The drive home was uneventful, but the thoughts that entered my mind were everything but that. 

I was stressed, more stressed than I am used to. Most of everything just sorta came to me, but being in cahoots with a vigilante was difficult to say the least. The moment I heard the Darkest say that Raymond wasn’t lying I trusted him, and that scared me. I haven’t seen his face, I don’t know if he’s 13 or 30, or if he even is human. This all felt too weird to have an opinion on. I tried not to show weakness, to show that I still didn’t trust them, but I did. They both spoke as if this was the norm, but with lives like theirs why wouldn’t it be.

My phone dinged from the passenger seat and I made a quick glance over at it. I hoped that it was James, I needed to get away from some of this, and he was a great way to escape. The thought of him made me so nervous that I had been gripping the leather steering wheel tight enough to turn my knuckles white. I let out a breath and loosened my grip on the warm surface and turned on my blinker to turn into a gas station.

I got out and inserted my father’s card into the pump. I removed it quickly and put the nozzle into my car and pulled. I leaned into the driver side door and grabbed my phone from inside. I was disappointed to see a text from my father. 

Fend for yourself tonight, your mother and I are going on a date

I sighed and the backs of my hands slapped against my thighs. I glanced at the gas meter and saw it was still eight gallons from being full. I looked back at my phone and sent a text to James.

Need someone to help me calm down, you up for anything?

I smiled a little too wide as I pressed send and the gas nozzle had clicked off. I put it back into its place and sat in my car. The door slam nearly overpowered the sound of my phone going off.

Sure. I could use a break too.

My smile somehow grew larger and I bit my bottom lip. 

Where should we meet?

The text was sent and I glanced around the empty gas station. I was sure that there were cars around when I got there, so I got out of mine and peered around. Not a soul was around, not even inside at the counter and it was only three. I heard loud footsteps behind me and jumped at the abrupt noise. When I turned, Tom stood there, dawning his Polarity outfit without the mask. I scrunch my eyebrows at his wicked smile.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“I just wanted to talk. You’re little vigilante friend has been messing with my work,”

“Your work is hurting people, innocent lives,”

“My wife was innocent,” His expression went grim as his hands slipped into his pockets. “Did she deserve what happened to her?”

Tears tried to break the floodgates, but I breathed deep and pushed them back.

“You need help from the police, robbing Amorelli is not gonna get him to come out,”

“Funny you say that, I already tried the police. Turns out they’re in his pocket too,” Tom clicked his tongue.

“You need to stop,” I pleaded. “While you still have a chance,”

“No, I’m the hero according to the news, not that street rat in a ski-mask,” He chuckled. “Who is that guy anyways?”

I shook my head.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. He made a tsk tsk noise and shook his own head. His smile shrunk a little

“I wish we could be understanding here, I’m trying to help you and everyone else in this city,” He explained as he approached the pump. I took a step back and eyed his gauntlets. “The amount of people under his thumb is ridiculous, really,”

“Let the Darkest handle it, I can put in a good word,”

“I’ve always liked you Lyla. It makes it really unfortunate that you won’t hear me out,” Tom explained.

I dug my nails into my hands. Tom had always listened to me when I had problems. When there was a boy I couldn’t get over he would give me cream soda for free that month, when there was a girl that was being horrible to me he wouldn’t serve her. 

“Fine,” I gave in.

 

I took a deep breath and released my hands from the steering wheel. I knew that as soon as I made it to James’ apartment that I would feel better, but that didn’t help me calm down. My breathing was ragged and I could feel a small buzz in the back of my head. I tried to stop the tapping of my foot against the car floor. 

I decided to just walk out of the car and head inside. I trudged through the front door and made my way to the elevator. The interior of the place was dingy, peeling paint and sagging ceiling tiles. I imagined James had lived in worse conditions. I knew he had spent some time on the streets before he got into the foster care system. I hoped that we would talk more about that, but also hoped we’d do a little less talking. 

I entered the elevator and the man standing at the buttons shot me finger guns.

“What floor?” He asked.

“5,” I answered, attempting a small smile. 

The doors closed and we ascended.

“I know you from somewhere,” He said, looking me up and down like he was looking for his glasses in the morning.

“I’ve actually never been here, I guess I have one of those faces,” I smiled a little wider.

“Maybe,” His hand met his chin, then extended in front of him after a second. “Rigby, your resident bell-boy. Minus the bell,”

His head bobbed back and his eyes searched the sky for the last line.

“Lyla Hark,” I gripped his hand and shook it for a moment.

“Who are you here to see?” He asked.

“A friend of mine, James,” I divulged.

“Ben’s boy, I know him,” Rigby nodded. “Sweet kid. Hurt him and I’ll pay someone to hurt you,”

We both laughed at this as the elevator dinged. I waved and walked out into the hallway. I found the room I was looking for, 5C, and knocked lightly. The door swung open after a few seconds and James stood in the doorway. I couldn’t tell who smiled more as I accepted his invitation inside.

The inside of the apartment was a little nicer than I expected. It was kept incredibly clean considering the state of the rest of the building. 

“Nice place,” I said.

“Thanks, I’m never usually here but when I am it’s always clean,” James said, nodding proudly at his foster father’s cleanliness.

“Is Ben around? I wouldn’t mind meeting him,”

“Not right now, he works a lot throughout the week,” He admitted. I tried not to blush at the fact that we were alone together.

“So, what do you want to do?” I asked expectantly. He shrugged and looked around.

“We could go brain dead in front of the TV,” He gestured at the flatscreen. “Or just sit and talk, I could fix something to eat,”

“A man that can cook, I’m intrigued,” I urged closer, seeing how far from his face I could get without him freezing. I advanced a little too far and his jaw slowly started to fall. I took my hand and pushed it up at his chin. He gulped.

“T-Thanks,” He stuttered. I smiled and put my wrists around his neck. Our eyes closed and our lips met, a moment that I wished lasted forever. Our foreheads remained pushed together as I pulled away. James seemed happy, but also disappointed. I hoped I was reading his expression wrong.

“Sorry,” He said, avoiding eye contact.

“About what?” I asked, trying to meet his gaze.

“I just feel like this is moving really fast,” He finally looked into my eyes with those intense icy irises. I couldn’t help but smile.

“We could slow down if you want,” I whispered. “Under two conditions,”

“Lay it on me,” He smiled and his face calmed.

“First of all, I refuse to ask you out,” I joked, he chuckled. “Second, you keep kissing me like that and I’ll take this as slow as you want,”

He grinned and his white teeth nearly blinded me. I smiled back and was about to lean in again, but his lips began to move and interrupted me.

“Lyla Hark,” He knelt on one knee and I started to giggle. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

I smiled wider and tried to suppress another annoying giggle. I nodded and he stood quickly, wrapping his hands around my waist. He squeezed and spun me around as I laughed uncontrollably. I gave him a peck on the cheek and sped over to the couch. I fell into the soft cushions and looked back at him.

“What kinds of food can you cook?”

James smiled and turned towards the kitchen, rubbing his hands together. He went to a cabinet and peered inside. I stared off into space, thinking about the thoughts, memories I saw in his head. I wanted to ask him all about it; his mother, his father, how he survived on the streets. I tried to hide the somber feeling as I watched him gather ingredients on the counter with a smirk. James was a great guy, and I wished that I could lift some of that pain from his mind.

“Hey, James?” I called. He looked over as I waved for him to come sit. He started over with a concerned look.

“It’s okay, I just wanted to talk for a bit,” I explained. He nodded and sat next to me on the couch.

“What do you want to know?” James asked. 

“I want to know about you,” I said.

“You want to know about my parents,” He looked away from me, as if he was seeing something else. I looked empathetically at him. It took me a second to muster up the courage to talk again.

“Nobody really knows all that happened, and it's a big part of your life,” I attempted. He met my eyes for a second and looked away.

“We were a normal family, until my dad went overboard on a case,” James explained. My vision filled with images of James’ father, Detective Winston. He resembled James greatly, dark brown hair, a rounded jaw and small cheekbones. He wore a white polo and blue dress pants everyday, and worked two shifts so he could double as the resource officer at the elementary school. He always said if he couldn’t be a cop anymore, he would be a teacher.

“I was the one who found the body,” James confessed. I didn’t know that, I had just assumed he had gotten the news through another source. Suddenly, another image scrolled across my vision.

I saw a young boy running down an alley at a limp corpse. The brawny body was that of the detective. James felt at his father’s chest where a small stab wound showed. He wept next to his father’s body on his hands and knees.

“He was following up a lead and the informant was an associate of the suspect. A close associate, I guess,”

James’ eyebrows lowered. “Then there was my mom,” His head dropped. “She went pretty downhill after my dad died. She hung out in bars a lot, didn’t make enough to get a babysitter so I was always there too,”

I could see James throwing darts at a board when he was about eight years old. His mother spoke with a shady looking individual across the bar, and she exchanged a wad of cash for a bottle of pills underneath the table they were seated at. I cringed.

“I found her too,” His voice broke. I didn’t need him to finish. I had already seen this memory. I hugged him tight as it played back in my mind like a movie. Tears streamed down my face as I watched James sob over his mother’s cold, lifeless body.

James didn’t move for a while, and neither did I. As the memory should have ended, James turned to the door he came from to discover his mom and saw another version of him standing in the doorway. The old version dissipated and the new one trudged forward to find another corpse there, his mother again.

I backed off and looked at James, but his eyes were glossed over. He stared into the distance, finding his mother dead for an infinite amount of time. My eyes welled with more tears that I couldn’t stop. I shook James by the arms but he only looked through me. His body stayed stiff where he sat.

The door opened behind me and I quickly turned to face who I assumed to be Ben. He looked quizzically in my direction, then at James.

“Help,” I pleaded. “He won’t move,”

Ben threw the jacket he was holding into the kitchen and jumped into action. He shook James himself and felt at his neck for a pulse. Once he found one, he picked up James by the back of his knees and his neck and started towards the door quickly.

“Open it, let’s go!” He shouted. I jumped to the door and opened it for him to exit. He made his way to the stairwell and kept going as fast as he possibly could.

“What happened?” Ben asked as they made it down a flight of stairs.

“We were just talking about his parents and then his eyes turned glassy,” I said. “What’s happening?”

“Damn it,” He grunted.

He didn’t answer my question as we had made it to the bottom of the stairs. He sprinted out the front doors and propped open the door of a small car before putting James into the back seat. He waved for me to get in and did the same himself. I hardly noticed the freezing cold air as I climbed into the passenger seat and Ben took off.