A new Sapphire & Steel
Title: Can You Hear Me?
Genre: Sapphire & Steel
Rating: PG
Word count: 1591
Prompt: cellphone
This came from a discussion that I had with
becomingkate several months ago. I thank her for this bunny and apologize in advance for the less than happy outcome of this tale. My thanks also to my beta, sparky955, who did a great job, despite her need to read Foothills afterwards.
He’d always joked that her cellphone would be the death of her.
“Oh Daddy.” Mimi would giggle and start to text again or answer an incoming call. He knew at the end of the month, there would be another huge bill, but he didn’t care. She was the light of his life and, after all, you were only young once.
Or never, in her case.
Jack was at work when he got the call. His daughter, the apple of his eye had stepped off a curb and into the path of an oncoming truck
The trucker, a driver with an impeccable safety record and a father himself, vainly tried to stop and to swerve, but it was too little too late. She’d never looked up. Mimi never even knew the truck was there. She was too busy texting about what she was going to wear to school the next day.
At that moment, his world stopped. Hell, Jack stopped. Like a zombie, he lurched through the next week of arrangements. It only seemed right that, just before their last trip together, he slipped her cellphone into the casket with her. She loved the damned thing literally to death.
Around him, the world continued, but he didn’t. Judy did what she could to keep him going, preparing tasteless meals that he only picked at. Once a robust and happy-go-lucky man, now he was a shell.
He would sit in his chair and stare at the TV screen, some mindless sitcom laughing itself into oblivion. Jack didn’t care. He was only going through the motions anyhow.
Then the phone rang. He glanced at it as a matter of course and his breath caught. The display read: Mimi. Jack saw red. How dare someone do this to him when he was doing his best from falling apart?
“Hello? Who is this? What are you playing at?”
“Daddy? Help me?”
He gasped. “Mimi?” It was her voice. Oh, god, it was her voice. “Baby?”
“I’m really scared, Daddy. It’s so dark. They tell me I’m dead. I’m not, am I? Daddy?”
ALL IRREGULARITIES WILL BE HANDLED BY THE FORCES CONTROLLING EACH DIMENSION; TRANSURANIC HEAVY METAL MAY NOT BY USED WHERE THERE IS LIFE. MEDIUM ATOMIC WEIGHTS ARE
AVAILABLE: GOLD, LEAD, COPPER, JET, DIAMOND, RADIUM, SAPPHIRE, SILVER AND STEEL. SAPPHIRE AND STEEL HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED.
He didn’t even see the couple in the room as he stared into the screen of the cell phone. At least he didn’t until one of them, a woman, tried to ease the phone from his hand. For a moment, he wouldn’t let go, desperate to believe beyond hope his daughter was still alive. He needed a shovel. He needed to dig.
“It’s all right, Mr. Barrage. We are here to help.” Her voice was so kind, so gentle that for a moment he truly believed she could. Her smile was kind and her blue eyes empathetic.
“Where are we, Sapphire?”
Jack looked over at the second person, a man, who looked as hard as the woman did soft. The cut of his suit, the grim expression, the set of his shoulders, all hard, all unkind and unforgiving.
“Steel, surely even you can figure that out.”
Steel was a good name for him, too. “You’re in my living room. You’re trespassing.” A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
“Judy, call the cops.”
A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
“I can keep this up all night, if you like,” the one called Steel said. “It is your decision.
A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
“What?” Jack bolted from his chair. He was truly scared now. Whoever these people were, they weren’t friends. “Get away from me.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Barrage, but we can’t.” Sapphire waved her hand and his wife vanished back into the kitchen. “I think that’s enough of that.”
“She’s dead, you know. Your daughter. Really and truly dead.”
“Steel!”
“Well, she is.” He made a face and turned away. Just then the phone rang. “What do you want?” There was a pause and he smiled grimly. “Apparently, no one wants to talk to me.”
“No pleasant person would,” Sapphire murmured. To Jack, she said, “Sadly, what my partner says is true. Your daughter has passed, but she wasn’t supposed to. She was caught in a time rupture. The body has gone, but her essence survives. Time is using that as a trick to try and manipulate the future to its own ends.”
“How is that even possible?” Jack wanted to believe her, but he couldn’t.
“To explain it would be like trying to make a first grader understand nuclear physics.” Steel shook the phone and studied it.
Sapphire rolled her eyes and sigh. “Honestly, Steel, you might at least make an effort. Time is ever clever, Mr. Barrage, ever on the watch for a way to escape. It was able to channel your daughter’s residual energy to move from her body to her cellphone.”
“It’s her. She knows me.”
“No, it’s not her. Not really her. It has some of her memories and can mimic convincingly, but all that was once your daughter is gone. I’m sorry.”
“But—“
“Don’t ask,” Steel interrupted. “It’s bad enough that it did.” He looked at the woman and frowned.
She sighed and shook her head. “No, this can’t be undone that easily. Mr. Barrage, you must convince your daughter to let go.”
The phone rang again and Steel held it out to him. “Tell her to stop calling. Tell her you can’t bear listening to her. Tell her anything, but make her move on.”
“No! Are you out of your mind?” He grabbed the phone and answered. “Mimi, Mimi, sweetie. Where are you?”
“Daddy, it’s so dark. I can’t… I’m scared.”
“Remember what I told you when you were a little girl?” There was a blast of static and Jack nearly dropped his phone. “Mimi?”
“Daddy, why won’t you come for me? I want you.”
Jack moved suddenly, grabbing his jacket from the coatrack. “I’m coming, baby. I’m coming.”
Instantly, Steel was in front of him. Jack was a big man. Years in construction work he given him considerable strength and there was desperation fueling his actions. Yet against the smaller man, it was like bringing a feather to a sword fight.
“I can’t let you do that.”
“I have to. Her battery will drain. I need to save her.”
“You need to let her go. Let her find peace with her maker.”
“NO!” Jack attempted to wrestle Steel to the ground, but he was unyielding. Still he fought Steel’s grip.
“What is more important – the world or your selfish needs?”
“What?” Jack paused, his chest heaving with both exertion and emotion. “What do you mean?” He looked to Sapphire for an explanation.
“If Time finds this to be a trick it can play. It will do it again. Suddenly, the dead will be talking to anyone who mourns. A world paralyzed by the voices of the nearly departed. No peace for them, no peace for anyone. It will result in a breakdown of society and of ultimately the world. And sadly, it will happen simply because of one man’s selfishness.” Sapphire’s kindness faded. “It will happen because of you.”
“Me?”
“Let her go,” Steel hissed. “Give her peace and give the world life.” He released the man and he crumbled.
“No!” Jack sobbed, banging his hand against the floor. “I love her.” His face was a mask of anguish now as tears stained his cheeks and dribbled off his chin.
“Then prove it. You gave her life, now give her death.” Sapphire tried to make the words comforting as she held out the phone.
“Mi… Mimi, sweetheart, are you still there?”
“I’m waiting, Daddy. Won’t you hurry?”
“No… I can’t. Mimi, you need to be brave and close your eyes.” He started to hum some half-forgotten lullaby. “You need to go to sleep now, sweetheart. Your Mommy and Daddy love you very much and you’ll have sweet dreams because of it.”
“But I’m not tired.”
“Yes, you are. Close your eyes.”
“Daddy?”
“Do as I say, sweetheart. Tomorrow is another day.”
There was a sharp crack and Jack yelled, dropping his phone. Immediately Steel was there. He picked it up and watched the name MIMI fade from the display. He nodded to Sapphire, who knelt beside the huddled Jack.
For his part, Jack was too lost in his own misery to notice that he was suddenly alone.
A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?” Judy was immediately there, her arms around him.
“She’s really gone, isn’t she?”
“Who, Jack?”
“Mimi.”
“But I’m right here, Daddy.” And she was. The light of his life was before him, smiling and beaming. “I never really left.”
He grabbed her, holding her and showering her face with kisses. “My Mimi!”
Sapphire and Steel watched the man inside the small room. “I still say it wasn’t necessary to completely destroy his mind.”
“Not destroyed. Altered. He’s with her now and we don’t have to worry about him. No loose ends. Everyone’s happy.”
Sapphire glanced over at the woman, Judy, her face pale and gaunt, a shadow of the person she’d once been. “Not everyone, I fear.”
They faded from view and Judy’s cellphone rang. The display said, MIMI.
Genre: Sapphire & Steel
Rating: PG
Word count: 1591
Prompt: cellphone
This came from a discussion that I had with
becomingkate several months ago. I thank her for this bunny and apologize in advance for the less than happy outcome of this tale. My thanks also to my beta, sparky955, who did a great job, despite her need to read Foothills afterwards.He’d always joked that her cellphone would be the death of her.
“Oh Daddy.” Mimi would giggle and start to text again or answer an incoming call. He knew at the end of the month, there would be another huge bill, but he didn’t care. She was the light of his life and, after all, you were only young once.
Or never, in her case.
Jack was at work when he got the call. His daughter, the apple of his eye had stepped off a curb and into the path of an oncoming truck
The trucker, a driver with an impeccable safety record and a father himself, vainly tried to stop and to swerve, but it was too little too late. She’d never looked up. Mimi never even knew the truck was there. She was too busy texting about what she was going to wear to school the next day.
At that moment, his world stopped. Hell, Jack stopped. Like a zombie, he lurched through the next week of arrangements. It only seemed right that, just before their last trip together, he slipped her cellphone into the casket with her. She loved the damned thing literally to death.
Around him, the world continued, but he didn’t. Judy did what she could to keep him going, preparing tasteless meals that he only picked at. Once a robust and happy-go-lucky man, now he was a shell.
He would sit in his chair and stare at the TV screen, some mindless sitcom laughing itself into oblivion. Jack didn’t care. He was only going through the motions anyhow.
Then the phone rang. He glanced at it as a matter of course and his breath caught. The display read: Mimi. Jack saw red. How dare someone do this to him when he was doing his best from falling apart?
“Hello? Who is this? What are you playing at?”
“Daddy? Help me?”
He gasped. “Mimi?” It was her voice. Oh, god, it was her voice. “Baby?”
“I’m really scared, Daddy. It’s so dark. They tell me I’m dead. I’m not, am I? Daddy?”
ALL IRREGULARITIES WILL BE HANDLED BY THE FORCES CONTROLLING EACH DIMENSION; TRANSURANIC HEAVY METAL MAY NOT BY USED WHERE THERE IS LIFE. MEDIUM ATOMIC WEIGHTS ARE
AVAILABLE: GOLD, LEAD, COPPER, JET, DIAMOND, RADIUM, SAPPHIRE, SILVER AND STEEL. SAPPHIRE AND STEEL HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED.
He didn’t even see the couple in the room as he stared into the screen of the cell phone. At least he didn’t until one of them, a woman, tried to ease the phone from his hand. For a moment, he wouldn’t let go, desperate to believe beyond hope his daughter was still alive. He needed a shovel. He needed to dig.
“It’s all right, Mr. Barrage. We are here to help.” Her voice was so kind, so gentle that for a moment he truly believed she could. Her smile was kind and her blue eyes empathetic.
“Where are we, Sapphire?”
Jack looked over at the second person, a man, who looked as hard as the woman did soft. The cut of his suit, the grim expression, the set of his shoulders, all hard, all unkind and unforgiving.
“Steel, surely even you can figure that out.”
Steel was a good name for him, too. “You’re in my living room. You’re trespassing.” A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
“Judy, call the cops.”
A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
“I can keep this up all night, if you like,” the one called Steel said. “It is your decision.
A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?”
“What?” Jack bolted from his chair. He was truly scared now. Whoever these people were, they weren’t friends. “Get away from me.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Barrage, but we can’t.” Sapphire waved her hand and his wife vanished back into the kitchen. “I think that’s enough of that.”
“She’s dead, you know. Your daughter. Really and truly dead.”
“Steel!”
“Well, she is.” He made a face and turned away. Just then the phone rang. “What do you want?” There was a pause and he smiled grimly. “Apparently, no one wants to talk to me.”
“No pleasant person would,” Sapphire murmured. To Jack, she said, “Sadly, what my partner says is true. Your daughter has passed, but she wasn’t supposed to. She was caught in a time rupture. The body has gone, but her essence survives. Time is using that as a trick to try and manipulate the future to its own ends.”
“How is that even possible?” Jack wanted to believe her, but he couldn’t.
“To explain it would be like trying to make a first grader understand nuclear physics.” Steel shook the phone and studied it.
Sapphire rolled her eyes and sigh. “Honestly, Steel, you might at least make an effort. Time is ever clever, Mr. Barrage, ever on the watch for a way to escape. It was able to channel your daughter’s residual energy to move from her body to her cellphone.”
“It’s her. She knows me.”
“No, it’s not her. Not really her. It has some of her memories and can mimic convincingly, but all that was once your daughter is gone. I’m sorry.”
“But—“
“Don’t ask,” Steel interrupted. “It’s bad enough that it did.” He looked at the woman and frowned.
She sighed and shook her head. “No, this can’t be undone that easily. Mr. Barrage, you must convince your daughter to let go.”
The phone rang again and Steel held it out to him. “Tell her to stop calling. Tell her you can’t bear listening to her. Tell her anything, but make her move on.”
“No! Are you out of your mind?” He grabbed the phone and answered. “Mimi, Mimi, sweetie. Where are you?”
“Daddy, it’s so dark. I can’t… I’m scared.”
“Remember what I told you when you were a little girl?” There was a blast of static and Jack nearly dropped his phone. “Mimi?”
“Daddy, why won’t you come for me? I want you.”
Jack moved suddenly, grabbing his jacket from the coatrack. “I’m coming, baby. I’m coming.”
Instantly, Steel was in front of him. Jack was a big man. Years in construction work he given him considerable strength and there was desperation fueling his actions. Yet against the smaller man, it was like bringing a feather to a sword fight.
“I can’t let you do that.”
“I have to. Her battery will drain. I need to save her.”
“You need to let her go. Let her find peace with her maker.”
“NO!” Jack attempted to wrestle Steel to the ground, but he was unyielding. Still he fought Steel’s grip.
“What is more important – the world or your selfish needs?”
“What?” Jack paused, his chest heaving with both exertion and emotion. “What do you mean?” He looked to Sapphire for an explanation.
“If Time finds this to be a trick it can play. It will do it again. Suddenly, the dead will be talking to anyone who mourns. A world paralyzed by the voices of the nearly departed. No peace for them, no peace for anyone. It will result in a breakdown of society and of ultimately the world. And sadly, it will happen simply because of one man’s selfishness.” Sapphire’s kindness faded. “It will happen because of you.”
“Me?”
“Let her go,” Steel hissed. “Give her peace and give the world life.” He released the man and he crumbled.
“No!” Jack sobbed, banging his hand against the floor. “I love her.” His face was a mask of anguish now as tears stained his cheeks and dribbled off his chin.
“Then prove it. You gave her life, now give her death.” Sapphire tried to make the words comforting as she held out the phone.
“Mi… Mimi, sweetheart, are you still there?”
“I’m waiting, Daddy. Won’t you hurry?”
“No… I can’t. Mimi, you need to be brave and close your eyes.” He started to hum some half-forgotten lullaby. “You need to go to sleep now, sweetheart. Your Mommy and Daddy love you very much and you’ll have sweet dreams because of it.”
“But I’m not tired.”
“Yes, you are. Close your eyes.”
“Daddy?”
“Do as I say, sweetheart. Tomorrow is another day.”
There was a sharp crack and Jack yelled, dropping his phone. Immediately Steel was there. He picked it up and watched the name MIMI fade from the display. He nodded to Sapphire, who knelt beside the huddled Jack.
For his part, Jack was too lost in his own misery to notice that he was suddenly alone.
A woman appeared in the entry to the living room.
“Jack, what’s wrong?” Judy was immediately there, her arms around him.
“She’s really gone, isn’t she?”
“Who, Jack?”
“Mimi.”
“But I’m right here, Daddy.” And she was. The light of his life was before him, smiling and beaming. “I never really left.”
He grabbed her, holding her and showering her face with kisses. “My Mimi!”
Sapphire and Steel watched the man inside the small room. “I still say it wasn’t necessary to completely destroy his mind.”
“Not destroyed. Altered. He’s with her now and we don’t have to worry about him. No loose ends. Everyone’s happy.”
Sapphire glanced over at the woman, Judy, her face pale and gaunt, a shadow of the person she’d once been. “Not everyone, I fear.”
They faded from view and Judy’s cellphone rang. The display said, MIMI.