Predestiny

by Phipps, C. T.

  “Don’t bring Jane into this,” I said with a firm voice, feeling the need to defend her.

  He carelessly waved off my defiance while finishing the sip from his beer. “Fine. Because it’s not her fault you’re broken.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Which was true. There was a lot of insanity going on my life that I just couldn’t possibly tell him about. I didn’t quite fully understand it all myself.

  But my pointless plea only aggravated him further, ramping up his condescending tone to a full-on scolding. “Please, Robbie. You and those H.O.P.E. misfits have no idea what the real world is like. Life can’t be all sunshine and rainbows. And you don’t get your way just because you throw a tantrum while holding up some picket sign with a catchy phrase on it.

  “No wonder the force wants to get rid of me,” he finally added, turning his attention back to the beer. “They take one look in my direction and see nothing but a poor widower with a worthless excuse for a son.”

  “Or maybe they just figure you for the sad drunk you are.”

  My comeback was weak and soft-spoken, yet sharp enough to grab my father’s attention, immediately stopping him from taking a drink. His glare shifted downwards upon me, along with a trembling lip of rage. In the flash of an instant, he cocked his arm back, releasing the bottle and causing it to smash against the wall. His arm then flew forward with a firm fist at the end of it.

  Of course, my first instinct was to flinch and prepare to be smacked. But the blow never came. Jane had suddenly appeared beside us, catching my father’s wild fist before it made contact against my cheek.

  Her appearance took both my father and me by surprise. I doubt either one of us had even heard the girl enter the room, let alone move fast enough to stop him from striking me.

  Yet there she was, issuing a stern proclamation while staring into my father’s eyes. “You would regret doing that.”

  I didn’t know if she meant that he would eventually regret hitting me from his own conscience, or if he would only regret it because of what she would do to him in response. Either way, Dad got the message and pulled his hand back while doing a terrible job hiding his surprise at the girl’s unexpected strength.

  The first impression the time-travelling badass made on my ol’ man all those days ago had set the tone for their relationship. Ever since she moved in, Dad had treated her with nothing but respect, if not admiration.

  So it was hardly surprising that he gave her the benefit of the doubt for interrupting our wonderful father-son bonding moment. “Watch the way you talk to me, Jane. You’re a guest in my house. Remember that.”

  “I do. But that doesn’t mean I can’t call you an asshole when you act like one.”

  Dad’s back straightened, clearly surprised by Jane’s statement. After the initial shock faded, a grim smirk inched its way onto his face. His reaction was that of being impressed rather than angry, probably because he wanted to be proud of her.

  It showed, too, as he nodded his head approvingly and said, “You got spunk, girl. That’s why I like you. But don’t think for a second that gives you the right to tell me how to raise my son.”

  Jane took a single strong sidestep, physically placing herself between my father and me. “Really? Is that what you’ve been doing? Because as far as I can tell, all you do is drink beer and yell.”

  I could see where this was going and tried to stop my self-appointed bodyguard from taking the discussion any further. “Jane, don’t—”

  She ignored me, however, continuing to berate my dad while now backing him against the wall like he had done to me only moments earlier. “Since I met Robbie, I’ve gotten to know him way more than I’d like to. And you know what I see? Someone who cares about others. Someone who thinks before he acts. Someone who truly has the potential to be whatever he wants in this life. You would know that if you shut your mouth long enough to listen to him.”

  Even though she never turned around once, it seemed as if Jane was speaking to me as much as to my father. Perhaps she was not just trying to discipline him but inspire me as well. Her words were strong, forceful, and filled with a vigor that eerily reminded me of Christine. A comparison that seemed weird after last night’s dream, which I just couldn’t seem to get out of my head.

  The speech appeared to influence Dad too, who stuttered out a weak threat to mask his shock. “I … I would be quiet if I were you.”

  “Why?!” Jane yelled, eager to incite him to rage. “You plan on using some excessive force on me too, old man?”

  My father tried his best to fight back and put on a show that the small teenage girl wasn’t getting under his skin. It didn’t work, and he sadly issued another warning that came off more fearful than foreboding. “I’ll throw you out in the street, you hear me? I’ll do it.”

  “Is that supposed to scare me? I’ve been getting threatened by men like you since the day I was born. Insecure tough guys who blame everyone else for their problems. But life isn’t about finding a scapegoat to pin your troubles on. It’s about owning up to your mistakes. You want your son to be a man? Then start by accepting responsibility for your own failures. You don’t want to do that though, do you? Then you’d actually have to deal with the emotions you’re so scared of rather than numb yourself to them by treating Robbie like shit.”

  After brutally tormenting my father into silence, Jane paused, allowing him a chance to respond. He didn’t, though. All he could do was stare wide eyed at the girl, his mind completely unable to comprehend her relentless verbal assault.

  When it became clear he wasn’t going to say anything, she let out a light, taunting chuckle while turning her back on him to casually stroll around the room. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not mad at you for being a waste of life. How could I? You took me in and gave me a place to stay, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pity you. Because behind all that anger and hate, deep down inside you know everything I’m saying is true.”

  Then, in an instant, the girl snapped back to look at him with a cold, piercing glare. “That if you stop being a prissy bitch long enough to look in the mirror all you’ll see staring back at you is a loser.”

  Again, Dad tried to appear angry, but it was just a façade. Jane’s tirade had caught him completely off guard, shell-shocked the proudly stoic man into silence. He turned his shoulder on the girl to walk towards the front door, so wrecked the only option for him was to leave his own house.

  When my father opened the door to leave, he had to stop short. Someone was standing outside, clearly in his way. I couldn’t believe it at first, but I slowly realized I was looking at little Sabrina from the H.O.P.E. meeting waiting on my doorstep. It took me a moment to recognize her only because she wasn’t little any more. She was all grown up. A woman in every sense of the word.

  “Hello, Scorpion,” she said, peering into the house with a deadly smirk.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “It took me a while, but I finally found you.”

  It was hard to tell exactly how old Sabrina was. Her face looked unnaturally rough and weathered, yet she gave off an aura of aged beauty only gained through strength and confidence. Only a few distinct features—the curl of her nose, the point of her chin—resembled the cheery, playful young girl I had seen only hours earlier.

  My throat tightened upon seeing her, and I was unable to speak. My father, however, grew even more frustrated from unexpectedly finding a woman at his door. “Who the hell are you?”

  Sabrina answered him while still staring in my direction. “Just an old friend of your son, here to pay my final respects.”

  Unimpressed, my father lifted a hand to push Sabrina out of his way. “OK, psycho. Why don’t you step back and—”

  Before he could even touch her, Sabrina knocked his hand away and followed up with a quick series of strikes to his chest. Her fists moved like lightning, so fast I could barely see them. After the rapid punches, she ended the swift sequence wit
h a quick sidekick, knocking my father straight back into the living room.

  After taking several seconds to recover, my father looked up from the floor, shocked by Sabrina’s skilled attack. She then strutted into the room, leaving the door open and staring my father down. “I would suggest not trying to touch me. You probably won’t be able to, but if you by some chance happen to succeed, I would make sure you never use that hand again.”

  With Sabrina distracted, Jane took the opportunity to slowly make her way closer to me. I barely even noticed she was moving. I was too focused on my father, who stared up at Sabrina with sneering teeth. He was already angry to begin with. Being physically manhandled by some strange woman wasn’t going to help.

  He shot up off the ground ready to tackle her, but Sabrina easily sidestepped him, allowing my father’s momentum to send him crashing into the wall. He then came back at Sabrina with wildly swinging fists. Ducking and dodging, the futuristic assassin evaded each disheveled punch without ever lifting a finger.

  Granted he was in a hysterical drunken rage, but my dad was still a well-trained cop, more than capable of taking on every hardened criminal New Detroit had to offer. Sabrina was just toying with him, though, predicting his every move before he had even begun to think about it.

  It took nearly a full thirty seconds, but my father eventually landed a blow to the side of Sabrina’s cheek. By the way each one of them reacted, I think they were both surprised that he hit her. My father recoiled his fist, shocked that he had finally been successful after missing so many times. Sabrina, on the other hand, brought a hand up to caress her chin with a venomous stare.

  Sabrina then followed up with another lightning-fast attack, striking my father’s shoulder in several pinpointed locations before bringing a hard palm to the backside of his forearm, breaking it in half. It was an insane sight which caused me to just stand there, slack-jawed, as it happened.

  My father let out an agonizing scream that I felt throughout my own bones. His shriek had paralyzed me, but the instant he unleashed it, Sabrina continued her fluid sequence by removing a dagger from her belt and flinging it right at me all in one motion. Before I even realized she threw it, Jane had already stuck her hand out and caught the small dagger in mid-air only inches from my face.

  With Dad on the ground now cradling his broken arm, Sabrina left his side to strafe the perimeter of the room while keeping a watchful eye on us. “Jane, Jane, Jane. I wish I could say I was surprised, but you were always a strange one, weren’t you?”

  Staring our intruder down, Jane tucked the dagger into her pants. I was surprised she didn’t keep it in her hand, but the confidence in her voice indicated that she had a much better grasp on the situation than me. “I see you’re still a New Hope Scout, Sabrina.”

  “And I see you’re still a traitor,” Sabrina shot right back at her.

  Jane didn’t even acknowledge the label and began pressing for more information. “Where are the others?”

  Sabrina stopped on the other side of the room directly across from us. “Haven’t called them yet. I wanted the honor of killing the Scorpion myself.”

  “He’s not the Scorpion,” Jane said, her voice reinforced with certainty.

  Even still, I felt the need to underline the point. “She’s right. I’m a nobody.”

  Jane turned her head slightly to sneer back at me. “Robbie, be quiet.”

  “No. Let him speak,” Sabrina chimed in, sarcastically coming to my defense. “He has a right to know why killing him is such a privilege.”

  The hardened woman then shifted her gaze to address me directly. “I was too young to remember your name when we first met, but I always knew I had seen the Scorpion before. His face looked so familiar. Of course, I was too scared to confront you about it. But while the others were blindly slaughtering anyone with a passing resemblance to you, I decided to play a hunch and come back to New Detroit. Sure enough, I was right. Who would’ve thought the Scorpion was none other than hometown boy Robbie Stone?”

  Her speech seemed strange, alternating back and forth between speaking to me as the person I was and the person I might become. Or more precisely, the person she remembered me to be.

  Even I was confused by it all, so I couldn’t imagine what my father was thinking as he watched the scene from the floor. “What the hell is this all—"

  “Butt out, old man,” Sabrina snapped down at him. “The grownups are talking.”

  It was at that moment, cold and cruel, that I thought of the little girl I met back at the H.O.P.E. meeting. She was so warm and full of love, nothing like the person that stood before me. “Sabrina, what happened to you?”

  She gave a quick chuckle while eying me before answering. “You did.”

  As soon as Sabrina gave her response, Jane charged, hoping to catch the assassin off guard. The silver-haired girl threw a punch that was dodged, followed by a quick kick that was blocked. From there the two women engaged in a brutal series of strikes and counter-strikes, moving their arms and legs faster than I could keep up.

  I stood in awe, watching them from across the room, unable to make a decision. My father, however, watched their fight with anger, probably from feeling helpless on the ground. He stood up, still cradling his broken arm, and charged into the battle.

  Sabrina, still locked in combat with Jane, broke free for an instant to toss another dagger at my father. “I told you to stay down.”

  The blade hit him in the thigh, dropping him straight to the floor for a third time.

  “Dad!” I shouted, watching my father cringe in pain.

  However, Sabrina’s momentary distraction allowed Jane an opening to grab her in a headlock. With the fight briefly stalled, Jane looked over to me while holding her opponent in submission. “Robbie, get out of here!”

  A part of me didn’t want to listen to her. My first instinct was that it felt like running away. But I was still in too much shock to do anything but obey.

  I broke towards the open front door just as Sabrina managed to free herself and throw Jane across the room. She ran at the front door as well, tossing several more daggers in my direction on her way. Luckily, they all missed their mark, and I could sense the sharp tips become embedded in the wall a step behind me as I moved.

  We both reached the door at the same time, but Sabrina quickly kicked it before I could step outside. She then grabbed my shirt and raised another dagger, ready to strike, when Jane suddenly tackled her.

  The force from the impact sent me flying back, hitting my head against the wall. Everything went hazy as I dropped to the floor. The room felt like it was spinning and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The only thing I could focus on was the violent grunts and crashes of Sabrina and Jane’s fight.

  Judging by the crunches of broken furniture, it seemed like they were all over the room at once, destroying it in the process, until finally the noises stopped all together. I sat up on the floor and opened my eyes, hoping that I could see, but the world was still out of focus. All I could make out was a single blurry figure across from me. It could have been Jane. It could have been Sabrina.

  I got my answer when she started to speak. “I’m sorry, Scorpion. Forgive me.”

  I could see Sabrina’s foggy outline wind up to throw another dagger. My body tensed, ready to receive it, when my father unexpectedly dove in front of me. The squishy sound of the dagger entering the center of his chest snapped my hazy senses back to normal, just in time to see his wide eyes staring off in pain as he hit the ground.

  He let out a light groan, as if it hurt him just to stay alive. He didn’t have to feel it long, however. A moment later, his body went still after having tried to save my life.

  With my emotions already swirling like crazy, I had no idea how to process my father’s sacrifice. I never even thought the man wanted a son, let alone would be willing to die in an attempt to protect me. The thought was crazy, but I didn’t have time to fully process it.

  From across the
room, Sabrina stared down her fresh kill with reluctant respect. “Admirable. But pointless.”

  She readied another blade when Jane swiftly appeared behind her with a dagger of her own. In a succinct strike, Jane stabbed Sabrina straight into the side of her throat. Blood squirted across the room and Sabrina’s body instantly dropped in place as Jane removed the blade from her neck.

  Upon hitting the floor, a small white speaker box, presumably some kind of futuristic radio, fell out of her pocket and landed beside her. Clutching the side of her bleeding neck, Sabrina futilely reached out for the device, but Jane, still standing over her, stepped on it. Sparks immediately flew from the destroyed box, and Sabrina’s hand finally grew limp just as a steady stream of blood oozed out onto the floor.

  Jane blankly stared down at her victim, covered in blood, and caught her breath. I was still in shock, looking back and forth between Jane and the body of my father lying just a few feet from where I was sitting. It was all too much for me to comprehend.

  “I’ll take care of this,” Jane finally said in a manner way too calm and composed for what just happened. “Just go call the police.”

  I barely even registered her voice. My eyes couldn’t look away from my father’s corpse.

  “Robbie!” Jane snapped. “We don’t have much time. If we don’t call the cops right this instant, they’re going to wonder what took us so long.”

  I finally was able to look up and give her my full attention.

  “Now go!” she shouted one more time.

  That was enough to get me on my feet and into the kitchen to call for help.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I was numb. There was no other way to describe it. I had been numb for days. The death of my father should have filled me with a sense of despair, anger, pain, or even relief after all the crap he’d put me through over the years. In the end, I could barely manage to feel sad. I was left with the horrible knowledge my father was gone, murdered, and it was my fault.