by Dexx Peay
“I’m the man of steel,” I joked.
“I should have called and checked on you sooner.”
It was good to hear her voice again. I didn’t know she still cared like I did.
“No, it’s okay,” I said. “I’m glad you did.”
“Do you need anything?”
“I think I’ll be okay.”
Another call came in before the conversation got deeper.
“Delilah I have to take this call coming in, but it was good to hear from you.”
“I guess… I’ll talk to you later then.”
I clicked over.
“Hey Mrs. Perry how is everything?” I asked.
“Hey Marcus everything is good but is Dylan okay?” I jumped up in my seat.
“Ye-yeah,” I stuttered.
“I haven’t heard from him in…forever. He never answers my calls but he talks to his Dad all the time. Do you know if he is mad at me?”
That was weird.
Dylan normally talked to his mom more than his dad. I guess since his personality changed, his relationships with other people outside of his friends, changed as well. Including his parents. Maybe his dad changed too and they're planning something together.
“He hasn’t said anything about being mad at anybody. I wish I was in our room right now so I could ask him.”
“If you could that would be helpful Marcus.”
“I’ll talk to you later Mrs. Perry.”
I hung the phone up.
This had to end.
I was saving Dylan even if it killed me.
Later that night, I watched movies with Hudson, Sam, and Monica. She was happy to be in my presence again. She still couldn’t touch me like she wanted. I laid on the couch with my head on her lap. Hudson and Sam stretched on the floor with blankets and pillows scattered everywhere snacking on potato chips.
“Hudson you’re going to be vacuuming if you drop one more crumb on my floor,” I yelled.
He continued to stuff his face. Monica’s freshly manicured nails scratched my head relaxing me.
I started to doze off.
Sam and Hudson were so into the movie, they even couldn’t think about sleep. Monica started to doze, leaning off the sofa. My eyes slowly opened and closed with fuzziness clouding my vision on each blink. Hudson and Sam jumped up and stared at each other.
Did I miss something?
Chaos and disorientation started to drift in and out my ears. I didn’t jump up until the movie shut off and that sound was replaced with an annoying alarm followed by multiple colorful vertical stripes on the screen. I moaned when I hopped off the couch. Hudson and Sam stood up. I looked at Hudson and he looked at me.
Sam walked to the window and separated the blinds. “Oh… my… gosh,” he said.
He turned around and ran out of the room. Hudson followed him. I woke Monica. She was clueless and so was I. I grabbed her arm and limped out the door—not even closing it.
“Sam the stairs,” Hudson said.
I caught up to Hudson. He had the door to the stairs open—waiting for me. People were rushing up the stairs—panicking as we tried to fight our way around them. I signaled Hudson and Monica to go after Sam. Hudson grabbed her and bullied his way through the crowd.
I gripped the wall as people continued to rush me, stepping on my bare feet and bumping into my torso causing more pain than I was already in. The lobby was in disarray when I finally made it. The RA’s were trying to direct traffic as people rushed inside and tried to get them to the basement. There were people in here who I knew for a fact didn’t live in this dorm. Sam, Hudson, and Monica were standing next to the door—stunned not saying a word with their arms to the side and mouths wide open. I wobbled over to them.
“What is going on?” Sam whispered.
I looked out the window. I had never seen winds so strong that people were literally falling over. I watched as a car skid down the street. The whistling of the winds screeched through the glass doors. The power died and all the lights went out. Monica jumped. Lighting started to take over the sky and lit the city up, as if the power never left.
It went on for minutes and we just stood there watching in silence. A few others had joined us admiring the storm. Sam looked up at the ceiling. I looked up to see what he was looking at.
“You guys hear that?”
He took a few steps back—still looking up. It sounded like pebbles being thrown around. I looked back out the window and drops of ice were falling from the sky mixed with heavy rain.
“Hail,” I said.
This had to be Dylan and the others.
If it was…
He finally did it.
“Step away from the windows and doors please, and get to safety!” one of the RA’s screamed.
“Come on guys,” I said.
I turned around and started walking back to the stairs. We got back to my room. With everything we’ve all been going through, I don’t think it was possible to shock or scare us anymore.
“It’s them isn’t it?” Sam said.
“Has to be,” Hudson added.
“Why a storm though? Why not just attack?” Monica said.
“Because it’s a warning. They’re letting us know they’re done playing. I think guys that our next encounter with them, and I hate to say it, but, I think they’re going to try and kill us,” I said.
Everyone took turns sighing and exhaling heavy amounts of air.
“So what now?” Hudson said. “They know where to find us and I’m tired of hiding out in rooms every other night.”
“Yes, but we know where they’re at too,” I said. “We know that the signal from their chips is coming from DC. All we have to do is get there and shut them off and pray they go back to normal.”
“This storm is pretty bad guys,” Monica said looking out the window. “What if they come here?”
“They won’t.” I faced her. “If they were coming to attack now then they wouldn’t need all the theatrics.”
“I think Marcus is right guys. They’re probably planning something big and we need to make the first move,” Sam said.
“The time for redemption is now. We will save them.” I affirmed.
It was getting late. I had a test the next day and needed to get some sleep. I wasn’t sure if classes were going to be cancelled tomorrow or not. Hadn’t a clue when the last time New York had a storm this bad.
Hudson and Sam made themselves comfortable. I walked to my room and Monica followed. I pulled out my journal and took a seat at the desk. Monica sat on the bed and waited for me to finish my entry;
REDEMPTION
What do we do? This whole situation is out of hand. Future generations beware of what is out there and always keep your guard up. We never saw this coming and now we’re trying to go with the flow on how to solve it. The next time we fight it can end one of three ways.
1.Us
2.Them
3.Everybody
I choose option three. We’re all going to walk out of this alive, back to normal and take down whoever is behind this.
Monica’s hand slid down my shoulder to my chest. I stopped writing and looked up. I took a moment to appreciate her presence. She looked at the journal and leaned closer. She touched the paper that had fresh generic ink. She squinted her eyes—leaning forward and backwards like she needed glasses to read. She was completely ignoring the moment we were having.
“Marcus what is this?” she said pointing to the paper. I looked at it and looked at her.
“It’s my journal baby you know that.”
“No, I know that but, why did you scribble on the paper?” I looked at her and looked at the book. It wasn’t in English anymore.
“Ho-crap!” I blurted. “I think I just wrote this in Xarponian.” My fingers slowly stroked the page.
“So you can write in… whatever you call it?”
“Xarponian, and no I can’t...at least I didn’t think I could” I said.
I picked the jo
urnal up and held it to my face. I looked at the symbol at the top of the page.
“What does it say?” She asked.
I only knew what it said because I remembered what I wrote first. The symbol looked like a number sign with every line hooked at the ends—all facing the same direction like the hooks made a circle.
“It says redemption,” I said. “I was writing about redemption.”
“This is too much for one night Marcus. I’m going to bed.”
So now I can write Xarponian. This is getting all too weird.
Monica and I went home for the weekend. She said she needed to get away and visit her family. At first I wasn’t going with Monica, until Mom told me Dad skipped a few meetings. I...we, didn’t need him falling off.
Before we left, I told Monica that maybe it was best for us to not see much of each other when we returned. She immediately thought I wanted to break up, but I had to reassure her that wasn’t the case. Things were becoming too stressful, and I needed her focus on schoolwork, not her superhero boyfriend trying to save the world. The conversation didn’t go well, but what conversation about “we need space” does?
Once I got home, I gave him a pep talk. Things got heated, but he needed to know I was serious. There was no room for a relapse.
The next morning, I noticed Dad had gone to a meeting when I woke up. Mid-morning I set out to pick up Monica since she volunteered to stop by the restaurant with me, and see how things were going. We pulled up, and the place was looking good—visually. There was a giant freshly painted sign on top of the building that had a rabbit with a carrot hanging out his mouth. It was a good thing they got rid of the old chipped-painted wooden one that was about to fall over any day. In addition to the sign, the tiny lawn was freshly cut and green, along with the building itself that had a fresh coat of navy paint with orange lettering.
We got out the car and walked through the back door that led to the kitchen. The parking lot next to the restaurant had more cars than usual. I was hoping that they were customers. We walked through, greeting everyone. We pushed through the double doors that led to the main area. The old brown chairs had been replaced with bright colorful ones. The tables looked like they’d been sanded, stained, and refurbished.
Mitchell was out walking around, talking to customers at the door, their tables, and the bar. He had a smile on his face that complimented his yellow tie and grey slacks. The place had more people than I’d seen in a long time. I was proud that I could save the family business, now, if I could just save Dylan.
One of the servers walked over after taking an order with a pad in his hand and a pen posted on his ear. Mitchell must have changed the uniforms up. It was just a greasy tee and jeans when I was here. This guy had on khakis and a black polo with “Carrot Cake” written it the right corner.
They all did.
“Hey Mr. Marcus.”
He held his hand in front of me. I shook it. Monica giggled. He was young, looked about the age I was when I started.
“I never got to introduce myself the first time you came, well, it wasn’t your first time, but the time you came in and gave us all that talked that sparked the changes here. Then I heard you came back a few weekends but I guess I was off those days. Anyway, my name is Jason.”
Wow this kid could talk...and fast. I just wanted to tell him to slow down and catch his breath.
“Nice to meet you Jason. Uh don’t you think you need to go put that order in?”
He stopped shaking my hand and ran to the computer.
“This place looks great Marcus,” Monica said.
We took a seat at the bar. Mitchell walked over and greeted us.
“Mitchell you’re doing a great job with this place brother.”
“Thanks Marcus. Monica, what can I get you guys to eat?”
“We can just split a chicken roll-up and some fries,” I said.
“And some carrot cake,” Monica called out before he walked into the kitchen.
I gave her a quick glare. Everyone seems to want dessert on my dime.
“What? Don’t try and act like you not gonna eat it.”
I was.
I lost nine pounds after that last battle. I didn’t eat anything, and just started to waste away. For some reason my appetite never got back to how it was. I was slowly starting to revert back to high school Marcus.
Mitchell brought the food out and sat it between us. I went for the cake first and told him to bring another slice out. Once I saw how good the cream cheese frosting looked, I knew I wasn’t going to share. I picked at the fries and only ate half of my share of the roll-up. Monica picked up my slack.
After we left the restaurant, we headed out to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and ended up lying on a blanket under a tree at the park. I wanted to lie under the sun but Monica insisted on being in the shade. I cuffed her body into mine and closed my eyes, letting the sounds of nature relax me. The buzzing of the bees trickling in and out of flowers, the cool whispers of the winds, and chuckling toddlers running around the park. If somebody would have told me that I would be getting into supernatural fights, leaving me scarred with broken bones, I wouldn’t have believe them. I would have never thought I would get into any fights. I know I got picked on in school—a lot, but no one ever really put their hands on me. A push here and there but that was it. Now, I’m fighting my best friends what feels like every other day.
“What are you thinking about?” Monica asked.
I kept my eyes closed. “Shh…”
I shrugged her shoulder and my hand gripped her tighter. I made a promise to myself that I was going to keep her out of danger and that I wasn’t going to tell her anything else about “that” side of my life. Last thing I needed was a repeat of Jessica from last May.
“Cake,” I said.
“What?”
She tried to get up but I gently forced her back to my body.
I didn’t want her to move. Her body against mine just felt amazing.
It felt right.
It just felt.
“Cake. You asked me what I was thinking about. Cake. I want some more.”
“You want more cake?”
“Yeah. I’m getting skinny again.”
“You’ve always been skinny don’t trip.”
“I put on a few pounds when I got to college woman!” I pushed her away from me and her hair whipped around in the process. “Now get over here and kiss me.”
“Kiss you?” she whispered.
She faced me and we both started to crawl towards each other.
“Yeah...kiss me,” I whispered.
I puckered my lips and she did the same. Our faces got closer and then my phone rang. I looked down and my phone was out my pocket on the blanket between us. Monica looked down and her lips retreated.
“Why is Delilah calling you?” She picked the phone up.
Oh Gosh
“Huh?” I said.
I couldn’t think of anything else besides “huh”.
Way to go Marcus.
She stood up and looked down at me on all fours—like a puppy that just peed on the carpet.
“Monica.”
I stood up and the phone continued to ring. She waved it around as she cursed me out.
“Why are you calling Marcus?” she answered.
This was nothing but trouble now. I knew I should have told her that Delilah and I were talking again. It wasn’t like I was trying to get with her or anything but I wanted to remain friends if nothing else. This was the side that nobody else got to see but I knew she had.
Crazy.
She was sexy when her Spanish and English blended. I had to tell myself this wasn’t the time to think about that since she was going to kill me when she hung the phone up.
“And don’t call him or text him anymore,” she screamed.
She hung up and clinched the phone. I started to back away when her eyes turned black.
“I...ah I...I ca—” I stuttered.
&n
bsp; “You can explain? Please do Marcus cause you failed to mention this to me. You can tell me everything else but you can’t tell me you been talking to your ex?”
I knew it was real trouble when she talked with her hands. She began to approach me like she was about to assault me with her hands balled in a fist. I put up a force field. It blocked her from getting any closer.
“Marcus put this shield down!”
I shook my head. “Unt-ugnn…”
She growled, and threw the phone at me. It bounced off the shield, then she stormed off. I don’t know how far she thought she was going to get because I drove. I let the force field down and went after her.
“Monica come back.”
I grabbed her arm when I got to her. She shrugged my grip off.
“How long you two been back talking?”
I didn’t know.
The fear she had instilled in me altered my train of thought.
“Just like I thought. UGHH!!! How could you be so stupid Monica?”
She stormed back off. I didn’t chase her.
She needed time to cool.
I drove back home trying to figure out what I could say to her to make this all right. Every scenario I ran through my head ended with me getting slapped. I tried calling her but that was a fail.
Elias was sitting on the porch watching Katie when I pulled up. She was running around throwing and chasing an inflatable ball. Elias just smiled and laughed periodically at her.
“You okay?” he asked. I took a seat next to him.
