THE VANISHER

I am so proud to present a work of fan fiction from The Wood Universe. This was written by a good friend, who also contributed to the first book.

The Vanisher

By: Jon Wissman

Edited by: Joel M. Smith

The men appear out of a perfectly round pool of water into the Wood, one smiling and one screaming. The screaming man wails and clutches himself, shaking with pain. His name is Brendon Jacob Petterson IV, but most people know him by his online nickname; Darkie.

Darkie had been a computer hacker since his father bought him his first IBM computer at the age of 6, back in the early 80’s. This was long before the World Wide Web and high-speed internet existed. Soon after, Darkie got a paper route to earn some money, which he used to purchase a 9600 baud modem, and subscription to a hacker magazine called 2600.

He and his computer were inseparable. He'd learned to anonymously log into random college and business FTP servers and wreak havoc. He spent the late 80s and mid 90s honing his craft. Once the Age of the Internet began in the late 90s, Darkie began to make a name for himself on the Dark Web by performing various illegal electronic transactions for anyone who could afford his services. From simple college grade changes to laundering electronic currency, to making someone “disappear”, he could do it all with ease.

Ever since seeing the Matrix movies, he’d always thought of himself as Neo. The internet had given him access to all the secrets of man and he had listened to those secrets with hungry ears.

And his life of hacking was ultimately to blame for his current situation.

The smiling man has one hand on Darkie’s shoulder while the other hand holds a taser against Darkie’s stomach. As electricity doesn’t work in the Wood, the taser is now inert, but the pain it had already caused goes on. Pain will last forever in the Wood.

The smiling man has no real name that anyone knows, he is only known as El Desaparecido, or “The Vanisher”. He didn’t pick the nickname, but he likes it. As he is Cuban and started his career in Mexico, it suits him. But these days he prefers to go by Desi. He’s an assassin of sorts, paid to make people disappear. His clients don’t care about methods, just results. If someone must disappear, with no trace and never be seen again, they call El Desaparecido, "The Vanisher." He's very good at his craft and has made millions of dollars over the years.

He does not have many rules, but the rules he has made for himself are never broken. He will not take a female mark. He will not take a child mark. And he will never kill.

El Desaparecido also translates to “the vanished”, and soon he will live into that name as well. Darkie is his final mark. After this, The Vanisher will take his millions and disappear forever.

The pool Desi and Darkie arrive from is next to a strange, symmetrical tree, which is surrounded by an even stranger field of perfectly uniform grass. Next to the tree sits an oak desk and a chair sitting on a plastic mat so the wheels do not sink into the grass. There are also two large filing cabinets filled with the information about his marks. Surrounding this space are six other pools of water, evenly spaced around the center pool. Each of these has one tree beside it. And in the distance, perfectly uniform grass appears to go on forever.

Desi knows this place well. This is his getaway, his man-cave, his safe haven. The key to getting to the Wood is a ring made from the tree next to the pool. It took Desi years to learn how to travel. Only with intense training and a good teacher can a person learn this craft. His father called this place The Wood, just like his father before him, and his father before him. Desi doesn’t know how many generations of men in his family have been shown this place, and given this amazing gift, but he’s grateful. He hopes to produce a son one day and pass this place on.

Desi puts the taser in a pocket of his coat and begins to drag the still screaming Darkie from the pool, towards the desk. Darkie, as all the others that have been forcibly brought to this place, will scream until the next phase of the process. In the Wood, nothing changes. Time stops, pain stays.

Desi was paid quite a large sum of money to find and eliminate Darkie by an angry Persian man who said he was robbed of millions by electronic means. Darkie was a hard man to find as he rarely left his house, and was worthy of being Desi’s last job. Desi had prepared and planned meticulously for this abduction, even taking a part time delivery job. He discovered Darkie’s affinity for Big Sal’s pizza, and Darkie never saw him coming.

The pool in the center of the Wood could take them back to Earth, but Desi plans to be the only one to use it. Darkie will be using a different pool, and going to another world. A world where he can live out his days instead of being put to death by traditional means. Desi feels more like a savior than an assassin. He’s never killed anyone. He just puts them out of the way and lets them live to death.

This other world is called Kansem. On Kansem, time moves differently than on Earth. A person can be on Kansem for a year and only a minute has passed on Earth. So two hours after Desi returns to Earth, Darkie will be dead, most likely having lived a full and happy life on Kansem.

He knows where all the other pools go as well, but has only actually been to Kansem. His father told him not to bother. As it takes intense concentration to make a ring for each pool and world, and years after to recover, it’s never seemed worth it. The other worlds had no useful technology, and one has a time stream difference where a minute there was a month on Earth. That could quickly turn into a lot of missed time on Earth. And lost time is lost money.

Desi drops Darkie, still screaming, next to the desk and opens one of the filing cabinet drawers. He removes a leather satchel that contains a change of Kansem clothing, a wooden “simple” ring, a small bottle, and a bar of refined steel. The ring is made from the strange trees in the Wood, and will allow Darkie to understand the language in his new home. However, it’s just a basic ring, and it will not allow travel back to the Wood. Also, it will disintegrate after two hours. The bottle is made of the same wood as the ring, and is the only thing that will hold water from the pools. This water will heal a person from almost any injury, and keep them from getting sick from the foreign bacteria and viruses on a new world. Lastly, the bar of refined steel is used for money on Kansem. The 8-ounce bar of steel is enough to buy a small house.

Desi grabs a note he has written from the top of his desk. It is meant to be read once Darkie arrives in Kansem and the pain stops. It will answer all the important questions he will have and allow him to continue his life in this new world. Desi stuffs the note in the satchel and then drags Darkie to the Kansem pool. Desi steps into the pool, pulling Darkie with him. There is the darkness of the tunnel, and then they emerge on a hilltop, overlooking a small, Victorian era village.

Darkie’s screams stop, and the man looks around wildly, breathing hard. His gaze settles on Desi and his face fills with rage. Moving with slow deliberation, Desi presses the taser to Darkie’s chest and holds the trigger down until the man is unconscious. Then he holds the bottom of the taser to the Kansem ring on his right hand. The taser has two small prongs on the bottom that allow a much smaller level of electricity, about the same as one AA battery. The electricity activates the ring, and it pulls Desi back into the black tunnel.

Going into the tunnel using electricity is like being slammed into by a car at 40 miles an hour, but Desi has done it so many times that he hardly notices the pain. Besides, he’s planned ahead, and had already taken a small drink of the pool water before grabbing Darkie. The small drink of pool water will heal him of just about anything for two hours.

Desi returns to the desk and sits down in the comfy desk chair. He’s finally finished. He has accumulated enough money to live out his days peacefully in a place where the weather is always perfect and the women are all beautiful. He has waited for this day to come for years. He will travel back to Earth and collect the remainder of the bounty he is owed and then begin his retirement. He plans to return to the Wood in the future, but it will be for pleasure instead of business next time. Hopefully he will bring a son here someday and begin to show him the wonders of this place. Desi reflects on his achievements for a few more minutes then returns to the Earth pool.

He steps into the Earth pool, and the dark tunnel engulfs him. Soon he is standing back on the steps of Darkie’s house, door open but no Darkie. No time has passed on Earth since he left, it is still night. Careful to leave no fingerprints, he closes Darkie’s door and turns around, headed back to the Big Sal’s delivery car parked on the street. He begins to whistle a tune he’s recently heard on the radio, one that has been stuck in his head for at least a week. He doesn’t hear the footsteps from behind him until it is too late. All goes black for Desi.

When Desi awakes, he is disoriented with a pounding headache. The back of his head aches and he notices blood on his fingers when he touches the wound. His eyes sting from the intense sunlight. He realizes immediately he is not where he was moments ago. He is still wearing the same clothes, he is still wearing his traveling rings, but his surroundings are alien to him. He slowly gets to his feet and looks around, all he sees is sand. He is aware he is casting two distinct shadows on the ground somehow and then notices two suns in the sky.

His stomach drops and his adrenaline surges. As he turns in circles, trying to figure out where he is, he finally notices the leather satchel around his neck. He opens the bag and removes the only contents, a white piece of paper. Written on the paper is a single paragraph, only a few sentences:

If you thought you were the only person who knew about

the wood, you now know you were mistaken. The internet

is a fascinating place and contains more secrets than you

would ever believe. I wish you the best of luck.

Darkie

The final line was quite familiar to Desi. This is how he always ended his notes when sending his marks to Kansem. He immediately closes his eyes and begins his meditation ritual. The tunnel opens and when he opens his eyes he is stepping out of a pool into the Wood.

But this is not a pool he has ever used before. In fact, it’s not a pool that should even exist. The other six pools forms a ring around the pool for Earth. That’s how it has always been. No other pools existed. But this pool is different. It is outside the circle. And it doesn’t have a tree next to it. Which means that it is not possible to make a ring that will go back to that world.

None of this makes sense. None of this was covered in his father’s lessons. It shouldn’t even be possible.

Desi sprints to the Earth pool and dives in.

Once he can move again, he opens his eyes and exhales. The heat is oppressive. The transition should have taken him to the sidewalk in front of Darkie’s house, but he recognizes nothing. Where other houses should have been, there are small hills of rubble, now overgrown with sickly brown grass. Former trees that now are no more than dry sticks dot the area. The sky is covered in dark red clouds, obscuring the sun.

Darkie feels his lungs ache as he inhales. Gasping, he falls to his knees. The acrid air burns his throat and lungs. Desperately, he tries to use the taser to activate his wooden ring, but the batteries are dead. His final thought is of Darkie and he silently wishes he would of retired one mark earlier.