After a bizarre subway accident, a group of ordinary people develop powers right out of fiction-just as their city is overtaken by shadowy monsters. They're thrust into an ancient battle between good and evil...but even the last hopes of humanity st...
You can read a text-only version of this chapter at https://asphaltarcanum.com/chapter-2-text-only/
--------
Alvin tipped a handful of pills out of the Tuesday PM slot of the plastic pill sorter. Then he pulled the pitcher off the blender bottom and poured the half-ice-cream-half-Ensure strawberry-ish concoction he'd made into a plastic tumbler with a lid and a straw.
He yawned wide and itched at the bandage on his elbow. It was late, way later than he usually gave Lola her milkshake and meds and got her to bed. They'd spent over ten hours waiting today-waiting in the busted-up subway car to be shuttled back to the station, then waiting for the paramedics to get them to the ER, then waiting for the doctors to look Lola over. She had some horrifying-looking cuts and bruises on her arms and legs from falling out of her wheelchair, but the ER doc told him that it was all superficial, and as long as he kept the cuts clean and changed the bandages properly, she should heal up fine. They'd considered keeping her overnight for observation, but Lola never did well in hospitals. The risk of complications was low. Better to just take her home.
His phone pinged where he'd left it on the counter playing a chill Minecraft stream as background noise. He glanced over at the Discord message that popped up and saw a good morning from Janxie, just signing on for the day in Malaysia, followed swiftly by a note tagging him that was mostly panicked emoji. He rinsed his hands and dried them on his pants so he could type out a quick reply.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He put his phone aside, ignoring the flurry of response pings for now. He'd messaged the group from the hospital waiting room with a too-vague note around seven, then he'd been pulled into a bunch of medical paperwork and conversations with doctors and cops and totally forgotten to update anyone. Oops.
He put the pills, milkshake, and a glass of water on a tray and brought it out to the little table next to the beat-up recliner, to the small, hunched, wrinkled woman in the baggy floral dress who was staring blankly at nothing.
This was his grandmother, and other than some cousins in the Philippines he'd only met twice, the only family he had left since Mom died.
"Hey there," he said softly, holding out the pills for her to take.
"Where's Alvin...?" she said weakly.
"Alvin's not here right now, but he'll be back soon, don't worry. Here, you need to swallow these, and then I've got a strawberry milkshake for you!" He did his best to keep his voice soothing and upbeat, but he was too tired to do his best acting. Still, her face lit up a little at the words "strawberry milkshake" and she swallowed the pills with no fuss.
It still stung a little, knowing that she wasn't really asking for him when she used his name.
Alvin knew he didn't look much like the great-uncle he'd been named for, his lola's beloved older brother. Back when she first started getting confused about things, it took him a while to understand why telling her "I'm Alvin" upset her so much.
