Freight-Tale And The Tomes Of Mortality

2 - New Flames Ignite

It was a brand new day as Keira Foster made her way to work. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied back into a tight ponytail, her face adorned with a small set of black sunglasses. The morning was bright, sunny, and as Keira stepped onto the pavement, she could hear a familiar voice in the distance.

"Hello, Miss Foster," the voice called.

Keira turned around, spotting the newspaper salesman. He was always the same, always smiling.

"Hello, Mr. Morris," Keira replied. "Good morning!"

"Morning, Miss Foster," the old man said, smiling. "Your usual copy?"

Keira nodded and handed him some money.

"How are you today, Mr. Morris?" Keira asked, taking her paper.

"I'm good, Miss Foster, thanks for asking. What about yourself?" Morris asked.

"I'm fine, thank you," Keira replied, smiling.

Looking towards the front page, she quickly spotted the headline. "Freight-Tale saves young boy from thugs", the paper said, and below that was a blurry picture of the firey hero.

"Look at that picture!" Mr. Morris said. "You can never quite tell who he is, can you?"

"It's like the whole world wants to know his identity," Keira added, shaking her head as she adjusted her glasses. "I love him myself, but everyone deserves some privacy."

"He's certainly good at what he does," Mr. Morris said.

"He is," Keira replied. "But there's always something about him that seems different. Like he's more than meets the eye."

"Well we know he's gay, look at that outfit!" Morris joked, pointing towards the paper.

Keira looked at the picture, smiling. It was true that Freight-Tale was a little on the feminine side, but it didn't bother her.

"You sound like my old friend from primary school," Keira said, smiling. "He always says stuff like that, and he is gay!"

Mr. Morris chuckled, folding up his paper and holding it to his chest.

"So you know him well?" Morris asked, looking up at the young woman. "This gay friend of yours?"

"I used to know him," Keira said, sounding a bit distant. "It's been years since I last saw him. We used to hang out every day, the best of friends. But we grew apart, made new lives, and things just changed."

"Life has a funny way of doing that," Morris stated.

Keira smiled, "Life's a bitch!"

Realising the time, Keira checked her watch and said goodbye to the newspaper salesman. With that, she pushed the paper into her handbag and rushed towards the bus stop to catch the bus to work. Her mind lingered on the subject of Freight-Tale. The truth was, she was actually a huge fan of his. If anything, his biggest fan! She drew fan art of him, watched his fights over and over again on the internet, and even went so far as to make a fan website dedicated to him.

When she was younger, Keira had dreamed of being a hero like him, alongside her childhood best friend. But now she was in her early twenties and working as a web designer for a wrestling company. It wasn't exactly what she had imagined when she was younger, but it was with a wrestling brand she admired and respected. It was not exactly how she wanted to spend the rest of her life, but she knew it was good money, and it meant she was doing what she loved.

The bus arrived, and Keira quickly climbed aboard, taking a seat towards the back. She looked out the window and towards the cityscape, watching the streets and the people as they made their way down the road, the shops, the offices and the bustling markets. Everything was so alive, so full of energy and colour and noise, just like the city itself.