When Harrison left class, his stroll from campus was tiresome. Usually it was due to his workload, but his mind now wondered about the type of day he was going to have.

Is this not what he wanted? He was planning on moving up the ranks, to get closer to finding answers, but now that it was slowly becoming reality, he felt himself backing out, turning cowardly.

“Harrison, are you going to study at the library today?”

“Can’t,” Harrison said. “I’m busy.”

Harrison sat in his car for a few minutes, his keys were in the ignition, but the engine was still off.

“This is what I wanted,” he said repeatedly with his eyes closed.

Beep! Beep! A car honked at him wanting his spot, and so he obliged and left.

Harrison pulled up to the usual parking garage that was a few miles from the hideout. He thought about driving to the hideout and parking his car there, since they already knew who he was, but if they were to somehow get busted by the police, he did not want his car in such a setting.

“Hello, Harrison,” Tac said.

“Hello,” Harrison said. He tried to hide the grimace in his face.

“You could have driven your car to the base,” Tac said. “But you probably don’t want your car to be associated with criminal activity.”

“Correct,” Harrison said. Why ask if she knew?

“You have a change of clothes?”

“I usually change in the back of my car.”

Tac tossed him a bag. “These are yours, from yesterday. I had them washed. You’re welcome.”

The clothes with blood? She should have just thrown them away or burned them. Through gritted teeth he said, “Thanks.”

“I tried calling you this morning,” Tac said. “Why didn’t you pick up?”

“I broke my phone in a fit of rage,” Harrison said. “Do you have other bodyguards?”

“It’s just you. I can handle things myself honestly, but you’re here for a reason, and your ability should be sufficient. What was it again?”

Was she trying to taunt him? If she knew all those other things about him, then she must know about his ability. For now limiting the amount of information about his ability to obtain a gauge of what she knew would be the best course of action. He would apply a bluff later on. “I have telekinetic abilities.”

“Yes!” Tac clapped. “Telekinesis is rare, right? Now, the true question is what type of telekinesis, and how strong? I did some research and found your university application. Rather desperate to showcase your ability just to get into a nice school, not to mention how you applied for your first part time job and blatantly told them all about your abilities.”

“I get it,” Harrison said.

His blood boiled. Sure, he was an idiot for revealing his telekinetic powers for the world to see, instead of first creating a bluff ability, but he did not need to be reminded about it. “You know everything about me. You get a kick out of this?”

“I do.” Tac laughed. “I haven’t told anyone yet, not even my boss. I did all the research on my own, well, not entirely. There’s another person in the equation, so if you decide to kill me then that person will go babbling.”

Harrison sighed. Even if she were the only one that knew, he would never kill her.

“You’re just toying with me.” Harrison thought out loud.

“I suppose I am.” Tac said. “Honestly, I’m quite bored. I need some excitement. You appear to be a nice challenge.”

A challenge? He thought. His blood bubbled even more.

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“What are we doing today?” Harrison said, although he regretted asking. He would have preferred to stall for more time.

“Get changed, and we’ll start.”

Harrison changed into a black button-up and matching black dress pants. He tossed on a pair of reflective sunglasses and roughed up his hair to finish the look.

“That looks more like Harry,” Tac said. “Although, I think you could do better with different attire.”

“I bought these at a second-hand store. I just grabbed things I don’t usually wear.”

“Looks a little big. I think it would suit you better if it were more your size. Here—” She grabbed his arm, and the clothing fabric tightened to better fit his body, “—that looks better.”

“Thanks,” Harrison said. Was that her ability just now? What did she do?

Harrison thought about how her ability was now on him. Was that how her ability worked? A condition that she must touch her target? The idea explained why she was so touchy, so he tucked that bit of information for later.

He wanted to know more, to ask about her ability, but that would only cause suspicion. He knew that it felt like having needles stabbing at the body, but he wasn’t entirely sure how it worked. He never experienced or heard it personally, his information only from idle talks from other members, and indirect usages such as just now.

Based on what he knew, the way she made his clothes tighter was similar to how a pin will insert at one end and enter another, binding at the end point.

Harrison flexed his arm with a new concern on his mind. “Your ability won’t stab me?”

“Only the parts I want it to,” Tac said.

Harrison felt that answer was enough. He already asked too much.

Harrison and Tac walked through the downtown area. The older buildings matched with the aesthetic of the train station. Restaurants filled with students just getting out of school juxtaposed with the elderly enjoying their retirement. The pair walked in silence.

It took five minutes for Harrison to realize that this was not a casual stroll with a friend. His body filled with goosebumps, unsure of the dangers that Harrison was protecting Tac from. He closed his eyes and focused. He pushed against the ground beneath him, and suddenly he felt the thumping of every person downtown, wheels pushing against pavement, cars and bikes alike, and the opening and closing of every door. This took a strenuous toll on his ability, so he lessened the radius to a humble fifteen feet.

He opened his eyes again, realizing the many vantage points there really were. Even in its old age, the downtown area grew in size and changed its style of building. Particularly, the new parking garage was still a couple of stories shorter than the tallest building in the area. Add the many different abilities that humans were able to wield, and the dangers only multiplied.

“Is there a particular person I’m protecting you from?”

“Yes,” Tac said. “We’ve been having trouble from a fire user lately. At least that’s what the lowers tell us when they get beat up and interrogated. They say the person is a skilled fighter able to predict a person’s every movement. It’s a tiny stain on our reputation. The highers are saying that it’s a rival org, but I think that it’s just another bored vigilante.”

“Just one person?” Harrison asked.

“Just one fighting, but I wouldn’t doubt that someone else is feeding them info,” Tac said. “Is that all the information you need? I honestly don’t think they’ll be a problem. I doubt I’m in that person’s radar, at least for now.”

“I guess that’s enough,” Harrison said. Although, more information would probably help him protect her better.

“Today is my off day anyway,” Tac said. “I’m just doing some errands, and then some.”

“And then some,” Harrison mumbled to himself.

Tac and Harrison spent the next few hours doing what Tac called errands. Errands turned out to be her looking at a bunch of items, wondering if she should buy them, and inevitably setting them back down. At this point, Harrison had lowered his guard to a ten-foot radius. His ability was clocking in dry, but this was a good exercise to test his limits.

At their final location, a jewelry store, Harrison said, “You said that you only have one bodyguard. Are you searching for any more? Because you know, I have school…”

“Nope.”

“I really have school,” Harrison said.

“You should have thought about that before you decided to join a gang,” Tac said. “You know some students work full time, and still do well. Go part-time if you need to.”

“You said that the vigilante wasn’t a problem.” Harrison persisted.

“I did,” Tac said as she eyed another watch. “Think of it as a punishment for joining a gang when you didn’t need to. You know that you’re still getting paid, right?”

Harrison had forgotten all prospects of money.

Tac looked up. “Really? You’re not in this for the money? Is power what you really want? You do know that money brings power?”

Harrison remembered that he should still be putting up a character. If she still believed that his goal was to obtain power, then that is what he would give her. “Doesn’t mean much if you’re still at the bottom.”

“You’re funny, Harrison,” she said. “Don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to rank up. You went from product seller to my bodyguard, and I’d say I’m pretty high up there. That’s good progress.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Harrison said. He was exhausted at this point.

Tac ended up not buying a single thing that day. A car pulled up on the side of the street to pick her up. It had black-tinted windows, and no way to look inside.

A man opened the door for her, and she lingered half-way between being inside and outside the car. “We have another eventful day ahead of us tomorrow. Make sure you get well rested.”

Harrison watched as the car drove off. The car turned blurry, the taillights now eerie blotches of red. Harrison staggered forward and realized that everything around him turned blurry as well, until it all turned to darkness. He dropped down, and his body was now motionless. He tried to fight it, to get back up, to open his eyes, but he failed, and he went to sleep.