Ordinary Hero

by Ellis Michaels

  “I'm so proud of you,” Kasie said.

  “And I'm proud of you – all of you. I couldn't have done it by myself. Now let's go see if Melissa needs any help inside.”

  The sound of sirens was no longer off in the distance – they were getting close. We went into the bank and asked Melissa if she needed our help with anything.

  “No, I think I've given naloxone to everyone who needed it,” she replied.

  It looked like everyone who had been on the floor when we came in had been saved. Most of the people in the lobby seemed to still be in a daze. It took the medicine a couple minutes to really work and they were slowly coming to. Had Melissa not come in and given it to them, they all would've died.

  “What about the bank manager in the basement?” Kasie asked.

  “Oh yeah,” I replied. “He's on the floor in front of the vault.”

  “I'm on it,” Melissa said and ran to the stairs.

  A police car pulled up in front of the bank. Two cops got out and ran in, guns drawn. A moment later, the whole street was packed with police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances. Before long, the bank was flooded with emergency personnel.

  When the cops first came in, they made me and the girls lay down on the floor and they cuffed all our hands. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I wasn't overly worried about it. As I laid on the floor with my hands cuffed behind my back, all I could think about was two things: how good it felt to have defeated Carter and how happy I was that it was over. From where I was lying, I couldn't see Amber and Melissa was still in the basement, but I could see Kasie. Our eyes met and we smiled at each other.

  The police brought me and the girls down to the station to sort everything out. They separated us, interrogating us individually. I told them everything. Well, almost everything. I didn't tell them about the professor and his experiment. And I didn't tell them the details of my relationship with the girls. But I told the police everything about Carter, the Southie Soldiers, and about what'd happened at the bank that morning.

  “So,” the lead detective said, “you mean to tell us that you and those four women took on the Southie Soldiers by yourselves and won? That you figured out when they were going to rob the bank and showed up to stop them with no help from anyone else?”

  “That's what I'm telling you,” I replied, “because that's exactly how it happened.”

  I wouldn't have been surprised if they didn't believe me. As I was telling them my story, I thought about how ridiculous it all sounded. It really happened, though – every word of it.

  The lead detective stood silently for several seconds with his arms crossed, staring at me. Then, he burst out in laughter and everyone else in the room did, too.

  “You've gotta have the biggest balls in Boston!” the detective said. “It's unbelievable. It's crazy. But it checks out. Your story totally checks out. All your girlfriends corroborated your story. And so did everyone down at the bank. You're a true hero, James Callahan.”

  “So, I'm not going to be charged for killing Carter or any of the Southie Soldiers?” I asked.

  “No, you're not being charged for anything,” the detective replied. “Hell, if it was up to me, I'd give you a commendation or some kind of reward. You just got some of the biggest scumbags in Boston off the street. But we can't be glamorizing vigilantism. I'm sure you understand.”

  “I do,” I replied. “Totally. So... are we free to go?”

  “Yeah,” he answered. “You're all set. You and your friends are free to go.”

  I stood up and shook the detective's hand. He showed me out of the interrogation room and reunited me with the girls. We had been there for the better part of the day. It was the early evening and all of us looked like we could use some serious rest.

  “We ready to get out of here?” I asked the girls.

  “Oh yeah!”

  “Yes!”

  “Absolutely!”

  “They towed my Tahoe to the impound lot, which is right next to the police station,” Melissa said.

  “Awesome. Let's get going,” I said and started walking toward the main entrance.

  “You might want to go out the back,” the lead detective said.

  “Why?” Amber asked.

  “Because there are about five-hundred people standing outside the main entrance waiting to see you guys come out. Word travels fast in this city. A lot of people are calling you a hero – all of you, but especially you, James. They want to get a look at you when you come out.”

  I looked to the girls to see what they were thinking. Part of me wanted to sneak out the back so we could get out of there as quickly as possible. Part of me thought that I didn't deserve any recognition. That was the old me, though. The timid, passive me. The me that did one thing but secretly wished for something else. I'd always wanted to be a hero and this was my moment. I wanted the recognition... the glory.

  “It's up to you, James,” Melissa said.

  “Yeah,” Kasie added, “it's your call.”

  “Come on,” I said, motioning for the girls to follow me.

  I walked toward the main entrance with my chin up, chest out, shoulders back, and a big smile on my face. The girls were right behind me, looking as gorgeous as always, if not a little worn out. We all looked like we'd been through a lot – because we had.

  A police officer was kind enough to open the glass front door and hold it for us. I walked out of the station and saw a sea of people standing at the base of the stairs. As soon as they saw us come out, the crowd went absolutely wild.

  “There he is!”

  “It's them! There they are!”

  “Our heroes!”

  The crowd erupted. They all cheered, clapping and yelling like crazy. I stood at the top of the stairs with the girls at my sides. The smile on my face was easily the biggest one I'd ever had. Melissa, Kasie, and Amber were smiling, too. We stood at the top of the stairs for several seconds while everyone cheered. It was the most amazing feeling I'd ever experienced. Even if it wasn't really real, it was real enough for me.

  The girls and I held hands and took a bow. The crowd was making too much noise to hear me, but I mouthed the words “thank you” several times. I felt like a hero – like an actual hero and it was the greatest feeling in the world.

  We took another bow and, still holding their hands, I led the girls down the stairs. The crowd made room for us to walk down the sidewalk to the impound lot next door. After Melissa signed some paperwork, we all got into the Tahoe. It was the first time we'd been alone together since everything had happened.

  “We did it,” I said from the passenger seat. “We really did it.”

  “We did it,” Melissa replied.

  “We did it,” Amber and Kasie parroted at the same time.

  “Now let's hit it!” I said.

  “Where to, hero?” Melissa asked, starting the vehicle.

  “Can we go back to your condo for the night?” I asked.

  “Of course,” she replied and smiled.

  We drove out of the impound lot, past the still-cheering crowd of people. It was such a surreal feeling, knowing that it was all over. None of us really said much on the ride back to Melissa's. I think we were all exhausted and overwhelmed. Defeating an evil villain and his gang of street thugs takes a lot out of you.

  We got back to Melissa's condo and took turns taking showers and getting cleaned up. Melissa ordered us a ridiculous amount of Chinese food and had it delivered. When it arrived, we all got comfortable in the living room and chowed down. She also broke out a bottle of champagne and poured four glasses for us.

  “Thank you for all your help,” I said to the girls. “I couldn't have done it without you.”

  “We all made a pretty good team, huh?” Kasie replied.

  “Pretty good?” I said, some pork fried rice falling out of the corner of my mouth. “We made a great team. All of us. I wish Krystal was here with us to celebrate
. She sacrificed herself so we could complete our mission.”

  “To Krystal,” Melissa said, holding up her champagne glass.

  “To Krystal,” the rest of us said, holding up ours.

  We all touched glasses and took a sip of champagne. I wished that Krystal was there with us, but was happy knowing that she died fulfilling her role as my sidekick. The only thing I didn't know was when the simulation was going to end. I'd defeated the villain, so I was expecting it to end at any time.

  “Now that the Southie Soldiers' leader and all their top guys have been wiped out, you probably feel a lot safer, huh Amber?” Kasie asked.

  “Oh, absolutely,” she replied. “I don't think I have anything to worry about anymore. And it's all thanks to James.”

  “I feel much safer, too, knowing that bank-robbing psychopath is off the streets,” Melissa added. “Again, thanks to James.”

  “To James!” Kasie said, raising her glass.

  “To James,” Amber and Melissa said, raising theirs.

  We stuffed our faces and tore through not one, but three bottles of champagne. Over the course of the evening, we must've made ten different toasts. Several of them were in honor of me, which I didn't mind at all. I loved being called a hero. I loved feeling like a hero.

  By the time we polished off the third bottle of champagne, we were all feeling pretty good. I was sitting on the couch with Amber on one side, Melissa on the other. Kasie was sitting by herself in the recliner. All three of them looked as sexy as always. Melissa and Amber were both wearing over-sized tee shirts. They had underwear on but weren't wearing bras. Kasie was wearing yoga pants and a tank top, one of her signature looks. Eventually, the conversation took a turn down Sex Street.

  “I think,” Amber said, running her finger up my leg, “we should give our hero what he deserves.”

  “I couldn't agree more,” Melissa replied, slightly slurring her words. “What do you think, Kasie?”

  She didn't answer right away. Kasie looked comfortable laying back in the recliner and her eyes slowly moved from Melissa to Amber to me. She also looked cute as hell. As hot as it would've been to have sex with all three of them, part of me didn't want to. I wanted Kasie all to myself and I wanted her to want me all to herself.

  I had to remind myself that the Kasie I was looking at wasn't the real Kasie. It was something I'd had to remind myself several times over the course of the week. She really did look, act, and talk like the real thing. I knew that there was a good chance the real Kasie would never see me as anything more than a friend and that I should try to hook up with this one while I had the chance. But there was something about it that just didn't feel right. When she answered Melissa's question, I was relieved by her answer.

  “I think you two should give our hero exactly what he deserves,” Kasie finally answered, her words slightly slurred, too. “But I'm starting to get really tired. I think I'm just going to go to sleep.”

  As much as I wanted to get with Kasie, as sexy as I'd always thought she was, I didn't want it to be in a simulation with two other women. I'd been fantasizing about hooking up with Kasie for years and had it in my head that it would just be me and her. I planned on asking her out as soon as things went back to normal and hoped that I'd get the chance to someday live out that fantasy.

  “Since you slept out here the other night and we all slept in the bed,” Melissa said to Kasie, “why don't you take the bed tonight.”

  “You sure?” Kasie asked. “It's your bed.”

  “Yeah,” Melissa replied, “go ahead. We'll sleep out here tonight – once we tire ourselves out. You sure you don't want to join us?”

  “It's tempting,” Kasie said with a smile, “but no thanks. I'm just going to go to bed.”

  Kasie slowly brought the recliner's leg rest down and got up off the chair. She walked up to me, bent over, put her hands on my knees, leaned in, and kissed me on the cheek.

  “Goodnight, hero,” she whispered.

  Our eyes met and we smiled at each other as Kasie stood back up. She stumbled her way out of the living room and into Melissa's bedroom. As she walked away, my mind started thinking about how much Kasie meant to me and about how I was going to ask her out. But that train of thought came to a screeching halt when Melissa reached into my shorts and wrapped her fingers around me.

  “Mmmmmm,” I moaned.

  “I think our hero likes it when we touch him down there,” Melissa said.

  “If he likes it when we touch him down there,” Amber replied, “I bet he'll love it if we wrap our lips around him.”

  “You know, I bet you're right,” Melissa agreed. “But there's only one way to know for sure.”

  “That's true,” Amber said, grabbing my shorts by the waistband.

  She pulled them off me and wantonly tossed them over the couch. At the same time, Melissa took off my shirt. There I was, totally naked with two sexy, beautiful women. I was so turned on that I was already as hard as a rock.

  Amber took a few steps back away from the couch. She did a little drunken dance that was as sexy as it was sloppy. Her panties dropped to the floor and she stepped out of them. Amber slowly pulled off her tee shirt and playfully threw it at me. The shirt hit me in the face and, when I went to pull it off so I could see, Melissa stopped me.

  “I have an idea,” she said.

  Melissa took the over-sized shirt and made it into a makeshift blindfold. She wrapped it around my eyes and tied it in the back. It significantly reduced my vision, but not completely. If I looked down, I could still see a little bit – not much, but I could see my legs and a little bit of the floor in front of them.

  “Can you see anything?” Melissa asked.

  “No,” I lied.

  “Good.”

  Amber got down on all fours and crawled over to me. Melissa put her hands on my knees and spread my legs for Amber to get between. She looked incredibly sexy, crawling on her hands and knees. It was obvious that Amber was drunk. She was a petite little thing but drank as much as the rest of us – maybe more. Her words, her dance, and even her crawl was sloppy – but so was what she did between my legs and it felt incredible.

  “Ahhhhhhhhh,” I moaned.

  Melissa ran her hands over my chest and kissed my neck as Amber pleasured me with her mouth. It was really wet and I could feel her spit running down me – it felt amazing. I watched what she was doing under the bottom of the tee shirt around my eyes. It felt and looked awesome.

  “Hey!” Amber said, looking up at me. “No fair. You're looking!”

  “You're right,” I replied, taking off the blindfold. “I am. But you won't be in a second. Neither of you will.”

  I took the tee shirt and tied it around Amber's eyes, making sure she really couldn't see. Then, I took off Melissa's over-sized tee shirt and tied it around her eyes. I had the girls bend over the couch and took turns going back and forth between them.

  Smack!

  “Ooohhh!” Melissa moaned after I slapped her butt.

  Smack!

  “Aaahhh!” Amber moaned after I slapped her butt.

  I entered Amber while I used my fingers to play with Melissa. Then, I switched: I entered Melissa while I pleasured Amber. Eventually, the blindfolds came off and we tried a few other awesome positions. Between the alcohol and being exhausted from a crazy day, everything after that was pretty much a blur. I do remember how I finished, though. I was laying back in the recliner, about as comfortable as I'd ever been, and the girls used their hands – all four of them – to pleasure me until I exploded. They even cleaned me up afterward – with their tongues. It was all incredibly hot.

  I think I fell asleep right there on the recliner. Melissa and Amber passed out on the couch. I thought I saw them fooling around in the sixty-nine position when I got up to go to the bathroom at one point, but it could've been a dream. Whether it was real or just a dream, it was the last time I'd see either of them.

 
27.

  I woke up the next morning in my own bed – in my apartment. It took me a moment to wrap my head around the fact that I was no longer on the recliner in Melissa's condo. Normally, after a night of drinking, I'd be really hungover. I always got bad hangovers which was why I rarely drank. I picked my head up off the pillow expecting it to feel like it weighed a thousand pounds. Much to my surprise, I didn't feel hungover at all – I felt perfectly normal.

  “So weird,” I mumbled.

  I sat up and threw my feet over the edge of the bed. My mind was still in the process of booting up. I rubbed my eyes and looked around my room. It looked exactly like it had before all the strange things started happening. All my belongings were right where I'd left them. The only thing that looked out of place was a sealed envelope on my nightstand. It had my full name on it but nothing else – no stamp and no other writing.

  “What's this?” I thought out loud.

  When I reached to pick it up, the date on my digital alarm clock caught my eye. It should've been Saturday morning, but it wasn't – it was Monday, five days earlier, the day all the unusual things started happening.

  “Was it all just a dream?” I wondered.

  It couldn't have been. It all felt so real. I didn't understand how it all could've happened in such a short period of time. I pulled up my tee shirt and looked at my side where I'd been stabbed with the ninja star. There was nothing there. Same with my shoulder where I'd gotten shot – nothing. I shook my head in disbelief and carefully opened the letter. It read:

  Dear James Callahan,

  Please report to room 221 in the philosophy building at 9AM today. Regular class has been canceled for the day but will resume at its normal time on Wednesday. Thank you.

  Professor Amundsen

  I was eager to see the professor. Hopefully, he'd have some answers about what had happened to me. I sat at the edge of my bed for a couple more minutes lost in thought before getting up and starting my day. A million thoughts ran through my head but I knew that I wasn't going to figure anything out until I talked to the professor.