Free The Somnibus: Book I - Finding the Mark (A Paranormal Thriller) by Craig McGray

with photographs
and made my way to the door, sticking the box under my arm. After fishing the
key from my pocket, I stuck it into the lock, the door released open, and I
headed down the hallway. I finally made it through the labyrinth beneath the
bank and into the main lobby. Barnes sat at his desk when I made my way through
the bank.
    “You get everything you needed?” he asked as he
stood from his chair and followed behind me.
    “I sure did. Thanks.”
    “Have a good day.”
    I pushed my back against the glass doors.
“Thanks.”
    The crazy idea came to me on my way home. I
dropped the photographs from the bank on the table and went up to my room. I
opened my nightstand and pulled mom’s trace out from under the balled-up socks.
    Mort had never told me exactly how to go about
bridging, I’d done it once by accident, and it nearly killed me. I remembered
when he bridged me and he put my hand over the stove. I tried to recall
everything he’d done.
    Sitting back on the couch and closing my eyes, my
fingers closed around the trace and my body became light. I focused my thoughts
on Mr. Barnes, and the room went silent, except for the pulse in my ears.
    A pounding force hammered my chest, causing air to
escape my lungs. The pain made my ears ring before my eyes were forced open by
an emerald flash. I inhaled deeply, trying to clear the pain from my chest. My
vision settled into a green-tinted version of an office. I looked over the
computer screen to a row of tellers standing behind a glass wall across from
me. I had bridged Mr. Barnes. I hadn’t given much thought to what I would do if
I bridged him, so I just sat there for a minute.
    “Mr. Barnes? Are you okay?”
    A beautiful young woman stood to my right.
    “You don’t look so good.”
    It took a second to realize she waited for Mr.
Barnes’ response: my response.
    “Oh yes, I’m fine. Sorry, I must have dazed off
for a second.” I decided to have a little fun as Barnes. “I’m much better now
that you’re standing next to me.” I winked my left eye.
    The young blonde girl narrowed her eyes and stood
taller before walking away. The corners of my mouth rose as I realized I’d
caused a little trouble for him. It felt weird being in someone else’s skin.
Standing from the chair, I immediately noticed the added weight took more
effort to move. Even swiveling my head from side to side took extra effort.
Barnes wasn’t obese like Honeycutt, but he could stand to lose a few pounds. I
sat back down to the groaning objections of the springs in the chair.
    I shuffled through the papers on his desk, even
though I had no idea what they meant. A folder with my name on it sat on his
desk so I opened the file to find the closing documents from when Mort had
bought the house. As I sifted through the papers, a few pictures of me leaving
my house fell from between the pages.
    A voice came from behind me. “Mr. Barnes?”
    The contents of the folder threw off my concentration,
and my mind got away from me. My breathing accelerated, I had no idea how to
undo what I had done by bridging Barnes. My thoughts were scattered as I tried
to concentrate on things Mort had told me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I did the
only thing that came to mind: I thought of the living room where my body rested
while I took my little field trip into Barnes’s mind.
    It didn’t take long before my chest burned, and
the green-tinted vision closed around me. The pulse slammed me in the chest,
and my eyes shut while I returned to my body, a sensation of my body soaring
backward through space. A cold wind washed over me and rushed against my skin.
    My chest burned when I took a deep breath,
clearing the pain that lingered in my lungs. I sat for a moment, allowing my
mind to catch up with my body. My clenched fingers unfolded, revealing my
mother’s trace. However, that wasn’t the only thing as I rolled the stone from
my palm; the oblong mark in the center of my palm glowed a deep and vibrant