Lonely

Chapter 45, Hanger

“An alley?” Boomer asked. Sure enough, we were standing on the opposite side of the road of a large alley with several trash cans and other junk. “You’re sure it’s not the building next to it?” Liam suggested. I shook my head. “It’s the alley.” They all shrugged and we walked across the street. There were several homeless people, most of which were asking for some sort of money or food. “A good shot of Irish whiskey would really give a boost to a fellow right about now.” One grungy old man sighed. Nicco chuckled. “You and me both, old timer.” They all eyed Levy’s beat up face and then scurried away, knowing that most beat up people meant trouble. At the end of an ally, fast asleep, was the only person that could have been the one that I was sent for. Max Krakowski, the one person that was stopping me from running all the way back to Sadie. He had a base ball cap pulled over his eyes, and his jeans were torn, his gray shirt dirty. Dodger nudged him with his foot. “Is he alive?” he wondered aloud. Levy snorted. “’Course he is.” Levy kicked him harder in the leg, and slowly Max lifted his head. He pulled the cap off and scratched his head. He squinted up at us.

“Can I help you?” he asked, yawning. He put the hat back on over his brown hair and stood up, trying o get away from the wall. We all knew fighting when your back is to a wall can be bad, and we didn’t know what his ability was yet. The other homeless people were watching us with interest. “Are you Max?” I asked. He nodded. “The one and only.”

“Come with us. I was sent to come get you. Arianna sent me. You’re my last stop before we can go back to her place. She needs you to help fight a battle against the people who are sending the monsters to attack people like us.” Max blinked. “Alright.” He grabbed a small bag and stepped around us. “That’s it? You believe us, just like that?” Nicco asked. Max shrugged. “Sure. I can feel you’re telling the truth.” They glanced at me, and I shrugged, so we headed back out of the ally, past all the poor people. A fat guy in a white tank top and a bad five o’clock shadow came up and cracked his knuckles. “You need some help here, Max?” Max waved him off. “Nah, I’m all good, man. Hey, I’ll be seeing you around. Stay out of trouble.” He said, punching the guy on the arm as we walked past. He glared at each and every one of us. “You ever need anything, call on me, man.” He called after Max, who held up a hand in good bye gesture.

Max, although quiet, and, well, sleepy, made quick friends with the rest of the guys. I walked ahead of them as Nicco started his grand introduction to us all, starting with, “this dimwit here is my brother” and ending with “and grumpy up there is our fearless leader, Hanger.” Always the same speech. The guys had gotten so used to it that even started bowing when their names were called. They started backing and forthing on stories, and it didn’t take long before we figured out that Max’s special skill was feeling other people’s emotions and even controlling them. Apparently, he said that it really tired him out though, so he didn’t do it too long. I let the pulling sensation in my guy pull me back towards Arianna and Sadie.

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“No, no. I have the ultimate light show.” Liam said. He and Nicco were entertaining the group, but it soon erupted into argument. Nicco had just finished with a lights show that I must say, was pretty impressive. He shot a ball of flame into the air, sent it flying at a tree, then it appeared to basically act like a ping pong ball and hit the trees then ricochet off and hit another one, leaving scorch marks where it hit. After it was over, Liam had snorted, and now he was working up the crowd for a massive and impressive lights show. “Take Dodger’ sunglasses, because its gonna be bright! Hold on to your girlfriends, ‘cause this is gonna blow you away! Don’t blink, you might miss it! Prepare for the most mind blowing, blindness causing, spectacular, ama-” Nicco cut him off. “Just show us already!” Liam started with the theatrics by raking a hand through his spiky black hair and sending little bolts of electricity up into the air from his head.

Very dramatically, he arched his back and sent one ball straight up one hundred feet up in the air, then one from each hand that joined up with the one he had sent up in the first place. The electricity from his hair spiked up to reach it, and the electricity started reaching out to the limbs of the trees, grabbing them, and snaking down them in zigzag patterns, the raced along the ground and into his shoes, up his body, and out his hands so he looked like a wizard. Finally, the show was over. We all clapped, and Liam bowed.

Suddenly, there was a low, deep growling noise from the darkness around us. We all sat up. Dodger looked shocked, and rearranged his head phones. Levy swallowed. “Boomer, tell me that was your stomach.” Boomer shook his head. “Sorry, dude.” The sound came again, and dodger lowered his glassed down the bridge of his nose. Even Max was wide awake now. “I think it’s a bear. No, not a bear.  It has a lion head. And snakes for a tail. Ho-ly shit.” He said. Suddenly, out of the blackness around us came something that I didn’t get a good look at, at first, because it had lunged at me. A wall of flame bubbled out from Nicco and hit the monster, singing its fur. It howled and got back on its feet. It had the body of a bear, brown, furry and muscular. It had the head of a lion, fluffy main and massive teeth, and on its tail was a two headed white snake that did not look happy at all to be stuck to the butt of a bear.

This time, it lunged for Nicco. Boomer grabbed it by its shoulders and slammed it to the ground, and then it go back up, limping on one paw, but that didn’t stop it. It circled us, growling. As quick as lightening, Levy shot over and landed a good, strong kick to its already injured shoulder. The monster collapsed for a quick second, long enough for me to suspend it in the air and for Boomer to snap its neck. I sent the body flying into the woods and heard it crash some time later. Dodger shook his head. “This has got to come to a stop. I didn’t even hear it coming. They could attack us in our sleep, and we wouldn’t even have time to react.” Dodger shook his head.

“Dude, you couldn’t hear because we were busy.” Liam cursed. “That was so stupid of me. I’m sorry, I should have thought better of it.” Nicco patted his brothers shoulder. Boomer shrugged. “We’ll be to Arianna’s in what, three days?” he asked, looking at me. I nodded. Max yawned and stretched his arms out. “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted and going to bed.” He said. Levy snorted. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” but Max was already asleep, and soon the others were too, except for me. Despite the fact that I knew we could handle anything that came out way, I began sleeping in small increments of time. I knew as soon as I had Sadie back, I would sleep peacefully again.