking to Cynthia in his office later, got annoyed, and slammed his desk. Instead of bruising his hand, Brian had ended up breaking the desk. A horrified Cynthia had had to immediately order a new one.
The whole fucking day had been like that. One minute everything was normal, and in the next, some new manner of mayhem had been unleashed by Brian, with no conscious effort or thought. With no sign of the craziness abating, Brian had finally left the office and taken a taxi back home, given that he was too scared to drive.
None of this was normal.
All of this started after he had met Justin.
Clearly, he needed to find Justin to get to the bottom of this.
Brian soon realised that wanting to find Justin, and the actual act of finding Justin were two entirely different things.
He hadn’t the first clue about how or where to find Justin. He knew nothing about the guy, except how he looked, that he was an amazing fuck, he carried a gun, he claimed to be from the future, he could erase people’s memories, and oh, he had turned Brian’s life upside down. That helped not at all.
Brian asked around Babylon and the local clubs, and turned up with nothing.
In the meantime, things were going from bad to worse. Even when Brian was alone, he ended up breaking all manner of things with no forethought or planning. He could only be at work for a few hours before chaos unleashed, and Brian realised that sooner or later, people were going to start associating all of it back to him.
He did end up finding out some clues to aid his search however, from one of the most unexpected places.
Under the weight of the knowledge that he was now a father - something Brian didn’t even have time to quite wrap his head around - Brian mustered the courage to go visit Lindsay, Melanie, and…his son. Unfortunately - or fortunately, Gus fell asleep soon after Brian arrived, which meant that Gus was safe from any objects that Brian might inadvertently destroy.
“I heard there was some scene at Babylon last night,” Melanie commented. “Weren’t you there?”
Brian shrugged, in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner. “I was outside.”
“Wasn’t the problem outside, at the door?” Melanie asked.
“Was it the cops?” Lindsay added.
Brian felt he could lie freely, since the women were unlikely to find out the exact truth. “I was leaving; just stopped to ask Rob, the bouncer something. Bunch of guys tried to get in, Rob said no…the usual drama.”
“Hmmm…” Melanie sounded dubious.
In reality, Brian had asked Rob whether he had seen Justin around; naturally, Rob had not, Brian had given Rob’s shoulder a slight shake to press him to remember, and as per recent happenings, Rob had suddenly become a bundle lying on the ground.
Something on the table next to Lindsay caught Brian’s eye.
“Are those photos from the hospital?”
“Yeah, Dusty had taken them. She was so sweet to drop off copies.”
Brian was at the table in a trice. Just as he suspected, Justin was featured in quite a few of the photos. “Can I keep these?”
Lindsay stared.
“All of them?” Melanie asked, equally surprised.
“Get Dusty to give you more copies. I’m sure she’d just love to be of service.”
“Uh-huh.”
Lindsay raised an eyebrow. “That Justin is pretty sweet.”
“And pretty young,” Melanie added.
“Trust me, he’s older than he looks.”
“Are you seeing him again?” Lindsay asked.
“Why, have you seen him about anywhere?” Brian didn’t care what the women would think of him, if there was a chance that either of them had seen Justin, remote as the possibility was.
Brian knew he was onto something when the women exchanged glances.
“As a matter of fact…”
“You saw Justin?” It was all Brian could do to keep from screaming.
Lindsay and Melanie gave him weird looks. “Weren’t you the one who gave him our address?”
Again, lying was not a difficult skill for Brian under most circumstances. “Well, obviously, but I didn’t think he’d actually…when was he here, anyway?”
“Hmmm…Mel had just gotten back home…hmmm…late afternoon yesterday?”
Brian could feel his pulse quickening. Justin was here, somewhere. “What did he want?” Brian was hoping that Lindsay would just ramble and give him some clue about where the blond could be found.
“Brian, you okay? You look flushed.”
Brian glared at Mel. “That’s because it’s steaming in here, and you haven’t switched on the AC.”
“Brian, you really do look…”
“I’m fine,” Brian barked, even as he felt sweat trickling down his neck for some unfathomable reason. Jesus fucking Christ, he thought. Just when he finally found a lead, his body started going haywire, again.
Trying to be as surreptitious as possible, Brian put down the glass of scotch he had in his hand.
He had noticed that he had managed to squeeze the glass hard enough to crack it.
Brian supposed that he should be glad he had not caused a bigger scene.
Yet.
“SO? What did Justin want?”
Lindsay looked perturbed, but she nevertheless answered him “He came to give Gus.”
Brian stared at her blankly. “You mean see Gus.”
Lindsay sighed plaintively, as if she were dealing with a particularly slow child. “No, that’s not what I meant. You remember that he was the one to name our son, right?”
“Right. Obviously. Of course.”
Melanie raised an eyebrow, but mercifully kept quiet.
“Well, apparently, ‘Gus’ was the name of his teddy bear from when he was a baby,” Lindsay said. “He came to give his Gus to our Gus. I thought it rather sweet.”
“And only just a tad weird,” Melanie added.
Brian sighed. A teddy bear wasn’t going to help him find Justin. “Did you invite him to come again?”
Both women stared at him.
“Brian, he’s clearly looking for a way into your life…he’s got a crush on you…” Again, Lindsay sounded like she was talking to a very small child. “It would be particularly cruel to string along someone that young, especially when you know that -”
“Linds, with all due respect, why don’t you just let me figure that out?”
“Brian, he’s only seventeen.”
“Jesus Christ,” Melanie swore.
“He’ll be eighteen soon enough,” Brian said. Clearly, Justin, Mel, and Lindsay and chatted for a while. If only….
“Why are we even discussing your age gap, when you don’t…” Lindsay paused, searching for the right words. “You don’t date, you don’t do relationships, you don’t even sleep with the same person twice…what on earth are you going to do with an innocent seventeen year old?”
“Let me worry about that. If you see him again, just tell him I want to see him. Tell him to come to the loft. Or work. Or…just call me and I’ll tell you where he can meet me.”
“He couldn’t have been that good. What do you want with him?” Melanie asked, curiosity piqued.
“He…has something I need.”
Brian left Lindsay and Melanie’s place soon thereafter, seeing as how there was no conceivable way in which he could get any more information from them. He had tried his best.
When Brian got back to his building, he noticed a light glowing from under his door. Brian sighed in annoyance. He was just not in a mood to deal with Michael right now. He wasn’t surprised that Michael had come; Brian had successfully avoided him for several days now, and Brian had known that his minimal luck in that regard was soon going to run out.
Brian slowly dragged open the door, wondering what manner of questions Michael would throw at him.
“Well, you sure took your time getting back,” Justin said from the couch.
Brian stared at him. “How did you…?”
“Get in? Your lock is pretty easy to pick. What am I doing here? You told Lindsay that I had something you needed. As luck would have it, you also have something that I need.”
Brian closed the door behind him quickly. “Lindsay had your number, and that idiot didn’t give it to me.”
Justin smiled. “She doesn’t have my number. I bugged her living room when I was there yesterday. Good thing I did.”
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