Every Day is Like Doomsday (14 page)

The rest of the week was, for lack of a more colorful word, awful. It left Elliot believing that not only
were teenage Villains bad because they were Villains, but
that they were even worse than adults due to their raging hormones and a fearsome lack of self-control. Innya’s
assumption that they would leave Elliot alone, at least for
a little while, proved to be untrue, as the bullies started
their bullying all over again almost as soon as they could
walk. And they had a new recruit.

The robbery teams frequently met in the classrooms
now that it was too cold to meet outside. Elliot walked
into meeting after meeting only to find Lester sitting in
Elliot’s usual seat beside Innya, despite the fact that Lester wasn’t on their team. Sometimes Lester would look
at him and attempt to shrug as if to say, “That’s life, kid.”
Other times he would be in a strange, desk-induced coma
and just stare forward blankly and drool. Elliot’s team
usually just reconfigured their desks and continued their
planning. Lester wasn’t on anyone’s team and didn’t speak
so they weren’t worried about him giving away their plans.
On those days, every once in a while he would barf up a
piece of desk on Elliot’s feet by way of apology. After taking it the first time without realizing what it was, Elliot
declined all further offers.

By the end of the week Elliot was exhausted from
being on his toes all the time and he had a pinched nerve
in his neck from constantly looking over his shoulder.
He was also sick and tired of the way Innya looked at
him, like he was a helpless little lapdog, unable to do anything to save himself. So when Innya suggested that they
meet in the small town park on Sunday night at midnight Elliot was more than happy to oblige, but on his
own terms. He left the school at ten-thirty. Innya had
been very secretive about the purpose of this midnight
meeting, which meant that she probably had something
planned and would arrive early to set it up. He wanted to
get there first.

He had no problem sneaking out, as usual, and
made it to the park within twenty minutes. It was so
cold that his fingers were numb inside of his gloves and
his cheeks were starting to tingle. Innya wasn’t there. He
sat on the bench for a few minutes but it was too cold
to sit still, so he stood up and started pacing. Every so
often a car would drive by or a cat would yowl and Elliot
would freeze in place, as if he were hiding from predatory animals instead of cars full of people who couldn’t
care less about some idiot kid sitting alone in a snow
and ice-covered park.

Elliot waited, checked his watch, paced, jumped up
and down a bit, even jogged a little.
Innya showed up at 11:55. She was empty-handed.
“Hi,”he asked as casually as he could and she stopped
halfway up a slope and stared. He had surprised her, that
much he was sure of, and after a moment spent wondering
whether the surprise had irritated her,he noticed the corner
of her mouth tick up just a little and he relaxed.
“I said to be here at midnight,” she said.
“I know.”
“You’re early.”
“I am.”
“I’m impressed.”
Elliot smiled with numb lips, “Thank y—“
“Shut up,Elliot.I’ve been thinking about some things.
And you’ve got to change or you’re going to get killed.”
“I agree,” he said warily.
“You have to get a little roughed up.”
“Um… OK?” Elliot said, completely confused. “You
wanted to meet out here to beat me up? Are you joking?”
“There is no room for discussion. You need to be
bruised.”
“Bruised? Who’s going to bruise me?” he asked, not
sure if he wanted to hear the answer.
“Me, of course.”
“You look far too eager about this,” he said, trying
to make a joke but really freaked out. He wasn’t sure he
could just stand there and let himself get beaten.
“Well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to beat you
up. But you can get a few good licks in as well. How does
that sound?”
Anger borne of latent self-preservation flared and
Elliot yelled, “Before you kick my ass how about you tell
me why you’re doing it? I can’t read your mind so I have
no idea what schemes you’ve been plotting in your head
while you watched me be humiliated all week.”
Innya’s smile widened.“It was humiliating, wasn’t it?”
“You are perverse,” Elliot muttered.
“Look, this has to be done.”
“What has to be done?”
“I have to turn you into a Villain.”
Elliot screwed up his face. It was a brilliantly awful
idea but he didn’t think Innya would take that information
very well. “I’m surprised you think I could keep up the lie.”
“You could. You have to. Your life very literally
depends on it.”
“No. I think this is working.”
“What? Me saving your ass every few days and
watching as you stare helplessly at the splinters that used
to be your desk while everyone laughs at you? I don’t
think so. I can’t be there all the time.”
“Why not?”
Innya sighed and her normal look of complete disdain for all living things dropped from her face. For a
moment she looked like every other teenage girl, a little
unsure, a little worried and a little desperate for understanding. “Look. I didn’t want to have to tell you this but
someone wants you dead.”
“Who, Red? He just says that. But I really think I
might grow on him.”
The hard Innya that he had come to know returned
with a vengeance. “Yeah, like a fungus and he’s in need of a
fungicide. But I’m not talking about idle threats. Someone
wants you dead and they’ve paid me a lot of money to make
sure that happens.” Elliot felt his mouth pop open and he
had no control over whether or not it ever closed again.
“I see you’re finally taking me seriously,” Innya continued, “Good. Because I am serious. We have to act and
we have to act fast.”
“But who would want me dead?”
Innya hesitated, bit her lip in that incredibly sexy
way of hers, and admitted, “I don’t know. All I know is
that I had an envelope taped to my door on the morning that Dopple set you up. It said that you were a fake
and told me to kill you. It also contained a lot of cash
in unmarked, non-sequential hundred dollar bills. This is
serious stuff, Elliot.”
Elliot felt tears sting his eyes and he turned away
from Innya so that she wouldn’t see. Her voice floated
over his shoulder with words that were far colder than
the winter air. “This is it, Elliot. We have to do this my
way or I have to kill you for real. Take your pick. Think
really hard and ask yourself whether you want to live or
die? In case you haven’t noticed, only a few of the kids
here will ever make it as Villains. Everyone has the antisocial impulses and a bit of G.O.D. complex but most of
them lack the common sense that will keep them from
getting killed…”
“Or caught by Mr. Magnificent.”
“Mr. Magnificent is a douchebag.”
“On that point we agree.”
She smiled, “See, you’re already thinking more like
a Villain. It’s all about posturing. If you act badass enough
most people will leave you alone out of fear or uncertainty.”
“And what about the others?”
“Well, if Lester decides he needs to eat you as a part
of his world-noshing plan then you’re on your own. He
can unhinge his jaw.”
“I know. I’ve seen it and I
really
wish I hadn’t.”
“But I’ll help you as long as I can with everyone
else. So what do you say?” she asked after letting it all sink
in for a few minutes.
Elliot finally turned around, his eyes dry and
determined. He wasn’t used to rage and resignation and
didn’t much like the feel of them. He felt as if a bit of his
innocence had been stolen upon hearing the news that
someone had taken out a contract on his life. And that
whoever it was had asked his only friend made it somehow worse. Innya was right. This kind of transformation
was the only choice he had. She was the pro, so he’d just
have to trust her.
“Fine, but I don’t see why I have to get beat—” he
started but didn’t get to finish because Innya kicked him
in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him. He
staggered backwards and landed hard on his butt. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt that badly and he remembered
that he was wearing the armor underneath his clothes.
It was nice to know that they worked as advertised. That
knowledge gave him the courage to fight back and channel his anger into strength he didn’t know he had.
But Innya had other ideas. Before he could even
stand up she stood over him and boxed his ears. Now
that
hurt. Acting in a way that was totally out of character he
grabbed her wrists, held her in place as she struggled and
stood up to face her.
“Innya, stop. There has to be another way.” Their
eyes met. She was breathing hard, her dainty nostrils
flaring. He was barely breathing. Her ice blue eyes were
lit up in a way he’d never seen before and it took him a
moment to realize that she was turned on. He had never
seen desire on a girl’s face up close and in person before.
“I’ll go along with your plan but I don’t want to get my ass
kicked,” he said, “What difference does it make?”
She tried to kick him but he saw the movement
in his peripheral vision and so he shoved her backwards
as hard as he could. She tumbled and started to fall but
instead bent her body into a graceful back walkover and
landed on her feet.Then she came at him again.This time
she landed a punch near his left eye and Elliot felt certain
that it would be swollen shut within minutes.
He caught the hand that was about to punch him
in the mouth but she countered with her other hand and
landed a blow anyway, splitting his lip and spattering
blood onto the snow. He wished that he had worn the
hood that went with his armor. He’d probably still be taking a wallop but at least that way her punches would have
felt less punchy.
“Please, listen to me. We don’t have to do this,” he
begged but she was beyond hearing. One small consolation was that at least the endorphins had kicked in by
this point and Elliot didn’t feel much. He caught her
arms, flipped her around, and held her against his chest.
He could feel her rapid breathing and heart rate through
their clothes. Against all odds, and even though his face
was starting to swell, he was turned on, too. He had never
been touched so often and in so many places before by
a girl and so the fact that she was kicking his ass didn’t
seem to matter. Maybe I’m just as depraved as the rest of
them, he thought.
She struggled out of his grasp and backhanded
his face and he went down hard. At the last minute he
grabbed her jacket and pulled her down with him and
they rolled across the snow-covered grass. Every time
his face touched the snow his nerve endings screamed in
agony. They came to a stop with Innya on top and Elliot
closed his eyes and braced himself for another blow but
it never came. He opened his eyes to see Innya’s face only
inches from his, her eyes studying him with as much curiosity as a zoologist when confronted with a new species
of animal.
Neither one of them said anything for a long time.
After the heat of the battle and with the closeness of her
body lying full against his, Elliot badly wanted to kiss her
with his bruised and split lips but didn’t dare move, lest
it incite her to further violence. As if she could read his
mind Innya kissed him.
He froze at first, unsure if she’d appreciate reciprocation, but as her lips started to move he shook off the
fear and kissed her back. This wasn’t like the first kiss,
which had been surprising but sweet. This was feral and
real and he had no idea how to handle it. He kind of
wanted to run away. His lips were throbbing in agony but
the rest of him was singing and doing a happy dance. He
moaned deep in his throat, a hungry, involuntary sound,
and in response she smashed her mouth hard against his
injured lip.
“Ah!” Elliot cried out and pushed her away with
one hand while he brought the other to his bleeding lips.
The bottom half of his face felt warm and when he pulled
his hand away his glove was bloody. “That hurt!” he said
but the words lacked any sort of emotional punch since
he sounded as if he had just had major dental work.
Innya had already regained her feet and Elliot followed suit slowly, his head spinning. He brushed the
snow out of his hair and refused to look at her. Luckily
the air was freezing and it, along with the renewed agony
in his face, worked better than a cold shower at chilling
his raging libido.
“Are you looking for your jaw?” Innya asked nonchalantly, “I think it dropped somewhere over there.”
“What just happened?” Elliot asked. When he
finally lifted his eyes Innya looked perfect and completely
unruffled by their exertions.
Innya smiled.“This was a test.You passed,by the way.”
“Passed what?”
“If you didn’t fight back then I figured you deserved
to die,” she said without much emotion. “You did fight but
your technique is pathetic. We’ll need to work on that.”
Wow, Elliot thought as he recoiled from the sting
of her words. “I see.”
“No, I don’t think you do. You just proved that
you’re worth my time and so I’m going to teach you how
to be a Villain. I’m out of here next year and you need to
learn to take care of yourself.”
“What about the person who wants me dead?”
“Screw him… or her… whatever. I just want you to
be able to keep yourself alive until I can figure out it is.
Maybe that person won’t want you dead once you start
showing some powers.”
“And what are my powers?” Elliot asked.
“Don’t know yet. But first thing is first, we really need
to work on your personality. You lack a certain badass-ness
that will be required if we want to pull this off.”
“So what was the kiss about?” he ventured. His body
and his brain were wildly out of sync thanks to that surprising kiss and at that moment he wanted to punch her just
about as much as he wanted to ravish her. Of course he’d
do neither, so that just made all of him insanely frustrated.
Innya scowled, took Elliot’s arm and dragged him
out of the park and back toward the VA.It was a long walk,
made longer by the snow and the cold and the throbbing
in his face, also because Innya refused to answer any of
his questions about why she kissed him and how precisely
she planned to turn him into a Villain.