We arrived at the place I had talked about. It was an abandoned building that resembled that of an old rec-center. The doors were ripped off of the hinges out front and were thrown somewhere inside. The walls were concrete and at all times looked wet and dilapidated. I spread my arms in front of the building and turned to Lyla.
“Welcome to the old Fitzgerald Memorial pool,” I announced. “And my official hang out spot,”
“It looks,” She paused and looked at the place with an attempted smile. “Rustic?”
“I’ll take it,” I joked as we walked towards the door. Lyla was hesitant, but followed closely behind. Her heart began to beat a lot faster as we walked in. She glanced around at the large building. The inside was just a large auditorium with an empty pool in the center of it. Ladders led to the bottom of the pool, which was filled with an assortment of garbage and broken glass. The tile had lost its color and many of them were ripped clean off and shattered across the deep end.
“Makes me think of what this place could have been,” She said, looking dreamily at the surrounding area.
“Yeah, it’s why I come here. My dad used to bring me when I was a baby and I remember every moment,” I said. Lyla walked behind me and laced her fingers in mine as I looked across the place.
“I’m sorry about what happened to him,” She said. I smiled.
Our whole class knew about my dad’s passing. It was back when I was in kindergarten, and it was hard not to get the word out when he was the resource officer to our elementary school. I was told many cried while I had time off to mourn. That was the life of a cop though, constantly in danger.
We walked further into the place and found ourselves in the locker rooms where you could get changed before getting in the pool. We stopped in front of a mirror and I stared myself in the eyes. I tried to smile but it wouldn’t take. I looked over and saw Lyla walk up next to me and it became much easier for my mouth to curve upwards. Her eyes lit up but she didn’t smile. I wondered why, but then got an idea.
“I have to show you something,” I said, turning quickly. My backpack shook against my back as I ran out of the locker room and into a small maintenance closet. Inside was a ladder leading to the roof. Lyla ran after me, trying to keep up. I paced myself up the ladder and eventually made it onto the roof. I pranced towards an A/C unit that was dented and leaned against it, facing Lyla as she made it to the top of the ladder.
“You’re so lucky I am not afraid of heights,” She laughed as she ran over to me. She breathed heavily, her heart racing from running. I smiled at her and she came closer. We looked each other in the eyes again and I felt a lion roar inside of my bones causing parts of my body that had never shaken before to move rapidly. I leaned forward and she did as well until our lips met. We kissed for a second, but sirens began to go off nearby. I pulled myself away from the moment reluctantly and she peered off at the street with me. It was the police and I listened closely to see what the problem was.
“This is officer Martin responding to a 10-30c, I am en route,” A voice said from inside of a cruiser. I glanced back at Lyla who was pulling her phone out.
“Sorry, James I have to go,” She said, still staring at her phone.
“Yeah, me too,” I admitted. “Go on ahead, I’ll find a ride from here,”
“Are you sure?” She said. “I don’t mind,”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. She smiled and gave me a hug before starting back down the ladder. I stared off at the city in front of me and started to rummage through my backpack. I pulled the black clothes out and changed into them quickly. I stepped onto the edge of the building and waited for Lyla’s engine to speed off away from me. Once it was gone, I jumped towards the ground and in the direction of the car accident.
I ran towards the chaos willingly and nervously. Multiple cars were piled up for two blocks, stopped inches from each other and abandoned. People scrambled away from the scene that I was keen to see. Many stumbled and fell in the large crowd, some shoved their ways through the mayhem a little too aggressively, causing ripples of people falling or stumbling into one another. I jumped onto the hood of a car and started to traverse the tops of vehicles instead to move faster. I flipped my hood over my masked head as I made it a hundred yards away from the center of the scene. In the middle of the street, two cars were smashed into each other and flaming. Other cars were flipped or capsized with the glass shattered in the windows. A man in a long black cloak walked out into the open from behind the burning wreckage.
His outfit consisted of a bulletproof vest underneath a black trench coat, strands of ripped cloth fell at the bottom of the coat and slithered around in the air. He wore black jeans and combat boots, a pair very similar to my own. The man’s face was covered by a mask that could only be described as a mix between Darth Vader and a skull. The top was round around his head, eye sockets were large and revealed beady red dots. The mouth was made of a rebreather that was made to glow red inside as well. The back of his head was covered only by straps, revealing a dark buzz cut on pale skin. He wore large gloves that had some sort of white glowing lights on them. He seemed to stare straight at me as he lifted a car with his mind. He reached his hand towards the car, lifting it slowly as the car followed in the direction that he told it to go, all of this happening as the man stared me down. He threw the car to the ground and it crumpled with a loud crunch, the sound of metal being torn and bent in unnatural ways. I moved forward one more car and it started to rumble and shake. The man had pointed a finger at the hood and the metal started to move to his will. He yanked it towards the sidewalk, sending me toppling onto the concrete. I felt no pain, making it easy for me to stand back up quickly. I gritted my teeth and started slowly towards him. He pointed a finger at me, which I half expected to make me into a ragdoll and start to throw me around. I didn’t move involuntarily, but remained in control somehow.
“You shouldn’t have come,” He said, a raspy and deep voice coming from the mask.
“You’re hurting people, who else is gonna stop you?” I remarked, peering around for something to pick up and wield as a weapon. I started to move towards the right side of the street to a manhole cover, acting as if I was trying to move around in a circle and size him up.
“What do you want?” I asked, stalling.
“You, in the ground,” He said, plainly. “You’ve gotten in the way of my plans far too many times, pest,”
“So you’re gonna exterminate me?” I joked, wishing he could see a glimpse of my smile. I had made it to the circular object and stopped in my tracks.
“Exterminate is such a meek word for the severity of what I am going to do to you. Only the darkest and most grim of punishments will suffice for your stubborn acts of heroism,”
I laughed lightly and flicked a speck of dust from my shoulder.
“Dark, you say?” I chuckled, his figure seemed to physically quake at the humor. “Oh, come on! You made it too easy,”
I was done with small talk, and decided to show it. I kicked at the manhole cover forcefully and it spun into the air at my face. I caught it mere centimeters away and spun around, gripping it in one hand and extending out my other. I released the cover with a roar and it hurtled towards the enemy. He simply dodged to the side of the metal and cackled. I rushed forward and slid into his legs, which he jumped over. Once he landed he crouched to the ground and raised his arms slowly to the sky. Multiple scraps of metal from cars and buildings collected in the air above him and shook violently. I ran quickly to a car and felt the wind pierce the oxygen around me as pieces of steel and iron flew at me. A lamp post just barely missed me as I slid behind a car. I thought that I was safe for a second, but the moment I started to peek out the window of the car, a piece of shrapnel tore through the back door and into my chest. I fell to the ground and stared at the sky for a split second. My breathing accelerated to five times faster than it should have. The lungs weren’t hit, I listened closely for the heart and heard all of the normal sounds of a heart racing. All was clear on that front. I felt around my chest with my hands, finding a small spot just under my rib cage, it was fresh and oozing with blood. The cut was jagged and small, but enough that it probably needed stitches. I winced in pain, and started to slow my breathing and concentrate on not feeling the stabbing in my side. I started to float off the ground, the pain that had subsided mostly had started to come back. I flew towards the man and the sharp pain in my side grew into my hip as my body flipped upside down and then right side up. He caught me by the throat and held me above the ground for a second.
“Can’t we talk about this?” I uttered, a small amount of blood coming from my mouth.
“Insolent fly,” He gripped tighter against my esophagus. I tried to kick and act defeated, letting the deprivation of air get to the point where my head started to get cold. I finally decided when the time was right and put both of my hands to his forearm. I swung my body backward and then back forwards as fast as possible, running up the front of his body like a wall. His grip loosened and he stumbled backwards. I did a backflip and landed on my knees. I dug my fingers into the small hole in my chest and pulled out a small jagged piece of metal. I tossed it aside and then was met with a car in my face as I began to pay attention to the man once again.
I flew at me with speed and I had no time to react. I tried to jump, but that seemed to make the impact much more intense and made my body flip a few times in the air before I landed once again onto the cold concrete. The car smashed into another car behind me. A few of my ribs cracked against the floor and I groaned. I reached for the are with my left hand and started to push myself up with my right.
“You cannot fight me, young hero,” The man said walking towards me slowly. “No one can save you now,”
I stood slowly and prepared to fight. My body ached, but I prepared anyways for the bombardment of metal to be sent at me. As I suspected, heaps of metal floated into the air again. The man walked forward slowly and I waited for the metal to fly at me. I formulated a plan in my head.
“I hope no one will miss you, boy,” He raised his arms high and before he could shoot the metal at me, he flew sideways onto the ground. The wind blew past as an SUV skidded into my vision. The back door swung open to reveal a man with dark hair and skin and a small goatee. He waved his hand at me in earnest and I rushed forward into the car. I sat uncomfortably in the back seat and we pulled away quickly. I sniffed at the air conditioned air and couldn’t help but notice that the smell of the car was familiar. The man in the seat next to me started to reach for my wound on my chest but I snatched his wrist and gave him a stare that should have chilled his bones. Instead he smiled and lowered his hand. I glanced to the rear view and saw a pair of very familiar eyes, and realized whose car I was in.
“You,” I said in a gruff voice.
“So you remember me, from the car garage,”
“Do I look like the type to forget?” I hissed and winced and she hit a bump on the road.
My vision began to blur and I tried to listen to my chest. My heart was slowing down. I coughed and nearly sent myself into a coughing fit. I lay back in the seat and glanced over at the guy next to me. He examined me from a distance, not keen to get grabbed threateningly again. I considered this as I grabbed his collar and pulled him close. I made sure to put on the same look I gave him earlier. He didn’t seem concerned at all but I didn’t falter.
“You know what kind of man I am, so believe me when I say that if I pass out and I wake up and this mask is off, so help me, it will be the last face that either of you see,” I threatened. He nodded understandingly, but not scared. I released my grip and watched out the window as we went. My vision went dark as we crossed one of the many bridges in the city.
