It All Started With a Beam of Light

By: AlchemistM

Author's Note: I suppose I should note that this is set in the K-PAX movie-verse, as I have not read any of the books yet. Hell, I didn't even know it was based on a book until I saw the K-PAX sub-category under the Books section. As such, I couldn't resist writing this fanfiction after I watched the movie yet again (I have it on DVD, whee) and seeing the beginning sequence. I also suppose this fanfiction will shock a lot of people because it's not in Prot's point-of-view at all, rather from an inconsequential character's point-of-view that exists only in the first five seconds of the movie. That being said, I obviously took quite a lot of liberties with Freddie (he's the guy in the wheelchair in the beginning of the movie) and his character... So don't let anything shock you, okay? :) What else? Oh yes, Prot really isn't the central character in this, but he does tie in with the fiction towards the end of the the story.

Enough with my rambling; read, enjoy, and review (please? XD)!

There had always been something about watching the sunshine glimmer through the windows of Grand Central Station that had appealed to Fredrick, something that called his very soul into watching the way the light danced through the too clean, too opaque glass. A small displeased frown appeared on his face for no reason at all, his heart wanting nothing more than to wheel over to that damned glass and break it.

Why?

For no rhyme or reason other than the fact that it distorted the shimmering yellow hue of the sun's rays.

Ever since he was a child he could remember loving the way light bounced around everything, touched everything in it's path and made it brighter, wishing he could be the same. He wanted to have that freedom, that pure joy that he was sure that the sun's rays could feel everytime they caressed a person's face or roamed a person's scalp. Fredrick wished for it so desperately that when he was sure he was alone in the street at night, surrounded by all the twinkling stars, he would cry.

He would cry for the life he had never had, he would cry for the begging he had to do to survive, and he would cry because he knew he could never be like the light that had always filled his thoughts and dreams.

"Freddie" would never be free.

He had been born with no leg; something that his parents had been more than alittle ashamed of, and had made no secret of telling him over and over again. The hardest part was knowing that they had done this to him when he was a mere fourteen; left him out on the street in Manhattan to die... They had done it purposely, consciously; and that was the thing that hurt him the most.

He hated them, hated them with a fiery passion akin to no other; and he had closed himself to their world, had become an inhabitant of his own.

There were no rules, and no consequences.

Because "Freddie" wasn't real... "Freddie" had died the day his parents left him out on the street with all the intention of letting the bustling city of Manhattan kill him.

All that was left was Fredrick.

"Freddie" was what he had to pretend to be to get others to talk to him, to notice him, to ensure his own survival...

"Freddie" was stronger than Fredrick, he always would be. He was the one who had overcome the abuse, entertaining others while in turn asking for spare change...

He was the man who always had an interesting story to tell, always had a smile on his face, always had a hearty laugh to go along with that huge grin.

Fredrick was still the hurt little boy inside who wanted to die.

"Freddie" believed.

Fredrick couldn't.

Fredrick stared away from the glass that marred the light's passage to the station, pushing back the thoughts that had emerged; he had a part to play and he would not disappoint. "Freddie" was once again donned, and everything was a blur of smiles, laughs, and spare change.

It was like he was drowning, and he couldn't get out... He wanted to breathe, he wanted to escape, he wanted to scream.

But then... it was like a breath of fresh air as the light shone brilliantly, too bright to ignore; too spectacular for that damned glass. It was un-natural, almost... otherworldly in its' intensity, and Fredrick found he could not look away; found he did not even want to.

And there, a figure almost continous with it; a figure connected to the light in a way that he wished he could be. Fredrick should have felt jealous, should have been enraged, should have taken all his anger and frustration out on this man... no, this being.

But for some reason he couldn't explain, all he felt was a deep sense of contentment in his soul; something he hadn't felt in years; a sense of connection that he didn't want to ponder.

Fredrick felt like he belonged.

He stared at the being, and he had the oddest feeling that beneath those dark shades, his eyes were twinkling.

Just like the stars.

Fredrick felt his breath catch in his throat, and just for that brief millisecond (of what he supposed was eye-contact, one could never know with shades), felt something lifting, something inside him changing. He did not know what it was, but he could do no more than watch as the being smiled strangely and looked up at the ceiling as if seeing a long forgotten memory right in front of his... its... face.

He could not take his eyes off the seemingly normal man. There was just something that drew him in like a moth to a flame. Brown eyes watched almost greedily as the man turned to his left, a small, almost compassionate frown upon his too pale face, having just witnessed a robbery.

Fredrick himself wasn't too surprised, this kind of thing happened all the time; but what really surprised him was how the otherworldly man walked toward the woman, bended over and helped her stand gently... as if she was fragile and would break any second. A woman the man... the being... didn't even know

He found himself panicking as the police arrived not long after, and took the being aside. A fear previously unknown to him as his can of spare change clattered to the floor as he sped off in his wheelchair, to the female officer who he had known for a long time.

All that mattered was getting to him.

"He didn't do it!" a shout that he wasn't even aware he was projecting, "It was these couple of punks who grabbed her bag and ran off. He didn't do anything, he was just helping her up!"

The man's face was almost serene as he smiled strangely again, examining the place all around him without comment, answering all the questions the cops threw at him with absurd ease.

And then those words...

"I had forgotten,..." a smile.

"just how bright your planet is."

Fredrick wasn't surprised, a fact that shocked him more than the actual words did.

Words that had sealed the man's fate.

He found himself following as the cops pulled him outside, unable to keep his eyes off the man who had captured his attention like only the light had before him, unable to shake this utter faith in what the man was saying.

It was true, he knew it.

"Freddie, did you see what gate this guy came out of?"

He found himself obstinate, "I'm telling you, he didn't come out of any gate. He just... appeared out of nowhere. Know what I'm sayin'?"

She sighed heavily, doubt prevalent in her eyes, "Yeah Freddie, I know what you're sayin'."

But she didn't, he mused to himself, his heart panging with regret as he saw the man forced into the car.

"I'm sorry." he whispered into the wind as it sped off, presumably to the mental hospital down the street and around the corner.

"I'm so sorry."

But it wasn't until Fredrick sat there a moment, his head bowed, hands slack... That he realized just what the man had done to him, just what he had managed to do before he had even been aware.

He... hadn't sneered at being called Freddie at all, not like he normally would have done...

In fact, it had given him quite a feeling of warmth and hope...

A promise of opportunity, a fluttering of change.

Fredrick chuckled in astonishment, which soon turned into pure blown laughter, which made its way into tears. That man, that entity... that being...

Whatever he was, he had done something... had given him something no one before him had ever bothered to before.

He hadn't been looking at "Freddie", this man, no not at all...

Somehow he had seen right through him and pierced a barrier that had long since been placed up to keep everyone out.

He had been looking at Fredrick.

And he didn't turn away, didn't look disgusted, and hadn't thrown something at him.

He... smiled.

...And that's all it took for "Freddie" and Fredrick to become one again...

Because sometimes things really were that simple, and sometimes they weren't.

This was one of the times it was.

Freddie smiled as he watched the car disappear off into the distance, closing his eyes for an odd moment that had been glistening with tears... And he had the oddest feeling that in that car...

The man was laughing.

The End.