by Bryan Cohen
Ted's mom sighed and forced a smile. "There was an incident at your father's job. Some of his co-workers are part of the group and they vandalized his desk."
Ted stood up and set a wide-eyed gaze on his mother. "Why didn't you tell me?" Ted let out a huff. "I can't believe you kept this from me."
As Ted's heart rate increased, his mother's voice softened.
"It was childish and stupid. And as I said, we're ignoring it. No need to get your tights in a bunch."
Ted planted his feet. "I don't have tights, Mom."
"I really think you should take us up on our offer to make you an outfit." Ted's mom kept a straight face. "It would have a cute red T on the butt."
Ted let himself collapse on the bed next to his mom and the two of them laughed. A few minutes later, Ted was in much better spirits as he ate his meatloaf. There were four places set at the table, despite there only being three of them. At the fourth spot was a tablet set up with an app running that displayed Ted's sister, Christina. She and Ted were nothing alike, from her golden hair to her outgoing personality.
She was walking as she spoke to the three of them, and the camera shuddered with every step.
"You still haven't asked her to prom yet?" Christina waved to someone off camera and continued to walk and talk. "It's in a week, Ted. You're being an idiot."
Ted combined the meat, potatoes and peas all on one fork and munched on it.
"I've been busy!" Ted worked the food around his mouth and away from his tongue. "I had to stop a robbery and–"
"Don't talk with your mouth full," his sister and mother said in unison. They chuckled.
Ted chewed his food and swallowed with the help of a gulp of water. "I had this elaborate plan, but it kind of didn't work."
Christina rolled her eyes at her brother. "Guys like you – you know, dorks – are all about these elaborate plans. Popular girls like LaPlante don't care. They're used to football players being like, 'Hey, can I grind on you at the dance?'"
Ted's father laughed at his daughter's imitation before his wife shot him a discouraging glance.
"She's not like that," Ted said.
"Either way. You're not asking someone to marry you. You just want her to go to the prom."
Ted remembered back to when he'd asked Natalie to homecoming. He'd found a company that printed custom basketballs and had one made up just for the occasion. The look in her eyes was one he would never forget.
"Just ask her already, Ted," his mother said. "You can take her out to ice cream tonight or something."
Ted stabbed a pea with his fork. "It just doesn't seem very romantic."
Christina stopped walking and the camera stabilized. "Save the romance for the dance, Casanova. For now, just get her to commit before some other superhero swoops in and gets her."
After Christina signed off to go to her class, Ted followed the advice and asked Erica out for ice cream. They met up on the east edge of Treasure's Main Street, a strip of restaurants and shops that represented most activities in the quiet suburb. They'd already seen a dozen classmates coming in and out of the coffee shop, the movie theatre and the ice cream parlor. Thankfully, most of them had been willing to leave the resident superhero alone on his date.
After some polite catch-up conversation, it didn't take long for them to get into shop talk.
"You know, I've seen my fair share of mobs." Erica took a bite of the top scoop of her cookies n' cream cone. "A water balloon with paint is just the beginning."
Ted munched on some cookie dough. "So you're saying I should take up the DHS offer?"
Erica took Ted's hand and let their arms sway as they walked. "Since I'm not letting you do that, you need to think of another way."
Ted tried to think of a potential solution, but his mind was clogged with ideas for where on the street they should stop before he popped the prom question.
"Well, what would you do?"
"Me, personally?" Erica licked a bit of ice cream that had escaped her mouth. "I'd torture the leader, but it's probably not the best PR move."
Ted laughed until he started to wonder how many people Erica had tortured during her many lifetimes.
"I'll ask Dhiraj."
When they reached an empty gazebo, Ted let Erica inside. He heard the crickets chirping away at the nearby garden and smelled the clean spring air. It was a perfect location to do what he needed to do.
"Erica, I know that I've been putting this off, but will you–"
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Ted spotted a fire in a building less than a block away. The flames raged through a couple of windows on the third floor of the brick structure. Erica's eyes took the same path as Ted's and noticed the fire as well.
"Holy crap." Erica crunched the remainder of her cone in her mouth. "We better get over there."
Erica leapt into Ted's arms. She felt almost weightless.
"Thanks for the ice cream," she said.
Ted breathed in deep. "You're welcome. We're going to come back to this."
"Sure thing." Erica smiled. “Enough talking. More flying."
I knew I should've asked before ice cream.
Ted planted his feet and concentrated on lifting the two of them off the ground. They took off into the night sky and flew toward the fiery brick building.
Chapter 14
Jennifer sat on the edge of her bed and leafed through one of her old yearbooks. She'd opened it to the page with 5th-grade Erica LaPlante so many times, the book couldn't help but open to the very same page. She looked at the book as if it were cursed, as if it were there to remind her of the death of her friend. Jennifer looked up at her walls, covered with photographs of the past. She grew angry at herself for going through the same routines over and over again and tossed the book to the other side of the bed.
As she went to her closet to find an empty shoebox, her phone buzzed. A quick glance toward her desk told her it was the junior prom committee. Despite being the chairman, she'd skipped the last two meetings; this would be the third. Jennifer had chaired all the dance committees since sixth grade. She walked away from the desk and took the first picture off the wall. It was the one that showed Ted and Erica at the fifth grade carnival. Jennifer committed the picture to memory before placing it into the shoebox. Of the 50 or so pictures she had on her wall, at least 35 contained Erica. There was the eighth grade pool party where she'd gotten her first kiss. The photo where she, Winny and Erica showed off their driver's permits. Another in which they were all doing some kind of animal impersonation at the zoo. She took all the photos with Erica and placed them into the box.
Jennifer stared at the pile of pictures and felt cold as her phone buzzed again.
She picked it up to see the image of the boy she'd made out with the other day.
"I hope you haven't already forgot me," the text read.
The picture featured the guy with his shirt off, no doubt to show off his six-pack abs and the tattoo of a bronco on his right shoulder. She remembered the abs and the tattoo but still couldn't recall his name.
Jennifer grinned when she considered asking "Who is this?" Instead, she placed the phone back on her desk and set the lid on the box. When she picked it up and walked toward her closet, she felt tears come to her eyes. As she tried to wipe them away with her sleeve, the top of the box slipped out of her hands and the pictures tumbled out and onto the floor.
"Damn it!"
Jennifer went down to her knees and picked up a picture of her and Erica posing sexily beside the mascot of a minor league baseball team. Well, Erica was making a kissing face and bending over at the waist while Jennifer was smiling like a sixth grader despite being in ninth grade. Jennifer wiped her eyes on the top of her t-shirt and left the pictures where they were. As she opened up the bottom drawer of her desk, another text rang through the room. The length of the text gave away the sender. Dhiraj was preparing to give an interview on national TV, his third since Ted had changed into something otherworldly.
"Tell everyone you know who has a Nielsen box to tune in," he said. "You also have to let me know how my hair looks. It was great seeing you the other day. I hope you're feeling better."
The text went on for another three paragraphs, telling Jennifer how prepared he was to debate the leader of the GHA. Jennifer breathed in deeply and shut the phone off. She reached back into the bottom drawer and pulled out a nondescript black binder. Unlike all her other scrapbooks, this one remained without a label.
She opened the book to the first page, which displayed an article from the local paper. The words "Local Teen Goes Missing" topped the story, followed by a picture of Erica smiling with her pompons. Jennifer wondered if she'd read the article over 100 times as she scanned for the part she hated the most.
"We're doing everything we can to find Erica," Deputy Daly had said. "If she's out there, we'll make sure she's back and in her parents' arms in no time."
The quote had always brought Jennifer hope before Erica had returned and the true nature of Deputy Daly had been revealed. Right up through the last time she saw Daly in the caves, she looked up to him and even thought he was sexy.
She pictured herself taking her stun gun and electrocuting her father's former co-worker right there on the rocky terrain.
Jennifer flipped the page past the other news clipping of Erica's disappearance until she got to articles from the past few months. The first one in the latest batch was called "Manhunt for Disgraced Deputy Begins." Jennifer had highlighted passages in pink and written notes in the margins. She flipped through several pages of printed phone interviews she'd conducted under the guise of being a CIA agent. Despite chatting with over a dozen friends and relatives, nobody seemed to have any idea where the murderous deputy had gone. Maybe if Erica's body was still underground, someone would have been more willing to talk.
When her doorknob began to turn, Jennifer felt a wave of panic come over her. She closed the book quickly and tossed it underneath her desk. By the time her father had fully opened the door, she'd already gone back to her pile of pictures in an effort to look completely innocent.
"Hey, honey. Sorry I'm late."
Jennifer hoped she'd wiped away all remnants of her tears. She couldn't handle her father asking what was wrong. Her emotions were held together with duct tape and dental floss as it was.
"That's OK, Dad." She put one picture on top of the other as if they went in some kind of order. "I'll be right down."
She could tell that her father detected something strange; after all, he'd become sheriff for a reason. He appeared to let it slide, nodding and closing the door. Jennifer tossed the pictures into the box and put her black binder back in order. She opened up to a grinning picture of Deputy Daly.
"You may have given up, Dad, but not me." She focused all her pain and rage on the deputy's eyes. "I'm gonna find you, Daly. And when I do, I plan on returning the favor."
Chapter 15
Erica couldn't help but feel somewhat aroused as she pressed herself against Ted and floated through the night sky. She was in a teenage body and she knew that a combination of hormones and emotional triggers made her want to kiss him deeply even though it would likely cause him to lose concentration, sending them both hurtling to the ground. Erica realized that the mixture of sexual attraction with the adrenaline of moving toward a burning building was making her even more attracted to Ted's hazel eyes, his increasingly muscular body and his winning personality. She didn't mind, either, because this part of the date sure as hell beat ice cream.
As they got closer to the building, she could feel the heat on her skin. The building was four floors high with six windows across. It was built to look like the businesses around it, and if it weren't for the orange flames, Erica wouldn't have given it a passing glance.
Erica looked into Ted's eyes as he attempted to lift one of the windows with his powers. "Having some trouble there?"
Ted glanced back. "This is harder than it looks."
Erica smirked. "Are you trying to say I'm heavy?"
Ted grumbled and dislodged a brick from the side of the building. He shot it forward like a bullet toward one of the windows. The glass shattered, leaving a hole large enough for them to fly in through. They zipped through the opening and landed on the carpeted floor.
"Good job." Erica squinted. "Though you have a bit of a chocolate stain around your lips."
She brought her lips toward his mouth and kissed off the sugar. The two them might have continued to help each other with the remnants of dessert if they hadn't heard a scream from the other room.
Ted turned toward the noise before spinning back. "More kissing later?"
"We'll see." Erica had her game face on.
Judging by the furniture, the building seemed to contain mostly condos. There would be multiple families at risk well before the fire department could arrive. They shared a glance and ran toward the screaming. Ted unlocked the door to one of the apartments from the inside and opened it with his powers. A mother was trying to pack something for her two children, one of whom was screaming in the middle of the room.
"You need to get out of here, miss," Ted said.
"Come with me." Erica gestured to the mother. "Show me the staircase."
The woman called her two children toward her and started to run down the hallway.
Erica looked back to Ted. "Check the other apartments."
Ted nodded and flew out the door. Erica followed the woman to the stairs and told them to get as far away from the building as they could. Ted zipped back and forth from door to door, and she led the inhabitants through the door to the staircase. While doing so, Erica found herself thinking about Ted's powers.
We could have done this from a mile away, if I taught him everything.
Before Erica knew it, Ted had led a caravan of families toward the stairs. He flew through the hallway and back to Erica's side, where he coughed and kept low to the ground.
No. It's just too risky.
Erica put her arm on Ted's shoulder. "Check downstairs for any stragglers. I'll look on this floor."
"Are you sure?" Ted asked.
"Yes." Erica moved her hand to Ted's face. "Go. I'll be fine."
Ted took a deep breath and flew down the stairs above the escaping residents. Erica did a quick scan of the remaining apartments. All the rooms were abandoned; the fire continued to spread from one room to the next. When she returned to the stairs, the patriarch of one family said he recognized Erica from TV.
"You guys just saved all those people yesterday," he said. "You're all over the place."
"Right place–" Erica saw someone out of the corner of her eye. It looked like a girl around her age with curly, red hair. Erica had a sneaking suspicion she knew who the hair belonged to.
"Beth?" Erica turned to the man. "Is everybody accounted for?"
"I think so."
Erica saw the red hair zip around the corner and toward the fire. She ran in that direction.
"Wait!" The man could barely be heard over the sound of the arriving fire trucks. "Where are you going?"
Erica didn't have time to answer, as the person she was chasing moved too quickly for her. After going around two bends, Erica finally got a full glimpse of her. It was Beth. Her face was covered in black soot and she wore a vacant grin.
"What are you doing, Beth?"
Erica's friend wasn't the brightest egg in the dozen, but she knew well enough to stay away from fire. Unless she was the one who caused it.
Beth's grin grew wider.
"Homework." Beth dashed toward the smoke and Erica tried to catch up with her.
She doesn't even live in this part of town. Something isn't right.
Erica tossed off her shoes to move more quickly. She coughed as she grew closer to the source of the fire. Erica tried to bend lower as she ran, but it was no use. As she followed her friend, Erica thought back to her last trip through social media. Beth's feed was typically filled with selfies, cat vi
deos and her accomplishments in colorful, time-wasting games. Now that Erica thought about it, she hadn't seen Beth post anything for the past few hours. It was like the story of the girl who didn't cry Facebook junkie. Erica thought of a past life in the desert as she got to a room that was completely engulfed in fire.
Beth stood right in the middle of it all. She didn't seem to be feeling any effects from the heat, the smoke or the fire.
"Beth, please."
"You know, I started this fire." Beth looked around from wall to wall. "And I knew you were going to be here. He told me you would."
Erica wondered if her friend was still alive. It was entirely possible she had been replaced with a dark soul, just like Sandra and the Torellos.
No, I would have felt it. She's still human.
The flames surrounded them and the smoke took over the room.
"Alright, Beth," she said. "The firefighters are going to be up here soon. Let's just get out of here together, OK?"
Erica felt a whoosh of air as Ted zipped around the corner and stopped right next to her.
"The fire marshal says this place is about to blow," Ted bent over and put his hands on his knees. "Why the heck is Beth here?"
"I'm here to help you reach your full potential." Beth walked up to one of the walls and started to lay her hand directly onto the fire.
"No!" Erica reached for her friend and felt the shudder of an explosion behind them.
Before she could react, Ted zipped ahead, grabbed Beth under one arm and gripped Erica underneath the ribs with the other. The three of them moved at an incredible speed through the air, smashed through a window and got far enough away from the building to avoid the burst of fire that followed them.
The three of them hovered in the night sky. Erica welcomed the cool air that brushed against her skin.
"Very impressive, Ted." Beth gave one last dreamy smile before digging her nails into Ted's arm.
Ted wrenched his grip from Beth's body and the girl plummeted toward the earth.
Ted's body tensed. "Hold on!"
