The Useless Son-In-Law Is A System God Of War

Chapter Three: First Signs

The snow had melted overnight, leaving Milwaukee’s streets slick and gray. Landon walked fast, hands jammed in his pockets, the cold air cutting through his coat.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the voice from yesterday, Remember. The word echoed like a drumbeat inside his skull. 

Maybe it had been stress, maybe a breakdown. But deep down, he knew better. At the corner, a car horn blared. 

Landon blinked and jerked back just in time as a delivery van screamed past him, missing him by inches. “Watch it!” the driver shouted.

Landon’s heart pounded. A second earlier, he knew that was going to happen. Not guessed, knew. 

The sound, the smell of exhaust, even the shape of the driver’s face had flickered through his head before it happened. He stood on the sidewalk, staring after the van. “What the hell.”

People brushed past, muttering. He shook his head, trying to clear it. His phone buzzed again, no number, just another message: “Calibration: 7%.”

Landon’s throat went dry. “No,” he whispered. “This isn’t real.”

He shut the phone off and kept walking. But the feeling didn’t leave, the sense that the world around him was just slightly slower than before, as if his thoughts were moving half a second ahead of everything else.

He stopped at a diner on Wells Street, the kind of place that hadn’t changed since the ’80s, cracked red booths, sticky menus, oldies humming through tinny speakers.

“Coffee?” the waitress asked, pouring before he could answer.

“Yeah. Black.”

She left, and he leaned forward, rubbing his temples. The place was almost empty, a couple arguing near the window, an old man reading the Journal Sentinel in the corner.

The couple’s voices rose, sharp and bitter. “I told you, I didn’t text her!” the man hissed.

“You’re lying, Brian!” the woman snapped. “You always, ”

Then Landon froze. A whisper brushed through his mind, quiet and fast, like words carried on wind. “She doesn’t know about the second phone. Keep calm.”

Landon’s eyes widened. He looked at the man, the whisper matched his lips, but the words were silent, then another voice, softer, trembling: “If he lies again, I’m leaving tonight. I swear I will.”

The woman. Landon’s pulse raced. He could hear them, not their voices, their thoughts. He gripped the edge of the table, knuckles white. “No. Not possible.”

“Refill?” the waitress said suddenly.

He nearly jumped. “Uh, no, thanks.”

She frowned. “You okay, honey? You look pale.”

“I’m fine,” he muttered, grabbing his coat and sliding a few crumpled bills onto the counter.

Outside, the cold air hit him like a slap. His mind buzzed, alive with fragments of thoughts not his own, flashes of passing strangers: late for work, need rent money, God, he looks familiar.

He staggered into an alley and pressed his hands to his head. “Stop!” he shouted. “Get out of my head!”

And just like that, silence. The flood of voices vanished, leaving him trembling in the quiet, then his phone lit up again. “Phase One complete. Synchronization: 15%.”

Landon stared at it, breathing hard. “What are you doing to me?”

No reply, only a faint vibration, like a heartbeat pulsing through the metal.

By afternoon, he’d walked halfway across the city, trying to think. Trying to feel normal. But nothing about the day felt normal.

When he got back to his apartment, the answering machine light was blinking. He pressed play.

“Landon, it’s Emily.” Her voice was cautious, formal. “I need to drop off some paperwork. Dad said you have to sign before Friday. I’ll stop by tomorrow morning.”

He laughed under his breath. “Of course you will.”

He sat down, rubbing his hands together. They were steady now, too steady. He could feel energy humming under his skin.

A strange electricity that made his veins glow faintly blue beneath the light, then, a knock at the door. He froze. “Who is it?”

“It’s Claire. From the café.”

He blinked. “How did you, ?”

“I looked you up. You left your business card in the tip jar, remember?” Her voice carried a smile. “Mind if I come in?”

He hesitated, then opened the door. She stood there in her gray coat, holding two cups of coffee. “Peace offering,” she said. “You looked like someone who could use a friend.”

He took one. “You tracked me down for coffee?”

“I was curious,” she admitted, stepping inside. “You had that look, the kind people get right before something big happens.”

He laughed softly. “You have no idea.”

She studied him for a moment. “You seem… different today.”

“Different how?”

“Calmer. But also… sharper? Like you’re seeing everything at once.”

He looked at her sharply. “Why would you say that?”

She shrugged. “Gut feeling. I work in behavioral research at UW. I notice things.”

He sipped the coffee, watching her over the rim. “Behavioral research, huh? So you read minds?”

She grinned. “Only when I’m lucky.”

Landon chuckled, but his heart skipped, because right then, a whisper touched his mind again: “She’s testing you. She knows something.”

He frowned. “What are you really doing here, Claire?”

Her smile faltered. “What do you mean?”

“You tell me.”

She hesitated, then sighed. “Fine. I’m consulting for a private project on human cognition. Some of the data I’ve been analyzing, it matches what you described yesterday at the café.”

He stiffened. “I didn’t describe anything.”

“You didn’t have to,” she said quietly. “The signal spike at 11:04 a.m., it came from right here. Your apartment complex.”

His pulse hammered. “You’re saying that thing, that message, was real?”

She nodded slowly. “We call it the Ascension Protocol. We’ve been tracking it for months. Whoever you are, Landon, it chose you.”

He took a step back. “No. I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Maybe not,” she said, “but it’s already inside you. And if you don’t learn to control it, it’ll burn you alive.”

Her words hung in the air. Outside, the wind howled through the alley, rattling the windows. Landon’s voice was low. “Then teach me.”

She studied him a long moment. Then, softly, “Meet me tomorrow night. Pier 6, by the lighthouse. Bring no electronics. If anyone’s following you, don’t come.”

He nodded once. She left as suddenly as she’d arrived, coat flaring behind her. When the door shut, Landon stared at his reflection in the dark window. 

His eyes glimmered faintly blue, just for a heartbeat, then his phone buzzed one last time. “Ascension confirmed. Integration: 22%. Phase Two: Initiation.”

He didn’t know what Phase Two meant. But somehow, he knew this was only the beginning, the first ripple of a storm that would tear his old life apart.