True Heroes (47 page)

              She looked down. “You noticed that, huh?”

              “Yeah, I’m not bad at noticing things either. Not on your level or anything, but still pretty decent. It’s actually a smart way to keep everything quiet. If it’s gonna come out, may as well have as few people as possible hear about it.”

              They began walking. “Yeah, that’s true, but that doesn’t exactly mean I want you hearing about it. I say embarrassing things around you. David’s used to it, and I don’t think I say anything too embarrassing around him anymore anyways. The military chucked a lot of embarrassing stuff out of him.”

              “Was he a soldier?”

              “No, just a psychologist. Now a liaison so he can do this full-time. He really is nice if you’d give him a chance.”

              “Well he’s awful jealous of me.”

              “He’s just mad that I think you’re interesting, and that I talk about the things I see in your face so much. Even when you’re not around.”

              Caleb felt a butterfly where the knot had been earlier. “Well, that is quite flattering.”

              “See? Embarrassing…so, you never did tell me why you thought I was in the karate business.”

              They turned a corner. “Well, logically it didn’t make any sense. Still not sure if it does, but I’ll try to give it some. You are in karate because it’s the exact opposite of your daily life. You don’t have to study people or faces or smile; you just instinctually punch-kick-block until there’s a winner. Since you don’t have any other instinctual drives, I imagine you’re pretty good at it. As an added bonus, you can protect people you care about with this little obsession, making it your perfect activity, really.”

              “You’re almost right,” she said with elongation on the first words. “It is my perfect activity because I also get to teach little ones.”

              “Ah of course; my apologies.” Caleb heard a crash somewhere close, but paid it no attention.

              “This is me. I’ll take it from here.”

              A second crash sounded from a few floors above them. “Looks like your neighbor is being robbed.”

              “Yeah….”

              She mumbled some more as she pulled out her key: ‘2E. Second floor up facing the street.’ “Wait, that’s your apartment they’re in?”

              “Yeah it is.”

              “What you’re not upset? You’re not going to stop them?”

              She turned and stomped her foot. “They come every week, it’s no big deal. They just take a few things and leave. There’s not much to break anymore so there’s not much clean-up.”

              “Are you kidding me? They rob you every week, and you do nothing?”

              “It makes them happy. I like that….”

              ‘Don’t get involved. We’ve got to stay quiet now,’ Power mockingly whispered.

              ‘Don’t ever tell me not to do the right thing.’

              ‘You are an expert at screwing it up. Have at it.’

              Caleb ignored it and dispersed a little power. “Open the door, Alice.”

              “Your face changed—”

              “Open the door. Then wait here.”

              She quickly unlocked the door then flattened against the wall as Caleb gently set the chair on the ground. He strode past her and up the stairs, seeing the open door and hearing the ruckus clearly. More power seeped from his pores as he flashed to the doorway, quickly drawing the attention of the three intruders with a fist to the wall. “You should leave, now.”

              “What the hell you think you doing man?”

              Caleb opened his eyes and let the blue glow pierce the oddly lit room. With the only lampshade aimed away from him, the lightly darkened room was an amplifier of his blue radiance. “You should leave, and never come back here.” The one to his immediate left swung hard with a punch, connected solidly, and recoiled painfully from the lack of percussion on Caleb’s cheek. The one that spoke ran forward with an extended knife, and hurt his own hand while attempting to stab Caleb’s gut, seeing it curl into a bent straw around his fingers. “You should leave.”

              He stepped to the side, and the three quickly found their stumbling ways down the stairs and into the night. Caleb closed his eyes and walked calmly back down the stairs, picking up the chair and nodding to Alice to follow him. Her mumbles tickled him slightly. “How did he do that? What did he use to make them scream like that? Did they hurt his eyes? He looks fine. I bet they couldn’t touch him, but how?”

              Caleb recoiled his energy as he set the chair down and rotated his body into it, feeling no impending doom or expected remorse as he accidentally let his eyes close for a little too long.

---

              “I don’t know how you did it, but thanks. I hope you didn’t hurt them too bad. They’re just,” she saw him asleep and lowered her voice, “trying to be happy. I guess you were a few days overdue for dreaming. Let him sleep here tonight. No harm in it, and he deserves it. He did a lot for me. A lot for me. A lot for me. So much for me.” She laid a blanket over his curled body. “He deserves a rest.”

              The blanket flew off his body and hit the wall. “Just because he deserves rest doesn’t mean it’s smart of him to take it.” Caleb’s eyes opened, revealing a wild blue that nearly jumped from the sockets. Alice couldn’t stop staring with her back against the wall. “He was awake for a reason, and now you’ll die to teach him a lesson.”

              “Him who? You are him. He can’t be another he, can he?”

              Power smiled with Caleb’s lazy lips. “I’m not him. I’m something else entirely.”

              Alice leaned back calmly as Caleb’s body was swiftly in front of hers. “So fragile. I can’t, couldn’t beat that. I can feel it he’s strong, he’s mean, he’s mean, he’s mean.”

              “Your mumbles won’t save you.”

              “You’re the other side of his face—the security eye.”

              “That’s right. I’m the protector of our dimwitted accomplice. He’d never make it this far without me, and now, I’ll take away the second girl he’s ever cared about. Die knowing that your life served some ironic purpose and lived on in story for another few hours.”

              “He likes me?”

              Power paused at the question. “He used to love a girl. Being second on that list is a wide margin not to be proud of.”

              “But he likes me?”

              “Let me rephrase: you’re about to die. I’m not answering anymore questions.”

              Power drew back Caleb’s hand.

              “No, I’m not then.”

              He balled it into a fist.

              She didn’t flinch. Her eyes stayed firm. “You’re hurt, still.”

              A part of its aura turned blood red as the wound reopened. Power uncurled Caleb’s fingers and concentrated slightly, both watching the flesh mend together and blood disappear from the stream. “Good as new.”

              “You trailed off. You don’t believe that, do you?”

              Power stared at the hand.

              “You’re hurt. That explains why you’re here, why you’re doing this.”

              Power’s force pushed off the wall and away from her probing eyes. “I’m here because of him.”

              She followed him quickly. “What did he do? Or do you just have to go where he does? What are you?”

              “You’re questioning again.”

              “That’s the only way to get answers, I thought?”

              “Keeping your mouth shut is an easier way to keep your life.”

              “Life without questions? C’mon you can’t have that.”

              “You will have that while I’m here. Save your inane drivel for Caleb and that prick David.”

              “Hey, now, you don’t know him at all.”

              “I know everything Caleb knows, see everything he sees, and add everything he doesn’t. I know plenty.”

              “Your voice is different too, that’s weird.”

              “You are mightily thick.”

              “You’ve got a case of grumpiness.”

              Power turned away from her. “I’m leaving. I don’t have much time.”

              “Until what? Does Caleb not like you out during the day? Why would he keep you inside, even if you hurt people?”

              “My god, shut up! Do you not see a threat in my eyes? This isn’t the kind of person who just wants your wallet. I want you dead. I have killed before. Can’t you see that?”

              It stood in the open window. “Something must’ve really hurt you,” she mumbled.

              Alice was off her feet and back against the wall before she could continue to her next thought. There was no hand around her wrists or neck where the pressure was strongest; just a blue streak along the air that could be faintly seen in the lightened dark by her doorway. “Don’t you dare cross that line. Nobody comes back from it.”

              The grip was loose enough for her to breath. “You could tell me. I’ve lost people too. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

              Her neck was suddenly freed. “How…?”

              “It was Carol wasn’t it? Caleb told me she died. Did he kill her?”

              Power suddenly let her down and stepped back into the room. “No, he loved her…and I did too.”

              She quickly stepped towards him but stayed back when it held up his hand. She slithered into the chair and curled up, her eyes wide awake and analyzing everything about Caleb’s body. “I promise I’ll listen if you want to talk. No interruptions. I really do know how hard it is.”

              “I know you do. Neither of you remember, but you’ve met him before. When he was eighteen and you were five, maybe six. The hospital; a boy came in, you talked to him about going to big-boy school.”

              “Oh, wow I do remember that! Wow, that’s weird I didn’t remember that immediately.”

              “Even Asperger’s children have their mental limits.” Power leaned Caleb’s body against the window and spoke softly. “Ask your questions.”

              “No, only if you want to answer them.”

              “The night’s wearing on and I’m not in the mood to kill anymore. Ask.”

              “Ugh, I’m sorry.”

              “Ask!”

              “Okay, okay. What happened with Carol?”

              “You want to start at the end of the story?”

              “This is what matters most to me.”

              “Fine. She was his childhood friend. He took a car in the back for her, wasn’t hurt, and they shared a connection within a secret. That locked them at the hip. Everything they did or didn’t do was for each other’s enrichment, even if they didn’t consciously realize it. I wasn’t conscious myself yet; Caleb was still learning and refining me. I…don’t know what happened some nights before I was born. I know there was the night I was born, then I saw her disintegrate before our eyes. When I did come into being, I had the same reverence and care for her that he did, but we were both looking forward, not to where she was. Her stress problems and moronic doctor’s advice filled a powder keg in her brain, and Caleb inadvertently lit the fuse. The first night I tried to stop him from doing something, she was angry over undone chores and he was brooding over his life as always. He raised his voice to her, she rose back; back and forth they went until I tried to restrain him. Caleb was so strong back then and I so weak…. He flung me out and pushed her against a wall. Not hard or far, but enough to start the cataclysm of her mental state. Days later, she was in the hospital with anxiety triggered attacks that kept getting worse. The treatment was shock therapy to empty her brain and start over. Two things went very wrong: a tech whispered to her that they were erasing Caleb, and that he was the cause of it all, and they shocked her brain one too many times. She could no longer form memories because her brain was fried. She could operate and reason, but only for a few days at a time before it would reset, and every single time, she remembered that for some unfathomable reason, she hated Caleb Whitmor.”

              “You sound so calm about this.”

              “It’s nothing I haven’t reminisced about a hundred times.”

              “Then it’s not hurting you. What is?”

              “He…I hate him. This shell of constant rot is a reminder that I’m keeping the man I hate most alive. He didn’t pull the switch, but he ruined her. He took her for granted. He constantly wanted her to be as perfect as he thought he was. I cried some nights, standing over him with every intention of wringing our necks together in a swarm of fueled passion, but I won’t let him end that way. He will live forever, and suffer in his own self-loathing right up until the day I torch pain from this earth forever.”