She found Sara in her car with a blank look on her face, nails bleeding from biting them and sweaty. She smelled slightly from being locked in her car, and she had not showered yet. She had not slept either, as it was impossible with the crowd, the lights, the sounds, and especially the calls for revenge against the mayor.
Delilah pulled her out of the car. She was dressed to the nines, knowing that by the time she arrived the police and news would be there to harass her with questions.
“Why did you come like this,” she groaned. “If they see you like this they will think we aren’t taking this seriously!”
“I rushed right over,” Sara said. “I haven’t left since 10. I can’t.”
She sobbed and her mother held her. Sara was much taller than her, and yet Delilah could never stop seeing her as a small child.
This is all my fault, Delilah thought. I need to protect her from Max.
Delilah rubbed her back and squeezed her tight. “Sa-Sa, I need you to go home and rest up, okay,” she cooed. “Come back later. I’ll handle this.”
Sara nodded and got in her car. She drove off, very slowly, trying to make it through the crowd. Delilah sighed and smoothed out her dress.
If Max doesn’t pick up I’ll kill him before these people do, Delilah told herself.
She found the first reporter she laid eyes on, and immediately he recognized her. Delilah told him that she would make an announcement at 8 AM, and invited the press. Within ten minutes everyone in his inner circle found out, within thirty all the news channels on the eastern seaboard were already sending their own field reporters.
Delilah locked herself inside her car, trying to avoid the angry conspiracy theorists while planning the news announcement. She called her husband, and yet again, it rang and rang, and he never picked up.
Maximilian was fast asleep.
He was with Mary Sue, in his luxury hotel suite, after they spent time all night, rubbing up against each other, sweaty and excited, the thrill of infidelity their only lasting connection.
He didn't wake up until 9 AM, and he didn't check his phone until 11 AM, deep into his vacation.
He just got out of the shower and was in his bathrobe, drying his hair as he picked up his phone. “So many messages,” he mumbled to himself.
Can’t they leave me alone for three days?
Most of the messages were from Delilah, which wasn’t strange. As he scrolled through them he began to panic.
“Mary,” Maximilian shouted. “Get in here now!”
Mary Sue ran out of the shower, hearing the urgency in his voice.
“We need to leave, now,” he shouted.
“What’s wrong,” Mary Sue asked.
She was still naked and dripping wet all over the carpet, her brown hair sticking to her shoulders and neck. Maximilian was getting dressed as he explained to her the situation.
“Some fucking idiot blocked the entire campus, Mary Sue,” he screamed.
He was red in the face and screaming at the top of his lungs, enraged that someone had taken something that was his.
“No one can get in! Can’t get out! Who the fuck, why, who did this,” he shouted.
He put on his blue dress shirt and tried to put on his tie. He was so enraged he couldn’t. He almost strangled himself as he tried to tie a simple knot.
Mary Sue followed suit, quickly getting dressed. She wore knee-length shorts that clung to her body, a simple white tank top, and a giant hoodie that said I Get It Done. She was never picky about her choice of clothing, confident that she could win any fight. She knew that whatever happened she could deal with it in an hour. She could do anything.
It was true.
Mary Sue was the rare one in ten million, those who were born with two abilities instead of one.
The second ability was possible only because of her first, Unlimited Luck. No matter where she went or what she did, she was always at the right place, at the right time, and everything would always work out some way, somehow.
Her second was Adaptation. After a few hits from any enemy, she could meet their strength. From any situation, her body and mind would soon learn how to change to fit her current need. Once the situation was over, of course, she lost all the acquired skills, but her luck still stayed, making her almost invincible.
Almost.
Still furious and enraged Maximillian could not focus. He had lost his cool the more messages he read, the more voicemails he listened to. He searched through his bags for his key and started to panic the more he searched.
"I can't find my key," he said in a panic.
“I’ll find it,” Mary Sue said.
She simply guessed, and opened the end table drawer, as it didn’t matter where she looked with her ability. The key was there of course, even though Maximillian had checked it earlier, and it was not.
It emitted a soft yellow glow and Maximillian greedily took it from her hand.
“Let’s go,” he commanded. “We can come back when this is all done. We can handle it in a few hours.”
He took the key and pushed it into the hotel suite’s door. The door frame glowed and Maximillian turned the key.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“I truly think this is most useful of all those cursed objects,” Maximilian said. “A shame I can only use it three times a day”.
He opened the door and walked through it with Mary Sue.
They came out on the other side, outside the campus, surrounded by the crowd, the vendors, the doomsday preachers, news vans, and nosy nellies. Delilah had long made her press conference announcement, and it helped to quell the fears of most people but it simply amplified the strange beliefs of the conspiracists. While calling her on her phone, Maximilian and Mary Sue searched through the crowd looking for her and finally found her.
She was sitting in her car, windows rolled up and tinted, blocking out the noise of the protestors who would possibly get tired and leave after a week.
He opened the door and scared her, making her shriek.
“Delilah what is going on,” Maximilian asked.
His hair was still wet, his tie was loose, and Delilah almost didn’t recognize him, if not for the permanent scowl on his face.
“Someone authorized an event 49,” Delilah groaned.
Mary Sue covered her hands with her face and Maximillian saw red. His vision blurred, his blood pressure skyrocketed and he wanted to punch the closest person next to him, but couldn't because people were surrounding them.
“I’ll go home and get one of those talking shoes or whatever and come back,” Maximilian said. “In the meantime I want you to keep everyone distracted.”
They’re doing that fine on their own, Delilah thought.
Maximilian left and Mary Sue was left with Delilah. Mary Sue panicked, realizing that her hair was also wet and that she arrived with Maximillian. Delilah did not mention it and simply invited Mary Sue to wait in her car. Mary Sue nervously got in, and smiled, trying to make small talk. Delilah already knew about their affair, she just didn't say anything about it because it wasn't the right time.
“Sue, have you been able to get a hold of the kids,” Delilah asked.
“No,” she sighed. “I’m so worried. I know Levi and Jane are strong but what about the other kids? What about Dexter?”
Delilah's chest hurt thinking about her son being trapped there. She wanted to join the other parents outside, screaming and banging but it was no use. She had seen the butchered man, and those lucky enough to simply hurt themselves trying to get past the dome.
“Let’s stay calm,” she told Mary Sue. “We can’t lose focus or else we will just make it worse.”
Mary Sue nodded but her face was still grim.
“Did he tell you about how to open it,” Mary Sue asked.
"No. He looks so angry right now I doubt he will listen to anyone who speaks."
Mary Sue rolled down the window and saw the angry and confused parents trying to get inside, yelling at police officers.
Why am I just doing nothing, she thought. These people are weaker than me and they’re fighting for their kids.
“I’m going to get inside,” Mary Sue declared.
“Please don’t try,” Delilah pleaded. “A man died, several lost limbs, one burnt himself.”
“All from one shield?”
“Yes, and I have a feeling that won’t be the worst thing that will happen when all of this is over.”
Delilah’s car door opened again, and it was Maximillian.
“We’re going to turn off the signal booster,” he declared. “Hopefully everyone is inside, bored without electricity and no one is hurt.”
Again using his celestial object, Maximilian took Delilah and Mary Sue with him to the other side of town to an old office building. The moment the woman at the front desk saw him she knew what he was there for.
“Mr. Slater, I want you to know that we can’t turn it off,” she said in exasperation. “It’s broken.”
Maximilian went right up to the front desk and slammed his hands on it. The secretary flinched and cowered underneath his leering gaze.
“Explain quickly or else,” he threatened her.
“Max stop,” Delilah said. “She’s just-”
“Shut up,” he hissed. “Now is not for your nonsense.”
The secretary looked at her hands, afraid to look Maximillian in the eyes, and trembled.
"The outside failsafe switch is broken," she said quietly. "No one fixed it since the Academy opened."
Maximilian’s eyes went wide. There was no one to blame for this simple administrative oversight except him, and possibly a few others.
“That place opened twenty years before I was born,” Maximilian screamed. “You’re telling me no one fixed it in almost seventy years!?”
The secretary meekly nodded, trying to hold back tears. She was afraid to lose her job and her life. Levi learned from his father how to get what he wanted through anger and intimidation. Maximillian was a giant looming man, his pale face and hair making him look more like a vengeful ghost than a man.
He leaned forward, puffing himself up, knowing that she was afraid. Maximillian needed someone else to blame for his problems, and she was the closest one.
"It's not broken," she mumbled. "It's -"
“Then what is the problem,” Maximilian screamed.
“Let her speak,” Mary Sue snapped. Maximilian glared at her and then was finally silent so she could speak.
“No one can tell if it's really broken because it's so old. They don’t make anything like it anymore. We don’t know how to use it and it’s rusty.”
“Take me to it,” Maximilian said.
The secretary led them all upstairs. Up the elevator, two floors through the stairwell, and onto the roof, they arrived at the fail-safe mechanism. People were already surrounding it, trying to understand how it worked. None so far had figured out how.
“What is taking so long,” Maximilian screamed.
A bald sweaty man in khakis holding a toolbox glared at him, not knowing who he was and not caring to find out.
“If you know so much, why don’t you try to fix it,” he snapped.
Maximilian promptly pushed him aside and closed the small door to the box. It let out a loud screech as the door was rusty and refused to shut easily. He pushed it again, much harder, and then it closed.
It fell over on the ground, the small electrical box, exposing its wires.
Everyone glared at Maximillian as he went stiff.