“I need to go, E,” he said.

“To your party?” Ella’s distraught gaze fell on him. She then leaned on their mother’s bed and let out a tired sigh.

“Not really.”

“It’s okay. Go on, I’ll deal with all this.”

Jalen felt detached from the world. The sounds of people passing him by were muffled and distant. This time, he could wait for the elevator. The old brick buildings and countless people walking the streets blended into the background of a Renaissance painting. He did not know how much time had passed, but the bright blue walls of Walmart awoke him from his trance.

Rika said she’d wave when she sees…

A hand shot up under a pine tree, waving him over. Rika sat back down under the tree when she was sure that she had his attention, a lit cigarette between her fingers. Her eyes were red and her makeup was ruined.

“Took you long enough,” she said when he reached her.

“Where are they?” he asked.

She took a long drag of her cigarette before pointing at a lone Honda Civic—Sarah’s car. His steps toward the car were light and measured. He even controlled his breathing. Sarah parked her mud-stained red car far away from the other cars in the parking lot. So much so that it would be an inconvenience to push a shopping cart full of groceries toward it.

Sarah had fitted dark-tinted windows to her Civic. So pushing his face right up to the window was the only way to see into it. Marco sat in the back seat, his head up facing the roof, eyes closed, and mouth open in obvious signs of pleasure. His right hand held onto Sarah’s head, which bobbed up and down his member.

He pushed away from the car and stared at the sky, his legs unsteady. The setting sun bathed him in its rich golden light, a stark contrast to his current mood. He retraced his steps back up to Rika under the three.

“Can I get a smoke?” he asked.

“You smoke?” She said. “I thought you didn’t—”

“Does it matter?”

Rika gazed at him during her drags as streams of tears rolled down his face, which he rushed to wipe away. She sighed, handing him a piece and the lighter.

“How long has it been going on?” he asked, after puffing on the cigarette for a few moments. The unpleasant smell and burn of tobacco smoke caused his throat to ache.

“A month at least,” she said. “I don’t really want to go into any details, Jalen. As you can see, we aren’t in the best state of mind.”

“Well… er… thanks for letting me know.”

He dropped the cigarette and stomped out the lit end, then hopped on his bicycle.

“What are you gonna do about it?” she spread her arms, pleading. “We could confront them together. Curse them out.”

After a quick glance at Sarah’s car, he shrugged. “Na. I’m just done with it all.”

The happenings of this world were no longer his concern. It all started two weeks ago when he lost his job at the superhero merchandise store. Then his mother’s health deteriorated again for what seemed like the thousandth time in ten years. Not to talk about the colossal debt her medical bills incurred.

And now this? Hmph. He came to understand that his life was cursed with constant problems he had no hope in hell of solving. Being a child of African immigrants, he faced his fair share of bullying, racism, and downright evil. If only he got doused in radioactive waste that gave him powers like Ameor. Or if he was right there with Novaman when the Hydrogen fusion plant blew up. Maybe he would have Novaman’s powers, too. Probably not. With his luck, being dissolved into atoms would be the list of his worries.

❊ ❊ ❊

Chilly winds blew through the nightscape of Hermosville from the ocean. The city was as busy as ever, office complexes and shops still tooling their trade, while the streets and dark alleys of the shadier parts of the city harbored criminals and gangsters practicing their craft with little regard for secrecy.

Jalen paddled through these streets for hours now. Ella, Marco, and Sarah had blown up his phone during this time. He felt bad for ignoring Ella, but he did not have it in himself to talk to another person. Afraid of what he would do, he didn’t even think about calling Marco and Sarah.

On one occasion, he spotted a group of men plunging their knives into an unarmed man in an alleyway behind a gag-inducing pile of garbage. The abject horror laced in the man’s screams chilled him, but he paddled on. As a resident of Hermosville would tell you; You move along and pay no mind, lest you ask to be their next victim.

Up ahead, from a corner shop, six men scurried out, their hands full of various stolen goods. They wore ski masks, plastic masks, and a mismatch of different protective and offensive gear—hockey pads, biker pants, leather jackets, pistols, and hockey bats. One of them, a heavy-set fellow with balding hair and a protruding gut, spotted him.

“Well, look who we have here.” He stepped closer to Frank, a pistol pulled from under his waist belt. “An aspiring snitch. Hey TwoTone. What are we gonna do with this brother here?”

The tallest of the bunch stepped forward and pressed his pistol on his forehead. “The fuck you doing here, nigga? You tryna rat on us?”

“Give ‘em two to the dome. The nigga gonna snitch,” One of them said.

The gangsters closed on him from all directions.

“Yo, what you have in that bag, cuh?” the first gangster asked, placing a heavy hand on his backpack.

He had expected to feel fear and dread in a situation like this. Instead, a tiredness of life arrested his muscles. What was the worst these thugs could do? Kill him? That would be a blessing. Twotone smacked him in the face in the jaw and sent him crashing to the cement sidewalk, where he huddled himself into a ball. He expected kicks, stomps, punches, and even bullets to rain down on him.

Yet it was quiet.

“What a fascinating profession these folks pursue. Arise mortal.” He heard an unfamiliar, deep, grizzled voice say. The person’s accent was hard to place.

Opening his eyes, he surveyed the area. The gangsters, in poses that foretold the serious physical harm they would have inflicted on him, were frozen in place, like statues. His gaze shifted to a blue monkey leaning on a streetlight pole.

“You… you did this?” he muttered. “Thanks for the help.”

“Ah, if only such sentiments were conveyed earnestly.” The monkey clicked its teeth. “Follow me.”

He crawled through the openings in the gangsters’ busy feet. “Thanks, but why would I do that? Sure, follow the talking monkey who’s been stalking me into a dark alley. That makes sense.”

The monkey halted in its tracks and spoke, its tone stern and authoritative. “You are traversing on a path of self-destruction, mortal. We are both aware of your intended destination this night, and what you had planned. You have nothing to lose. Follow me at once.”

Then the monkey disappeared into the alleyway, leaving him. What the fuck is going on today? He glanced at the gangsters, frozen in their steps. Then, at his backpack and bicycle strewn on the sidewalk. In a rush, he snatched his bag and pursued the monkey. The bicycle would have to wait until he was back.

It didn’t take him long to catch up to the monkey, since it was walking at a leisurely pace.

“Who are you?” he asked. “Why did you help me? Why have you be—”

“Too many questions, mortal. All will reveal itself in due time.”

The monkey came to a stop abruptly. Before it, a ripple formed in thin air, larger waves growing from the center. The monkey reached for the warping space and sure enough, its hands disappeared into the ripple.

“It is ready.” It turned towards Jalen, its golden eyes piercing the low light. “Proceed.”

His muscles grew tense, and his breathing quickened. The darkness that surrounded him suddenly seemed suffocating. Running was not an option. He knew it. If the monkey could freeze people with just a thought, there was nothing he could do.

“At least tell me where we are going,” he said, after calming himself.

The golden eyes of the monkey were the only things he could even see. The rippling waves that seemed to bend the surrounding space gave him the other source of light—as faint as it was.

“To a diminutive plane of my creation,” it replied. “You may address me as Tanarion, should that assuage any of your fears.”

Tanarion waved a hand in the direction of the portal.

He gulped, but stepped forward.

If the portal looked trippy from the outside, where he found himself was more indescribable. When he had stepped into the rippling portal, he fell for a long time. He screamed at the top of his lungs as he descended into a dark abyss that seemed to stretch for eternity. It was only when he became silent that a change emerged from below. Before he knew it, he was falling through a dark sky with a vast desert below.

“Ahh! Fuck!” His screams returned.

With the ground fast approaching, he shot his eyes, resigned to his fate. Yet, the impact never came.

“Open your eyes,” the deep voice of Tanarion said, before erupting into a grizzled laugh. “Your screams resemble those of a young maiden in distress.”

He found himself floating a few inches above the ground. His face scrunched up, signs of simmering anger erupting. “You fuc—”

Tanarion chose that moment to let him go. He crashed face-first into the dusty, rocky terrain. Luckily, it was only a shortfall.

“Oh, I haven’t laughed this good in ages. Arise, mortal. You have much to do.”

After dusting his clothes, he replied. “My name is Jalen.”

“Duly noted.” Tanarion walked away in a seemingly random direction.

“You made this planet?” Jalen followed, glancing at the barren landscape around him. “That’s very hard to believe.”

“Such is your perception, sheltered mortal, ignorant of the true workings of the cosmos, with a lifespan as fleeting as the blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things. And no, this isn’t a planet. It is merely a plane of rock hastily fashioned to fulfill a particular function.”

“Ok… fair enough dude.” Jalen didn’t know what else to add there.

After what seemed like hours, trekking the vast terrain of rock and sand, with his legs like heavy steel beams, he asked the mysterious monkey the one question that had been occupying his thoughts.

“Why have you brought me here?”

“Impeccable timing, mortal.” Tanarion pointed to the peak of a rocky hill up ahead. “Have a look.”

The duo paced up the hill in no time. He gasped when he reached the peak. The other side of the hill led to a cliff. However, that wasn’t what caught his attention. It was the fact that the cliff served as the edge of this planet…or plane.

Beyond the cliff edge was the void of space. Countless stars littered his view. Suspended in the center of the void was a bright blue planet surprisingly similar to…

“Is that—”

“It is,” Tanarion interrupted him. “Your planet in all its beauty and fragility. What else do you see?”

“A red interstellar cloud is engulfing Earth and the surrounding space,” Jalen said, turning to the monkey. “What is it?”

“That cloud is the reason I have brought you here. It is the life force of a cosmic God called Asasamumu, leaking and corrupting your world. You ought to be experiencing the repercussions of this phenomenon. I believe you mortals are manifesting powers now.”