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Flashpoint - Extended
Flashpoint (Extended)
The men jumped Christoph on his way home; three of them, as best as Christoph could remember later. Two to pin him down and the one he stole from holding a knife to his throat. Hasty bargaining was enough to free his arms, but not enough to walk away. It was sickening, but as he handed over his winnings from the night and urged for mercy a strange sensation seethed beneath his skin. Like a storm churning the sea his muscles seemed to be tearing themselves apart and reforming throughout his entire body. Christoph’s first instinct was to collapse on the ground and writhe in pain. The move left his assailants confused long enough to open a brief window of escape trigger a second, far more powerful instinct to kick into gear. Scrambling to get back on his feet, Christoph took off down the dark sidewalk and peeled around the corner onto an empty street.
Nearly doubling over in pain from the fire that still coursed through his veins, all Christoph could think of was the police officer he nearly dodged on his way out of that night’s backroom poker game. “Where the f*** are you when I actually need ya?” flashed like a spiteful whip behind the searing pain of Christoph’s temples. It was escalating, spreading, to any untouched corners of his body; if there were any even left. As he braced himself against a storefront to catch his breath and accept his fate a jolt struck his forearm that made the rest of pain almost fade away by comparison. Surging up along his arm and ripping through his tendons it quickly fanned out across his back to engulfed his entire torso before claiming his head and remaining limbs while Christoph’s vision began to fade under the strain.
And then it was gone. Completely. Steadying himself and stranding upright Christoph made out the voices of his assailants approaching behind corner he had just rounded moments earlier. Pain may have slowed down time to an agonizing crawl, but now that it was gone things were moving faster than ever. As soon as the men came back into view, three increasingly unexpected things happened quick succession. First, where Christoph expected to be met with anger all three of the men’s faces fell into a state of shock. Second, the knife that was previously inches from his neck fell to the ground in a clatter of steel and concrete. Third, each man turned back the way they came faster than they’d arrived.Left alone on the sidewalk in the dead of night without his wallet or a clue what the hell just happened Christoph turned to the dark store window at his side. Staring back at him was a reflection of the policeman from earlier that night. When he turned around to face the officer and thank him directly, however, there was no one to be seen. And yet when he looked back into the mirror, so did the officer. At the same time both he and the reflection silently mouthed the same thing; “What… the f***?” A ripple cascaded down from the officer’s brow in the window and as Christoph watched the reflection slowly transform back into his own face. A quick glance downward revealed the same change happening across the rest of Christoph’s body where the fabric of an officer’s uniform tore and folded into itself along a shallow, fast-moving wave that revealed Christoph’s own clothes in its wake. Stunned silence hung in the air while Christoph turned his hand over in front of his eyes. “Well… that’s new.”
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