“I KNOW RIGHT! THIS IS AWESOME, ISN’T IT?” Jessie said rather loudly
“No, it’s not!” Luke responded
“What?” she asked confused
“Who have you told?” he asked urgently
“You’re the only I told” she answered. “I thought you’d be excited”
“If people find out you have powers they will try to do a lot of horrible stuff to you, you have to keep this on the down-low, understand?”
“What do you mean they will do horrible stuff to me?”
“That’s how things work,” he said bluntly “If someone has something different that can help or hurt, they will try to seize control to use it for their own gain”
“Those are movies, that’s just make-believe”
“No, it’s not, I’ve seen it happen befo-” he abruptly stopped
“Wait, what? You’ve seen it before? When?
“It’s complicated but please trust me on this” he answered quickly
“What am I supposed to do then?”
For the first time in a long while he said, “I don’t know…”
Jessie hadn’t told anyone and she’s been distant from Luke. Kids started showing up to school after a couple of days. It was back to normal, almost at least. Jessie once again asked Luke to talk with her. They walked home while they spoke.
“How are you doing,” Luke said facing straight
“Good, actually I’ve been a lot happier than usual,” she said blissfully
“Would you care to elaborate?”
“I’ve been helping people” she answered confidently
“How?”
“Well, using my ice powers of course”
Luke stopped dead in his track.
“What?”
“Yeah, when you told me to not tell anyone I was a bit upset. I was walking to the store and this lady she was being mugged. Without thinking I jumped into action, I froze him and the lady was saved”
“What about the guy is he… is he dead?”
“What? No, I just froze his legs”
“Please tell me that was the only time” he hoped
“Of course not. Come on I realized that I could help people with my powers” She smiled excitedly. “I could be some sort of hero! Can you imagine that?”
“You can’t be a hero,” Luke said looking away
“What?”
“You can’t be a hero!” he said louder “It’s stupid and extremely dangerous, it’s going to get you killed!”
“You’re not the boss of me!” she yelled back. “These are my powers, I do whatever the hell I want to! You know what I bet you’re just jealous that you didn’t get any special powers”
“I don’t care about powers, you getting hurt is what matters” he fired back angrily
“What are you, my dad?!”
“NO, I’M YOUR FRIEND!”
“I thought you’d support me”
“I can’t support you getting hurt”
“Well, you can’t stop me,” she said before taking off away from him.
Luke called after her but he didn’t pursue her. Jessie was pissed off, she knew this could be dangerous, but she had powers what’s the worst that could happen. She was pissed off but she heard something. It was a woman sobbing, she looked around and found her. She was being held up by three thugs.
“Just give us the purse, we won’t hurt you,” said thug #1
“Yeah, do as he says lady,” said thug #2
Thug #3 didn’t say anything and just stood there watching. Jessie, being the heroic self, decided to leap into action. Usually when she dealt with muggers all she’d need is to touch them and that’s it. She ran up to them but was tripped by thug #3 who saw her running at them. Thug #1 picked her up and threw her to the wall. Thug #2 picked her by the hair. She was unable to react with all the trauma going on.
“Ooooh, you’ve done it now little girl! You pissed the boss off” Thug #2 said
She was badly beaten and she was then thrown to the floor. Thug #1 started approaching and took out a knife. Jessie was on the floor still too hurt to react. The thug looked at his knife, smirked, started to raise his knife. Jessie thought, “He was right… now I’m going to die… great”. She covered her face with her hand as he swung down. A couple of seconds went BY and nothing happened, she was confused and looked up. She couldn’t believe what she saw, it was Luke… He was facing her with his eyes still closed and holding the arm with the knife. He wasn’t scared, he wasn’t shaking, he was poised and terrifying.
“I wish you’d listen to me for once,” he said in a low voice
“Who are you?” asked thug #1
Luke faced the thug and scrunched up his face in a question form. He threw his arm to the side and spoke.
“Please excuse my friend, she didn’t mean any trouble,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, so you have three seconds to leave before I break your bones”
“Woah, then let's count down,” Thug #2 said “a-one, a-two, a-three… nothing but talk ain’t-cha”
Thug #2 walked towards Luke and threw a punch, Luke avoided it with minimum effort. Thug #2 stumbled forward, he turned around and threw another punch. Luke grabbed his fist this time, he twisted his face seems like he was looking at him, it was disturbing. He punched his ribs and swept his leg causing him to fall. Thug #1 rushed forward and tried grabbing Luke, instead Luke kicked the thug's leg and a loud cracking noise was heard. He broke his leg in one kick. The guy screamed in pain, Luke threw his knee and knocked him out. Thug #2 stumbled up and charged him, Luke flipped backward and kicked him down to floor knocking him out. The Third thug stared at Luke in a fighting stance.
“Drop…” Luke said menacingly
Thug #3 did as he was told and fell to the floor on his rear. He was shocked. Jessie stared in disbelief, Luke started walking towards her.
“What the hell are you?” Thug #3 asked
Luke stopped, he paused, and walked towards the guy and crouched down in front of him. Jessie couldn’t see or hear what happened except for the guy’s expressions.
As Luke was crouched in front of him, he did something he hadn’t done in a long time. He opened his eyes and stared directly into his. The thug was more than scared, he couldn’t speak, he couldn’t move, he was petrified.
“I’ve been called several names, “The Hood”, “The Demon”, “The Devil”, My personal favorite “The Devil’s eyes” to the thug’s eyes he is the death harbinger “To people who piss me off, I’m their worst nightmare. If I ever, and I mean ever catch you again, I will break every bone you have, and let you crawl to the hospital”
Luke got up and closed his eyes and picked up Jessie by her arm. They started walking, Jessie was limping a bit. Luke wanted her to go to the hospital but he had a feeling it wouldn’t be so simple.
“We need to get you to the hospital, got it?” he said
“We can’t” Luke guessed it “I don’t want my parents to find out, please”
“Ugh, I knew you were going to say that…” he responded shaking his head
They headed towards the stairs on the way to the hospital, they were steep with bumps and some rocks. He sighed and placed Jessie on the floor and asked her to give him a second.
“What are you going to do?” Jessie asked confused
“Covering your sorry ass”
He proceeded to jump down the stairs and landed on his chest and rolled down the stairs. Jessie was shocked and tried to get up and chase after him, she couldn’t do it. Luke landed hard on the bottom of the stairs and groaned a bit. He had several cuts. He got up and walked back up the stairs. Jessie kept asking how he was.
“Listen, if anyone asks,” he said in a serious tone. “You fell down the stairs, I tried to catch you, but you dragged me to the bottom with you”
Jessie looked at his bloody face and nodded. After some time, they finally arrived at the hospital. They waited a bit and were treated, the parents and legal guardian of the duo were called, and they both arrived almost immediately. Jessie’s parents hugged her and grabbed her face to see if she was okay. Jessie’s parents were a middle-aged couple. Her mother seemed like a caring and loving parent. She had brown hair like Jessie’s, she had an erratic outfit, probably due to rushing towards the hospital. His father looked stern, probably due to being a detective for the city precinct, he also had a risky outfit. He had a dress shirt and a long brown overcoat, all he would need to look like more of a detective was a fedora. Anna, on the other hand, wore a simple shirt and jeans. Ellie wasn’t with her as she was having a playdate with a neighbor. Anna hugged him and looked at him all over.
“What the hell happened to you!?” Ana scoffed “You look like you got ran over…”
“Nah, me and Jess, fell down a flight of stairs” he responded looking at Jessie’s father
“You two fell… and you couldn’t catch her at all?” the father asked investigating her injuries
“Dad, don’t blame him, it was my fault,” Jessie said slightly upset
“Dan, maybe you should calm down a bit” the mother suggested
“I’ll calm down if you explain what happened, besides ‘We fell’…”
“We were walking towards that smoothie shop, and after we bought our drinks we were heading home. Jessie was jumping around and she stepped wrong on the first step on the stairs. I tried to catch her, but she had different plans. She pulled my arm and I lost balance, we fell over each other is what I’m saying” Luke answered on the spot
John looked at him suspiciously, he didn’t trust Luke, with his shady history and all. The fact that he hadn’t told Jessie he was orphan before the year prior didn’t help his case. He knew something was up but he knew he wasn’t going to get any answers. The nurse walked in and told them their condition and bill. Anna looked back at the two of them and they were smiling and laughing, she knew a strong bond when she saw one. She knew that Luke was a shady one but they love each other even if Luke can’t admit it. She knew since he was older than most orphans he hadn’t had a family in a long time. Thinking about it just made her happy seeing how well he was doing. She was keeping her promise…
All the adults left the room leaving Jessie and Luke alone. Jessie wanted to ask about what had happened in the alleyway but she couldn’t bring herself to mention it since he saved her. Still, she was sick of the secrets he had, she hated not knowing.
“You want to know about the fight, don’t you?” Luke asked calmly
“I-umm I-I just want to know more about you” Jessie stuttered
“I don’t tell you these things, not because I don’t trust you but because I have never been proud of what I have accomplished and I didn’t want you to know just cause I wanted to leave it behind. I don’t like it at all”
Jessie looked down, Luke knew this was the first step before she started crying.
“Please don’t ask about my past”
“Don’t tell me everything, just tell me about how you did that… please”
Luke swallowed and he began…
‘When I was younger I got into a fight to protect this kid. I had a knack for I guess... So, I kept fighting and helping kids that were getting picked on. It escalated... quickly. I fought criminals and thugs. I wasn’t winning as easily as I am now but I still won. Then one time, I lost, bad. Instead of getting a knife shoved down my throat. A guy came in and karate chopped his ass. He saw potential in me I guess... and decided to take me in. I denied but I kept going back to him. He taught me everything I know. Even to see with my eyes closed. He died a few months before I met you...’
“Whoa” Jessie was shocked, she hadn’t realized how much she didn’t know about Luke as she thought. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you relive those moments”
“It’s okay, you deserved to know”
“That’s why you wanted to stop me from becoming a her- a vigilante, because you know about the consequences”
“Taking into consideration, with what I told you, please don’t make the same mistakes I did”
Jesse stayed quiet, she didn’t know what she should do. Usually, at this point, she would’ve asked him for advice. This time she had to choose her own fate.
Comments (0)
See all