Six months Later
Julia Fines
It was windy on the ferry. Really windy. Not like she hadn’t expected it, it just always seemed to catch her off guard. Still, she liked standing on the deck. It was fun to watch as the skyline of New York shifted from a point you rarely got to see. Most of life was boring, and it was always nice to enjoy something novel once in a while. She glanced back behind her, at the Hortz-Bruig Penitentiary then the Statue of Liberty and finally back to Manhattan.
Well, while it was nice to enjoy the novel, she had to focus. Now that the capacitors were finished, her mission, her plan, it was do-able. The entirety of New York was wrapped up in a stable negative energy field more than a hundred times average and the machine would finally work. She’d finally be able to escape this utterly mundane existence, and help others do the same.
How long had she spent making it? Ten years? Fifteen? Well, it depended on what you considering the starting point. Really, she’d gotten fascinated by the idea in her first years of high school, and it had steadily grown into an obsession. She smiled to herself. She couldn't quite believe it. The finish line was finally within reach. The notion brought forth a childlike giddiness within her, reminding her of the early days she’d spent researching and building small contraptions in the upper floors of her former high school.
It was a shame the building had been bought out by a different company. They’d kept the school, but when she’d visited before, it hadn’t been the same. A different vibe, name and uniform. The upper floors had still been off limits though. They’d nearly relocated after the Chinatown explosion – what, nearly two years ago, now? But they’d stayed, and now they’d invited her back as a speaker for some sort of science day. They said she was a former student, which technically was, but that wasn’t why she’d agreed to it. She’d agreed to it because of the memories.
How fitting, she thought, that she’d end all this exactly where it’d started. Same time off year and everything. Like a sign from God. She smiled to herself. She’d do it today. Everything was already prepared. She’d made sure of that – especially with the capacitors, so there was no need to wait until after her talk to the student body. Hell, if she tested it well enough, she wouldn’t have to tell the students it was all theory. Her smile widened. Oh, how she couldn't wait. It had finally arrived. The culmination of her life.
----------------------------------------
He was surrounded by darkness. An endless sea of darkness and blood. Voices echoed through the darkness, but one was more prominent than the others. He tried to ignore it, but the sound of her voice brought back too many emotions, too much guilt. Her screech echoing through his mind, twisting into the monster’s roar as darkness and blood consumed him.
--
I sat up gasping, hands firmly gripping the bed tightly. I pulled them away, blinking through tears as my hands came into focus.
"Shit"
My claws were out dripping with venom, onto the bedsheets again. I cursed, pulling them back quickly as I tried to steady myself, let the fear fade. I gripped my hands together tightly, pressing the fists hard against my head. I closed my eyes willing my body to stop shaking. It wasn't working.
“Lucas?” a familiar voice said in the darkness.
“I’m fine Eric”
“You sure? You haven't cried out in a wh-”
“I'm fine" I said curtly, quickly pulling myself back under the covers. Eric didn't say anything else, and I felt a pang of guilt. I shook my head. I couldn’t miss out on any sleep, I had the science outreach thing tomorrow. I couldn't show up sleep deprived. I shut my eyes, shutting out the memories and focusing on sleep. Still Amy's scream lingered in the back of my mind.
-
“And that, kids, is why the big bang is the leading theory on how the universe was created. Pretty cool, right? That’s pretty much it for the presentation, does anyone have any questions?”
The elementary schoolers all stared at me with wide eyed blank expressions. I chuckled nervously.
“No one?”
A kid raised his hand.
“Perfect. What do you want to ask Timmy?” the teacher said.
“Is it like a bomb?”
“Uh…” I said, caught slightly off guard.
“My Dad says bombs are bad. And he says- he said that Mr Osborne is tryna make one and he’s a no good piece of-”
“Alright!” the teacher cried out loudly, standing up. ”I think that’s enough for today everyone” she said, her face flushing red.
“But he didn’t answer Timmy’s question” another kid said. An echo of assent came from a few of the other kids.
“Quiet now, we don’t want to be rude to kind Mr Luca do we”
The kids grumbled but stopped talking, all looking to the teacher. I furrowed my brow. That was the second teacher who’d misremembered my name. Eh, I guess it was close enough. At the very least it was closer than what the other guy had guessed.
“Now, does anyone have any more reasonable questions?”
No hands went up.
“Then I think we’re done for the day” she said, turning to me and nodding.
“I… yeah”
My face fell slightly as the teacher turned back to the class.
“Kids, what do we say to nice visitors?”
A chorus of unenthusiastic thank you’s came from the class. I nodded back, forcing a smile.
“Thanks for having me everyone”
“Alright. Ms Greene can you escort Luca to reception please?”
“Of course” the teaching assistant said. She took my USB out of the laptop, handed it to me and quickly we stepped out the room, starting towards the reception.
As we made our way through the halls, I could barely think about anything besides the presentation. I’d totally bombed. I cringed. I’d been so bad I probably wouldn’t have been able to get a reaction out of francium and water, let alone elementary kids. I probably hadn’t been able to get anything out of them because I kept making dumb jokes like that. I sighed. Why had I changed the plan? I should’ve stuck to the original.
Suddenly the teaching assistant, Ms Green, turned to me.
“Thank you so much for coming. Everyone here really appreciates that your school does a science outreach program like this” she said, with a bright smile.
“No worries” I said, giving an awkward nod. She seemed overly excited about it. Maybe her kid went here? No, she looked too young for that. A sibling?
“I’m sure some of the kids will remember your presentation and decide to pursue science in the future”
“Thanks, but I don’t think my presentation was that great”
“Really? I thought it was pretty cool”
“Oh not the presentation itself, more so my delivery. Usually the kids seem a bit more interested”
“Oh... sorry about that” she said, her face falling.
“Wait, sorry, that came out wrong. It’s not the kids’ fault, I just changed the way I usually do things” I said, as we slowed, then stepped through a set of doors into the empty reception room.
“Oh. Well it’s still great that you do this. Good luck next time”
“Thanks for having me” I responded. She left with a small wave, and I gave a small wave back.
As the doors closed behind her I turned and took a seat in one of the chairs. I glanced at the receptionist and then stared at my feet. The teaching assistant had seemed nice. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that this was the last time we were doing this. I glanced up at the clock in the corner of the room. Geez. I’d finished seven minutes early, for what was supposed to be a twenty-minute presentation. I groaned and leant back in my seat.
I’d tried to be funny, but the kids hadn’t really cared, and then I’d lost them by asking too many questions they couldn’t answer. Then I’d abandoned the questions and the plan all together and sped through everything. Welp, I should’ve just stuck to my old strategy. At least the assembly had seemed fun for the kids.
The doors swung open again and a classmate walked into the reception alone, grinning. He spotted me and his grin widened.
“Why the long face man?” Rion said.
“I totally bombed”
“Seriously? I thought you’re great with kids?”
“Yeah, well after that stuff at the last school I tried to change my approach, but…” I sighed.
“If they weren’t listening you should just get them to colour while you talk. It’s what I do” he said with a shrug. I frowned.
“I don’t think that’s how were supposed to do things”
He shrugged again and stretched out before leaning back in his seat.
“You think the others are gonna be finished soon?”
“Lauren’s group usually overrun by a few minutes, so I’d give it like ten minutes”
He groaned and looked to the ceiling. We sat in silence for a few seconds, before Rion turned to me.
“Has Quinten told you, what college he’s going to commit to yet?”
“Nope. I don’t think even his mum and sister know. Well Auntie probably knows, but I think they both find the whole secrecy thing fun”
“Bummer. If it was my cousin I’d want to know for sure”
“I don’t mind really. It’s his big thing, so he can choose what he wants to do. He seems happy” I said with a shrug. “Though I do think he’ll pick ESU”
“So, you do know!?” Rion said with a laugh.
“Nah, I’m just guessing. He could surprise us” I said, grinning back. We both turned as the doors to the reception opened and a Eric walked in, from the look of it, his mind elsewhere.
“Finally done huh?” Rion said.
“Huh?”
“We’ve been waiting ages” Rion joked.
“Hey, don’t blame me, you guys are the ones who finished early”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Hey. Maybe we’re just more efficient” Rion joked.
“Sure” Eric said sitting down.
“Wait, you’re not usually this early. Something happen?” I asked.
“Yeah, a kid threw up. Everyone lost focus after that, so I just let them colour while I talked”
“See?” Rion laughed, turning to me.
“Fair enough” I said, leaning back in my chair.
“What about you two?” Eric said.
“Nah, the kids were well behaved. No problems”
“None here either. Well… some kid did ask whether the big bang’s like a bomb. I guess he’s not exactly wrong, but I wasn’t exactly expecting it”
The other two chuckled slightly before Rion spoke up.
“Talking about bombs, did you see in the news, that stuff with the new Spider guy and girl?” Rion said. Instantly I stiffened. “They beat some villain throwing bombs about near my house. No one got hurt, but it’s crazy right? ” Rion said. Eric spared a glance at me, before looking to Rion.
“Yeah. Hey, who do you think’s gonna win this week the Yanks or the Blue Birds?” Eric said. Rion frowned but continued the conversation, his passion for baseball overcoming his irritation over seemingly being ignored. As they spoke, I pulled away from the conversation. I felt far away. My heart echoed in my ears, as a familiar feeling crept up into my stomach, but I forced it down, calming myself. I was fine. Just don’t think about it. Don’t think about anything.
“Lucas? Hey man you okay?” Rion asked, his voice cutting. I looked up, meeting his eyes.
“I’m fine. Well I will be when you two stop arguing about baseball” I said, grinning.
“Ass” Rion said, rolling his eyes as he turned back to talk to Eric.
Then the doors to the reception opened again, and a bunch of students walked in, Yerin and Keiko among them. Yerin looked around as she entered then made her way over, sitting beside me.
“How’d it go?” I asked her.
She let out an exaggerated sigh and rested her head against my shoulder.
“I take it not good?”
“Nope. One of the kids kept interrupting me. Teacher didn’t do anything. What about you?”
“I totally bombed”
“Really? The questions didn’t work?”
“Nope. They all seemed to just zone out. Not to blame them. I would’ve bored me too”
“It probably wasn’t that bad. You’re being harsh on yourself again”
“I think you’d change your mind if you saw me”
She rolled her eyes.
“Well it’s over now. We just have to write out that report and we’re done”
“Are you still talking about your presentations?” Rion said.
“Huh? Yeah?”
“You two take this too seriously”
“Well, it kind of is serious” Keiko said, with a frown.
“Yeah, but it’s over now!” Rion said with a bit too much enthusiasm. A few others laughed, before everyone went back to their own conversations.
“For the report do you want to write it this weekend, or are you busy?” I asked.
“No, I can do this weekend”
“Oh, that reminds me. This is gonna sound bad, but when’s her birthday again?”
Yerin frowned, glancing up at me.
“22nd”
“I knew it was in the twenties”
“That doesn’t exactly comfort me. I remember your sisters’ birthday’s, you know?”
“That’s not fair, you and Sofia are both in the same club. And do you really expect me to believe you remember Maria’s birthday?”
“It’s… early September”
“November actually” I chuckled.
“Ok, that’s fair. Why’d you want to know?”
“Just to make sure I had my dates right. Means I can get something now before I have to start thinking about graduation and stuff”
Yerin let out another heavy sigh and slumped against my shoulder.
“I can’t believe we’re gonna graduate soon”
“Yeah, it feels like we were freshman only a few months ago”
Yerin chuckled as lay against my arm, before her smile faded and she pulled away.
“You, okay?” she said concerned.
“Yeah? Why?”
“I don’t know, you seem tense”
“Well, I did just bomb in front of thirty seven year olds”
“Don’t joke Lucas”
“I’m fine. Really” I said. She furrowed her brow slightly before taking my hand. We both glanced back to the door as more students entered, Lauren’s group entering last.
Lauren quickly took roll, and then thanked the receptionist and one of the faculty, before we all stood, and made our way to leave.
“Now I can go home and rest” I said stretching out.
“What? It’s only three” Keiko said.
“Yeah, and I mean we have got litter duty after this” Rion said.
I groaned.
“I thought you liked litter duty?” Yerin asked.
“Only when you’re doing it too. When it’s just me Eric, and Rion, they just argue about whose baseball team is better”
“Hey, we don’t argue” Eric said.
“Sure” I chuckled.
“Yeah, they’re just heated debates man. It’s not my fault Eric can’t see how great the Yanks are”
“Seriously?” Eric said turning to him. They immediately devolved into an argument as I chuckled to myself.
“You want me to ask if you can do the litter pick instead?” Yerin said.
“What? No way, you’ve been looking forward to helping out with the science thing. I’ll be fine”
-
I was anything but fine. My back hurt for no reason, I was more tired than usual and it felt like Eric and Rion’s “debates” would never end.
“Mani is way better than Hernandez”
“Seriously?! He sucks! I can’t believe you’d even compared Mani to Hernandez”
“How can you even say that!? Mani’s average at worst. Hernandez should be in the fucking minors.”
I’d been trying to tune it out, but I didn’t have anything. I groaned silently to myself. Maybe I should’ve gotten invested in baseball when we’d first befriended Rion. I sighed. It was too late now.
I pulled away, coming to a stop slightly further ahead than the rest of the group. I poked at another piece of rubbish before lugging behind my bin bag with me. As I came to a stop, I paused and glanced up, recognising a familiar mural of the Vanguard. Someone was repainting it, new costumes and all. A small smile play on my lips as I gave them a wave. Time really flew by didn’t it. Ryan would be in his third year of college now, wouldn’t he?
I looked around, taking in the summer air as I looked at all the other volunteers I’d grown familiar with. I didn’t think I was the type to get so sentimental, but I guess anyone got attached to things they enjoyed. I turned back to picking up the rubbish when I spotted the only silver hi vis among the group. A bit further out, even slightly ahead of me, Xavier picked litter by himself.
I frowned as I watched him. He’d been with us a few weeks now. A freshman. I didn’t know what he’d done, to be forced to be here, but he never spoke to anyone. He didn’t seem like a bad kid. Maybe I should talk to him?
I made my way over to him.
“Hey. Xavier, right?” I said. He glanced at me, his face set in a half scowl mixed with defensiveness.
“Y-yeah?”
“I’m Lucas, I’ve seen you around here a lot, just thought I’d introduce myself”
He nodded awkwardly.
“You’re a first year right? You in any other clubs?”
“Baseball”
“Oh. My friends are baseball crazy” I said, chuckling. “You’ve probably heard them argue about it week in and week out”
“Yeah” he mumbled.
“You got any other hobbies?” I asked.
“Uh… I like videogames”
“Oh yeah? What kind?”
“Mostly racing games”
“Oh cool”
He nodded, continuing to pick up litter.
“You got a favourite superhero form the Vanguard?” I asked.
He glanced back at me, still clearly not wanting to talk, then shrugged.
“Sorry man, I’ll get out your hair”
I stepped back, cringing internally. Great. Still as awkward as ever. I sighed and picked up some rubbish before pausing then looking back to him.
“Hey Xavier” I said.
“Yeah?” he responded, turning to me.
“You don’t have to talk to anyone if you really don’t want to, but trust me, it makes this thing a lot more fun”
He stared at me blankly for a few more seconds. I flashed him a thumbs up, and then made my way back over to Eric and Rion.
-
Just finished up. I’ll be with you in a sec.
I smiled, reading the text over again as I sat in the senior common room. Yerin had finished early. It meant there was time for the surprise today before curfew. It was a bit risky, but if she was down, then it’d be amazing.
“Hey Lucas? You want a turn?” Eric said offering me a pool cue.
“Nah, I’m about to leave” I said.
“With Yerin? You two going out to eat or something?” Rion asked.
“Something like that”
“Fine, I guess I’ll just let Kasun keep whooping our asses then” Eric said. We all burst out laughing, before Rion took the cue and began his battle against Kasun.
I looked to the entrance. A few other helpers were coming into the common room now. I stood and made my way out into the hall. Yerin came around the corner, all smiles as she talked with a few others. She noticed me, and quickly rushed over still grinning.
“How was it?”
“Dr Fines was amazing! She got really enthusiastic when I told her I was gonna study physics at college and gave me her email. She even told me about a summer internship she plans to do with her company next year. They haven’t even put it up on their website yet so I’ve basically got a head start on the whole application. I can’t believe it. My parents are gonna lose it. God I’m so excited. I want to do it all now”
“You’re really excited for this aren’t you?” I said, smiling.
“Huh? Oh yeah” she said, her face flushing.
“It’s good. I like it when you seem happy”. Her face flushed further.
“So, what’d you want to do? We’ve got like two hours before curfew”
“Well you know that surprise I kept telling you about?”
“Yeah?”
“I think today’s the perfect day for it. The weather’s great for it“
“The weather?”
I grinned.
“Yeah, you’re gonna love it”
-
Together, Yerin and I trudged through the dank and musty halls of the school’s upper floors.
“Should we really be up here?”
“Technically? No. But security’s so poor I like to think they want us up”
“Lucas”
“Sorry. We’ll be fine. And you’re gonna love the view”
“Fine, but if we get in trouble, I’m pinning it on you”
“That’s fine. But you don’t have worry, we won’t get caught. I’ve done this before”
“I gathered. Still don’t think it’s a good idea”
“We’ll only be like five minutes”
“Fine”
We continued down the hall.
“I won’t actually pin it on you, you know?”
“Huh?”
“If we get caught, I won’t actually pin the blame on you“
“I really don’t mind. I mean I did bring you up here”
“And I choose to come silly. I’m just as much at fault”
“Fair”
We carried on walking, in silence.
“Now that I think about it you’re always doing that”
“Doing what?”
“Just… accepting unnecessary trouble or blame”
“Really?”
“I don’t know. I thought I was thinking about it too deeply, but it’s kind of a recurring pattern, don’t you think?”
I shrugged, offering a non-committal hum in response before we turned another corner. Had I taken a wrong turn somewhere? I paused as we passed a slightly ajar door. Weird. There wasn’t as much dust here. I peered inside. A large tarp covered something circular, with power lines running out from underneath it.
What the hell was that?
“What’s wrong?”
“Can we take a look in here first? There’s something cool in here I don’t recognise” I said.
“Does it look dangerous?”
“No?”
“That’s not exactly comforting”
“Please? I’ll be five seconds”
“Fine”
I slipped inside and looked around. In the corner of the room were a few boxes that looked like they had equipment inside. Interesting. I carried on forward, reaching the tarp, before lifting slightly to peer underneath. Two large metal rings towered above me, side by side. They were unnaturally, possessing an almost otherworldly quality.
“Holy shit” I mumbled, “Babe come look at this” I said, intrigued. Yerin made her way over and I lifted the tarp higher as she looked at it.
“Woah. What do you think it is?”
“Probably something to do with power. But they’re pretty big and they’ve got no dust on them. They’re definitely new”
“Well, they look expensive. Who do you think assembled them?”
“No clue. I can’t see a company logo or anything”
I frowned, before reaching out towards the machine to touch it.
“Lucas don’t touch it”
“I’ll be fine” I said. I made my way closer and looked at the edge of the ring. My spider-sense buzzed, catching me off guard, but I pushed it to the back of my mind and tenderly touched the machine. Even with barely any pressure I felt the edge sting my finger. Geez that was sharp.
I pulled away and quickly licked the blood off my finger.
“Did you cut yourself? Seriously? I told you not to touch it”
“Sorry” I said sheepishly.
She took my hand, and gently prodded my finger before rolling her eyes.
“Let’s go back and get you a plaster, this was silly anyway”
“It’s not that bad”
“It’s dirty up here, I don’t want your finger falling off because you got an infection from whatever the hell is up here”
“I won’t touch anything else, I promise. Come on, you’ll really like the roof”
She furrowed her brow before sighing.
“Fine. But no more detours this time”
“Right”
We quickly made our way out of the room as I glanced behind us at the large white tarp. I shrugged and we continued through the halls before reaching the familiar grated door. I pushed it open.
“Jesus, it’s musty in here” Yerin said, holding her nose.
“Don’t worry, it’s nicer up there” I said. I made my way forward and pulled open the door that led to the stairwell, grinning.
“Wait we have to walk on that?” she said, pointing to the rickety and rusted stairwell.
“It’s fine. See” I said, testing my weight against it. It creaked loudly, but nothing broke. We steadily made our way up to the walkways, then quickly walked down to one of the unlocked doors. It creaked open slowly, the outside offering a gentle wind and the soft orange hue of setting sunlight. It’d been almost exactly like last time. As we emerged onto the roof and Yerin paused, taking in the view.
“Cool right?”
A small smile tugged at her lips.
“Yeah, it is pretty cool”
-
We walked back through the halls of the school, just talking. We’d stayed on the roof longer than expected, watching the sunset in it’s entirety. It’d been nice. Really nice. I’d almost all but forgotten about Rion mentioning the Spider-Men earlier, and my nightmare. Almost. At least now they weren’t at the forefront of my mind.
Yerin paused for a second as we came to a stop on a stairwell landing.
“Today was nice” she said with a smile
“Yeah. You want to head to the common room? We’ve still got like thirty minutes till curfew”
“I’m kind of tired. I’m probably gonna go to bed now. Don’t want to accidentally sleep in and miss Dr Fine’s presentation”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m probably gonna go to bed too”
“Alright. See you tomorrow. Oh, and don’t forget to set an alarm”
“I won’t”
She gave me a quick kiss then headed up a small flight of stairs and disappeared around the corner. I started back down the steps to the boys corridor when I heard a voice above me.
“Seriously don’t forget your alarm” she repeated, peering back around the corner.
“I won’t” I responded, my smile wide. Her smile widened and then disappeared back around the corner.
“Goodnight” she called out.
“Goodnight”
I stood still for a second before making my way back to the senior boy’s corridor, grinning to myself stupidly. I really was lucky.
I stopped outside my room and opened the door with my keycard. The room was empty. Eric must’ve still been in the common room. Probably playing pool and debating baseball with Rion. I trudged over to my drawers, and grabbed what I needed, before changing quickly in the bathroom then brushing my teeth. I slunk back into bed and closed my eyes and allowed sleep to take me, still reminiscing about the day. Today had been nice. Really nice.
I thought about the view of the city, and the two bridges. The image of the sunset was stuck firmly in my mind even as I drifted off to sleep.
-
I woke to the sound of a loud bang. I groaned, rolling over as I blinked sleep out of my eyes. It was still dark, to the point I could barely see anything. I didn’t need to get up yet. I yawned before slumping back into my pillow, nestling my head in its crook. The sound of soft footsteps thumped through the room. Eric didn’t usually go to the bathroom at this hour. Eh, he wasn’t being loud so I didn’t mind.
Suddenly I felt the weight of the bed shift as someone else climbed into bed with me. My eyes shot open, as I turned back over confused.
“Did I wake you?” a pretty Asian girl said, yawning. ”Sorry Michelle and I just got done with our patrol and we were closer to here, so I thought I’d stay with you”
She flopped on top of me and instantly I pushed her back pulling away, my heart thudding hard in my chest.
“Babe?”
“Who the hell are you?” I said confused. I looked round the room, my heart sunk. I wasn’t in my dorm, instead in a small one-bedroom apartment.
“What the- Where the hell am I?!”