Secret Villain

by Dee J. Stone

  “Come, sweetie.” Mom pats her back. “Let’s eat dinner.”

  “No! I don’t wanna eat until someone tells me why you’re all treating me different. Am I sick?”

  “Yes,” I say without thinking. “That’s why Mommy didn’t let you go to school. Because you had a little fever.”

  Mom and Dad look relieved that she’s quieted down. It’s not right to lie to my little sis, but we can’t tell her the truth. At least, not until the shrink tells my parents it’s okay.

  Kaylee presses her lips together, her forehead wrinkled. “Really?”

  Mom plays with her light brown curls. “Yes, honey. You woke up with a fever and I gave you some medicine. Don’t you remember? You slept most of the day.” She averts her gaze, also hating that she has to lie.

  “Oh.” Kaylee says, her cheeks a little red. “Am I going to school tomorrow?”

  My parents exchange a glance. “We’ll see,” Dad says. “Now let’s go eat before Matt scarfs down the whole meal.” He chuckles.

  Dinner goes by like any other day. Kaylee is her happy, fun self. Is all that stuff behind her? Can’t be. It’ll probably resurface every now and then.

  “What?” she asks me, her green eyes big. “Why are you staring at me?”

  I bend close. “After dinner, I’m going to give you a ride.”

  Her gaze flicks to Mom, who I know is pretending not to hear us. “Really?”

  “You bet, little sis.”

  Later that night, while I’m getting some homework done, I spot a shadow outside my window. In the tree. I don’t need to guess who that is.

  Waving my hand, I open the window and Maddie floats in. She bounces next to me on the bed. “I estimate I have less than an hour before she realizes I’m gone.”

  I’m barely listening to her. I keep thinking about Kaylee.

  “Nick? Did something happen?”

  I blink. “Kaylee was completely normal today. Like nothing happened.”

  She lifts a brow. “Her brain is protecting itself.”

  “Seems that way. You know what this means?”

  She leans her head on my chest. “That we’ll never know when an episode will strike again. That means she can’t be at school.”

  “Yeah, that, but I meant when they go to the shrink. Would he have to force the memories out of her?”

  She holds out her hands like she has no idea. “I’m sure everything is going to be okay. Yeah it’ll suck that she’ll have to face her fears, but if she can be helped, I think it’s worth it.”

  She’s right. I just hate that all this is happening to her. All because of me. “She knows something’s up. And she’ll learn about everything once she goes to her appointment. How am I going to face her? She’ll hate me.”

  Maddie gently takes hold of my chin, staring into my eyes. “She won’t hate you. She’ll understand what a great brother you are.”

  I pull free. “Doubt it. What older brother gets his sister tortured?”

  She flinches. “My mom was tortured too, you know.”

  “Yeah. Sorry. Is she okay?”

  Maddie nods. “I think…” She shuts her eyes. “Sorry. Never mind.”

  “What?”

  She hesitates. “I think they were harder on Kaylee.”

  I rest my head on hers. “I think you’re right. Also, it’s easier for an adult to handle the pain than for a kid.”

  “Also…they wanted you to be the winner.”

  “What?”

  “When they forced us to battle each other. I know they wanted you. My only asset is my fire. They have tons of kids with fire power. But yours is rare.”

  My eyebrows furrow. “Lots of those kids have telekinesis.”

  “Not mixed in with invisibility. You’re, like, the perfect soldier. You don’t have super strength, but you can stop a bulldozer from ramming into you. Your telekinesis is very strong.”

  I never thought about it like that. “What are you saying? That I should have killed you? I would never, never do that.”

  She bites her lip. “I know. But maybe Kaylee would be okay.”

  I shake my head. “We need to stop blaming ourselves for what happened. It was JQ’s fault. And they need to pay.”

  “They already are, in prison. And Hiram is dead.”

  “I know. Just felt good saying it.”

  She slides her hand in mine. “Forget JQ. Let’s focus on helping Kaylee get better and training the kids. We need to undo everything JQ did.”

  Chapter Six

  As I fly toward school the next morning, something hard slams me in the face, making me spin around in the air before crashing to the ground.

  Another hard object gets me in the face. Looking down, I see a large rock. When I glance around, I don’t see anyone. Just buildings and some trees. I hold up my hands as shields. “Who are you and what the heck do you want?”

  No response. Another rock is launched at me, but I use my powers to deflect it. “Show yourself.”

  Nothing.

  I pull my palm backward, and someone is yanked toward me from behind the trees. It’s a guy, a few years older than me. Maybe in college.

  “Why are you throwing rocks at me?” I demand.

  He tries to wiggle free, but I’ve got a firm hold.

  “Answer me.”

  He wiggles again. “Don’t want you around.”

  He wouldn’t be the first, but why is this happening? What did I do wrong?

  When I ask the guy that question, he just laughs. “Are you serious? Have you been watching the news or are you too busy looking at yourself in the mirror and patting yourself on the back?”

  “What in the world are you talking about?”

  He’s got this wide smile on his face. “No one wants you here and soon you’ll be nothing more than a loser hero who no one wanted in the first place.”

  I gently fling him against the building. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I haven’t even been saving anyone—”

  “Listen to yourself, man. You think you’re better than everyone else. But you’re not. You’re some freak who everyone wishes would just disappear. So do us all a solid and get lost.”

  I press him into the building.

  He gasps, shaking, trying to free himself. “So you’re…going to kill…me now?”

  Clicks sound from somewhere nearby. Reporters and their cameras. I stare down at the way my hand is raised to the guy, like I’m seconds away from crushing his throat. Honestly? I kind of want to hurt him. He needs to pay for what he just said to me.

  My eyes widen. What the heck am I saying? Of course I don’t want to hurt him.

  I drop my hand and the guy falls to the ground, then rushes off. The clicks get louder. I can’t see where the reporters are hiding. But I can’t worry about that right now. I need to get to school. Promised Melissa I’d come on time every day.

  As I fly, I can’t get what happened out of my head. Not the fact that that guy threw rocks at me or the reporters and their cameras, but the fact that I wanted to hurt the guy. Me, Nick McGuire. Wanting to hurt someone?

  What’s wrong with me?

  “Watch it!” a voice yells. I slam into the school building, then topple to the ground.

  Maddie rushes over to me. “You okay?”

  I sit up, rubbing the spot on my forehead where I hit the wall. “Yeah.”

  She helps me to my feet. “What happened? You never crash.”

  I continue rubbing the spot. It’s healed, but I need to do something or else I’ll keep thinking about what happened just a few minutes ago.

  Maddie grabs my shoulders, staring into my eyes. “Nick.”

  I blink before shoving her hand away and getting to my feet. “I’m fine.” I head toward the school building.

  She doesn’t say a word as she follows me. I don’t mean to push her away, I just can’t deal with what I did. I guess I’m worried about Kaylee and that’s why I’m not in control of my powers. It won’t happen again. I’ll mak
e sure of it.

  As Maddie and I are about to enter our first class, someone says, “Nick.” Turning around, I find Melissa standing down the hall, a few feet away from her office. “Can I talk to you?”

  She and I get into her office and she motions for me to take a seat. My head is still a jumbled mess as I drop down on the chair.

  “Want to explain yourself?” she asks.

  “What?”

  She turns her computer around. On the screen there’s a picture of me and the guy. Sure enough, my hand is raised like I’m ready to kill him.

  I puff out my cheeks. “It’s not what it looks like,” I lie.

  She folds her hands together and rests her chin on them. “Really? Do you want to tell me what happened?”

  I don’t know what to say, so I keep my mouth shut.

  “You’re a student here now and your behavior is a bad reflection on the school.”

  Is she serious?

  “Look,” she says. “I know you’re the Blue Masked Hero and feel like it’s your job to punish those you feel need to be punished—”

  “It wasn’t like that at all—”

  “—but you need to let law enforcement do their job.”

  I could explain what happened, but I don’t want to go into it. Plus, she wouldn’t believe me or take my side. She’s no longer just Maddie’s mom, she’s my principal. Someone who thinks she has the right to tell me what to do.

  I stand, swinging my backpack over my shoulder. “Is that it?”

  She studies me. She then scrolls through news articles. The ones similar to what I saw on TV last night, about Blue doing some not nice things. “Nick, this is a big deal. You can’t go around threatening people. We can’t allow all that negative attention on this school. You don’t understand how hard this is for me to keep this school running. I hope you’ll think twice before using your powers next time.”

  Right. It’s hard for her. Does she have any idea how hard this has been for me? First getting my powers and learning to control them. Having my sister get captured twice. Taking down JQ. Helping people. She’s got no idea and has no right to judge me.

  I rub my forehead. Where is all this anger coming from?

  “Now, if you need to talk to someone, we have many therapists here.”

  “No thanks. I’m fine.” I go to the door, then turn around. “What happened this morning was a mistake. And all that other stuff they’re saying about me are lies. I didn’t do any of that. Just ask Maddie. She believes me.” I close the door after me.

  I don’t know what’s going on with me, but one thing I do know is that I haven’t been hurting anyone. Someone’s got to be framing me. But who?

  ***

  As I enter the gym after school, I try to clear my head for training. Maddie and I haven’t spoken much. I avoided her at lunch, just because I didn’t want to talk about what happened. Everyone’s been watching the news and asking me about it, but I shrug them all away.

  I miss Maddie like crazy, but if I don’t get a hold of myself, I’ll completely lose it.

  “Nick?” she asks hesitantly, like she’s worried I’ll slam her into the wall. It sucks. Maddie has never been that way around me. It’s not right.

  I force a smile and wrap am arm around her. “Hey.”

  She pulls out of the hold. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  She gives me a face.

  I shrug. “I’m over whatever happened. The press, like usual, is making a big deal out of nothing.”

  She slowly nods. “So you didn’t threaten that guy?”

  I peer around the gym, where it’s slowly filling up with kids. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “So now we’re keeping secrets from each other?” She takes in a breath. “I know we don’t have to tell each other everything, but something is obviously bothering you.”

  I nod. “The stuff with Kaylee.”

  “But is that all?”

  “Of course. I’ll be okay once she’s okay.”

  She’s about to say something, but I face everyone. “Are we ready to begin?”

  The eleven year old guy from yesterday—whose name is Muscles—says, “Are we gonna play around like little kids again or are we going to fight?”

  “Not fight,” Maddie says. “Train.”

  “Whatever. Are we?”

  “Yeah,” I say.

  Maddie and I split the kids into two groups. She takes those with powers similar to hers and I take the ones with powers similar to mine. Included in my group, are Jack and Muscles. As I scan the kids, I wonder if any of them have something to do with what’s going on out there. Is one of them framing me? I can’t ask, because I need these kids to trust me. I’ll have to keep a close watch on them.

  The kids are all gathered around me. There are about a hundred of them. Aw, man. A hundred kids. How am I supposed to handle them all?

  Melissa is watching me closely from the glass window, where she’s standing with the Suits. They don’t seem to be as interested in me as she is. Does she think I’m hiding something? All because of the news?

  “Are we going to start?” Muscles demands, fisting his hands. “I need to crush something.”

  I hold up my hand. “No one is crushing anything. You guys need to learn to channel your anger into something positive. Not everything out here is meant for your fists, Muscles.”

  He laughs. “Says the guy who’s going out there messing with people’s lives.”

  “I’m not messing with anyone.”

  He tilts his head to the side. “It’s smart. Not doing anything illegal, but still sort of hurting people. It’s genius.”

  I run my hand down my face. This is going to be a long afternoon.

  ***

  I feel terrible for the way I’ve been treating Maddie. I love her more than anything, and she needs to know that. After training, I climb the stairs to her room and knock on the door.

  She peeks out and smiles. “Hey.”

  “You’re actually happy to see me?”

  She frowns. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Because I’ve been a jerk.”

  She shakes her head as she invites me in. We sit down on her bed, our shoulders touching. It’s weird and pathetic that this is the most touching we’ve done all day. I take her hand and give it a squeeze.

  “I have been a jerk. You were there for me but I pushed you away. I just needed some space to clear my head. This morning sucked. And the whole news thing…”

  She squeezes my hand back. “Everyone knows you didn’t do those things.”

  “But I did do that this morning.”

  She bites her lip and looks away.

  “I was flying to school and he threw rocks at me. All I did was ask him what his problem was. Of course the media blew it up.” I skip the part of me wanting to hurt the guy. I don’t want to worry her, and it won’t happen again.

  “Don’t worry about it, Nick. I’m sure everything will blow over soon.” Her eyebrows knit. “Though we need to find whoever’s framing you.”

  I lean against her wall. Her room is very tiny, less than half the size of her old room. Maddie doesn’t seem to mind, though. “It’s weird how I’m being framed and not you. Whoever it is, he or she has a problem with Blue, not with Red.”

  She thinks about it for a second. “Why would someone hate you?”

  I hold up my hands helplessly.

  “It’d have to be someone with powers,” she continues. “Only someone with telekinesis would uproot trees.”

  “Or someone who can control nature.”

  She rubs her chin. “And Blue was also accused of throwing other things around. Remember the Frisbee you supposedly “threw into a tree?’”

  I make a face. “I heard kids at training saying I supposedly destroyed little kids’ sand castles on the beach.”

  She shakes her head in disbelief. “Why would someone do this?”

  “It’s important to
know why, but I’d rather first find out who. I don’t want to accuse anyone here, but it’s got to be one of them. Who else has telekinesis?”

  She sits up sharply. “It’d have to be someone with invisibility, too, since no one saw you.”

  “Nope. My telekinesis reaches far, so I can be standing from a distance. Whoever this person is, he or she must to able to do the same.”

  She’s quiet as she thinks this over. “Since we don’t know who it is, we need to keep a close watch on what’s happening. The minute he messes with someone, we go out there and stop him. And we’ll also keep a close watch on the kids here. I don’t think there’s anything else we can do.”

  “What if he starts hurting people?”

  “Then we do whatever it takes to stop him. So far, it seems like he’s just looking for attention. Maybe he’s trying to show you what he can do.”

  “Then why not reveal himself? What does he gain by pretending to be me? Does he want the world to turn against me so he can take over?”

  “I don’t know. All we can do is stop him the next time he strikes.”

  The next time he does, I hope someone doesn’t suffer because of it.

  Chapter Seven

  A few days later, Kaylee and my parents are off to see the therapist. She had nightmares two nights ago and we all took turns staying with her. Since then, she’s been a mess, crying and having tantrums. Mom had to keep her out of school. Hopefully the shrink will be able to help.

  I’m supposed to be at school, but I can’t bring myself to go. I want to be here when they return.

  Matt also took off from school. He and I are sitting in the kitchen, in silence. He’s got his gaze on his sneakers and I’m looking all over the place. At the walls, the windows, the door. Even though they left only a few minutes ago, I’m staring at the door, waiting.

  “This is stupid,” I mutter.

  Bro’s eyes meet mine. “What?”

  I wave my hand around. “All this. Kaylee going to the shrink. My being framed.”

  He lifts an eyebrow. “Who’s framing you?”

  “No clue. But I’m pretty sure it’s one of the kids at the school. I’m not really popular there.”

  He laughs lightly. “Wouldn’t surprise me. You weren’t popular at your old school.”