by Maurice Hill
“They're on their way now,” he said, in a depressive tone. “If they got a hold of you...aaaaaaggh!”
I was wondering how he had even known. It was as if Juniper told someone, or someone forced her to give up my status as Avirgent.
I gulped. “So am I a super-hero or something? Wonder-woman?”
He shrugged. “Time will tell. All I know is, you're dangerous, very dangerous.”
“Yeah, but how?”
He looked into my eyes menacingly. “What did I tell you about asking questions?” He raised his gun from the seat and pointed it toward my head.
I smirked. “Wait, it doesn't matter what I do because in the end, you need me. You can't kill me.”
He put his gun down. “You're right, but let's pretend I can kill you so you can act afraid.”
“But why? I'm rather calm actually. In fact, thanks for taking me. If I'm so dangerous, I could just kill you myself once I realize my true potential.”
He sneered. “Shit.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I can't believe I was so scared. Please make sure you kill them all before they get to me please. That way, there's no more threats. Yippe!”
He groaned and parked in front of the ruins of an amusement park.
“We're here,” he said flatly, and we got out of the car. He went to the trunk and I followed him as he opened it up.
“Nice. Are we running around the park or something? Capturing them?” I said, now laid back and calm. I grabbed my hand mirror and adjusted my hair.
He grunted. “We're climbing a Ferris Wheel.”
“Why?” I smirked while asking this, clearly in joy that I could ask questions without anyone telling me not to ask anymore.
“To scope the area for them.” He took out a sniper-rifle and tied it around his shoulders.
I pointed to a large building the same height a block away. “Why don't we just go to the roof and we can roam around freely instead of standing on a Ferris Wheel in the cold?”
He closed the trunk shut and locked it. “You're irritating. I'm almost pissed that I actually had sex with you. It wasn't even that good.”
He brushed past me and started walking toward the Ferris Wheel several feet away.
“Asshole,” I shouted, and caught up with him. He glanced at me a couple of times and said, “You make sense, but it's better for us to be atop a Ferris Wheel than a building. If we're atop a building, they can get there easier.”
“They can also kill us easier if we're on top of a Ferris Wheel you idiot. They could use one of those things my brother uses in Grand Theft Vehicle and blow up the Ferris Wheel with that.”
He paused, “You mean a rocket launcher?”
“Yeah.”
It seemed as if I dumbfounded him then. I had never felt so smart as I did then. Maybe my Avirgent powers were kicking in slowly by the minute. I was becoming smarter and smarter, but I still felt dumb.
He titled his head back and forth, nodding. “Yeah, that...that...” He rubbed his stubble.
“That makes sense. The building is the better poison.”
“Good. So let's go.”
He looked at the Ferris Wheel longingly, as if doing so would turn it on. “I really wanted to go for one last ride before I left.”
He looked down at me, with half-watery eyes. “My Mom used to take me here all the time during the Summer Holiday. I just wanted to share that moment with you.”
He tried grabbing my hand, but I took a step back, disgusted by him. “That won't work. Just walk.”
He looked up at the Ferries wheel one more time and started walking with me down the street.
“My entire life is in that park you know,” he said, trailing his hands across the cage fence around the amusement park.
“Like I care?” I said.
“I wouldn't expect you too, I wouldn't expect anyone too. You, Jeanine, the machine...I wouldn't expect anyone. You're all tied in to your smartphones, and tablets and-”
“Oh God, shut up! I'm sick of it!” I yelled, rolling my eyes. “Materialism this, materialism that, can you and everyone else just shut up? I get it, materialism is taking over, but that doesn't mean humans are too far gone.”
He kept looking down at the block, while crossing his arms, the rifle still clasped tight around his shoulder. Thankfully enough, convenient enough, there was no one down the block with us. It was night time, and as Al said, “only the freaks come out.” But I didn't see any freaks but us.
TB4 sucked his teeth. “You know this park hasn't been used in ten years? That's how bad things have gotten. I want to change that.”
“With me?”
“Yes.”
“But how do you know I'll comply?”
“I know.”
I shrugged. “No, you don't. You're just grasping at straws here. Let me guess, big mamma Jeanine treated you wrong, and now you're rebelling against her. That's why you told us to just leave, and let Limp win. You didn't want to waste anymore time taking action against her and the Smart-asses. You'd probably capture me in some cage or whatever, kill them, and then use me for whatever purpose you have. You just missed one thing...”
He down at me as we started crossing the street, the light was red, but there were no cars out there, only the wind and the night.
“What?”
“Either way, you wouldn't have killed them. A one man army against millions in this city? Sounds like a last stand more than a way to become the King.”
He gulped. “As long as I kill Jeanine...that's what matters. She'll be here. She'll never pass up the opportunity to kill an Avirgent herself.”
We stood in front of the building now, and I paused. “What if you're wrong?”
“What?”
“I said, what if you're wrong?”
His mouth hung open, like some mentally retarded child, and his arms fell limp.
“I'm not wrong,” he said in a hollow, unconvincing tone.
He turned and started for the front doors, and I followed him.
---
He almost took my breath away the moment I saw him. Now, he's making me lose my stomach. TB4 wasn't cool, confident and calm. He was a sweaty, paranoid case of a man on the run from the Machiavellian government he wished to rebel against.
On top, the roof was cold and rigid. I felt small rocks crunching against my feet and saw soda-cans, human refuse, and cigarette butts rotting.
He took me to the edge, and there was a small ledge preventing someone from taking an easy fall. I never understood that. No matter how high you put a ledge up, someone will always find a way over it.
“I'm anticipating their appearance in-” BANG!
We jumped, TB4 knocked me back after the first gunshot hit the ledge. “Stay down! I got this!”
He put his eye into the scope, and started shooting away, recovering from the recoil of each hit.
“Aaah!” I heard someone shout below.
“You motherfucker! You motherfucker!” Shouted another man from below. He sounded almost exactly like Al.
I heard a machine gun roar and TB4 jumped back, and fell to the gravel. Above him, somehow I was able to see the bullets shoot the stars and the sky, almost in slow motion. I felt like I was in a dream, or some movie. Was this the Avirgent power?
TB4 looked at me straight in the eyes and said, “I'm not going to fail, I'm not going to fail.”
He got back up, and was hit square in the shoulder by a stray bullet. “Aaagh!” He fell to the floor clutching his arm and I crawled across the gravel to do whatever I could.
I took off my sweater and wrapped it around his shoulder. The night was cold but I had no choice.
“No! No!” He shouted. “Dammit, this wasn't supposed to happen!”
I finished wrapping it around his boney erect arm and said, “Yeah, well...it did.” I sighed. I guess we were both screwed. He was getting his just desserts soon, and I was soon to be destroyed for being different from everyone else, just because they assumed I
would do something to them. Maybe they were scared, or maybe they were just jealous. Maybe Jeanine, whoever the Hell that woman was, was just jealous of me. I'd know soon enough.
“He ain't got up for a couple of minutes,” I heard one of them whisper. Maybe another power from my Avirgent status. I could hear them whisper from twenty-stories high.
“He ain't?” said a rough voice. “You mean he 'didn't,' get up. You wanna speak like a freakin hick go live with my cousin sally in South downtown. She probably has another pick up truck just for you.”
“You're an asshole!”
“Rather be that, than a freakin' idiot. Come on everyone! She should be up there, hiding right with him.”
Shit! I ran for the door to the roof, but before I could, the door busted open. They were carrying rifles, and machine-guns.
Standing in front of me, holding a rifle up to my head was a pale white man wearing a designer suit, slicked back hair, and designer shoes.
One shoe was matted with blood, and the other was clean and pristine.
He smirked and said, “Well, ain't you a hot number, and the great white hope? You're gonna make a lot of money for me kid.”
---
“Two-Tone's the name, don't wear it out.” He raised his hand, putting his rifle at his shoulders. The ten other people behind him did the same. Three of them were the Asian people in the tattoo shop.
I notched a brow. “Two-Tone? As in, “Joey Two-Tone?”
“Yeah, you deaf?” said a short man behind him, with a squeaky voice.
Joey smacked him upside his head, and the group laughed.
“What was that for?”
“For being rude to this gorgeous lady. You know how the Two-Tone family treats women.” He took my hand and kissed it. He looked up at me with a sly smile. “With affection and tenderness. We treat them like Queens. Like the Queen she will soon be.”
He let my hand fall as I dropped my mouth in awe.
He looked down to TB4, still clutching his elbow. “Sorry fella, but you know how it is when the crown's up for grabs. Anyone can just reach out and grab it. Nothing personal.” He snapped his fingers. “John and Ying, get this guy to the nearest hospital quick.”
John and Ying were two muscular Asian men from the shop, and picked up TB4 like he were a ragdoll.
As they carted off TB4, he looked up to the sky almost hollow as if there were no soul in him and said, “I just wanted to change the world. That's all I wanted. Was that too much? That's all I-”
“Oh please, get out of here with that shit! You wanted to change the world my ass! Once Jeanine's crown was gone, you'd be out there parading yours like it were your own kid. Go sleep it off. You'll be fine in the morning ya crybaby.”
Joey Two-Tone lit a cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke into the air satisfied. He smiled at me with his bright teeth and patted my shoulder.
“So, how you doing?”
“Cold, but alright I suppose. TB4 has my sweater...don't take it from him. And...” I looked in the group and didn't see Juniper.
“Where's Juniper?”
Joey held his cigarette down as he held his head down and so did everyone else.
Joey looked deep into my eyes and said, “They got her. Girl confessed everything and yet they still sent her over that fence.”
I hung my head then, and couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She seemed like she was bored all the time, but I was getting ready to warm up to her quick.
“Anyway,” He inhaled his cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke. “We can't dwell on the past kid. Hell, I heard about little Al. Poor kid, but we gotta move on forward to what really matters.”
“What's that?”
“Your cooperation in killing Jeanine, and making this city all mine.”
“I'm all for killing Jeanine. I don't know much about her, but I hate her because I'm supposed too.”
“Good girl!” He laughed. “Very good. Alright, listen, they're going to-”
BOOM!
The building collapsed beneath us, but somehow we floated in the air as the rubble disintegrated to ash and smoke.
“What the Hell happened?!”
We were still floating in the air and I turned around, still floating. I saw a military army tank and the barrel of the tank's gun staring up at us. Jeanine was right there with the entire smart-ass faction-including my brother, standing with their noses tipped high to the air.
He yelled through a speaker, “Hey! Get down here Wonder Woman, so we can kill you!”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you're a menace to society. That's why!” yelled Jeanine. She was a blonde woman with a serious face and a pallid grin. Urrgh. “pallid grin.” Sorry, old me was coming out again and that was one of the few things I could use.
I stood up tall and raised my fists toward them, the evil empire that didn't seem so evil, but was only trying to protect themselves...wait.
“You will never have me! I will never back down! I will never bow for anyone!”
“You tell her!” yelled Joey Two-Tone, suddenly eating a subway sandwich.
I saw my Mom come out of the back of one building behind them and she said, “Sorry I couldn't make it earlier. Am I too late for the end?”
Jeanine smiled. “No, you just made it. This is the part where we kill their beloved YA heroine. Say hi to the Devil for me Mika Ock!”
I spouted back,” Why don't you go suck on a co-”
BANG! I felt something sharp hit the back of my head, and I fell to the floor.
“What the Hell?!” Shouted Joey Two-Tone in the last few seconds of my life. It didn't make any sense, it never made any sense, and it still doesn't. I was dead, and would never know why. I was killed by a freak in the night.
CHAPTER 8: THE FOREST OF MY DREAM
The world of the after-life was like a dream, just a vanilla coated world filled with Angels with bright blonde colored hair. And the only people were good looking people. No one ugly. It calmed my heart and satisfied me beyond anything I could ever imagine. Beyond my deepest desires, but like all good things, it didn't last for long.
I woke up, with the music of metal clashing against metal and bullets blazing, screaming in my ears. The man in shades was shaking me, telling me that the eggs were in the cars ignition or something.
“What the Hell do you mean?” I said.
“I don't know, I'm just spouting crap.”
“Oh. Well, okay. What's going on?”
“A war.”
“Am I alive?”
“Yes. It's time Ms. Mika Ock...to fulfill your destiny.”
“What destiny?”
“As the greatest Young Adult heroine of all time. As the greatest woman of all time. You died because the author felt like it would provide for much needed shock value and that killing you off would serve a greater purpose for the world. Everyone was fighting over you, for reasons unexplained. There are other Avirgents out there after-all.”
“How come I haven't seen them yet?”
“Because the author isn't experienced enough to handle several different characters that way. They keep killing off old ones, and adding new ones not very exciting. In the story this one is based on, you died almost exactly the same.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, but it was so stupid. Anyway, get yourself up, and look toward the sky again.”
I stood up and looked at the sky again. There were aliens and vampires floating above as well as humans shooting at them with missiles, and several other various firearms.
“It happened. The ones from beyond the fence.”
“Yup. You know, we can end this all right now if you want.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, with the snap of a finger. Just...end it all. Wouldn't that be nice? One finger, one choice to end it all...much like how one choice can lose a portion of your fanbase?”
“I suppose so.”
He nodded. “Alright then.” He snapped his fingers, and i
t was all over. There was no more fighting. There was just a silent street with a cool wind in the night. Off in the distance, the Ferris Wheel started lighting up in all colors of the rainbow on every spoke of the wheel and some pop music started playing out of it.
“Oh, the night is my love,
City light avirgent girl
In the day nothing matters
It's the night time that flatters
In the night, no control
Through the wall something's beating
Wearing white as you're running
Down the street of my soul...
The woman continued to sing and it felt like the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. It brought me to peace, it brought me to joy.
“Would you like to ride that Ferris Wheel?”
“Yes, I would definitely love to.”
He held out his hand and I took it. We transported into the Ferris Wheel instantly, and the world below us was like it were made by ants, and we were giants.
The old man was no longer creepy to me. He was like a grandfather I never had. He took off his shades and his eyes were a creamy blue and his smile wonderful.
The woman continued to sing from wherever she was.
“You take my self, you take my self control
You got me living only for the night
Before the morning breaks, the story's told
You take my self, you take my self control...”
“What's your name?” I asked.
“Dues Ex Machina. The ghost in the machine, the man that solves all problems before they become a problems. And a man that resolves all problems once they get out of control.”
The Ferries Wheel moves dream-like, very slow. “How come I never heard of you?”
Another night, another day rolls by
I never stop myself to ponder why
You help me to forget to play my role
You take my self, you take my self control...”
He shrugged. “Listen to that cute black friend of yours. She's right. Get out more,
