Hero Stalker

Part Four

Author's Note: This part gets pretty intense. All PG-13, but intense.  

The first thing that hit me upon regaining consciousness was the terrible tightness in my chest.

The empty warehouse they’d brought me to could easily have held a basketball court. For all I cared, it was the size of a bathroom stall. The pounding of rain on the metal roof made me feel like I was stuck in a steel drum. I could hear the distant crashing of waves and smelled salt in the air. I tried to move and realized they’d chained my hands to a ring in the wall.

The warehouse floor was completely empty, save for an object about the size of a refrigerator, hidden under a dingy sheet. An electric cord ran out from under the sheet and plugged into a humming generator. Sparks flew where the frayed cord touched a puddle.

The men who’d taken me stood by the warehouse’s only door, dressed in black from head to toe. They wore bulletproof vests and carried large, scary guns. Black ski masks covered their faces. One man pushed up his glove to check his watch. They were waiting for something. Or someone. Harpy.

My thoughts flew to Annabelle. I was on the verge of asking if they’d seen her when my common sense returned. She wasn’t here, which meant she’d gotten away, which I hoped meant she’d called the police. And if she had—if—my chances of getting out of here were that much higher if none of them knew I hadn’t been alone.

Even if she hadn’t called the police, even if the police couldn’t get here in time, I knew in my heart the Centurions would save me.

At least, I wanted to know that.

I closed my eyes again and tried to pretend I was still unconscious, but the cuffs on my wrists clattered against each other as I moved. Men laughed. Their boots shuffled on concrete as they turned to face me.

“Awake, are you?” Gloved hands pressed against my bare calves.

“Don’t touch me!” I shouted, lashing out with my legs. One foot connected with the henchman’s chest. He gasped, and my fear abated for a split second, and then his heavy workboot slammed into my side.

Stars flashed before my eyes. Iron cuffs dug into my wrists as I rolled sideways, trying to avoid another blow. His foot caught me in the spine. I screamed and rolled up into a ball. Hot sobs filled my throat, one after another, an flood I had no power to stop or control.

“Enough!” shouted another man. “Harpy wants them untouched.”

“What’s the point? He’s just going to kill her like the other ones.”

Kill me? Did they mean it? I hadn’t done anything to hurt them. I couldn’t do anything to hurt them. I wasn’t a fool. I’d heard a hundred stories about what supervillains got up to. Some people I knew online had gotten beat up for sticking their nose into the wrong villain’s business.

Tears leaked from my eyes. Snot ran from my nose. “Please,” I whispered.

 “Shut up,” the henchman said.

I obeyed.

The Centurions are coming, I thought as I bit my lip, my knees pressed tight against my chest. I had to believe that. They’d burst in at any moment and save me, just like Dark Justice had saved me from playground bullies when I’d been eight.

They had to be out there. Just waiting for Harpy to show up. They wouldn’t blow their cover until they had him in their sights.If I was a Centurion, that’d be what I’d do.

If I was a Centurion, I probably wouldn’t be chained to a wall.

Second passed. Then minutes. Then what felt like hours. I lay on the ground, tried and failed to find a comfortable position, and mouthed prayer after prayer—begging God for a miracle and busily repenting for my sins. I couldn’t think of many besides sleeping with Jake Mulberg and the times I’d taken my sisters’ clothes without asking. Unless wasting my potential at Sushi Queen counted.

Finally, when my eyes felt like they’d run out of tears, the ceiling cracked open.

A figure dropped through in a hail of rain and concrete. At least six feet tall, he was entirely encased in dull grey metal panels, curved outward to give the suit a strong, muscular appearance. His helmet had curved, horned attachments on the side. The jetpack on his back sputtered blue flames and died.

“This is the girl you found?” he said in an electronic, distorted voice. His boots banged on the concrete floor as he walked towards me. I shivered. Harpy was taller in person than he was on Darrryl’s phone.

“Yes, Harpy,” one man answered. “We caught her sneaking around the warehouse. We thought you might want to talk with her.”

The helmet swiveled towards me.

I lifted my chin. He might have me chained to a wall, but I wouldn’t let him break me. “I’m not afraid of you.” The words came out as a terrified squeak.

“I don’t need you to fear me.” He grabbed the chains holding my wrists and pulled. Engines hummed within the suit. The metal snapped like thread. “Prepare the machine.”

“Boss, I thought you only wanted us taking hobos for the machine.”

“All bones look alike.” Harpy clamped my hands together in one cold, wet hand and pushed me over towards the draped object. Goosebumps prickled on my bruised wrists. My heels slipped in the water pooling through the hole in the roof, and Harpy lifted me back up with no more feeling than one might lift a bag of laundry. The three henchmen surrounded, closing off any room to run. I struggled, trying to take even a single step backwards, and got nowhere.

Harpy pulled the drape off the shape. Underneath was a machine that looked like a giant spray nozzle mounted on a boombox mounted on a car engine. The frayed cord hissed and snapped. “Activate it.”

“You sure, boss? You’re standing in range.”

“The machine won’t effect psi-positives. Activate it.”

The henchman reached for the device. I took a deep breath. “The Centurions will stop you!” My voice echoed around the empty room. “You know they will! They always get their man!”

“Choose some better last words.” Harpy pressed the metal nozzle right between my breasts. “Trial eight of eight.”

A cold shiver ran through my heart. Is this how I die? A henchman flipped the switch, and all I could gasp was, “Please!” as a wave of blue liquid poured over me, and then the world exploded.