8.

'Can you please tell me what the hell is going on?' Andrew Hardeman asks of a certain Christopher Furlong.

'He wants to erase you without eh ... how do I put this? ... Eh ... without actually erasing you.'

'You what?' If there had been a way for Andrew to become even more confused than what he already is then that way has just slapped him in the face, and more is still to come.

'You either have done something or would have done something to piss Darkness off and he can't have it ...'

'You what now ...?'

'Darkness ... the Devil ... Satan ... Lucifer ... you in some way or another have gotten onto his radar, just like I have. You have not made him happy, just the opposite I'd imagine so he has dispensed you here ...'

'You're serious?'

'Absolutely.'

Andrew's career has him work with people who deal with a wide range of problems. His continuous training aids him in recognizing and diagnosing those with mental health issues so it would be easy to assess this Chris fellow as being delusional to some degree especially with how Chris looks and acts at this point in his own life.

Chris has been through the ringer so to speak and then some. Thing is, Andrew could be thought of as being somewhat dissociative or delusional himself if he were to speak of his current circumstances to anyone who may listen to him. He, as crazy as it is, apparently finds himself eighteen years in the past, standing at the side of a busy motorway with quite the oddball telling him that the Devil has done this to him ... try that for dissociative ...

'So, taking things as you say they are, as it may look to be, what now?' Andrew asks as if this Chris fellow does know a thing or two about what he has already spoken of.

'It will be at least twenty-eight years before his plan really begins to kick into gear ...'

Andrew really has no idea what that means ... 'alright ...'

'So, we cannot affect anything directly ... not for a long time anyhow. What we can do is observe, watch and be ready ...'

'Ok, how do we do that?'

'We need to get to one of his bases of operation and I know exactly where one so happens to be ... c'mon ... follow me.'

What other option does Andrew Hardeman have other than to do what this Christopher Furlong says? The two men walk together and Andrew listens while Chris explains his circumstances while also leading the way. Chris talks about his time with the Fontaine family, his ever so brief coming together with Sammy Fontaine during the first day of the year 2018 before finding himself lost to time. Yeah, he has got quite the hold on what is happening, though indeed, his hold upon his own sanity is slipping.

With Chris's story having been told, Andrew speaks of the moments prior to finding himself standing and shielding himself right in the center of that busy motorway. The girl, eight-year-old Lexi Hansen and her parents at his office, it had been the first time he had met the girl though he had counseled her parents before, from right at the time Anna became pregnant and for a few months after though it had been weeks into those seasons before Anna and Jonathon discovered that they soon were to be parents.

'It's the girl ...' Chris says. 'It makes sense ... must have been her older self.'

'What's that?'

'That girl Lexi, she took us from time, don't ya see? It's her gift ... her power ... except not when she was eight ... but when she was older ...'

Andrew stutters for a moment trying to get a word out in a further attempt to get answers but all he gets to make are sounds, a letter or beginning of a word. 'T-t-t-t .... b-b-b-bu ...' then it hits him. He had forgotten given the fact that he suddenly found himself defending himself on a busy motorway.

There had been an older girl, a young lady in his office when he re-entered having spoken to Lexi's parents, an older girl who had not been there a moment earlier when he had come out of that office. She had grabbed him, grabbed his wrist then they were gone from the office and he was on the motorway.

'Lexi?'

'Yeah ... she's not the only one ya know. There are others or there will be ... others who can do the most extraordinary things. He tried before ... many times ... young Miss Ester Fontaine was one and when she died ... well ... he needed to start over only he had already started with Lexi's maternal grandmother. It is as if Ester was part of a trial run ...'

Listening to Chris speak, Andrew is hit by something else, something Lexi had said. She said she speaks to a shadow man and he teaches her things. Andrew shivers, a coldness blows through him ... hitting every fiber within him all at once. Then he is hit once again, this time by his surroundings. What is this? he thinks, some kind of virtual boxing match ... one that is maybe attacking my mind?

Yeah, lost in thought and conversation, it took Andrew a while to notice the change in his surroundings. Staying in Chris's company and following his lead they have come a little ways off road.

'Where are we going?' Andrew asks.

'See that decline over there? ... I know it is rather steep but trust me ... it leads to where we need to be.'

Andrew stops. He stares at Chris for a moment. This is crazy, mental; none of this is possible except that it is. What choice does Andrew have other than to go along with Chris? It is a struggle to get down that hill but both men do just that and fairly soon they are at the base of an overpass.

Things just keep getting more and more odd by the minute. Down below this overpass, the entrance to the area right beneath it, there is a complete darkness. Something is below that underpass but the hell if Andrew can see any of it. He looks at it, stares at it like some sort of scientific professor inspecting a new find. The darkness, it is as good as if a veil or curtain is in place to block Andrew from seeing what lays ahead though when Andrew stretches out his hand it passes into the darkness and beyond as if there is nothing there at all creating any kind of blockage.

Chris is amused by this, quite amused in fact, so much so that he can't help but laugh as he watches Andrew try to figure things out.

'What's so funny?'

Chris calms his laughter a little. 'C'mon ... let's go.'

'Go where?'

Chris simply walks into and through the darkness, gone completely from all Andrew can see. Things cannot get any more strange, can they? Andrew is about to find out ... into the darkness he goes.