The Haunted Hero (Aria Fae #4)

by H. D. Gordon

  This was when the power drained out of the town, the mayor’s microphone going silent and the lights making up the skyline dying out to make way for darkness. There was a collective gasp from the crowd, a ripple of fear that cut through me the way that lightning had cut through the sky just moments before.

  Beside me, Sam’s hand found mine and gave a squeeze. My body had gone tense and still, like an animal sensing a storm.

  As if this thought had summoned Zeus, another series of lightning bolts tore across the sky, brightening the scene and casting into harsh shadows the fearful looks on the faces of the people.

  “Think I better suit up?” I whispered to Matt and Sam, and received two nods in unison.

  Sam touched her ear. “I’ve got my ears in if you need me. Make sure your device is on.”

  I did as she asked and confirmed that my communication device was in. Then I began to push my way through the crowd, moving toward where we’d stashed the Maiden getup the night before. I moved quickly but subtly, trying my hardest not to draw attention to myself. I was halfway to my destination when the Jumbotron atop the Grant City Stadium, (where the GC Sharks played football in the appropriate seasons, and adjacent to the park where the crowd had gathered), lit up like a beacon on a dark sea.

  I stopped in my tracks, my head swiveling toward the screen along with everyone else’s. On the screen a man sat in front of the camera before a starkly white background. A black hood covered his head, engulfing the features of his face in shadows, and he wore a black mask that was not unlike the Maiden’s. He sat there staring into the camera for what seemed several heavy heartbeats. Then, slowly, a grin began to spread over his face.

  “People of Grant City!” the man in the mask proclaimed, throwing his arms out in a grand gesture. His voice was disguised with some sort of voice distorter, giving it a robotic, hollow sound, and further concealing his identity.

  “Look at you!” he said. “Gathered like the sheep you are.” He shook his hooded head. “So willing to believe everything you’re told, so eager to follow the crowd!” He paused, laughed, the voice distorter making the laughter sound like something out of a cheap horror movie. “Pathetic! You’re so predictable! You put your faith in some masked vigilante, hoping she can solve your problems because she must love this city so much! You’ve gathered to thank her!”

  More laughter followed. I looked down at my arms to see goosebumps had broken out over my flesh.

  The apparent madman on the jumbo screen continued. “Fools!” he screeched through the voice modulator, spittle flying from his thin, dry lips. He jabbed a finger into the air as if to pop it. “The Masked Maiden doesn’t care about you! You are not safe under her watch, and this illusion of safety is more dangerous than some blue gorilla on a bridge any day. You think this Masked Maiden has protected you? She’s done nothing but increase your odds of being targeted!”

  Everyone around me was silent as we stared up at the screen, but I could feel the unease and fear increasing with every word this guy uttered. I kept my voice low as I spoke into the little microphone tucked into my t-shirt.

  “Sam, can you cut this guy off?” I asked.

  Sam’s response in my ear was immediate. I could hear her clicking at the keys of the laptop she’d brought with her. “Working on it.”

  As the man on the screen continued his monologue, I resumed my path toward where the Maiden suit was stashed, hoping this public rant would be the extent of the festivities, but not at all counting on it.

  The crowd was packed tight, and everyone was standing as if glued to their spot, so the going was not easy, but eventually, I made it to the parking lot on the north side of the park. There, beneath a thick bushel of hedges, was a plastic bag with my suit and its accompaniments. My magical staff, of course, was already tucked in the back of my jeans, concealed by my t-shirt. I’d had enough experiences in this blasted city to know I never wanted to be without it.

  “You’ve no doubt noticed that the power is out,” said the man on the screen, his voice booming all around me. “This is my doing, but hold your applause until the end, please.” He grinned, clearly pleased with this crappy joke. “Now, I would bet my bottom dollar that the girl behind the mask is here tonight. After all, who wouldn’t show up to their own party? Surely, right now, she’s among you. Your beloved hero. Your precious Masked Maiden.”

  Another jagged line of lightning lit up the sky, the air taking on an electric quality that seemed to buzz through the wild mane of reddish-brown hair atop my head.

  “Let’s play a game, shall we?” the masked man said, his voice growing with excitement. “Let’s see how much the Masked Maiden really loves this city.”

  I secured my cape over my shoulders, standing behind the thick bushes and breathing in the scent of pine. I’d just slipped on my mask and pulled my hood over my head when the madman’s next words had me pausing in my motions like a robot that has suddenly been powered down.

  “It’s you or the city, Miss Maiden!” he cried in that modulated tone. “I want you to come forward, reveal yourself to the world! Crawl out from under that mask and show us who you really are. In fact, do so right now, if you please! You are here, aren’t you?”

  “Don’t you friggin’ dare,” Sam growled in my ear, though I barely heard her words. “I’m close to hacking into his connection. You hang tight.”

  “No?” continued the masked man on the screen, his dry lips a tight line of triumph. “Well, I’d like to show you all how serious I am, so if you please, direct your eyes toward the stage.”

  Before anything else could be said or done, there was a terrible scream as a bolt of lightning appeared in the sky just above Mayor Barbara Briggs. The bolt traveled the way only light can, with an inevitable suddenness and surety. It struck the Mayor directly in the chest, emitting a sound of pop and sizzle that I heard all the way from across the park.

  There were screams, gasps, cries from the younger among us. My vision tunneled in on the stage, where the Mayor collapsed in what seemed slow motion, her body crumpling as if falling into a sudden sleep, like a doll that cannot stand up without the support of something.

  Maniacal laughter filled the night, and I found I was hardly breathing as the man on the screen brought the attention back to himself. “See?” he said. “Now all of you know how very serious I am!” More laughter, the sound gut churning. “Care to step forward now, Masked Maiden? Will you let yourself be seen?”

  At this point, I was already scaling the WWI monument that overlooked the east side of the City Center Park. As I neared the top, I heard people in the crowd pointing me out, saying, “Look! It’s her. It’s the Masked Maiden!”

  “Aria, don’t!” Sam’s voice said in my ear, but I ignored it.

  I felt the presence of hundreds of sets of eyes… including those belonging to the man on the screen. I stared defiantly up at his big, stupid face, my cloak being tugged by the wind and waving out behind me.

  “You wanted me?” I said, preparing to tear the mask from my face. “Here I am.”

  ***

  “You can’t!” Sam whispered fiercely. “You can’t do this!”

  I ignored this protest as well.

  I reached up and gripped the edges of my hood, meeting the eyes of the madman. He stared back at me with the look of someone who knows they have the upper hand and intends to relish it.

  “You want me to reveal myself to the world?” I asked. “Fine.”

  I tilted my head back so that I could slip the hood off my head, but the masked man on the screen held up both hands and spoke quickly. “Hold on there, dearest,” he said. “We wouldn’t want to end the game early, now would we? You had your chance to reveal yourself and you didn’t and now Mayor Briggs is dead!”

  As I stood atop the thirty-foot tall structure in the center of the park with all the eyes of the crowd staring up at me, the man on the screen laughed again as if the whole thing were hilarious.

  “No, what I want fro
m you is what you value most,” said the man. “I’m going to take from you what you took from me. An eye for an eye, get it? You brought this on yourself, and this is just the beginning… Citizens of Grant City, on the seventh day, God said ‘let there be light’, and there was light! If your Masked Maiden really is the hero she claims to be, maybe you’ll actually make it to day seven.”

  He spread his hands wide, the shadows playing over his face unable to hide his crazed enthusiasm. “Until then,” he said, “welcome to the darkness! Welcome to the night!”

  With this grand proclamation, the screen went blank, the power disappearing along with the rest of the electricity supporting Grant City.

  CHAPTER 10

  For the briefest of moments, silence held. It was so absolute that it seemed time itself had stopped. Without the almost inaudible sound of electricity pulsing through the city, the atmosphere was too still, lacking a certain buzz that went unnoticed until now.

  When the moment broke, it shattered like glass, ushering in a chaos that would become the norm over the next week. The last few times Grant City had gone dark had been very brief, all the systems returning back online and rebooting before anything really terrible could happen.

  But as the man on the screen had promised, this time the power did not return. Without it, streetlights went dark, causing accidents all throughout the metropolitan area. Countless people in skyscrapers and high-rises became trapped in elevators. Gas pumps ceased to work, cutting off access to fuel. As most of the larger buildings require ventilation to even be habitable, the heat of the summer began to creep in, soon to render many places unbearably hot.

  Internet went down. Cooking, hot water, and basic lights and amenities disappeared, all with the blink of an eye. The crowd gathered for the parade broke into sudden panic, the strength of their auras nearly knocking me off my feet as I tried to balance atop the WWI memorial statue and absorb what had just happened.

  “Sam,” I said, but realized my communication device must no longer be active. I searched the crowd, spotting my friends and sighing with relief at the sight. The gathered people had begun to disperse, eager to escape the madness that had so abruptly fallen over the place.

  Sirens blared as police descended, and the wail of an ambulance cut across the night heading in the direction of the stage where Mayor Barbara Briggs still lay in heap, unmoving. Communications between these emergency services had likewise been suspended, forcing them to relate back to radio transmissions.

  All of this happened within the evening. And the days of darkness had only just begun.

  ***

  Candles flickered, bouncing off the walls of the lair, casting shadows into the corners and over our faces. Outside, sirens continued to cut across the night, and that absence of electricity was becoming more profoundly felt with every minute that passed.

  I pulled myself to my feet, intending to head back out again. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since the power went out, and I’d spent twenty-two of them running around the city helping as many people as I could manage. I was exhausted, but it wasn’t enough.

  “Where are you going?” Sam asked, rising along with me. Her thick-rimmed glasses magnified the bags under her own eyes.

  “I’m going back out,” I said. “More people need help.”

  Sam shook her head. “The hell you are. We’ve been going nonstop since the parade. You need rest. Food. Sleep.” Her nose crinkled in a way I usually found endearing, but couldn’t muster the energy to do so just now. “A shower,” she added.

  I waved a hand at her, going to grab my cape from the chair I’d draped it over. “There’s no time for that,” I said. “The entire city is in a panic. Places are being looted, people are being robbed, and many don’t have access to clean water or food that hasn’t started to go bad. They need my help.”

  Matt lifted his head from where he’d been dozing on the card table. His curly brown hair stuck out every which way, and fatigue hung around his aura in a thick cloud. “Sam’s right,” he said. “We need a break, dude.”

  “Hate to agree with the nerds,” Raven chimed in, “but they’re right.” Raven looked as tired as the rest of us, having done all she could to aid in our efforts for the past day.

  I nodded. “Then you guys take a break.” I slung the cape over my shoulders, my movements feeling slow and heavy, though I wouldn’t admit it. “I’ll be back later.”

  “Jesus!” Sam said, anger and exasperation flashing so brightly in her energy that I actually paused. “Just hold on for a dang second! Take a moment to catch your breath. Let us have a chance to discuss this, to come up with some answers. It’s not always the best plan to just go rushing into the fray. Sometimes things need to be more calculated. So just sit your ass down for a moment, would you?”

  I was so surprised by this outburst from my normally docile friend (and, yes, okay, I was also exhausted) that I plopped back down on the little cot we’d dragged in here and ran a hand down my face.

  Then I spread my hands. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s talk, then.”

  Sam eyed me as if she half expected me to bolt out the door in a swirl of cape and mask before she could catch me. Once she decided this wasn’t the case, she gave a firm nod and reclaimed her seat across from Matt. “First and foremost, we need to figure out who the guy on the screen was, why he’s even doing this in the first place,” Sam began.

  Matt nodded, propping his head on his hands and furrowing his brow in thought. “Right,” he agreed. “If we can figure out who he is, maybe we can determine how he’s caused this black out, and get the systems back online.”

  “Rather than running around like a makeshift rescue team, we should be trying to figure out how to restore power,” Sam said. “Power comes back, all the emergency situations in the city disappear.”

  “I’m sure the people at Grant City Power and Light are working on it,” I said. “Why would we have a better chance at figuring that out?”

  I could see on Sam’s face that she had considered this.

  “Whatever this guy is doing, it’s not something they’re going to have any experience with. You saw the way that lightning cut across the sky, how he directed it at the mayor. Whatever is going on here, I doubt the local electricians and engineers will be able to solve it.”

  The image of that bolt of electricity striking Mayor Briggs returned to me, her death having left an imprint in my mind. I suppressed a shudder, but something about the look on Sam’s face told me she’d seen it anyway.

  An idea struck me then, just a thread of a lead that I could follow. “I think I know where to start,” I said.

  Matt, Sam, and Raven all turned toward me. “Where?” Raven asked.

  I chewed my lip and let out a sigh, dreading the task already. “With the person who warned me not to go to the parade in the first place.”

  ***

  Inching along on the branch, I took pains to maintain my balance. The balcony was a solid six feet away, and a drop from this height might not kill me, but it would hurt like the devil. I bent my knees, allowing the muscles in my legs to coil, Then, I leapt into the open air and landed a moment later, rolling to my feet with a trained elegance.

  My body tensed, momentarily forgetting that the power had gone out, and that no alarm would sound when I pushed open the balcony doors and let myself inside.

  That made the task easier, though only marginally, as the Cross Manner was crawling with more security than usual. There was a part of me that wanted to tuck tail and run, to skip what was sure to be another awkward encounter with Caleb, but one glance back at the darkness behind me, a canvas of ebony where the lights of Grant City should have been, was enough to make me gather my courage.

  The balcony doors were unlocked, being on the second level and letting directly into Caleb’s room. When I placed my hand on the knob and slipped inside, I had to remind myself to breathe steadily.

  “What are you doing here?” asked a familiar voice.

/>   I turned toward the sound and spotted Caleb sprawled out in a leather loveseat beneath a skylight that looked out on the stars. Even though the power was out for most of Grant City, Cross Manor had what seemed infinite battery-operated lanterns placed all about, and Caleb’s room was no exception.

  “I’ll give you three guesses,” I said, glad that my voice didn’t come out as uncomfortable as I felt.

  That warm tone in which Caleb used to speak to me with was gone, and despite the heat of the summer, I felt coldness between us.

  “I don’t know how to get the power back,” he said.

  “But you know who’s responsible for taking it out?” I countered.

  Caleb said nothing.

  My jaw clenched, and I resisted the sudden urge to scream at him, wondering where the surge of emotion had come from in the first place and chalking it up to fatigue.

  “People are getting hurt, Caleb,” I said, forcing my voice to remain level.

  He turned his head to look at me now, and the ice in his blue eyes almost made me take a step back. “Well, that’s kind of what happens right, Aria? People get hurt.”

  I swallowed. “Is this… because of me?” I asked, praying for an answer in the negative.

  Caleb sighed, and through his tough act, for a moment, I saw some of the old Caleb. Just a young man trying his hardest to move gently through the fragile world, both for its sake and his.

  “I guess that would depend on whom you ask,” he said. “But if you’re asking me if I had something to do with the blackout, the answer is, no. You broke my heart, but I’m not a psychopath.”

  Even though I’d known this—I am an aura reader, after all—it was still a relief to hear the words from the source.

  “How did you know something was going to happen at the parade, then? What made you tell me not to go?”

  “You and your friends aren’t the only ones who care about this city,” Caleb said.

  I tried not to cringe at the way he said this. Not so long ago, they had been his friends, too. Or so I’d thought. “So… you’re just going to keep giving me vague answers, then? Is that how it is?”