The Bearded Man

This is a progression of "The Blue Dress". Due to uncotrollable circumstances, I couldn't write 500 words yesterday, so I wrote 1000 today :)


Serah drew her coat tightly over her. She tried keeping the justifications for what she had done clear in her head. She wanted with all of her being to run back to Dwight. His minor license violation was only a small part of the reason she had to leave him. The work she was doing with her father was groundbreaking and if they were successful, they might change human civilization permanently, for better or for worse. Dwight was only holding her back from that. She held a little comfort in the likelihood that he would talk her out of all of this foolishness in a few hours.

Taking the long route to the gravrail station, Serah carefully avoided passing in front of the shopping center where she first met Dwight. The night was bitter cold and she couldn’t wait to be in the warmth of her home surrounded by the laughter of her children, but the musty gravrail car would suffice until then. When she arrived at the platform, she went to the kiosk, rented a 'net tablet, and scrolled through the news sites looking for something to distract her mind for the ride home. Something she saw out of her periphery disturbed her. Every time she looked up the same man was staring at her.

The man was tall with brown blonde hair and a well kempt beard. Serah couldn’t tell if he was burly or if his brown jacket was just filled with too much down. She would consider him handsome if he didn’t seem so predatory. He faced her and began to walk in her direction. Serah pulled her jacket tighter and let out a nervous smile as the man approached her.

“Need a tissue?”

Serah realized that in her haste to get away from Dwight, she forgot to wipe the running mascara from her face. “Oh, no thank you I have one,” Serah said as she began ruffling through her purse.

“One of those days, eh?”

His intense gaze never left Serah’s face.

“Yeah, I guess.” She let out a polite chuckle “Do you know what time the train is coming?”

“Hmmm…” The man stroked his beard “I got here just as the last train was leaving, so I guess in about five minutes.”

“Thanks, I should go wash my face.”

Thankful for a reason to get away from the bearded man, Serah headed into the bathroom and cleaned her face off. She took her time so that she wouldn’t have to wait on the platform. Sometimes Serah thought the only reason women had separate bathrooms from men was that so they had a place to retreat from them in these situations. Serah tossed the tissue in the trash and stared at herself in the mirror. Her black hair came down to her jaw line and curved forward toward her chin. The slight coloration in her pigment and her bone structure gave away her Thai descent. Her otherwise deep and contemplative eyes were irritated and puffy. Once she was certain that five minutes had passed, she left the bathroom onto the now crowded platform.

The gravtrain pulled in as silently as if it were never there. The light coming from its windows illuminated the platform in the dusk the long train set a solid foundation for the tall buildings behind it. Serah took a few moments to admire the picture painted by the dark city and red sky. Once most of the crowd had piled onto the train Serah followed while trying to find the jacket pocket she put the ‘net tablet in. Her mind on autopilot, she found an empty seat as well as an article about her father’s company on the ‘net.

“We meet again.”

Serah looked up to see the bearded man sitting across from her. He was beaming.

“Hah, yeah I guess so.”She looked back down at her tablet and hoped he would get the message this time. He didn’t.

“Did you know that before anti-gravity fields, we used magnets in trains like this? The design hasn’t changed much but-“

“Sir, I’m sure what you have to say is fascinating,” Serah interrupted “But I have had a very stressful day and would just like time to myself until I get home.”

“Very understandable” He stroked his beard and his smile turned into a grim scowl. “And you’re right, what I have to say is fascinating. Life changing, even. I really think you should hear it.”

The look in his eye was hard to place. She knew he wanted something, and knew it had something to do to with her, but it wasn’t sex. She set her tablet in her lap and looked at him.

“Okay you win, what?”

“Where was I? Oh yes! As I was saying, the design of these trains hasn’t changed much excepting certain modifications to the track and materials of the cars to make the train run quieter. We take for granted that gravtrains are virtually silent. Like ghosts. That’s why they name every station in this city after a famous ghost. But I’m getting off track here.” The bearded man chuckled at his own dry pun “My point is that the invention of anti-gravitational fields revolutionized transportation. That was, what? A hundred years ago? Anti-grav tech is still limited to low weight planetside transportation. If it is such a revolutionary technology, why haven’t there been any breakthroughs in anti-grav technology in one hundred whole years?”

The question frightened her. It wasn’t the question itself but the circumstances under which it was posed. If Serah was any other person in the world it would seem like a purely intellectual question, but Serah wasn’t any other person. Anti-grav technology was one of the main focuses on her father’s research and everybody was certain that they were on the verge of a massive breakthrough. As one of his chief researchers, she knew virtually every scientist in the field. She didn’t recognize this man. She went through the possibilities of who he could be in her head but the only one that made sense wrenched her stomach in terror.

“Who are you?” Serah’s voice broke

The bearded man chuckled, stood up, and whispered into Serah’s ear.

“If you ever want to see your kids again, I suggest you take a walk with me.”

(More on this plotline later)