Don't Call Me A Hero

Chapter 4

The dying afternoon heat hung over me as I sat alone on a park bench. Sara had left for work a few hours ago. The park was mostly empty except for a couple joggers. I kept my eyes on the yellow note that had told me about the funeral. It was handwritten but in handwriting I didn’t recognize. The compound wouldn’t send something so unofficial. I hadn’t spoken to my mother in four years and the state didn’t update her on me. 

Sara. Maybe she told someone?

I pulled out my phone and sighed as I let it fall into my lap. Why does it matter? Everyone that had hurt me in the past was gone. They were literally dead.

“Stop it,” I told myself as I stood. I shoved my phone into my pocket and started down the path, “everything is fine. Time to move on, Alex.” 

In my hurry to escape the funeral home, I hadn’t paid much attention to where I was heading. I hadn’t even realized that Sara had been following after me until after I sat down on the bench. Now, however, I really wished I hadn’t come this way. 

There are four distinct sections of the city and I, unfortunately, ended up in the worst one. Now, I’m sure there are some pleasant people that lived here. Some that were just down on their luck and couldn’t afford to be anywhere else. This part of the city, however, was known as the worst one for a reason. 

Scars of past fights between heroes and villains remained visible as he hurried down the streets. Crumbled buildings weren’t uncommon and some stores that worked out of the first story of a building had a collapsed top. The city government made no move to fix this part of the city. It was also said that retired and still active villains called this place home. It was easy to, as most of the city’s police force was designated to the richer parts of the city. Any superheroes steered clear as well. Most having sponsorship deals that kept them in certain areas. 

I kept my head down as I passed through the nearly empty streets. The roads were dark and only a few street lamps worked. I could see shadows of people inside alleyways and in doorways of old, abandoned buildings. I sighed as I listened hard. I could hear the far off sounds of the train and the rest of the city. I could hear my shoes crunching on the ground below me. I sighed when I heard slurred voices behind me.

“Hey, kid!” a voice yelled and I ducked just in time for a beer bottle to fly over me. I watched it crash onto the ground, the liquid splattering onto the pavement. I turned around and raised my eyebrow at the group of dirty men stumbling toward me.

“Can I help you?” I asked, keeping my voice monotone even though there was a rising panic in my chest. 

“Your wallet and your phone,” the man in the middle spoke up with a wicked grin on his face. There were five of them in total, each wearing a look of want and desperation on their faces. 

“Please,” I said, “let me be. You don’t want to do this.”

“Just hand them over and we won’t have an issue,” he said, stepping even closer.

I knew I should do as he said. That would be the easy way. That would be the way that would get me in the least amount of trouble. However, looking at the crazed look in their faces, I doubted they’d just let me go whether I gave them my belongings or not. I’ve heard too many stories of people getting robbed and then killed or maimed even after complying to demands. 

“But that would be no fun,” I said, sounding more confident than I felt. I planted my feet and took a deep breath to calm myself. We lived in a world full of super powered individuals and they thought it would be smart to threaten a stranger? I didn’t like using my abilities because after I did, people tended to fear me. 

Perhaps in this situation that was a good thing. 

The main guy lunged first, or rather, his upper body lunged at me. His feet stayed planted in the same place as his fists stretched impossible far. I moved to dodge past it when someone landed between us. I stumbled back as the ground shook after his landing. The men stumbled back as well, eyes wide at the sight of the tall man standing before them. He was wearing a dark hoodie with the head pull up so I couldn’t tell who he was. His voice, however, was vaguely familiar.

“Get lost,” he snapped and the men went running. He was definitely a higher tiered super than any of them. The man turned toward me and pulled down his hood with a small smile. He seemed almost nervous to reveal who he was.

“Owen,” I muttered.

“Yeah,” he chuckled awkwardly, “I promise I’m not a stalker. Your sister stopped by earlier while she was on a delivery and asked if you had made it back. I told her I’d see if I could find you.”

“Well,” I shrugged, “here I am. Thanks for that, I guess.”

“Anytime, although,” he said, his eyes narrowing as he stepped closer, “you didn’t seem scared.”

“How did I seem?”

“Ready,” he shrugged, “like you’ve fought before.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” I said, flinching at his comment. He, and no one else, had to know what he had been trained to do at the compound. Desperate to change the subject, I asked, “how’d you find me?”

“She told me the park you were in and I chose a route that would lead you toward the campus the quickest,” he shrugged, “it wasn’t very difficult to find you. Do you, uh, want a ride back?”

“Why not?” I said, looking around the empty street, “where’d you park?”

“I didn’t park anywhere,” he said. I turned back toward him, my breath hitching in my throat when I realized how close he was. I opened my mouth to speak but he simply wrapped an arm around me and offered me a wide grin before my stomach dropped as we lurched upward. I couldn’t stop the scream from leaving my lips as my limbs wrapped around him. The world flew past as he soared through the air with me desperately hanging on for dear life. 

I would have much rather handled those guys than this.

I hadn’t realized we had stopped moving until I could feel Owen laughing. I slowly opened my eyes and sighed in relief as I released him from my tight grip. I stepped onto the front lawn of our dorm building and bit back the urge to charge inside. I took a deep breath as I started forward on wobbly legs. 

“We’re never doing that again,” I told him as I brought out my card. He only laughed in response as I swiped it. The door lock clicked and we stepped through. We walked side by side to the elevator without a word and I could hear him hum slightly to the peppy song playing in the small area. 

“Did you really not enjoy it?” he asked as I unlocked the door to our room, “most people dream of flying.”

“I would much rather be on the ground,” I said and paused for a moment before stepping in, “or at least in control of the flying. You also gave me no warning which isn’t fair.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he chuckled. 

“You definitely did that,” I told him as I plopped down on my bed. Silence filled the room and I didn’t look up when I heard him leave. I pulled out my phone and sighed at Sara’s four missed calls. I sent her a text and tossed my phone to the edge of my bed. I watched the fan spin for a few moments before a wave of memories hit me like a wall of bricks. 

I had been asked about the compound but what could I say? It wasn’t exactly a place that held a lot of good memories. The soft colored building was full of various aged people who were suffering some sort of mental illness associated with their abilities. Others were there to learn how to control their abilities, like I was, though theirs came naturally. Those people usually went home after 6 months or a year. Since my mother gave up custody of me, I was stuck there until I became a legal adult. 

No, I couldn’t tell them about my first two roommates who committed suicide. No, I couldn’t tell them how I had been the one to find them. I couldn’t tell them that there were nights I couldn’t sleep because I kept seeing their lifeless eyes. Tears blurred my vision as my body curled up. I tried to calm myself but my shaky breathing never seemed to stabilize.

I hadn’t thought about them in a long time. It was hard to think about them. It was hard to think about what I could have done to help them feel better about themselves. I knew neither of them well but I should have known something was wrong. I should have helped them. 

After the second one passed away, I spent a year by myself. I only saw the others in passing by and the only interactions I had was with the staff. I hadn’t minded being alone. I had convinced myself that it was easier than having someone there with me that could potentially scar me for life...again. 

My roommate that I had for my last 2 years was Anthony. Apparently he had been in the center for years but got switched around sectors every so often. The state had long since claimed him stable, however, he wouldn’t sign himself out. When he was fifteen, his abilities showed themselves rather late, he accidentally blew up his house. Both his parents and dog were killed while his sister was left horrible scarred and handicapped. I had learned this from one of the staff that liked to gossip about things they shouldn’t. 

Anthony was only thirty when I first met him and yet he looked like he was fifty. A decade and a half of guilt and shame will do that to you, I suppose. I found him to be a soft spoken man that hadn’t grown out of his fondness for cartoons. He was probably the only good thing that came out of that stay besides, you know, gaining control of the powers I hadn’t wanted. 

I grinned slightly as my hand traced over the tattoos that decorated my right arm, the ones that were currently hidden under my button up. I had been his guinea pig. He had always dreamed of being a tattoo artist and he was a damn good one. Halfway through the year he had been visited by his sister. That visit was what drove him to get free and make something of himself. Because he had been there for so long, the center made him pick out a profession and train for it in the last few months until his release. He started to train to be a tattoo artist and asked if he could tattoo me. He had been released before he finished but he came back a few more times to make sure that all my tattoos were completed even after he had started making money off it. I haven’t met a nicer man than him. He didn’t deserve to face the tragedy that he did but I doubt most people do.

Another good thing that came out of it was the schooling. I’m two years ahead in college now because they never stopped instruction. There was no summer or winter break. There was just the daily six hours of instruction and homework until I completed twelfth grade. That was when I had to switch to online college classes because they didn’t have anyone certified to teach college courses. 

“Hey,” I jumped at the sound of his voice and shifted my body so I could see him, “are you okay?”

“Yeah?” I sniffed and realized I had actually been crying. How embarrassing…

“Good,” he bowed his head slightly, “are you coming to the presentations tomorrow?”

“What are those?” 

“The upcoming freshman and high schoolers are presenting projects,” he said as he walked toward his side of the room, “to get into the super program earlier and to win a scholarship. Most professors are offering extra credit. You should come. We could get lunch or something after.”

“Sure,” I said, “what time?”

“Nine,” he chuckled as I groaned, pulling the blanket over my head.