Don't Call Me A Hero

Chapter 8

“Something has to be done about this,” Peter said, glaring at the dorm door. I sighed as I plopped down on my bed, “they got your door and now the building. Have you contacted the director yet?”

“No,” I shrugged, glaring at the ceiling above me, “they’ll clean it up soon enough.”

“It’s not fair, Alex,” Owen said, sitting down by my feet, “you shouldn’t be punished over who your dad was.”

“My life has never been fair,” I told them. Owen looked like he wanted to pry for more details but he kept quiet. I respected that part of him. He seemed to know when to shut up unlike most people in my life. My heart skipped a beat when he looked at me with a small, reassuring smile.

Uh oh.

“If this doesn’t stop now, Alex,” Tom said, “it could get worse. It could even get violent.”

  “I’m not afraid,” I answered, “just a little annoyed. I haven’t even met the man and I still have to live with everyone only seeing my last name. If you two can go, that would be great. I’m tired and my body hurts.”

“We’ll talk about just flying off like that in the morning,” Peter promised as they left me and Owen alone. We sat in silence for a long time before Owen shifted his position so he could look at me. 

“We’re going to be seeing a lot of them, aren’t we?” Owen asked without asking why. What did he think was going on? Did they explain something to him?

“Yeah,” I told him, rolling over to my side so I could peer over at him, “you can still find another room, you know.”

“I’m kind of liking this one, actually,” he shrugged, “so you’re kind of stuck with me.”

“Your funeral,” I told him with a smile. He looked at me for a long while before looking away. 

“You have a nice laugh,” Owen blurted out, his eyes darting to my face before focusing on his shoes, “the kind that makes others want to laugh too even though they didn’t hear the joke. You should do it more often.”

“Oh,” I said, taken aback at the compliment, “thank you?”

“Jesus, that was weird,” Owen chuckled, and looked at me with a shy smile on his dark face, “I’m sorry. My grandma always told me to speak up whenever I had something nice to say.”

“It was definitely weird,” I told him, “but you’re weird so it works.” 

“Good,” he said, “as long as I don’t scare you away.”

“As if you could,” I joked as he pushed himself off my bed. As long as I don’t scare you away...who even says that?

“I’m going to go hit the showers,” he said. I watched him leave and rolled onto my back. I have a nice laugh? I sighed at the thought and kicked off my shoes. Owen was sweet, I had to give him that. Strangely sweet. Suspiciously sweet, a small voice whispered from the back of my mind. I glanced at the door and sat up. 

“You’re paranoid,” I muttered aloud to myself, “he hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Even as I tried to convince myself otherwise, I knew I had to distance myself from him. Even if there wasn’t anything bad about it, hanging out with me would only get him hurt. 

“God,” I muttered aloud to myself. I sounded like a cliche heroine, though I promise I am a male, that falls for the love interest way too early and lets her past mistakes rule her life. 

I took a deep breath and glared at the wall. This was supposed to be nice and fun and freeing. Now, I felt trapped just like before. Trapped in a life that I can’t control with expectations I couldn’t even hope to meet. 

I grabbed the edge of my blanket and rolled over, wrapping myself up like a burrito. Just like my mother’s arms from earlier, there was something oddly comforting about being wrapped up like this even though I was rendered partially immobile. Just as my eyes shifted closed I heard the door open and yelped as a strong pair of rock hard hands yanked me out of bed. 

I hit the floor and found myself staring into the anger eyes of Charlie. His dark eyes were perhaps the only unchanged feature of his body. Maria was standing right behind him with a horrified look on her face. Me and Maria locked eyes for a moment before I looked back at Charlie. I waved my arms, releasing my power and watching his back slam into the roof as shadows seemed to come alive around him. 

Yes, my father was the shadowmaster. The man with the power to create and manipulate dark energy that most people only saw as shadows. He terrorized the city with them and caused a lot of damage but not even a single death. A small part of me respected him for that. The rest just hated him like everyone else.     

I untangled myself from my blanket and scrambled to my feet. I used my shadow power to slam the door shut as I turned to face Maria while keeping Charlie pinned to the wall. Needless to say, they were both shocked. 

“Good evening,” I said through clenched teeth, “knocking would have worked just fine.”

“I know,” Maria nodded, her eyes still focused on Charlie, “um, but we needed to talk to you.”

“To accuse me something?” I asked, glancing up at Charlie, “I’m sure I have an alibi.” 

“Why?” Charlie asked from above, “were you at Arthur’s old house?”

“Amanda,” I answered, “did she come to you too?” 

“What?” Maria asked. 

“Amanda,” I said, letting Charlie fall. He slammed into the floor with a loud bang. I made no move to help him up before sitting down on my bed, “something happened to her. She...came to me.” 

“Why would she come to you?” he asked, pushing himself up. He made no move to retaliate but I doubted he wanted to mess with me when I hardly had to raise my hand to launch him up. 

“You think I know?” I asked, “she can project herself right? I’m not being tricked by a shifter, am I?”

“She can project,” Maria clarified.

“So,” I looked over at Charlie, “what exactly do you think I did?” 

“Ever since you came into town,” Charlie shrugged, looking down, “everything bad has been happening. Arthur’s dead, Amanda’s gone, and Arthur’s mom dying. We have these two idiots watching us that we just managed to ditch...what’s the common denominator, Alex?”

“It’s my fault, I guess,” I groaned, “just like everything else, right? Screw you, man.”

“Alex!” I jumped as the door exploded. Owen stepped inside in only a towel, his fists raised as if waiting for someone to attack him. He glanced over the other two before giving me a raised eyebrow.

“I’m fine, you i***t,” I shook my head. He shrugged and gestured toward the two people in the room. 

“Maria and Charlie,” I introduced them, “this is Owen. As you can see, he has no respect for other people’s privacy.”

“I’m sorry,” he said sheepishly, “it has been a crazy few days.”

 “These are old friends of mine that were just leaving,” I said, “now.”

“Alex,” Maria said, her voice low.

“Now,” I said, raising my voice slightly. Charlie left, his heavy steps echoing down the hallway. Maria followed after, disappearing into the dark hallway. 

“I have terrible timing, don’t I?” Owen said with a sigh. I rolled my eyes and placed my hands on my hips.  

“I don’t know if I would say that,” I said, looking pointedly at the shards of wood that used to be our door. I wondered how much they were going to charge for that. I also wondered why no one came to see what was going on. That had to have woken someone up. Perhaps no one cared?

“I’m sorry,” Owen muttered, “should I go get the RN?”

“Don’t bother,” I shrugged as I grabbed my blanket from the floor, “unless you’re scared. No one is awake to see you change. We can get it fixed in the morning. You’re paying for it, though.”

“You’re correct,” he said and walked toward the small dresser beside the bed. I crawled onto my own and rolled away from him. No, I was not tempted to admire his muscular form. 

There you go, Alex, I thought to myself, deny it all you want.

 I had no interest in seeing anything more than his toned torso. It wasn’t my fault he had a nice chest. 

Stop it, I chided myself as I hid my face in my comforter. My cheeks were already warm and more than a little red.  

Remember! Distance yourself. 

I closed my eyes and hoped that Amanda would reach out to me again. I calmed my breathing and willed sleep to come. 

Come on, Alex, sleep. 

I opened my eyes and scrambled to my feet. I was in the same room as before but Amanda looked a lot worse than when I had last seen her. She could barely lift her head to look at me as I kneeled beside her.

“I’m not the only one,” she whispered hoarsely, sounding like one of those people from the commercials that tried to prove how bad smoking was. 

“I know,” I told her, “I have two people here that are watching my every move.”

“Cops?”

“Compound officers,” I assured her, “one I know and trust.”

“Good,” she nodded, “did you find him?”

“No,” I told her, “I went to his mom’s house and it exploded.” 

“Are you okay?”

“Obviously,” I winced as soon as the word left my mouth. I took a deep breath and continued, “how am I supposed to find him?”

“You will find him,” she said, “and you’ll find me.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because I know you, Alex,” she grinned, despite her situation, “you may not know it but you’re everything a hero is supposed to be.”

“That makes no sense.”

“You got this,” she promised, “I have faith in you.”

“That means literally nothing,” I complained.

“Arthur has a brother,” she reminded me, “talk to him. He hates him as much as I do. I would hurry though.”

“Why?”

“If he was willing to kill his own mother, what makes you think he wouldn’t kill his own brother?”

My heart dropped as the scene shifted. Amanda had released me and now I was free to have my own dreams…

I was on a dock, one I didn’t immediately recognize. My mom was standing at the edge of it with Sara. They were both speaking in hushed, angry voices while I stood back and waited for it to end. 

This is a memory, I realized as a hand touched my shoulder. A memory I didn’t actively remember. I glanced back at the man and frowned. He was short for an adult, I was only seven at the time and stood around the same height as him, and atop his head was an obvious wig. His suit was oversized and hanging loosely off his round body. He held a small box out toward me with a greasy grin. I slowly took it and held it by the ribbons that held it closed. I looked back at his wide grin and waited for some sort of explanation.

“Your father says,” he spoke slowly, “happy birthday, Alex.”

With that, the man spun on his heel and left. Sara and my mom were still arguing and I rolled my eyes and set to work on opening up. I tore it open and smiled at the necklace that I pulled out. The necklace was a simple silver chain. The bird hanging off the end was obviously a phoenix, with the long tails reaching toward its outstretched wings. 

“What do you have there?” my mom asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. I hid the necklace in my pocket and held up the box. 

“Look what I found!”