The War of the Weavers

Chapter 1

          Every Monday morning, rush hour traffic tied up the highways with a sea of cars piled up on the freeway. The impatient drivers behind the wheel honk at each other and some stick their fingers at poor pedestrians trying to cross. One female, in particular, taps her slender, dark caramel, manicured fingernails on the steering wheel in a frantic fashion while she keeps an eye out for any opening.
         “Aw, come on!” she yells, as she honks the horn and pushes the button to lower her driver’s side windows. She bashes the car horn several times before screaming, “Hurry up! I’m late for work!”

         She looks at the smart watch on her arm, groans and reaches for her tall latte. Just as she placed the hot beverage to her lips, an incoming call on her cell phone startles her and she spills the coffee on her pin stripped pencil skirt!

         Moaning, she answers the phone in haste, “Hello? Cheryl, is that you? Hello?!”

         “Stacey?” the male voice replies.

         “Dad?”

         “Yeah hon, it’s me. How ya doin this mornin, kiddo?”

         “Not good. I’m late for one. Two, I’ve got a presentation and to top it all off, my secretary isn’t answering the phone…”

         Midway into her phone conversation, she sticks her head out her driver’s side window and shouts at the car in front of her, “HEY BUTT-HOLE! MOVE THE HELL OUTTA MY WAY!”

         “Oh boy,” he sighs, “Take a deep breath and don’t stress so much, baby girl. Daddy’s got you and you know if you fall on hard times…”

         Stacey smiles at her dad’s kind words, “I know, I know. Thanks Dad, I’ve got this”

         “That’s my girl. Now you go out there and show them what I taught you”

         “You bet I will!”

         Her lifted spirits dwindles fifteen minutes later when she saw the stalled traffic. When the light turns green, she waits about five minutes for the Chevy pick-up in front of her to move. Aggravated, she punches her car horn and the truck inches up.

         Thinking about all the time she wasted trying to get through the jam, enrages her. Suddenly, she watches in slow motion a two-door Ford flipping over. The vehicle bounces into some other cars and crashes into the small shops on the side of the highway.

         The bizarre event scares her to death as more cars flip out the way and crash beside her. A tire from one of the cars hit a nearby fire hydrant and releases a geyser of water. When the frightened young woman looks ahead, she saw a strange man walking towards her wearing a burgundy vest with no undershirt and dark jeans.

         Stacey blinks twice when she saw the muscular male with the burgundy vest drawing closer to her vehicle. A black aura surrounds his body and a black, liquid substance fills the white in his eyes. As he drew near, she gazes into the man’s eyes that no longer seems human. He flashes her a savage grin which warns her of incoming danger. The young woman stifles a scream, but feels relief when five or six police cars drive past her and surrounds the man. The officers exit their vehicles and barricades the alien suspect.

         “This is the NYPD!” says the police officer on a bullhorn, “We have you surrounded! Put your hands in the air or we will open fire!”

         The suspect never replies and heads for Stacey's car . When the chief officer gave the order, every cop aiming their firearm towards the man fires. A maelstrom of bullets tore through the man’s flesh as he fell to one knee in front of Stacey. However, when the officers empty their clips, the man flashes the woman an eerie smile as he stands to his feet.

         He waves his right arm in the officers’ direction and releases several burgundy spikes which catapults from his vest. The projectiles skew the squad vehicles and impales some of the officers. More spikes, infused with some sort of black electricity, flicker around the assailant’s vest and travels to the squad vehicles.

BOOM!

         A massive explosion that engulfed the remaining officers in flames of fire and hurled black and white car parts in all directions. A panicked little girl, witnessing the destruction, ran down the block in a desperate search for her mother.

         The strange man, eyed the girl running passed him, smiled and raised his arm in her direction.

         Stacey, floored the gas pedal and rammed her car into the man. His torso smashed the front end of her Sedan as her forehead smashes into the steering wheel shattering the glass. She opened the door and screamed, “KEEP RUNNING! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!”

         The little girl bolted as Stacey exited the car. While she retrieved her purse, the car rose and she fell on her back as she watch the man over turn the vehicle.

         "What hell's going on?" She said looking up at the powerful man in horror. "I'm supposed to be at work by now. Not sitting on my ass in the street with a strong crazed lunatic about to kill me."

         He reached down and grabbed her by the neck. With a satisfied look on his face, he tightened his grip around her throat as she kicked his stomach and clawed his arms to break free from his clutches. His grip and her vision blurs gasping for air.

         “Time to die” he said in deep gruff voice.

         However, Something struck him hard and hurled him into a nearby store front that collapsed on top of him. which freed Stacey.

         She collapsed on her knees, gasped for air and coughed several times before getting up again. When she looked up, she saw a tall, dark skinned older man dressed in a dark navy Armani suit wearing a black tie.

         “Dad?!” she exclaimed in disbelief.

         Stacey’s father smiled with confidence as he straightened the neck tie on the collar of his three-piece suit. His gray and black hair glistened in the sun when he stooped to help his daughter up.

         A large grin swept across her face when she caressed her dad’s face and felt the stubble of his beard.

         “Dad?” she asked, “What in the world are you doing? And how did you do that?!”

         Her father’s smile turned into a scowl as he sighed with disgust.

         ”Stay back! It’s not over yet!”

         The young woman’s worried face gave away her inner worries, but her father grabbed her by the shoulders and said in a reassuring voice, “This’ll only take a minute”

         Meanwhile, from the next street over, the possessed maniac burst from a pile of sheet rock, stepped over the wreckage and walked through a hole in the wall. Her father, sensing the impending danger, loosened his tie with his right hand, removed it from his neck and threw it in the air. The tie, it stopped and levitated in the air above his head.

         Suddenly, the tie expanded, curled like a snake, and turned into black steel.

         The enemy broke into a full sprint towards Stacy's father. The father snaps his fingers and tie-turned-steel launched towards the charging foe and orbited the assailant's body. The man used spikes from his vest to defend himself but the ribbon like steel wrapped around his body and lifted him into the air.

         While the villain struggled to get free from its restraints, Stacy’s father takes his first two fingers and with a snap, the black metal shines a bright orange color.

         KABOOM!

         Stacy closed her eyes and covered her ears as fire and smoke mushroomed into the blue sky. The naked smoldering man plummets to the ground along with shreds of burgundy partially burnt fabric.

         Stacy opened her eyes and sees her father re-adjust his tie across his neck. Many questions floated in her head all at once as she eyed her father in disbelief.

         However, the shredded garments wiggled about among the debris and moved towards Stacy's feet unnoticed.

         When Stacy opened her mouth, her father held up his right index finger, reaches into his jacket’s side-pocket and pulled out his cell with his left hand and placed it to his ear.

         “Yes” he said, “Yeah…I already took care of it…no casualties, but significant damage to the city. You’re going to have to send the crew to clean up….Okay, fine…Yeah, I’ll be on my way”

         He placed his cell back in his pocket and turns his attention back to his daughter.

         “I’m sorry, I’ll explain…”he began, but as he spoke, the small burgundy shreds of the possessed cloth attached themselves onto Stacy's leg.

         Like metal on a magnet the strips of cloth attached themselves on Stacy's leg and she feels a very cold and tingling chill run up her spine.

         “NO!” the father shouted in a panic as he watched his daughter look up at him with her brown glassy eyes.

         "Daddy!?" "Whats happening!"