Two: Psychopath

When Sage first met Lich, it was by accident. Sage had just disabled the alarm system and was working on putting the cameras of the next house he was about to ransack out of commission. The occupants of the house were away at some party or other, and Sage had only just begun, so logically, no police or heroes should have had any idea he was there or what he was doing. To this day, Sage isn’t sure why the hell Lich was there. As if laying in wait for him.

He’d had theories, of course. The most likely was that the obscenely rich people who lived in that house were scared by the recent string of thefts in their neighborhood – committed by yours truly – and had hired the hero to guard their house. The other theory was that Sage had just had the terrible misfortune of being spotted by Lich as he was passing by, but that was less likely because Lich came from around the back of the house, away from the street.

Since this was the first time Sage had ever seen Lich, he didn’t immediately pinpoint him as a hero, or as someone there to stop him. Actually, Lich just about scared the shit out of him precisely because Sage had no idea who the hell he was or what he wanted.

The identity of heroes and villains is very important, of course, for numerous reasons. For one, since they have supernatural powers, if every average joe knew their identity, they would be harassed constantly for their help. And two, because though it was generally accepted in society that there were those who were different, not everyone was quite so nice about it, to heroes and villains both. Some people were afraid of them. Some thought they were unnatural. And some were simply jealous. So, if a hero or villain wanted to live normally, it was essential that they kept their supernatural life separate from their human life.

No one was exactly sure how people suddenly started developing superpowers either. Some people thought that those with supernatural abilities had been around since the dawn of human civilization, hiding their true selves to blend in with everyone else. Others thought the government had genetically engineered them. An even smaller minority thought that heroes and villains were a step above everyone else on the evolutionary chain and that one day, the regular human being would cease to exist, and everyone would be “super.”

That last one was bullshit, in Sage’s opinion. But, back to the point. When Sage met Lich, he thought the guy was just some thug, perhaps there for the same reason Sage was.

It was an easy mistake to make. Lich’s “disguise” was just a hooded cloak and a black mesh veil underneath. The man was cosplaying as the Grim reaper, essentially. A little stereotypical of the guy that could talk to the dead, Sage thought. He’d told Lich as much many times in their subsequent encounters.

In the dark, Lich’s hooded face just made him look like some teenager in a hoodie, and for a horrifying second, he thought he would be reported, or that the guy would try to fight him for the right to rob this particular house. Sage didn’t make a habit of fighting regular people. He was pretty okay in a physical fight, but because his superpower was just the ability to mess with sound, it didn’t do jack shit to help him in an actual altercation.

But when he just stood there at the corner of the house, watching Sage, who had paused in the middle of cutting the cable for the camera by the front door, Sage very quickly got the feeling that it wasn’t that simple.

He slowly got up from his crouch, not yet defensive, but not relaxed either, and waited for the hooded man to make the first move.

Except, he didn’t make a move. Not even a twitch of a finger. If he weren’t standing up, Sage would wonder if he was even breathing.

Maybe this was a wild animal situation. Maybe the hooded man was more scared of Sage than Sage was of him. If that were the case, that would mean this person was probably just a regular guy who had stumbled upon Sage committing a crime by accident. And if he lived in this area, he probably didn’t see a lot of crime. Sage could understand why he was frozen in fear.

So, Sage made the first move. He took a step towards the man – or teenager. He was a little tall and broad for a teen, but with his face covered, Sage couldn’t tell. He thought he would quickly knock the man out and go about with his business, but when Sage took a step forward, so did the man. Sage stopped. He stopped.

Okay. So, that was fucking weird. And not really the reaction of a scared witness to a crime.

Sage hesitated, honestly not sure what to make of this situation. Should he say something? Try to convince this shadowed man that he was actually just checking the cables, not cutting them? It might even work, if he lied and told the man that he was a hero. He was in disguise, and most people hadn’t heard of him yet, so he could probably pull it off.

But something else made Sage hold his tongue. A sense of unease.

Maybe it was the sudden chill Sage felt. It was almost summer, and the weather had steadily been getting warmer, so the temperature change was a little odd, seeing as it had only dropped when the hooded man arrived. Or maybe it was the way the hooded man was entirely relaxed as he stood there watching Sage…not a hint of fear or even general guardedness to be seen.

…It suddenly felt a little terrifying for Sage to be standing there, within the man’s field of vision. He would only have to take three steps forward to grab Sage. For the first time in his short career as a villain, Sage felt like prey.

Sage had to leave. He had to go now.

So, without bothering to try to figure out who the man was or why the fuck he was watching Sage like a psychopath, Sage turned tail and bolted. He had always had a strong sense of self preservation, and while this house probably had piles and piles of valuables to steal, it wasn’t worth whatever the hell that guy had going on.

As it turns out, however, Mr. Creepy was there for a purpose, and that purpose involved Sage. Sage only managed to cross half of the front lawn, running towards the street, when a shadow swerved in front of him. With his momentum built up, Sage couldn’t stop in time, and he ended up slamming headfirst into the hooded man’s chest. He bounced right off (damn this guy had solid chest muscles), and hit the ground on his ass, but Sage barely hesitated and rolled quickly to the side – right out of reach of the hooded man’s black-gloved fingers swiping down to grab him.

Alright. This was actually getting scary, what the hell? Sage stumbled to his feet and ran back the other way, towards the house. He hadn’t cut the cables on the cameras yet – so if Sage was brutally murdered, at least it would be caught on camera. Not that anyone but Sage’s family would care enough to avenge him, but whatever. If this guy was a serial killer, then maybe footage of Sage getting killed would help the police catch him.

The trouble was that Sage didn’t want to die. So once he reached the front patio, he unceremoniously slammed his elbow into the pane of glass on the front door, reached in to turn the lock, and ran inside. He was cursing himself for disabling the alarm system earlier. If he hadn’t, the alarm would have been triggered, and with any luck that would have either scared the hooded man away or allowed the police to get here in time to save Sage. The irony of needing the police to come save a villain was ignored in favor of his rising terror.

Unfortunately, all Sage had to protect him now was his hide and seek skills. He had studied the layout of this house in preparation for robbing the shit out of it. He had to hope that the man didn’t have the same benefit.

Sage turned left from the foyer and through a sliding wooden door, finding himself in what was called the ‘parlor’ on the plan he’d studied. Who the fuck had a parlor in this day and age? Only rich people.

He slid the door closed behind him and dived behind the closest object, which happened to be a couch with just enough space between it and the wall for Sage. All the while Sage was praying that the man would just give up and decide that Sage was more trouble than he was worth. But just as he got himself settled, Sage heard the front door close, followed by the sound of measured footsteps on the hardwood floor of the foyer.

Nightmare mode hide and seek it is then.