Free Available Darkness Season 2 by Platt + Wright

crappy attitude.
    Hannah checked her rearview, saw the coast was clear, and merged as she explained to Cori, “I had a situation with the cooler. It was my fault. But it’s handled now. Everything is fine, I took care of it, and will be there in less than —”
    Hannah’s world exploded.
    Her Element spun, then slid out of control in a violent twirl toward the railing.
    The flowers!
    She could hear the arrangements sliding along with the truck.
    The phone flew from her hand as she grabbed the steering wheel, clutching it tight while pumping her brakes and praying for control. She was moving too fast along a too-slick road. Hannah slammed into the railing. The Element crashed against it, then tumbled over the side with a horrible screeching of metal. Screams filled Hannah’s cabin as she roared down the incline into nothing but darkness.

    **

    Hannah woke in an oddly familiar room, though it held no specific memories, and she couldn’t recall actually being inside it before.
    It was an art studio in an old house. A cool breeze blew in from a warm summer night outside, just past the perfectly square window looking out on a placid lake. Paintings on easels in various stages of completion surrounded her, all equally familiar. One of the easels was turned away from her, facing the window.
    Hannah moved forward in a floating dream’s half-walk.
    First, Hannah was drawn to the window, looking out at the moon hanging fat and full in the sky. “Goodnight, moon,” she said, recalling the children’s book she once read to her cousin for most of a summer.
    Wait, I don’t have a cousin; do I?
    Hannah turned from the window, her eyes drawn to a painting draped beneath a long piece of thick plastic. She reached out, peeled the plastic sheet from the painting, then let it fall to the ground. It took forever to hit the floor, as if the fall were as endless as the night outside.
    There was no canvas behind the sheet, only a man.
    Hannah stumbled back, startled by the sight of the naked man with long dark hair and angel wings.
    His eyes were closed as if he were sleeping, or dead .
    Like the room, and the paintings, he seemed so familiar .
    Or more than that.
    Without thinking, Hannah reached her hand out to touch him, as if to see if he were real, or alive .
    A name bled through her lips without her thinking it.
    “John?” she whispered.
    No response.
    Her fingers touched his chest, which opened his eyes.
    Hannah opened hers, and the dream was gone.

    **

    She woke disoriented in a brightly-lit but unfamiliar room.
    She squinted through fuzzy eyes, trying to focus on the blur slowly taking shape, a man sitting beside her.
    Her eyes finally adjusted, and settled on a stranger — a man with short blonde hair, and a big smile.
    “How are you feeling, Hannah?” he asked.
    She looked at him, confused.
    “Who is Hannah?” she asked, her throat burning with drought. “And where is John?”

    * * * *

CHAPTER 7 — John

    It took Larry just six hours to find Shadow, a pleasant surprise that gave John hope he might be able to find Jacob and finally be done with Omega’s bidding.
    According to Larry’s source, Shadow was holed up in Room 213 in the Channel Hotel, an expensive spread over by the Riverfront. John had driven by the hotel plenty of times, but never had reason to set foot inside.
    Just before dawn, Mike Mathews sat with John in the back of an Agency van in the hotel’s parking garage, waiting for the agents to settle in place. Six plainclothes were waiting inside the hotel — one in the lobby, and the rest scattered across the hotel’s dozen floors. Outside the hotel, three more Agency vans were on standby in case things turned ugly. John thought the number of agents was overkill, especially since he hoped not a single one would be needed.
    He wished he had come to the hotel alone, but knew if he did, and Mathews found out, he’d be risking treason. Omega had a specific set of rules, and they expected John to play by