Stone

By LM Weddel

The children of tomorrow are sent to our world to save it from the same fate that tore their world apart. A machine that was supposed to help mankind is instead corrupted by mankind. These children are the last hope to not only repair the time portal machine but to stop the "Hunter" which protects it and bring to justice the man who stole it. Each child has as ability or as the like to be called "Espers" to stop another world (ours) from being ripped apart before the past, present, and future are no more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 1, 2002
• ISBN: 9780759683020

LM Weddel

The author lives in Texas and has published other books, articles in various sci-fi magazines, as well as readers digest. She belongs to many sci-fi and fantasy clubs, and every few years takes a Star Trek cruise to see old friends. The author is an avid reader and loves to play computer role games. She has traveled around the United States and various other countries. She has been awarded membership into the Reader's Digest Author Club two years running.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Lily

TJ Stone had just decided to call it a wild goose chase when out of the fog, which had crept in slowly and softly like it is notorious for doing at night here on the bay, walked Lily. Blood trailed her ever footstep; she stumbled and fell to the pavement just as he reached out, cushioning her fall by cradling her in his strong arms.

Lily! My God! What happen to you? Who did this? Hold on, don’t move, I’ll get some help! Stone said as he tried to rise up from the pavement.

Lily’s blouse what was left of it, was saturated in blood, as Stone moved his hand out in front of him to get up, he could see it dripping off his fingers. When he tried to lift her up, she screamed in pain, making him ease back down cradling her against his chest. Stone’s mind made mental notes of her condition as he tried to formulate a plan. He needed to get her to a doctor immediately but Stone couldn’t handle the pain he saw in her eyes when he had tried to move her.

No! Stone wait! Lily whispered. It’s too late for me. But you must watch out for the children! They will need you; I won’t be there for them. You must be there! Promise! Promise me! Lily beseeched him, clinging desperately to Stone’s topcoat sleeve, as her life’s blood seeped into the front of his cotton shirt.

What children, Lily? Answer me, who did this, and why? Tell me what happened? Stone pleaded as the cop in him took over needing details.

The Children of Tomorrow, Stone! They’re the only ones who can save your world! I saw what Arno did so I had to die. But Arno doesn’t know about you! You have to help the children; you have to. Promise me! Lily begged with the last of her strength.

Stealing herself against the pain she raised herself up, to look into his silvery gray eyes for the last time, an for a moment all the love Lily felt for Stone came flooding back into her eyes as their undying love seem to connect for one last time. As she strained to hear the final words from his mouth, his hair had fallen across his face, Lily reached up with her small delicate hand but her fingers never reached his face. Stone’s mind registers the burned fingertips and the way her hand seems to be bent the wrong direction as she struggled with her words. Stone could see the blood bubble up inside her mouth as he whispered his Promise to her then she fell limply back into his arms.

As her hand smacked the puddle on the pavement barely creating a ripple, then silence, and Lily’s life slipped away as if she had never been.

Lily, Lily, who are the children, where are they? How can I help them? Who is ‘Arno’, what was it you saw? Answer me, Lily! Stone barked at her, but Lily was beyond hearing him. Stone looked down into those green eyes for the last time, realizing they would never sparkle again. In the distance he could still hear the echoes of her laughing at his silly jokes.

Lily was gone! For a moment, time seem to stand still as he looked up to the night sky and felt the moisture of the fog on his cheeks as the rage and helplessness welled up inside him, turning into a cold, cold hatred. Which no fire on earth or in hell could ever burn hot enough to ever put out the cold in his heart, as he clung to Lily’s body. Then slowly Stone reached up and closed her eyelids for the last time, rocking back and forth with her as his soul cried out for vengeance.

His eyes changed from the silvery gray color to pure Carbonite Steel as he screamed out his defiance to the cold, bitter, lonely night. His screams seem to echo off the alley walls returning tenfold to be swallowed up in the noise of the city night. Passersby just pulled up their collars to cover their ears, trying to blot out the agony they could hear in his screams and scramble farther away from the alley, not wanting to get involved. His screams sounded like the cry of a wounded Hawk, which was answered, far off in the distance by the howl of a lone wolf. Stone’s eyes register the fleeting shadow of the people as they scurried past the alley entrance, but not a one stopped to offer him any help. Instead all he could remember was the solitary pale face of one woman as she hurried pass the entrance, glancing his way, with so much disdain in her eyes to see a grown man acting this way. And it was this attitude, which further set the coldness creeping into his heart just that much faster. Then the storm passed inside him, just as quickly as it had come, leaving his hate to smolder behind those silvery eyes, as Stone stopped rocking and gently laid Lily’s body down on the pavement.

Reaching down with one hand to smooth her dress so as to cover her more completely, after all, in life Lily had always been very lady-like in her manners and Stone wouldn’t have anyone see her any other way. Then like some kind of Robot, Stone’s cop instinct took over and proceeded to call in and report what had happened.

Stone seemed to remember hearing his partner that night, taking down all the details, that seem to spew out of someone else’s mouth, but everything else faded in and out between the red rage and the ice-cold loneliness he felt. Afterwards, Stone recalled that he was the one, that it was his mouth spewing out all those gory details, as if Lily had meant nothing too him, but instead just another body that had been found lying in some alleyway. But at the time Stone, couldn’t even remember how he arrived at home that night. But he couldn’t stop the scene in the alley from replaying in his mind over and over again all night long, haunting him with possibilities, if only he had arrived sooner or knew where she had been maybe, then maybe he could have saved her.

Maybe, it seemed to be so simple a word! But it was this maybe, which lingered in the back of his mind, as his body tossed back and forth across the bed, soaking his sheets with the sweat which rolled off him, like a torrid rain storm. Until finally pure exhaustion caught up to him and his body slept, but his mind just kept replaying everything over and over again.

It had been on October 2; Lily had passed away, as strangely as she had entered Stone’s life five years ago. It had been Lily’s way, to always leave everyone with questions unanswered. But this time Lily had left Stone with too many questions:

Who were the Children?

What had Lily seen?

Why kill her for it?

What was it, that Stone was supposed to do, to help these mysterious children?

And how could some children help save the world and from what?

Too many questions with no answers!

Questions had never stopped Stone in the past and it wasn’t about to stop him now. God how he hated when things like that happened. At least no answers for the moment but he knew they would come, they always did. That was the one thing that both Lily and his partner had always agreed on, that no matter what the cost, Stone never stopped until he had all his answers. The other cops always said that was his trademark in life, but for now Stone was grateful for the ability. He would use all his resources to find out what happen to his friend, no matter what!

Finally even his mind had run out of avenues to search and at this point, Stone fell into a deep sleep, but the coldness in his heart, and his need for vengeance would never ever, ever go away!

From that night on, Stone continued to toss and turn reliving every moment over and over again, while his subconscious tried to make sense out of it all, but to no avail.

This went on night after night and he knew it would continue until someone, that someone, who had done this to her, was made to pay, and they would pay with their life, this he swore to himself. They, whoever they were, had taken the only women

Stone had ever loved away from him and he would make sure they paid the highest penalty possible. A life for a life!

Chapter 2

The Day After

Case #2956 was opened on Oct 2, but there had been no clues to what happened, the why of the crime or who the perk was. His captain had warned Stone to stay away from the case, due to Stone’s relationship with the victim. But everyone in the precinct including Stone’s partner knew that Stone wouldn’t be able to just let someone else handle it.

They knew that Stone would also be looking for the murderer and they only hoped that they would find him or them first. The case had been assigned to other officer’s in the precincts homicide department, which were already over worked and Stone knew the case would be filed away somewhere and forgotten, but not by him. Stone knew how the police worked a case and as case 2956 wasn’t the murder of some kind of socialite or a politician, which would get the officer’s name in the paper or get them a promotion it would just disappear into that void where a everyday no-body’s went. And Stone made a vow to himself that this time it wouldn’t happen, that this time Stone would find out the ‘who’ and bring them to justice this time, because no one else would care except him. And Stone would make sure someone paid for the life of Lily with their own, this is what he had vow to himself, in that inner most darkest part of ones self, to make sure they paid no matter what the cost to himself or his career would be. After seeing her like that, Stone just couldn’t feel anymore and deep down inside him he hoped this case would end the pain he felt one way or another.

Stone kept see the autopsy report in his head, over and over again no matter what else he was doing. No matter how hard he tried to put it away, it just kept popping back into his mind with such clarity that it might as well have been the only report on his desk that next morning as he sat at his desk looking though his case load.

Female, mid thirties, five foot five. Body showed clear signed of torture; all of the victim’s bones in both hands had been crushed and from the look it had been done one bone at a time. Her back had been cut to shreds with what must have been some type of whip with steel balls as the flesh still had traces of metallic residue imbedded deep in the flesh that was left. Also upper extremities showed traces of recent electrical shock. Which produced the burn marks not only on the outer skin areas but also in the soft inner tissue of the area surrounding the chest cavity. But the real cause of death was due to the severe blood loss.

The body had been almost complete void of blood anywhere. Even the coroner could not explain how Lily had managed to make it as far as the alleyway, where Stone had been waiting, in her condition. The coroner’s note on one of the pages in the side bar had stated that even under the extreme duress her body had been in; her desire to reach Stone had override what her body had told her mind. That she was already dead, but the mind refused to comply until after she had confided the information to Stone. At which point even her strong heart had just given out, and she died!

Stone kept moving file after file around on his desk even though he never looked at any of them. It was just his hands making busy time, while his mind work though the details of what had happen the night before. But Stone was getting nowhere fast and this made him more dangerous by the minute.

Today was chilly, with a brisk wind blowing in from the bay and the sun was trying to chase the nightly fog away.

Today would be just like every other day in San Francisco, like yesterday or tomorrow, nothing really ever changes. It just goes from being dull gray to a gloomy gray and the criminals keep on walking away from justice. Stone’s morning started off just like always with one his special blend cigars, as far as everyone knew his cigars were his only weakness, and a cup of lukewarm coffee handed to him by his partner, Jake LaPoint.

Now Jake was no different than any other cop on the force, except he had the misfortune to be partnered with Stone, at least that was the way all the other officers felt except for Jake. Others believed Stone had no heart, but Jake knew better, he was Stone’s only friend outside of Lily that is and he had seen the way Stone was around her. In fact, it had just been pure luck Jake had been at the precinct when Stone had called in about Lily. No one, but Jake, seem to notice the death like stare Stone had in his eyes that early morning. Even the night had seemed darker some how when Jake arrived at the scene, taking in the sight of her body and Stone just sitting there rocky her as if trying to put her to sleep.

Jake knew Stone had somehow slipped over the line from caring about his fellow citizens to not giving a damn, who got in his way. Jake’s only hope was that he would be there to stop Stone from throwing his career and life out the window when they found her killers.

No matter how much Jake tried to convince Stone to take a couple of days off, Stone wouldn’t have anything to do with it. Stone kept telling Jake and their Police Captain that he just need to keep working. That work would help take his mind off the loss of Lily, and so the Captain had finally agreed, so long as Jake stayed with Stone on fulltime bases during working hours.

The captain warned Stone to be very careful as the Brass upstairs, had their eyes on him.

So Jake made sure that the first day was used for getting all their caseloads into some kind of order and this gave Stone some time to grieve. Jake could see the vacant stare on Stone’s face the next morning as he read and reread the autopsy on Lily. Jake had read it before giving it to Stone and was amazed at the strength of endurance that Lily must have had.

Jake didn’t mind that, Stone never even looked at the case files, as Jake sorted them into some kind of order to only have Stone reshuffle them later that same morning. Jake knew it would take time for Stone’s mind to come back to business and that was all right with him, so long as Stone came back. Jake’s only fear was that Stone would either hurt himself in his anger or another cop would make the mistake of getting in Stones way while he hunted for Lily’s killer. Jake had never contemplated that Stone wouldn’t go after Lily’s killer, it was just what Stone would do when he found him or them. That was Jake’s only fear and it kept him up every night since her death.

It was hard to believe it had only been few days ago. Stone hadn’t said a word to anyone in all that time. He just went about his business, as if nothing had happen, but Jake could see it was tearing him apart. Jake could tell by looking in his eyes and watching how he carried himself each and every day. And now that they had finally layed to rest her body, it hadn’t gotten any better. So Jake decided to give him time to work it out and could only hope that he would come to Jake when he needed to talk.

To Stone it seemed like an eternity, since he had received that fateful call from Lily. Stone could still hear her voice in his head as she asked him to meet her. Lily had told him it was important. There were things she needed to tell him and she needed his help. At the time he didn’t realize just how fragile her voice had sounded or how desperate. But now he would never know what had been so important. Stone kept running the scene though his mind, over and over again, trying to see if there had been anything he could have done differently, to save her life, but no matter how he looked at it, nothing changed. Lily would still be dead and no matter how much that ate away at his soul, he couldn’t change a thing. And it was this, that made him so angry not with the world so much as with himself. It was this hate that made his heart and soul untouchable to any of his friends. Not that, Stone really had that many, other than Jake of course, who was his partner, so Stone wasn’t too sure that, that counted. But it was still hard for him to make sense of the loss he felt without Lily being around.

It was times like this, when he was so angry with someone or something and he had no control over them or it, that he wrote in his journal. It was the only thing, which kept him from trashing places and people. A way to channel his anger and frustrations about a justice system, which never seem to work no matter how hard the police worked, it just seemed like Lady Justice was not only blind, but deaf and dumb as well. As a cop, Stone knew better than to take the law into his own hands, but there were times when it went against all his feelings and it was one of those times now.

So instead he wrote down his feelings in hopes of containing his aggression or at least to contain it in these pages of his journal. Stone had not written anything down in his journal for the last couple of days. The last entry had been about a case that Jake and he had been working on. But somehow Stone had not been able to write about what had happen to Lily, yet. And now it just seem like the best time, remembering how they had laid her to rest but not forgetting how she had lived nor how Stone had felt about her.

October 4:

I’ve buried a friend today! No in truth she was more than a friend she was my soul mate! No one will miss her; except me. Well maybe that’s not quite true, I think my partner, Jake will too. But I’m not to sure of even that much these days since we have never really talked about it before.

Let me see now, I met Lily about five years ago, but it seems like a lifetime ago, and yet, it feels just like yesterday. I can still remember the way she looked at me causing a shudder to run down my spine, as if someone had just walked over my grave, with her green eyes and one of those all know stares. All the time I knew her it was like she knew what I was going to say even before it came to my mind.

She was the best thing to every happen to me and now I’m not sure were I’m going or how to get there but I do know I will miss her more than life it self. And yet somehow I can still feel her right here beside me, as if even death couldn’t keep us apart.

There have been times over the last few days, when I turn my head just the right way, it seems as if I can catch glimpses of her, but then when I glance back that way, she is gone. It’s almost as if she is reminding me, to remember her the way she was before and not the way I last saw her, dead in my arms.

At this moment in time, all I want is to think about is how much she meant to me. And yet the image, which comes to mind, is our first meeting not all the other times we had together. Isn’t it strange how one’s mind works?

In fact it was the first night Jake and I had been partnered that I saw her. She was a vision as she stood there, standing over the body of one of her Johns; it seems just like yesterday. She used some kind of karate chop on him; he was out cold. To look at her; you would never believe she had that kind of strength.

But as I got to know her, it was just one of the things you learned to take for granted.

Like some of her other qualities, which made you question yourself. For instance, no matter how famous my real name would get in the newspapers or on TV with the number of outstanding busts I made. She would remind me, I was human, just like everyone else, not some kind of superman but just a man.

Then she would take me down a peg or two, by reminding me of the time I almost died. Because I forgot or was just too stubborn to call for backup on a routine stake out which turned out to be the largest drug bust of my career. I lived though it but it was just sheer dumb luck as Lily would have put it. That was just before my police captain force me into having