Powerless

by Matthew Cody

  The plan was to keep watch together at the window, communicating with Mollie in flashing, flickering lights. Daniel set up some of the equipment he’d brought—he wore his point-and-shoot camera around his neck and had his magnifying glass in his pocket. At one point, Simon gave him a baseball bat for protection, but Daniel just set it aside. He didn’t know what they might end up facing, but he was pretty sure that a twelve-year-old armed with a baseball bat wouldn’t do much good.

  It was sometime after midnight when Simon spotted the shape in the dark.

  Daniel was dozing, struggling to stay awake, when he realized Simon was tugging at his shirtsleeve.

  “Look!” he whispered. “Over there by the streetlamp!”

  Daniel jumped to his feet and squinted at the light shining beyond the trees. He searched the shadows.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “Something was there a second ago.”

  Daniel immediately wished he had brought a pair of binoculars. He cursed himself for forgetting to pack something so obvious. Plenty of underwear, but no binoculars.

  “You sure?” he asked. Maybe Simon’s fear was getting the best of him.

  “YES! I’m telling you, something is moving out there…. There! Look!”

  Then Daniel saw it—two little specks of light moving through the darkness along the tree line. They were close together, reflecting an ambient glow, like a cat’s eyes, but they were too high off the ground to belong to any cat. Whatever those eyes belonged to, it wasn’t headed for Simon’s house. It was moving away from them, into the trees.

  “It’s headed for Mollie!” whispered Simon.

  Daniel grabbed the flashlight and flicked the on/off button three times. He waited. No response. He then started flicking the light rapidly, on and off, on and off. Still nothing.

  The shining eyes were gone now, but Daniel had the sinking suspicion that whatever it was had moved deeper into the woods, and closer to Mollie.

  “We’ve got to warn her,” said Daniel. “Is there a way down from here?”

  “The trellis, but you’re crazy if you think I’m going out there!”

  Daniel started to argue, until he saw the fear in Simon’s eyes. The poor kid had been dreading this night for so long that now that it was here, he was petrified, nearly paralyzed with fear.

  “All right, you stay here. If you see anything else, hit the flashlight!”

  Then, against his better judgment, he swung his body out the window and slipped his feet and hands into the rails of the trellis. He had just started his descent when he heard Simon hiss at him. Daniel looked up to see Simon handing him the baseball bat through the window. This time, Daniel took it.

  The grass was wet with dew, and Daniel nearly slipped on his butt running across the yard. If he hurried, he figured he could get to Mollie’s camp from the other direction first, hopefully avoiding a confrontation in the dark with whatever it was in the woods. As he snuck along through the trees, he wondered at the ridiculousness of his situation—in a town full of child superheroes, what was he trying to do? Save the day?

  I’m a moron, he almost said aloud.

  He found Mollie’s yellow pup tent in a clearing thirty yards into the woods, but there was no Mollie. The surrounding trees were thick and black in the moonlight. His heart was beating wildly in his chest as he realized that anything could be hiding just a few feet away and he wouldn’t even see it.

  He decided to chance a whisper. “Mollie? Mollie!”

  “What?” answered an irritated voice from the bushes.

  He spun around to see Mollie Lee trudging out of the brush, looking thoroughly peeved.

  “What are you doing down here?” she asked.

  “Me? What … Where were you? We shone the light but there was no answer!”

  She scowled at him. “I had to go. Okay?”

  “Go? Go where?”

  “Just go!” Mollie’s face was red and she sighed. “I had to go!”

  “Oh,” he said, feeling awkward. “What are you doing—”

  Mollie was cut off by the sound of something crashing through the brush. It was moving fast, no longer bothering with secrecy, and it was coming straight for them.

  “Is that Simon?” she asked, turning toward the sound.

  With no time to explain, and for reasons unknown even to him, Daniel found himself pushing Mollie behind him and stepping in front of whatever was about to appear. He brandished his bat high and shouted, “Mollie! Fly!”

  But it was too late. He barely had time to get the words out before something slammed into him, knocking him off his feet with a loud “Umph!” There was a mass of flailing arms and legs, and something sticky was clinging to his face. A voice was shouting, “Get it off! Get it off!” but it didn’t sound like his.

  “Daniel, what are you doing? Let go of him!”

  “Huh?” Daniel sputtered as he got his first good look at his opponent.

  “Uh, hi?” said Rohan, under him. He was dirty and sweaty, but it was definitely Rohan. He was clawing at a spiderweb that clung to his face. The light from Daniel’s flashlight reflected off Rohan’s (now crooked) glasses in the dark.

  The light reflected off his glasses in the dark, like two cat eyes moving through the trees….

  “Aw man,” said Daniel. “It was you I saw from Simon’s window.”

  “Rohan, what are you doing out here?” said Mollie, her hands on her hips. Then she turned on Daniel. “And what are you doing running around swinging a baseball bat? You’re gonna hurt someone!”

  Daniel stood up and offered Rohan his hand. The two boys wiped the dirt and leaves from their hair and looked at Mollie sheepishly.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “I thought he was a monster,” said Daniel.

  “Uh-huh,” said Mollie. “And if he was, you were going to rush to my rescue armed with a baseball bat?”

  “Yeah, I guess,” said Daniel, wincing at the absurdity of his own bravery. He was prepared for one of Mollie’s tongue-lashings, but to his surprise, she just looked at him. In a weird way.

  “And you,” she said finally, facing Rohan. “What are you doing here?”

  Rohan was busy wiping his glasses on his shirttail. “I came to stop you. To try and talk some sense into you guys. I had no idea I’d be attacked by Slugger over there.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mollie asked, her face a mask. “We’re just camping.”

  “Oh, come off it, Mollie! You guys have been acting all secretive and suspicious for days now. You two barely spoke until a week ago, and now you’re on a campout together? And you just happen to pick the woods next to Simon’s house, on the night before his thirteenth birthday?”

  “You’ve been spying on us!” Mollie said, poking Rohan with her finger. “You used your powers and listened in, didn’t you?”

  “Of course I did, you dork! But only because I knew you were about to make a huge mistake!”

  A thought struck Daniel like a hammer blow.

  “Eric?” he asked. “Did you tell Eric?”

  Rohan rearranged his glasses on his face and sighed, “No. But I should have. You guys are messing with things that are best left alone.”

  Mollie folded her arms across her chest. “Says you. I bet Simon sees it different.”

  “It’s Simon’s time, Mollie. And if you’re not careful, you’re going to end up just like him!”

  Daniel was about to interrupt when he saw a light flicker through the trees.

  “Oh shoot! It’s Simon! He’s gotta be crazy worried by now.”

  Daniel took Mollie’s flashlight and switched it on twice, the signal for all clear.

  The light from Simon’s window flashed back—one, two …

  “I should get back,” said Daniel.

  Three, four, five, six.

  “Something’s wrong,” Mollie whispered.

  The light was flashing on and off desperately.

  “We’ve got to help him!”
said Mollie as she started to move, but Rohan wrapped his arms around her tightly. “Let go!” she screamed.

  But Rohan held her firm. Mollie was fast and a flier, but she was no stronger than your average twelve-year-old girl. She couldn’t shake Rohan loose.

  “You can’t go, Mollie!” said Rohan. “You’ll end up just like him!”

  Mollie was crying tears of frustration as she wrestled with her friend. “But what about Simon?” she pleaded.

  Off in the distance was a sudden popping sound, like small firecrackers, and from Simon’s window came the flashes of little balls of light. Simon’s wisps.

  “He’s fighting back!” said Mollie.

  “Daniel,” said Rohan, “go!”

  But Daniel was already running. In the distance he could hear Mollie shouting for him to hurry, and he ran as fast as he could. Branches scraped his face and thorns cut his legs as he sprinted through the underbrush, but he didn’t dare slow down—he had made a friend tonight, and that friend was in trouble.

  When he reached the trellis, the lightning from Simon’s wisps had already ceased, and there was an eerie silence in the air, accompanied by the ozone smell of electricity. Daniel had been in such a hurry that he didn’t remember to pick up the bat—all he had was the camera around his neck. Nevertheless, he climbed. His hands were shaking with fear, but somehow he managed to make them work, planting one after the other, as he scaled the wall to Simon’s bedroom window.

  It was dark inside, and through the open window Daniel smelled something new—a pungent odor, like burnt hair. As he peered over the ledge, a blast of cold air hit him in the face and he saw a hooded shape standing in the darkness. It was tall, like an adult, but only vaguely human-shaped. In the blackness of Simon’s room, this figure stood out in its absence of light—a thing darker than the dark itself. It was a creature made of shadow except for a small, beating heart at the center of it—a faint green glow the size of a man’s fist that pulsed with a sickly light. The creature had draped itself over Simon’s inert body, which lay sprawled out over his bed. The whole shape of the thing seemed wrong somehow. It might have been an effect of the darkness, a trick of the eyes, but the shadow itself seemed to undulate; it rippled like waves on water. It chilled Daniel to his core and for some reason made him think of hundreds of night-black rats squirming in the dark.

  As if reading his thoughts, the hooded thing turned and looked at him. At least it appeared to be looking at him—in the dark he couldn’t make out any features, so he couldn’t be sure that it really even had eyes. Daniel felt panic rising in his chest: he was alone and unarmed.

  The shape drifted a step closer, and as it did, the unnatural cold got worse. The frozen air seemed to emanate from the shadow itself. Daniel did the only thing he could think of—he snapped a picture. The flashbulb exploded and his eyes danced with spots, but for a second at least, the figure paused. It regarded him silently and seemed interested in the camera in his hand. Daniel started back down the trellis, and had just taken his foot off the top rung when the shadow, sensing his retreat, rushed toward him. Daniel hit the camera button again. Flash! Flash!

  The bright camera bulb was making Daniel almost totally blind now, and he prayed that the flashes were having the same effect on the shadowy figure. He moved his foot down but missed the next rung. As he slid off the trellis, he reached out with his free hand, only to grab a fistful of air.

  For a split second, Daniel dared to hope that Eric would be there, once more, to catch him. But there was no miraculous rescue this time, and the last thing he felt was his body hitting the wet grass and something breaking inside him. Then he felt nothing at all.

  Chapter Ten

  Welcome Guests

  “Daniel, you’ve got some visitors here to see you. Are you feeling up to it, kiddo?”

  “Yeah, of course. I keep telling you, Dad, I feel fine.”

  “Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll let the doctors make the diagnosis around here.”

  Frankly, Daniel felt anything but “fine.” His right arm was throbbing with a dull ache that turned into a stabbing pain every time he moved it, and there was an itch halfway up his cast that was unreachable. At least the nausea was gone. This morning was the first time that he had been able to keep down a solid breakfast. That didn’t make it taste any better, though. Hospital food was still hospital food.

  Daniel heard someone cough and was surprised to see Rohan and Louisa standing in the doorway. When his dad had announced that he had his first visitors, he just assumed that Mollie would be among them.

  “Hey,” said Rohan. He was carrying a package under his arm, wrapped with metallic blue paper.

  “Hey,” Daniel said.

  “Well,” said Daniel’s dad, grabbing his coat, “I’m going to go out and stretch my legs for a minute and let you kids catch up. No arm wrestling!”

  The kids waited for Daniel’s father to close the door behind him. Then Louisa sat down gently on the bed next to Daniel.

  “Does it hurt?” she asked, eyeing the cast.

  “A bit,” answered Daniel. “But I’ve had worse.”

  Daniel caught Rohan rolling his eyes and Daniel felt himself blush. He hadn’t had worse; he’d never so much as broken a finger before now. He didn’t know why he was showing off in front of Louisa.

  “I brought you some chocolates from the gift shop,” she said. “I figured you’d be sick of the hospital food. All they had were the ones in the heart-shaped boxes….”

  “Uh, thanks,” said Daniel.

  “Okaaay,” said Rohan. “So, Daniel? What’s the prognosis? Do you get to keep missing school or are they finally kicking you out of here?”

  “I’m leaving today or tomorrow. But I probably won’t be back to school for another week.”

  “That’s terrible,” moaned Louisa. “We all miss you around the tree house.

  “Oh, I almost forgot,” she said, reaching into her coat pocket. “Rose wanted me to give you this.”

  She handed Daniel a crayon drawing of a boy—at least Daniel assumed it was supposed to be a boy—falling on his head. There was a happy yellow sun watching in the sky.

  Daniel laughed. “Tell her thanks for me, Louisa. And tell her I plan on getting it framed.”

  “Do you need anything, Daniel?” she asked. “Do you need an extra pillow or anything?”

  Daniel thought for a moment. “Well, I could go for a soda. If you don’t mind.”

  Louisa practically leapt out of her shoes. “Sure! Is there a vending machine nearby?”

  Rohan interjected before Daniel could answer, “Nope, you have to go all the way down to the cafeteria. All the way down on the ground floor.”

  “Oh, okay,” said Louisa, blinking. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, then.”

  She smiled at Daniel. “Don’t go anywhere!”

  Daniel gestured to his broken arm and smiled back. “I won’t.”

  Rohan waited until Louisa was out of earshot, then turned back to Daniel.

  “I think I’ve discovered your superpower, Daniel.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “You have the power to make Louisa swoon. It’s kinda gross, actually.”

  “Me? But I—”

  “Seriously,” laughed Rohan. “Have you noticed the way she looks at you? You don’t need super-senses to see it.”

  Daniel rolled his eyes, but the truth was that he had noticed. He just wasn’t sure what he was supposed to think about it.

  “Has Mollie said anything about her?”

  Rohan adjusted his glasses and squinted at Daniel. “Mollie? No, why?”

  “No reason,” answered Daniel quickly. “It’s just, you know … I’d never hear the end of it.”

  The two were silent for a moment before Daniel spoke up, more quietly this time. “How’s Simon?”

  “He’s fine,” answered Rohan. “Physically he wasn’t hurt at all.”

  “That’s a relief, but is he … does he …”

&n
bsp; “He’s just like all the others now. A normal thirteen-year-old boy.”

  Daniel’s head sank back into his pillow. He caught the emphasis in Rohan’s voice and understood immediately. So it had all been for nothing. Daniel had hoped that he had gotten to him in time—that he had stopped, or at least interrupted, whatever it was that … thing was trying to do. It would be hard to face Simon again, even though Daniel knew that he would have no memory of what had been done to him. But Daniel would know. He would never forget.

  “So you broke your arm, huh?”

  Rohan pulled a chair up next to his bed and began studying the control panel full of buttons that Daniel used to raise and lower the hospital bed.

  “Yeah, and I had a pretty bad concussion. But I’m out of the woods, and I’m hoping to go home today. This place is dead-boring.”

  “Here, I brought you something. It might help pass the time.” Rohan set the blue package on Daniel’s lap. Daniel fumbled at the wrapper with his left hand, but he couldn’t get the right leverage to tear the paper; it just kept sliding around on the sheets.

  “Oh, sorry. Here, let me.”

  Rohan tore the paper off with a flourish and revealed a stack of Johnny Noble comics, each one bagged and boarded for extra protection.

  “Wow. Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. Just don’t get any pudding on them. This is strictly a Supers-loan. Since you can’t go to the tree fort, I’m bringing the tree fort to you.”

  “Thanks, Rohan.”

  “Don’t mention it.” Rohan gestured to the panel next to the bed. “So, what do all these buttons do?”

  “Don’t touch them. Some move the bed up and down, and one of them calls the nurse. It took me, like, an hour to find the perfect position for this bed, so hands off!”