When Jude got to Mr. Lee’s convenience store, he looked through the glass window and saw that Iris’ dad was still there. The shelves of the convenience store were much emptier than before the tower, and there was only one customer inside. The customer was by the counter, paying for whatever he was getting, so Jude waited outside until the man left.
After that, he looked in again and saw Mr. Lee slumped over the counter with his hands over his face. Not wanting to prolong the old man’s suffering, Jude entered the store and flipped the open sign on the door to closed.
“Mr. Lee,” he called out.
The old man had been so absorbed by whatever was going through his head that he didn’t notice Jude come in. So, when he heard his name being called out, he stood up with a start. His eyes were slightly red, and when he saw Jude, they widened.
“Are you… real?” Mr. Lee asked as though questioning his own sanity.
“Yes, Mr. Lee. I’m real. Before I start, Iris is OK. She’s resting at my place right now.”
“Oh, God, son! Thank God!”
“It’s better that we don’t speak here. You heard about Time Square today, right? It’s related. Do you want to come back to my apartment so that we can tell you what happened?”
Mr. Lee was still stunned silent, tears streaming down his face. He couldn’t answer immediately, so Jude waited as the man recomposed himself. Suddenly, however, his cell phone rang. The caller ID had one word on it: daughter.
He answered.
“Dad?!”
“Iris!!”
“Oh, God, dad! You’re OK!”
Jude could hear sobbing from the other end.
“Thank God!” Mr. Lee repeated.
The conversation didn’t seem to be going anywhere since both of them were overcome by emotion, so Jude walked up to Mr. Lee, put his mouth close to the cell phone and said, “Iris! I’m bringing your dad over!”
“Jude! Oh, of course! Dad, go with him. We’ll see each other when you get here!”
Iris immediately realized that it was better that they spoke in person. It was New York, and there was a giant red tower in the middle of Time Square. The city already had a history of wiretapping citizens they deemed of risk, so any real conversations at that point had to be done in person, until they knew they were safe.
“Shall we, Mr. Lee?” Jude asked.
Iris had already hung up the phone, and though the older Asian man was still stunned by the revelation that his daughter was alive, he said immediately, “Lead the way.”
As they walked out, and Mr. Lee locked the store, Mr. Lee noticed the sign of the store being set to closed. He didn’t comment on it because his mind didn’t register the significance of it. All of his thoughts were on his daughter.
It took them no time at all to get back to Jude’s apartment. Mr. Lee was almost running, unable to contain his excitement. At some point, he actually got ahead of Jude and instead of following, he started looking back at the younger man for cues on where to go.
When Jude opened the door to the apartment, Iris rushed past him and slammed against Mr. Lee in a tight hug. They both cried while Jude locked the door behind them.
Seeing that it was going to take them a while to calm down, Jude said, “I’m going to change. You guys catch up.” He picked up a change of clothes and a towel and went into the bathroom to give them some privacy. Right after Christmas, Jude had bought curtains for the shower, so he set the clothes and the towel on top of the toilet lid and turned on the water.
The sound of the shower drowned the conversation outside. It was also his first proper shower in a month, so he stayed under the hot water for a while, letting it massage his aching body. Despite Iris’ Heal skill, Jude had new scars now, and the feeling of having his leg amputated stayed seared in his mind.
He closed his eyes while under the water and relived the entirety of the previous month while letting the idea that he was actually back sink in.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Because his relationship with his family wasn’t the best, he was sure most of them weren’t worried about not hearing from him. One month wasn’t actually a long interval for them not to speak, but he did want to send a message to his brother.
When he finally got out of the shower, both Iris and Mr. Lee were sitting on his bed. Iris had told him everything about the tower and about what had happened to them, and Mr. Lee was digesting the information.
“You… have powers now?!”
“Yes…”
“And all of those people died? You could’ve…”
“I’m OK, dad. We both are,” Iris said, stood up and walked over to Jude. “We survived. Some other people did too, but we don’t know who they are. We think that the explosions in the military base today were due to that.”
“But… This is crazy…”
“There’s a giant tower in the middle of Time Square, dad. Crazy is long gone, but here,” she said and turned to Jude, “can you show him your wings?”
“Sure. The apartment is too small for you to shadowstep around, after all.”
When Mr. Lee saw the spectral wings extend from Jude’s back, he felt the room spin.
“Water, please,” he said, and Jude promptly put away his wings and rushed to get Iris’ dad some water.
Iris rushed to her dad’s side and said, “I know it’s a lot, dad, but it’s all true.”
“But… Who did this?”
“We don’t know that yet,” Iris said, but she clenched her fists and added, “but we’ll find out.”
Noticing the intensity in her voice, Jude asked Mr. Lee, “Do you know anything about Nathan and Angela, sir?”
“Of course! That very day, while everyone thought it was a terrorist attack, they appeared at my house saying that Iris had disappeared. Angela had your purse, and she was telling me a weird story about you vanishing suddenly. I thought they had taken something, but it didn’t take long for the news to report on people vanishing with the appearance of the towers. Even with the people leaving the city, there are still journalists everywhere. Not as many as in those first couple of weeks, mind you. There had been nothing new to tell. Until now.”
“The government will probably try to keep a lid on the powers thing,” Jude said. “They’ll probably say those explosions were bombs by a disgruntled citizen or a terrorist organization. Until we get stronger, we should stay hidden.”
“What do you mean until you get stronger?!” Mr. Lee blurted out.
“Dad, we’re probably going back… We don’t know when, but we survived, so they’ll bring us back.”
“But…!”
“We don’t get to choose, dad.”
Mr. Lee went silent for a moment before saying, “Then you become the strongest you can, both of you. Thank you for being there for her and bringing her back safe, Jude.”
“She’s the one who saved my life, Mr. Lee. No thanks needed.”
“That’s because you are goddamned reckless! I get angry just thinking about it…” she blurted out.
Jude smiled at Mr. Lee, who nodded in return. The old man knew his child’s temper, but he also knew she only let it run amok when she felt comfortable with the person. Despite what Jude had said, Mr. Lee knew they had helped each other through that adversity and that if he hadn’t been there, his daughter might not have come back.
“Ugh! Stupid smile…” Iris muttered. She then turned to her dad and asked, “Where’s Angela, dad. Did she leave the city?”
“No, no. She stayed. Nathan wanted to leave. I think he could see her withering, but she stayed. They both stayed.”
“Can we call her here, Jude? She’s family.”
“That’s fine. I know what she means to you, so no worries.”
“Dad? Can you do it? I don’t wanna scare her.”
“Yes. I’ll have her meet me at the convenience store and walk her back here. You guys don’t leave. Jude, you already took a big chance going outside.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll bring you food and essentials.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Thanks, dad.”
Mr. Lee went back to his store then, and Iris turned to Jude and said, “My dad is OK.”
“He is.”
“Thank you,” she said and kissed him before he could reply. When their lips parted, she continued, “Can I shower? Do you have any clothes that would fit me?”
“I mean… They’ll still be big on you, but I can get a shirt, pants and a belt.”
He did just that and handed the items to her.
“A shower…”
“Yeah, it was nice. Take your time,” he replied.
Iris took her clothes off in front of him and walked into the bathroom.
“Tease…,” he muttered under his breath, then he picked her Fae clothes and her weapons and set them next to his. He didn’t see the red stone, but he could feel it in the middle of the fabric. He also felt a couple of test tube vials that seemed full due to their weight under his fingers.
While Iris showered, Jude turned on his cell phone. There were messages and missed calls. The missed calls seemed to be from the recruiter for his interview. In the last voicemail, the recruiter had left a rather angry message saying that the interview opportunity had been rescinded because Jude didn’t appreciate the opportunity enough to show up. The message had been left on January 5th.
There were texts from his family too. A bunch of them were from his mom, who had a tendency to react like the world was ending every time something bad happened, though this time she could be right.
Jude didn’t want to talk to her, however. Her intensity drained him most times, so he just sent a message back.
[I’m OK. Was traveling, but back in the city now. Didn’t have reception. Don’t worry.]
There were a lot of gaps in logic in that response, but he felt it would do to appease her, and there was no way he would go into details on what had happened.
His brother had sent him something too.
[You OK?]
To his brother, he didn’t embellish the truth, nor did he offer details.
[I’m OK. Back now. Come to the city if you can. We need to catch up.]
After a while, he started hearing singing coming from the bathroom. Jude smiled at that. Realizing that Iris was nowhere near done with her shower, he lay on the mattress bely up and closed his eyes.