Time Spent (30 page)

"I don't believe you."

Her eyes flared. "How exciting. It has been
a very long time since I was called a liar."

Brandon took a long breath. "What do you
want? If you're here to destroy the world why not just do it? Why
stop to talk?"

"Hey dork, maybe we don't egg the god on to
destroy the world?" Becca said.

"I've told you exactly what I want,
Brandon." She smiled. "I want us to be friends."

"And how exactly do we become friends?"

She laid a finger aside her nose. "I'm so
glad you asked. Isn't the Hero a perceptive one, my dear?"

Kevin scowled. "For a nerd."

______________________

"IDIOT SYNCRATIC"

Can I just say it really ticks me off that I
waited all this time for a superhero name, and now not only does
the big bad just ASSIGN me one, but the superhero name she gives me
is THE HERO? So full of fail...

______________________

Gwendolyn allowed a bit of her true form to
manifest again. Her hair lifted from her back as if it were
unchained by gravity. She glowed red, and her eyes were like twin
red suns.

"I ruled a world much like this one once, as
did all of my kind, each holding dominion over a world of our own.
A being we know as the Tyrant came and expelled us from our worlds,
imprisoning us behind the barrier of time. I have broken the
barrier, setting us free, but time and space are one. As the cracks
of time widen and the barrier falls apart, so too will all
realities collapse, 'ending the world' as you say."

"What does that have to do with us being
friends?"

Gwendolyn flicked out a hand, and Brandon's
body seized, locking in a bizarre rictus, his arms and legs splayed
out and his head thrown back, jaw clenched. After a few moments,
she snapped her hand shut and Brandon was released. He doubled
over, clutching his throat and gasping for air.

"It's so rude to interrupt. I expect better
of you, Brandon." She examined the dark sky. "Where was I? Oh yes,
freedom. It may seem strange, but though locked out of your
multiverse by the barrier of time, the void was not itself
timeless. The Lost have spent untold eons in the void through which
you only briefly crossed. Where you have absorbed tiny shreds of
energy stolen from certain worlds, we have absorbed the entire
spectrum. But over time you will become as we, mastering the
energies of the void. More important still, I have seen through the
cracks of time upon your lives, and I know the pain and loss you
have experienced. On a deeper, more primal level than that of
power, each of you has earned a place among the Lost."

______________________

A short time after Brandon had left her,
after it had gone dark, a light appeared above Beth.

"Brandon?" Beth tried to look up, but her
vision was blurry. There was a red light somewhere above, and it
appeared someone was making her way down the ravine.

"That was fast," she said. "That was too
fast. Did you get help?"

A woman's face loomed over her, circled with
red hair.

"I'm afraid no help is coming for you, my
dear."

"Wha-"

A hand clamped over her nose and mouth,
impossibly strong. Beth tried to breath but couldn't. She
struggled, bucking up and down, but couldn't move.

"That's it. Shhhh." Gwendolyn held Beth
until her noises and struggles ceased.

______________________

The rift contracted against her will!
Gwendolyn could scarcely believe what was happening. It had been
billions of years since her will was last defied.

She gazed upon the tiny insect that dared
oppose her: Kevin Lloyd, a mortal being from a backward world of
primitive cave dwellers. The Tyrant's precious time had fractured
around him, the cracks so deep time and space would fall apart with
only the slightest tap of her might. Yet he had no inkling of this.
His senses were so unrefined that he knew nothing of the fractures
in time moving around him.

Gwendolyn scoffed at his ignorance. "ITS
WORLD BREAKS AROUND IT, YET THE INSECT SEES NOTHING, IT KNOWS
NOTHING. THE CRACKS IN TIME ARE ITS UNDOING."

"What the fuck ever." The insect clapped its
appendages and tapped into some reserve of power, causing the rift
to contract faster and faster.

______________________

The music blasted, the bass thumped, the
crowd gyrated. Beautiful women moved their bodies to the sound,
letting the drink and pills take them away.

Ryan watched them all.

He was in the center of the floor, walking
among them, letting his hand stray for the occasional brush against
a girl's ass or even her boob. If she got mad, he'd flash his most
innocent look and say, "Oh, my bad! Sorry!" Even the ones who
didn't buy it usually just scowled.
Dumb sluts.
Ryan laughed
to himself.

As if on cue, his hand crossed fingers with
another hand in the shadows. The other hand was a woman's, he could
tell by the fingernails. She locked her fingers in his and spun him
around.

Holy shit, look at this chick.
She
was clad head to toe in a skintight red leather body suit.
Lustrous, curly red hair spilled halfway down her back. She grabbed
his other hand, pulling his body into hers, lifting one leg and
rubbing it up and down against him.

"Hey there sexy," she said. "Come over here
for a minute."

Ryan was gobsmacked. He followed her
silently, like a puppy on a leash, over to the wall. She yanked on
his arm, twirling him and pushing him up against the wall. She
stood next to him, one leg pinning him, and whispered in his
ear.

"Call me Gwendolyn," she said.

God damn, this bitch is fine.
"I'm
Ryan," he said.

"I know who you are. I know a lot of
things." She giggled in his ear.

"Hey," Ryan said, formulating a plan. "You
want to get a drink?"

"Why, so you can put a pill in it?" She
laughed.

"Wha- What? Fuck no!"

She threw her head back and emitted a
full-throated laugh. Her arms and leg held him tightly to the wall.
Ryan tried but couldn't pull away. "Calm down, Ryan. I don't care
what you do. Get whatever you want, make all your perverted fucking
fantasies come true. Do it all, baby."

"I don't know what you're talking
about."

"But I do, Ryan. I know exactly what I'm
talking about. I told you, I know a lot of things." She brushed her
fingers through the dark brown hair that hung low over his forehead
and ears and twirled a finger in it. "I know what you do, I know
what you like to do, and I know...I
know...
you'd love to do
it all to
her.
"

She pointed into the crowd. Ryan followed
the gesture, and spotted a girl in the middle of the crowd. She had
long dirty blonde hair, all the way down to her ass. She was
dancing in the middle of a group of guys and girls, her tight body
undulating in a little gray dress. Ryan swallowed.

"Yeah, that's it," Gwendolyn said, running
her hand over his chest. "Get good and hard for her. Fucking go for
it, punish that ass."

Ryan looked down on her. Was this chick
serious? "You're bad as hell, you know that?"

She chuckled. "Yes. I do know that. I know
so many things, Ryan." She looked very seriously at him. "I know
things you wouldn't believe...I know how you like your coffee, I
know what deodorant you use, I know when you turn the shower head
on your cock you like to crank it up so it hurts just a little."
She giggled. "I know when you were born, and I know when you're
going to die."

He blinked. "What?"
Oh shit, crazy bitch
alert.

"Oh yeah. Some bad shit's going to happen to
you, Ryan. Really bad shit. You don't have to believe me now. You
go ahead, have your fun, but when it's over, when you need me, just
say my name. Gwendolyn. You say my name, that means you want my
help. And I'll help you." She grinned.

"You'll help me."

She nodded.

He raised an eyebrow. "You'll keep me from
dying."
Definitely crazy.

"Yes I will. Of course, I'll want you to
help me in exchange. But you'll like it, Ryan, I promise." She
licked his ear. "You'll LOVE helping me."

Ryan looked at the blonde girl. "You're one
crazy ass bitch." He looked back, but Gwendolyn was gone.

He looked around for a moment, puzzled. When
he didn't find her, he shrugged, and went back to looking at the
blonde girl. The bass was pounding loud enough to shake his head
apart, but Ryan's eyes stayed fixed on her.

______________________

"What if we don't want a place with
you?"

Gwendolyn turned. Mia stepped forward, her
hands crackling with energy.

Gwendolyn flicked out a hand, but Mia raised
hers first, the yellow energy booming out, meeting Gwendolyn's red
energy between them and battering it back.

Gwendolyn smiled. "Mmm...Such delicious rage
burns within the Fury."

"You don't belong here! Go back where you
came from!" Mia brought up a hand and threw it forward, casting a
ball of yellow energy toward her.

Gwendolyn caught the ball before it struck,
turning it this way and that, examining it. "Very impressive,
child. In time, you will be quite a destructive force. I like that
about you. Sadly, that day has not yet come."

She cast the ball back at Mia and it
exploded, throwing Mia twenty feet in the air. Simon reached out
and caught her with his invisible hands, righting her and setting
her on her feet.

"Are you okay," Simon asked.

"I'm fine!" Yellow energy crackled from her
eyes. "Get away from me!"

"Of course she is unharmed." Gwendolyn
sighed. "I had no intention of harming your friend. I admire the
Unbridled Fury within her."

______________________

Sister Sophia had prepared chairs in her
office, but the number of parents who filed in was far greater than
she had anticipated. They filled the chairs quickly and then lined
the walls, all the way around the door and behind her desk.

"Thank you for coming," she said. "My
understanding is you wished to meet with me regarding Mia Lozano.
I've asked her parents to be here as well." She gestured to Dan and
Kim Lozano, seated at the end of the front row." She cleared her
throat. "Have you selected someone to speak for the group?"

One woman stood. She wore a business suit
and had long red hair, clipped back in a ponytail. "I will speak
for the group."

"Your name, please?"

"Call me Gwendolyn." She adjusted the oval
frame glasses on her face. "I've organized this meeting because we
wish St. Anthony's to understand how serious we are about this."
She faced Dan Lozano. "We all know what Mia did, and we all agree:
she is DANGEROUS. We don't want our kids attending this school as
long as she is allowed on the grounds."

After the meeting, Gwendolyn came upon the
Lozanos arguing just outside the school doors. She paused a moment
to listen to their words.

"You're always defending her!" Kim rubbed
her temples. "Always sticking up for her, no matter what. She's in
jail
and you're still defending her!"

"Juvenile detention," Dan said. "Kids make
mistakes...they all do."

"Mistakes?" Her voice rose.
"
Mistakes?
Is that what you're calling it?"

"Lower your voice."

"I will
not.
I will not lower my
voice while you make
excuses
for her!"

"I'm not doing this anymore. I'll be in the
car. When you're ready to stop you can join me." He walked away,
without a look back.

Kim Lozano stood leaning against the wall,
rubbing her temples and forehead with her hands. Gwendolyn
approached.

"It's none of my business," she said, "but
it's obvious which parent is the problem here." "Who do you think
you are?" Kim sputtered through tears. "You get the hell away from
me!"

Gwendolyn raised her hands. "I'm sorry. I
just mean it's clear your husband is going to keep making the same
mistakes. You have a good head on your shoulders. If I were you,
I'd get my other kids out of the house before they end up just like
Mia."

______________________

Simon turned from Mia to Gwendolyn and
roared, beating his chest.

"So delightfully primitive," Gwendolyn
said.

"What do you want from us?"

"I want only what is best for you, Savage."
Gwendolyn ran her hands through the fur that matted his arms.

"Don't call me that!"

"Why not?" She leaned close. "It is who you
are, who you were always meant to be. You feel it, don't you? That
urge to let go, lose all thought and run wild, to climb, to jump,
to grasp that which you want, to crush anything in your path."

Simon put his hands to his face. "I...yes. I
do. God help me."

"I am here, Simon. I have come to your
aid."

______________________

"Mr. Chu," a woman's voice said.

Harold had just closed the passenger door
behind his son, Simon, when she approached from the main doors at
the front of the school. She had long red hair, clipped back, and
wore glasses and a white blouse with dark slacks.

"Yes?"

"May I have a word with you? It's about,"
she lowered her voice, "Simon's school work."

Harold instructed Simon to wait in the car
and followed the woman several paces away. "You are one of Simon's
teachers?"

"Call me Gwendolyn," she said, shaking his
hand.

Harold frowned. He did not consider this
appropriate, but he had been told often enough that he was
old-fashioned. "Gwendolyn. What is this about Simon's work?"

"He's falling behind, Mr. Chu. Slipping
behind his classmates." She shook her head sadly. "He just isn't
keeping up."