Running is my only priority. Staying in Driggs is a death sentence. Destroying an entire building like that, the Titan Legion will show up soon. The gang members run and hide inside the other building as all this plays out. Seriously? They watched me obliterate the building next to theirs and they ran inside to hide. Not exactly Mensa candidates.
It’s now or never. Huffing, I reach into my reserves, put whatever energy is left into my legs, and run as fast as I’m able avoiding the main areas where others may see me. Darting in between buildings and jumping over small fences, my legs scream in exhaustion but I continue running, hoping nobody has seen me. It takes me less than a few minutes to make the trek and cross the canal to my neighborhood. Fortunately, luck would have it that my house is on the outer edge, so it doesn’t take me long to reach it. Rushing up to the door, my key slides in, I jiggle the lock until it gives, and force the door open wildly.
What am I going to do? Those gang members saw my face so they can certainly give a description.
Freaking out is my only emotion at this moment and the only people that know about my abilities are Mr. Ranes and Ashley. Neither of which I have a number to call them. And even if I did, I''m still not sure how I would explain this or what, if anything, they could do about it. For the time being I’m on my own.
My best course of action is to wait it out. It doesn’t take long before sirens blare in the distance. I turn on the TV and nearly every local channel has news coverage of the attack. The headlines are all the same. "Is RED Back?" is plastered all over every channel. It’s only been half an hour and it has the majority of coverage already. My legs give out and the couch saves me when I fall with an exasperated thud. It’s coming. My feet vibrate against the floor as they tap incessantly from the anxiety. I’m waiting for it. The description of the suspect would be at any moment. But it never comes, they have no suspect.
Why would some gang members not rat me out in a heartbeat?
It takes me a few minutes of pacing back and forth until it finally dawns on me. They are murderers, every single one of them. They all likely have warrants of some kind, and they won’t be caught dead on camera or talking to police for that matter.
A couple of hours after the incident a team from the Titan Legion show up. They are decked out in full gear from what I can see as the cameraman attempts to zoom in for close-up shots. A small crowd gathers in the background, yelling out to them, taking pictures, and generally ogling them. The reaction is worse than celebrities, mostly because there is a hint of jealousy to the admiration. It’s difficult not to be jealous knowing once you have your mark you’ll never be able to join them if it’s too low. It looks like there are about eight of them as far as I can count.
The way their organization operates is shrouded in secrecy. National security is the excuse our government uses, and the people are so afraid of another RED incident that they are completely okay with it. Hell, even I was. However, now not so much, considering I''m the one they are looking for. Rumor has it all their body gear is worth over a million dollars. If that''s the case, they must be highly valuable. Mason would put about a fifty-cent value on my head, and that''s only if he is allowed to torture me for the foreseeable future.
I’m deep in concentration on the news story currently on TV when my phone rings, making me almost jump off the couch. It’s Rick, probably wondering why I avoided him in school today.
"Hello?" I say hesitantly.
"Dude where ya been man? I didn''t see you all day today," Rick responds with a satirical tone. He''s my best bud but he seriously needs more friends. It’s like I''m stuck in a bromance.
"It’s been a long day and wanted to get home, I heard about you and Mason, how are you? I got there right when Mr. Ranes showed up.” I hope he buys it.
Rick sighs, "Fuck him, dude. I''m fine he mostly burned my clothes. I''m getting sick of the entire school being okay with him acting this way. I''m glad Mr. Ranes broke it up, although my memory is a little fuzzy. I must have fainted or something."
So, it seems it did work, and they don''t remember anything.
"Oh, by the way, are you watching the news? This is seriously messed up. People are saying RED is back and he destroyed a building in Driggs right by your house," Rick says with a hint of worry.
I figure the best way to deal with him is by being nonchalant. "Seriously, do you think that he''s back? It''s probably some super strong gang banger causing a problem. And what would he be doing in Driggs anyway? The last attack was in Washington D.C. And if memory serves, he died there bro.”
After a few seconds of silence, Rick says, "Yeah you''re probably right, maybe it''s just scary to think about that happening again."
We talk for a little longer about it as well as Mason and school. I tell him I need to go because my mom’s going to be home soon. "All right man, see you tomorrow."
As I’m about to hang up the phone a faint scream catches my attention, "Wait!”
I put the phone back to my ear and ask, "Geez, what is it?"
I hear Rick laugh a little and say, "Something else very strange happened today. Ashley came up to me and apologized on Mason’s behalf. But she also asked for your number."
I know why she asked him, but I have to play it off like it’s new information for me. "Okay, that is weird. Maybe she needs a tutor or something."
Rick laughs again, "Yeah I don''t know why I thought it would be something different. All right man, later."
Falling back against the couch, the embrace of comfort causing my eyelids to sag, I continue to watch the news coverage. This day is filled with enough anxiety to last me a lifetime. Everything that has happened has taken its toll and my mind begins to doze off when someone barges through the front door. Now when you are half asleep, that noise sounds like a battering ram slamming into my house. I shoot up from the couch and sprint to the front door. Standing in the doorway is my mom, breathing mildly ragged and her hair messy from an unkempt bun. Before I can say anything, she runs up and hugs me.
"Oh, Hunter Raymond Delmonte, you had me worried sick! I thought something happened to you. I was so scared. With that attack happening down the road in Driggs I tried calling you but got sent to voicemail.”
Oh God, she''s going to squeeze me to death. "Sorry Mom, I must have been on the phone with Rick," I manage to say under strained breathing.
She lets me go and says, "Don''t you ever do that to me again," as she slaps me in the arm.
"Okay, okay Mom, I get it. How did you get home so fast if you got off work five minutes ago?” I ask rubbing my arm.
My mom looks at me and rolls her eyes, "When I couldn''t get a hold of you I left work early."
I know what that means realistically. She''s going to get reprimanded by her boss for leaving early because he''s an egotistical chauvinistic prick with a massive Napoleon complex. Her words, not mine.
We spend the next hour or so talking about our day and me doing some homework until the subject of my abilities comes up again. Still on the edge of a knife waiting for the Titan Legion to storm into my home and kill me. “So have you been able to tap into your powers yet?" she inquires.
This was bound to come up at some point. I need to find a way to avoid it for as long as possible until I figure out what’s going on with me.
"You know how long it takes as a shielder Mom. And to be honest I haven''t tried because with a four it''s not much good for anything anyways.”
My mother’s face warps into a disappointed frown, and with the most serious tone, she says to me, "Don''t you ever think that your ability is useless. You may never know when it will save your life. Do you understand me?” Whoa, scary.
"Yeah, I understand. But this ability takes a while to use and it''s not like I can spend all day training like they do for Titan Legion so it may take me even longer."
She cups my cheek and kisses me on the other one, "As long as you try and never quit, that is all I care about.”
I head up to my room to relax and do the rest of my homework before dinner is done. I''m about halfway through when my phone dings from a new text message. It''s from a number I have never seen before. It reads, "We need to talk about what happened today, when can I see you?” I freak out a little bit at first thinking someone saw me in Driggs or is remembering what happened at school.
I dismiss the notion as it dawns on me that Rick gave Ashley my number. To be certain of the identity of my mystery texter I reply, "Who is this?” It doesn''t take long before she responds, "Ashley.”
I tell her that I need to stay home, get homework done, and eat dinner. I ask her about tomorrow and she says, "No, tonight, meet me at the end of your street at ten o’clock. No excuses."
Why do the women in my life order me around like a dog?
Well then again, it''s not like I can be trusted with good judgment ala Driggs fiasco. I submit to her domineering attitude and agree. If my mom catches me, I won’t have to worry about the Titan Legion, because she will murder me where I stand.
After finishing up dinner I put my fork down and rub my belly in appreciation. “I’m so full. I think I’m gonna go finish homework then go to bed.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
"So early?" she asks.
"Yeah it''s been a long day and I''m beat."
She starts to put the dishes away and says, "Okay baby, get some sleep."
The door clicks shut and a quick glance at the clock confirms it’s after eight so that leaves me with just under a couple of hours to get homework done. That time is spent getting the rest of my homework finished before diving on the internet to research powers. Most of my findings are nothing new.
Eventually, the research turns up nothing useful forcing me to admit defeat for the moment. A side glance at the time startles me—eight minutes until our meeting. Time slipped away. Rushing to get ready, I throw on a dress shirt, slacks, and a pair of dress shoes. A few too many sprays of cologne to top it off to cover up the smell of not showing after the incident in Driggs makes me smell like a cheap date.
A quick check in the mirror reveals I’m severely overdressed. Acting like this is some hot rendezvous with a sultry vixen, when all she probably wants is to talk about my powers. There’s no time left to change. I hope she doesn’t get the wrong idea. My arms pull slowly against the window, careful to not let it creak and when it’s fully opened the screen pops off with relative ease.
The house was built with a large pipe running down the side, next to my window. I’ve been climbing up and down it for years. No idea what it’s for but it’s bolted into the side sturdy enough that it doesn’t budge with my full weight on it.
After climbing down it’s obvious to see that my mom’s windows are dark. She only turns her light off when she goes to sleep so that’s a good sign.
Sticks crunch under my feet walking around the backyard to the front of my house, making me wince with the noise it makes. Proceeding to the end of the street it takes me less than a minute until Ashley’s car parked at the end of the road comes into view.
Pulling the door open and sliding into the passenger seat, she looks at me and gives me what seems like a half smile, half grin. “What are you wearing?”
Acting casual is my strong suit, “It’s laundry day, this and my pajamas are all that’s clean right now.”
“Uh-huh,” she says with a look that screams she knows I’m full of shit.
“What are we doing?” I ask.
She turns the car on and starts to drive away. As I’m about to repeat myself, she says, "Hunter, did you do that in Driggs today?”
I simply hang my head in shame and respond, "Yes."
She reacts with a grave expression and asks, "Why?”
I begin a five-minute rant about how the gang banger attacked me and what happened. She looks at me and says, "So, you thinking about me made you stop?”
That’s what she took from that?
"Well," I respond rubbing the back of my head, "you and what Mr. Ranes said to me, but it was a little too late as you can see. Luckily at the last second, I managed to change the trajectory enough that I destroyed the abandoned building instead."
She looks at me in a way a person looks at a naive child, "Sugar, you are extremely dense when it comes to women aren''t you?”
I guess by the confused look on my face she figures she is right. She pulls off the main road to a side street, puts the car in park, and shuts it off.
"Hunter, I was giving you an opening to flirt with me. I figured by what happened in school you would have taken the hint that I like you.”
I’m a bit floored, yet somehow my idiot brain still has to question it.
"But I thought that ya know, you were doing that to get me to stop. I assumed kissing me was not as bad as dying a horrible death by my hands, so you opted to bite the bullet. I''ve had a crush on you since elementary school. I figured that we were in two different worlds.”
Looking at her expression it seems to steadily transition into mild anger as some sort of realization has hit her. "I''m sorry I didn''t mean to make you mad," I say to her with sincerity holding my hands up in surrender. I think I screwed up with that little confession.
Without warning the windmill of arms and flurry of hands strike me one after another. Not hard, similar to smacking someone for being an idiot, to which I am well acquainted.
"You are stupid, stupid, stupid!" she says smacking me countless times in a barrage of blows.
"Ow. Geez, a triple stupid, I must have seriously botched something. I''m sorry," I say defending myself. That shielding ability would come in quite handy right now.
The blows finally subside. She lurches backward pressing hard against her seat, hands now gripping the steering wheel as leverage, staring forward, and with exasperation, she says, "Why did you never say anything to me? Do you know how much time I wasted dating idiots like Mason instead of you?" She gets one last good smack in without even turning to face me.
Rubbing my arm I say, "Hey, I''m not entirely to blame here. I told you in fourth grade and you didn''t even respond to me."
She shuffles in her seat, clearly frustrated, and finally turns back to me. "My god Hunter that was fourth grade. I didn''t even know I liked boys then.”
I respond, "Yeah, but I did.” My stern face was supposed to be a gotcha but it did not come out like it was intended.
She tilts her head with a raised eyebrow as if to question what I just said.
“Err, wait, I mean girls. That seriously came out wrong.”
She proceeds to laugh and snort at my awkwardness. In trying to sound charming I made myself sound like a thirteen-year-old with no game. Accurate.
"That''s what I like about you Hunter and always have. Part of your charm is your awkwardness. You try so hard and always end up failing spectacularly. But you always take it in stride and don’t let it bother you. There''s something, endearing about it."
Did she compliment and insult me at the same time?
"Okay then," I say "Why haven''t you said anything since?"
She puts her hand on my knee and smirks, "I did, well not say outright, but flirted with you a lot. I was always trying to do nice things for you to get your attention, but I figured you weren''t interested. You would just thank me or be nice and then pay me no mind afterward. You always treated me like the cool girl next door. Fourth grade was a long time ago, so I figured things changed.”
That was a massive understatement of the universal kind. If anything, I had a different word for cool about my fantasies of her living next door to me.
She continues, "But it''s obvious that you were simply too dense to see it,” she says as she smacks me again on my knee this time.
I retain my composure at the feel of her hand on my leg and decide to spill it. Might as well lay it all out. I’m not letting this chance slip by me.
"Look, you need to understand. Ever since elementary school, you have been and still are the most beautiful girl I have ever laid eyes on. Is it no wonder why I mistook your advances for simply being nice to the underprivileged, lanky, defensively humorous, and extremely average guy?"
Her lips rise into a smile on her face, and she darts at me full force with a primal passion in her eyes. Our lips start in a small embrace, as she opens her mouth to slide her tongue over mine. The sensation sends ripples through my body and my brain transitions into a doughy paste, my body melting at the rise in temperature in the car.
This girl can cut me open and steal my kidney right now and I won’t mind one bit. After what seems like not long enough, she breaks the kiss. It’s quick and unexpected, my male brain in a state of suspension, and in my usual awkward fashion, I keep moving forward attempting to continue the tongue-on-tongue onslaught flailing my tongue about and making a kissing face, sending her into a fit of laughter.
"Sorry," I say with hot flustered red cheeks of embarrassment as I pull back.
"Sug, you are without a doubt the best guy ever," she says between heavy breaths attempting to recover.
I seriously doubt that but I''m not in a mindset to argue. I must be doing something right if I''m making out with the hottest girl in school.
“My God, I need to stop before we both do something sinful,” she says wiping the wetness from under her lower lip.
“Uh, I’m kinda okay with sinful right now,” I admit without any shame.
“I’m sure you are,” she says chuckling at my desperation.
"Oh, and just so you know you need to realize you are far more handsome than you give yourself credit for. I have seen male models that don''t look as good as you,” she says almost with a scolding tone.
Now it’s my turn to laugh. I jokingly reach out and cup her forehead in my palm, faking a check for a fever. She smacks my hand away.
"Stop it. Do I need to be terminally ill to like you? You need to be more confident. And that’s also why I''m here.”
She turns the car on and starts to drive off.
"And how do you plan we do that Miss Perfect?"
Smiling that deliciously innocent yet devilish smile she says, "If you play your cards right someday you might be Mr. Perfect.”
If she asks right now, I will elope. Mom will kill me, but it will so be worth it.
"But," she continues, "I mean your confidence with those powers inside of you.”
"Great, I knew we were getting to this," I say. "Can''t we go back to kissing? That was much more fun.”
"Head out of the gutter, Hunter. Plenty of time for that later. I''ve been thinking all day about what happened. It seems like whenever you use your powers it’s out of anger. We can''t have that because you seem to lose control, which can be dangerous. You need to learn to use them of your own will and not from an emotional response. On top of all that, I haven’t the slightest clue what that symbol on your back means. Everyone has a Mark, not a symbol,” she says laying out the crux of my issues.
I know she''s right. It scares me at the thought of intentionally trying to use my powers, especially not knowing what this symbol means.
"I don''t know if we should do that. Wouldn''t it be better if I never used them? If I''m careful I can keep it a secret and not a soul will ever find out," I say in opposition.
She dismissively waves her hand, "No that''s not good because something can set you off, and then what? You need to learn control. After that, you can decide what you want to do."
"Okay, and you have something in mind otherwise you would not be suggesting such an extremely dangerous plan I assume?”
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do, thank you very much. For one, you need to go somewhere secluded to practice. If you do lose control at least nobody will be hurt. And I think I have the perfect place."
"Oh? And where, pray tell, might that be?" I ask.
"Canner Forest," she responds while pulling onto my block.
She is right, yet again. If there is anywhere we can go for safety and seclusion, Canner Forest is the perfect choice. Luckily, it’s only about a forty-five-minute drive and it’s about two hundred square miles of nothing but trees.
We turn the corner to my road and she puts the car in park at the end of the street where she picked me up.
"Come up with whatever excuse you want for the weekend but tell your mom you’re going to be gone. We need to start as soon as we can. The longer we wait the higher the chance of something like Driggs happening again."
I begin to rub my temples at the stress of all of this. "Have you met my mother? The term overprotective understates the way she is about me.”
"I know but you need to come up with something. This can''t wait.”
“Ugh, fine I’ll come up with something,” I grunt as I start to leave the car.
She grabs my arm before I can get out and pulls me close to give me one last long lingering kiss. This girl is going to be the death of me one day. And I won’t give it a second thought.
I get out of the car and step onto the hard concrete. A rush of clarity hits me at the realization that I’ve agreed to practice controlling the most terrifying power known to exist. Give me a break, can’t even control my awkwardness. So maybe she won’t be the death of me, I’ll maybe decide to walk off a cliff on a whim.
“Hey one last thing,” I hear Ashley yell from the car window. “I think it’s best Mason doesn’t know about us. If he finds out, you’ll see his jealousy far outweighs his penchant for being a jerk.”
I lean into the car window, “Yeah, you come with one seriously large piece of baggage huh?”
She giggles and says flirtatiously, “Yeah, but I have a feeling you’re still interested anyway.”
Ending the exchange she drives off. She’s right. She could have dated the devil himself and I would still be interested.
It only takes me a few minutes to get home. It seems like everything is in the same place that I left it. I’ve only been gone less than an hour so I’m not too concerned about some thief climbing through my window.
As I climb back up and through the window my hand slips and I crash to the floor with a loud thud. I quickly jump under my covers still fully dressed with shoes on. It’s lucky as Hell I’m upstairs so there are warning steps before she reaches my door.
After a minute or two my door slowly creaks open. My mom can''t see my face with my back to her but out of the corner of my eye, my window curtain ever so slightly blows in the wind. I’m screwed. I never leave that window open.
She must not notice because she shuts my door and I hear footsteps as she walks downstairs towards her room. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, I grab the covers tighter and kick my shoes off. If she caught me I would be strung up by my ankles.