My eyes opened slowly and I watched as Lyla’s face contorted in a sickening way. Her eyes were welled with tears and her brow had gone lower than I had ever seen it. Her mouth was pursed, but it didn’t stay that way.

“Lyla?” I groaned, my voice hoarse. “Where am I?”

“The hospital,” she said, her words wavering as she uttered them. “You had an episode,”

I sighed, knowing exactly what happened. The flashbacks weren’t frequent anymore, but that didn’t mean they were gone entirely. I had remembered the events too vividly, too strongly. 

Lyla’s heartbeat overpowered my thoughts. It was erratic as she started towards the right side of the bed, near the door.

“You had broken bones,” She said. I scrunched my brows and listened closely at the sound of my ribs shifting with my breath. One grinded against itself.

“I got in a fight,” I attempted to lie. “You should see the other guy,”

“Did the other guy have a knife? Because you have cuts too,”

I took a deep breath.

“I should have told you-“

“That you’re a vigilante? Yeah that would’ve been nice to know,” She blurted. My jaw dropped. I stared in awe at her, feeling her drifting away from me.

“I-I,”

Doctors had walked into the room as tears collected in her eyes. She turned and walked out of the room as they flashed a light into my eyes.

 

“A fight?” Ben said. “So some punks did this to you?”

“Yeah, they’ve been bothering me a while,” I explained.

“Well, where are these guys, I can do the dad thing and talk to their parents,”

“They probably aren’t far,” I joked. Ben thought a second and smiled.

“Good one,” He chuckled.

“I can handle myself,” I confirmed.

“Where are you hanging out where you get mugged?”

“I have a friend who lives in the Slabs,” I said. It wasn’t a lie, but my heart fluttered a bit in my chest. I could still hear it as the organ ached.

“Well maybe we should get you some mace, might be able to stop a fight before it escalates that far,” He says. “I assume you are adamant about going into the Slabs more?”

“My friend needs me,” I said. I thought about his tactics at being a parent so far, and they were good for me. It was entirely different to any other parent I had. He was understanding, he was open. When I told him something, he would listen with consideration and care.

“Why haven’t you punished me yet?” I asked, not quite sure what I was expecting.

“Why would I?” He deflected. I looked at him in awe.

“I’ve kept things from you, I got hurt and never told you,”

“Which I don’t appreciate, but I would be surprised if you didn’t hide things from me, you’re a teenager,”

“No one else has treated me with that amount of respect before,” I admitted.

“I am living proof that constant punishment isn’t the same as encouragement when it comes to teenagers,” Ben smiled.

“What do you mean?” I questioned. He sighed.

“I was ready to go into the medical field, but I made a few mistakes in high school and lost a scholarship. I was going to have a full ride at Johns Hopkins and I screwed it up. Instead I went to a two year college and work a dead end job,” He explained. “In high school I was depressed, and my parents would punish me instead of help me. They weren’t insightful enough to see what I was lashing out for. I don’t want to be like that,”

I was surprised by the amount of thought he had put into it.

“I appreciate that,” I said, letting a small smile break out on my face.

“So why isn’t your girlfriend here?”

I was now brought back to reality.

“I hadn’t told her about the fight either. She’s just worried that’s all,” I lied through my teeth. I tried not to grit them, and to seem calm. My chest was tight, and I pushed my mind to stop the pain, but it remained.

We left the hospital the same day, I was given instructions to be careful and to rest. I agreed, but I have a feeling that Ben knew I was lying. I had work to do. The moment we made it home, I went to my room and shut the door behind me. I stood on the other side of the wood and clenched my fists. A burning rose in my throat as I tensed my muscles in anger. I ripped the shirt I was wearing off of my chest and stared in the mirror at myself. My chest huffed and puffed up and down.

I lifted my heavy feet over to my backpack and pulled the mask from the pockets. I stared at it in thought, pulling my phone out as I did.

I touched the call button and let the receiver ring. It rang three times before he answered.

“Yes?” Raymond’s voice said, almost sarcastic. 

“I wanna get him,” I uttered, taking a deep, shaky breath.

“Let’s schedule a visit with our friend Dalton Schwartz,” I could tell he was smiling.

“Send me the address,”

Once I was finished dressing, I slid the window of my room open to the cold. I felt the infecting cold against my skin until my mind made the feeling disappear. 

 

I walked slowly towards the warehouse and listened closely to the inside. I closed my eyes in concentration. Two were inside playing poker, one watching television, a few standing guard at a door. I sniffed and could smell the metal of the bars. A few faint heartbeats thumped inside. Asleep or passed out.

One stood guard at the door, and another directly inside. Inside of a garage close by was too many hearts for me to count. They all patrolled the inside, their guns clanking against their belts and vests. 

I cursed under my breath, and looked around the area. I found chains in a spool that were about fifteen feet long. I pulled out about a foot of the linked metal and thought hard as I squeezed it. The muscles in my hand moved slowly, tensing up, and my ears rang a bit as the chains broke. I wrapped them around my glove, similar to a boxing wrap. I unclenched my fist as the chain hung there on my left hand. 

“Just in case,” I murmured. I snuck forward and perched behind a dumpster near the front entrance. I peered out and saw the armed man’s breath envelop the air around his mouth. I checked around for any high ground I could get on him, but nothing jumped out at me.

I spotted a shadow to the right of where he stood, the single light above him didn’t light it up enough for him to see. I slowly made my way around the dumpster and stayed close to the wall. My body was presumably hidden in the dark. I kept moving, eventually making it about fifteen feet from where he couldn’t see. If I had moved anymore, my cover would be blown and he would see me.

I bent down slowly and picked up a chunk of concrete from the ground. I felt how heavy it was, and prepared to throw it at the light. Static came from the radio and a voice came through.

“Jared, everything alright out there?”

“All clear so far,” He replied into a walkie talkie.

“I’m headed to the john, keep a close eye out while I’m gone,”

“Will do,” The armed man said as the one in the other side of the door walked away from his post.

I slowly moved to the edge of the shadows as I threw the rock into the light. Shards of glass fell on top of him and he jumped into action. My eyes adjusted to the darkness as he peered around into the nothing. He reached his hand at the radio and I jumped forward. I grabbed his hand and put it behind his back, pushing it far enough to break his bones. He cried out in pain and dropped his gun. It clattered onto the ground as I kicked his back and he fell with it. I finished him with a punch to the back of the head.

I found his keys to the door and turned the lock, opening the door slowly. I walked through a small corridor that was dimly lit. Four doors were evenly spread out, and I knew one of them held the cell. The smell of cigarettes plagued the air and I blocked it out. I kept forward, hands at my side, as one of the doors opened. The door guard was returning to his post.

He saw me as he walked out the door and let out an exclamation as I dropped him with a punch to the jaw. He fell quickly, and then the room full of lounging enemies stood from their chairs. I ran in and drop kicked the first one I saw in the chest, sweeping my feet under the closest one to him. I jumped into a crouch and punched him in the chest with my left hand, probably leaving an imprint of chains on his chest. The others ran forward, one landing a punch to my rib cage before I could stop him. I caught a second fist from him and twisted it, headbutting him quickly. One landed an elbow into my back, pushing me back down into a crouch. Pain screeched in my chest, but I ignored it and flipped the man to my front behind me. I turned and kicked the commotion of two bodies to the floor. I threw a kick behind me as another approached. One of the men laid out on the floor stood, and I grabbed him by the neck, slowly lifting him with my right hand. I looked into his eyes as his face turned purple. Before he could pass out entirely, I threw him at a neighboring wall and moved on to the next room.

The hall now had many guards scrambling towards the commotion, now waving guns around. I quickly made my way through the crowd, knocking out as many as I could along the way. I listened through the commotion as I fought and heard the breathing in the cell go faster. I clicked my tongue as one of the guards caught a fist full of chains and found which direction it would be.

I ran into the room, hearing bullets fly as I rolled towards the assailant. I pulled the gun from his hands and broke it in half over my knee, using my newfound powers to crack the metal down the center. He fell back and scrambled away from me slowly. I walked towards him, watching the fear in his eyes grow. Tears welled as I stopped next to him. I smiled at the quivering man.

“What is your boss hiding?” I asked in the deepest, most gravelly voice I could manage.

“It isn’t what you think,” His lip trembled. “We saved him,”

I cocked my head and looked around the room. I saw the cell at the end of the room. Inside lay a small child, his heart beating fast, and his breathing ragged. He was pretending to be asleep, but his eyes were wide open.

“Kids,” I growled as I lifted the man to his feet by his shirt collar. “He’s dealing in kids?”

“No, please put me down!” He cried.

I kept him in the air, adrenaline surging through my body. I trudged to the cell bars.

“Why is he here? What do you have planned?”

“Please, I have a family,” The man whimpered.

“So does he,” I grit my teeth. I slammed the man’s face against the bars. His mouth filled with blood quickly as the bone on metal made a loud clang. I dropped him and straddled my legs to each side of him. I grabbed his shirt collar again, and began beating his face, punch after punch. He passed out and his face was bloodied. I punched three more times, then dropped the limp body to the ground again. He was alive, but just barely. I flicked the blood from my hand as I walked towards the cell door. I took a deep breath and looked inside at the boy.

“Move away from the door,” I tried to manage a calm voice, but my voice was shaky.

He moved to the corner of the cell and squeezed into a tight ball. I closed my eyes, concentrating on making my muscles work harder. I opened them and then kicked at the side of the door with hinges and watched as it flew into the wall, making a loud bang. I walked in and quickly made my way to the boy. His long brown hair swept over his head unkempt and he shook with fear. His bright green eyes looked up at me, terrified. I kept my distance, seeing as he wasn’t super excited about my presence. Instead, I lifted my hand to my ear.

“R, they have a kid here. I need to get him out,”

“I could send the police?” He offered.

“That should work,” I said, turning to the kid. “Let’s get you out of here, bud,”

He continued shaking, but got up slowly. I reached a hand out at him and he took it reluctantly. His grip was loose, ready to run if the need arises. He seemed smart, like he had been there a while. I tried to calm myself in front of him, but my chain covered fist was shaking. We walked forward into the hallway and I listened closely to the soft breathing of the unconscious assailants. I couldn’t hear anyone else’s breath in the building, so I assumed that I came into contact with every guard they had here and dealt with them all.

“Police are outside,” Raymond’s voice buzzed in my ear. “I would just send the kid through and leave a different way,”

“I have a better idea,” I chimed, my hand leaving the kid’s and touching my ear. The boy flinched, then reached expectantly to my hand again. I took his, then marched to the door.

We walked outside and a single cruiser was parked in front of the door. The flashing red and blue lights illuminated the darkness that previously shrouded me. Two officers pointed their guns at us.

I raised my open hands to the air as the boy walked forward. They lowered their guns slowly as one of them caught the boy in a hug.

“We knew something wasn’t right about that press release from Oswald,” One of the officers said.

“Spread the word to your other boys in blue so I don’t get shot by them,”

“I can’t guarantee anything,” He stated. I nodded at him and ran off around their car and out of the alley.