Chapter 24 #2
“I bet he’d willingly come if you asked him,” Nolan says as he sets the book down and gets up. Pleased he’s willing to help me, I lead him back to Valerie’s room. He sits down and types her password in before turning to me.
“That’s all you’re doing, correct?”
“Very much,” I promise before I sit down and check her emails, assuming the person in charge of doing the screening of registered supers would have emailed her the results, but there’s nothing there.
“Is she slacking on her job?” I grumble as I pull up the database but find it needs a password as well. I wave Nolan toward it. He tries the password he used for the computer to no avail.
“I don’t know. She hasn’t opened this in front of me,” he says. “What are you going to do when you find this information?”
“Figure out whether they’re the ones I’m looking for.”
Nolan stares at it for a second before going, “Come on.”
He logs out of the computer and then I follow him to the hallway. We eventually find Valerie screeching at some people.
“Do you have a minute?” Nolan asks her.
“Why is he here?” she asks.
“We were wondering if we could help look into the people whose superpowers match what Ellison’s stalker has,” Nolan says.
Valerie quickly looks between both of us. “Did I not just tell you on the phone that we were handling it?”
I try not to let my irritation seep out, knowing that if I do, she’ll match it, and we’ll get nowhere. “You don’t trust me to help.”
“I don’t,” she says. “We have this handled. We cannot have some… random man running around the city harassing people on the speculation that they could be involved. Go. Now.”
She storms off and I look at Nolan, well aware he did this so he could read her mind.
“Nolan?”
He’s quiet for a moment before meeting my eyes. “She gave me nothing.”
No, she gave him something… but does he see her side? Does he also believe that I can’t be trusted? Maybe I can’t be, now that they know what I’ve done.
I clench my jaw and give him a nod. “I see. I thank you for your services.” And then I leave the building. I drive home feeling more irritated than I’d felt driving here. Instead of going inside where I’ll have to face the others, I climb to the roof and shoot Landon and August a text.
Me: I’ve returned; you may leave.
Landon: Where are you?
Me: Lookout.
August: We can stay and watch him together.
I mean… they should, shouldn’t they? I’ve proven that I’m not good enough alone.
Me: That is your choice.
I remain on the slanted part of the roof for hours, even after Landon shouts at me to come down and August texts me to come eat dinner with them. But I refuse. I will see this person the second they appear and I will shoot them in the fucking head.
I calm my mind and sit quietly as the dark descends upon us.
Landon: I’m sleeping in your bed since you’re planning on becoming a roof hermit.
Me: That is fine.
Landon: August and I are going to spoon in it.
Me: Spoon Pocket Lint so she doesn’t feel left out.
Landon: She’s curled up with Zacia. They’ve come to some type of truce. It’s rather cute, but I suppose you won’t see it from up there.
I do desire to see that, but I don’t want to face Ellison and tell him that I’ve got nothing for him again. So I remain on the roof, waiting and watching for the moment I feel the stalker’s presence.
The smallest sliver of a moon is high in the sky while I listen to every single noise inside and around the house. I want to catch it all. I don’t want a single incident to pass my notice.
My phone beeps at about midnight and I look down at it.
Ellison: Will you please come down? I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.
I slide my thumb toward the “I” a second before I feel someone right behind me. I twist, narrowly avoiding something coming toward my head. It’s dark and I can sense them, but the person is damn near silent as they move in the shadows.
A male voice says, “I’m going to tear you apart and destroy your life.”
I lift my gun and fire, but he’s gone and reappears in a second, foot already in motion as it slams into my face. The blow throws me back and I skid down the shingles while I shoot two more times.
He’s already gone in the brief time it took for me to pull the trigger. I scramble up but he’s in front of me again, and I find it impossible to make him out in the dark. It’s all so fast as I narrowly dodge the hit, only to have him kick me in the head before I even land.
How the fuck do I fight someone who can teleport at such speeds? He’s never even here longer than a second before he blinks into existence inches elsewhere.
I need to read him, I need to calculate where he’s going to come from, but it’ll take time to watch him and learn from him, and who knows how much time I have.
He tries for another kick but I’m swift enough his shoe barely grazes my cheek while I skid down the roof, anticipating his next move as I turn invisible.
But when he doesn’t appear, anxiety that he’s gone for Ellison tugs at me.
Dropping my invisibility, I begin to slide toward the edge so I can drop off the roof, when I twist and see him in the yard.
I whip my gun up. I’m going to blow his fucking head off.
I’m going to make him regret ever looking at Ellison.
My finger slides down to the trigger, but just when I start to put light pressure on it, something tells me it’s not right and I draw back as the stalker disappears and August turns to look at me.
My stomach squeezes as I realize that I came this close to shooting him in the head.
The stalker had tricked me; he’d baited me and driven me to the edge in the hope that I’d make such a mistake.
I gasp out a breath when I think about how close it was. How fucking close I came to killing someone else. I throw the gun and drop off the roof. I don’t see the stalker anymore, telling me he’s gone, and even if he’s not, I’d deserve it if he shot me instead.
“Deus!” August shouts, but I can’t even face him. “Deus!”
He reaches for me, and when I turn, I see my father’s face, a hole right between his eyes.
“DON’T!” I yell as I jerk away from him.
I almost killed him. I almost killed him. I almost killed him.
I stagger away from him, my world spinning out of control around me. I fall into the side of the house, confident it’s the only thing keeping me standing.
“Deus, what happened?” Landon asks.
“Stay away from me,” I order.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine!” I yell. “Stay away.”
I push off the house, not sure where I’m going and knowing I can’t go far when I have to protect Ellison, but what if I end up hurting him instead? What if I end up killing him?
Suddenly, I feel something behind me and I turn, expecting the stalker, but find that it’s just Ellison’s illusion.
“Stop,” he says. “Stop running away.”
“If you’re allowed to run away, so am I,” I snap.
“Asmodeus!” Ellison shouts as he rushes across the yard, but I turn invisible. I know I can’t go far, but I can get away from them. “Come back here. What happened? Asmodeus, talk to me.”
I slip around the back of the house and tuck myself in the corner where I grab my head and close my eyes.
I can taste blood but I just wipe it away.
Ellison, Landon, and August try to find me for quite some time, but their words fall on deaf ears because all I can see is August’s face… his bloody face…
When Ellison heads out to the car after morning breaks, I know I have no option but to follow him, even though Landon and August seem to be getting into the back seat.
I refuse to turn visible, so I climb in still invisible and sit in the front seat.
Ellison drops Pocket Lint on my lap and begins to drive.
“I’m afraid if I talk, you’re just going to run off,” Ellison tells me.
“You’ve never been quiet for this long in your life,” Landon says. “It makes me feel icky.”
“Was it because you couldn’t stop him?” August asks.
“It’s frustrating when you can’t stop someone who wants to hurt those you care about.
I know. On the outside, the media portrays me as having a phenomenal success rate, but all the fails hit me so hard that it’s difficult to see that. We’re just human, Deus.”
Ellison’s hand grips tightly on the steering wheel until his knuckles are white. He remains silent for the whole car ride until we reach headquarters.
“I’ll be fine alone,” he says, so I let him go without a question asked.
The second I get out of the car, Landon latches on to me. “You’re not going anywhere, you hear me? You’re going to turn visible, and you kind of feel damp. Is your ass damp from the morning dew? August probably has some clothes you can change into.”
“Why are you touching his ass?” August wonders.
“Isn’t that how all friends greet each other?” Landon asks.
“Not that I’ve noticed.”
“You should start.”
“I feel like I’d end up in some kind of sexual harassment thing,” August says.
“Nah, our friends are really strange. They’d love it.”
Once we enter the lobby, Nolan sees Landon and hurries over. “Did Ellison come with you?”
“He did.”
“Where is he? I had a question about this stalker situation of his.”
“That way. I think he went to a meeting or something. Sounded boring, so I didn’t exactly listen. Instead, I’m babysitting Asmodeus the Gloomy.”
Nolan looks in my direction before nodding. “I’ll be right back. I need to talk to you guys before you leave.”
“Got it,” Landon responds as he tries to drag me into the elevator.
“I want to wait here for when Ellison gets done,” I say.
“Fine, fine. You promise you’ll stay here while we get you some clothes?”
He parks me on a chair and then pats my invisible head. “Attaboy. Stay… stay! Good boy!”
And then off he hurries.
I close my eyes, mentally exhausted.
I turn visible long enough that I can pull out my phone and switch to the front camera so I can examine myself.
There’s dried blood on my face that Pocket Lint is trying to lick off—I can’t tell whether it’s out of concern or a desire for flesh—but I had managed to wipe most of it off.
I guess I should go to the bathroom and get myself cleaned up, but before I can go anywhere, Ellison’s illusion appears in front of me.
“Finally going to be visible for a bit? Can we go for a walk so we can talk? I’m tired, Valerie is bitching up a storm, and I just… I need to walk. I feel…” He sighs. “I feel like shit… so I’m treating you like shit.”
“You’re safe where your body is?” I ask.
“I have Valerie, Nolan, Wyatt, and five other supers in the room with me. No one’s attacking me… unless Valerie sucks out my soul like you claimed.”
“Okay,” I say as I join him. I set Pocket Lint down since she enjoys galloping after us.
“Do you want to talk about last night?” he asks while we head for the lobby doors.
“No. Do you want to tell me what’s wrong with you?”
He laughs, but it’s a pitiful sound. “Not really. We really are a mess.”
“I… I fucked up,” I say once we make it outside.
He turns toward the lane that wraps behind the large building and begins walking.
“I nearly shot August. I just… I was so caught up in killing the guy. He stationed himself right in front of August and I didn’t see August behind him.
I don’t know how I didn’t see him. I nearly killed him. ”
“But you didn’t. You didn’t hurt anyone.”
“I could have. I came so close to it, you don’t understand.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “I think this job comes with a lot of risks… but at the end of the day, don’t we do it so we can protect others?”
“That’s true,” I say.
“I wish… I could fight like you. I wish I could just like… whip out a knife like you do and stop someone, and then maybe…” He pauses. “Can you teach me how to fight?”
I pull out my switchblade and flick it open. “Knives aren’t the easiest to use.”
“You know, I was held at knifepoint one time when I was younger and I remember thinking that if I didn’t have my illusions, that guy probably would have killed me. Like… how do you just… grab this thing and just… make your problems go away?”
I hold it out to him, and he takes it from me and mimes throwing it before a troubled look crosses his face. “I fucked up, Asmodeus. I just…” He shakes his head. “Teach me how to stab someone.”
“I think you’d be better off with a gun.”
He sighs. “I think… that I’d be better off back in my office where I don’t have to use a gun or a knife… but you’d never step away from danger, would you? I would just keep ending up in danger again and again because of you guys.”
“It does seem to find us,” I admit as I slide his hand into the proper position on the knife. “You don’t want your hand to slide down the handle and onto the blade when you stab someone, so you need to hold it properly. You have to be extremely close to someone to use a knife.”
“I don’t mind being close to you,” he says as he leans into me and sets his head on my shoulder. “Everything’s a mess right now…”
“Am I making it worse?”
He looks up and tilts my head up to kiss me. “No, you couldn’t make it any worse than it already is. Honestly… you’re making this whole thing better.”
Pain bites into my side when the blade I’d just given him pierces my skin. I jerk back, but with his arm around my neck, I drag him with me.
“Oh… sweet Asmodeus, don’t run away, we’re just getting started,” he says as his face twists into a cruel grin.