Help! I'm Housing a Hero

Chapter 8: Sirens

          I shut my window and pulled my curtains closed. I didn’t realize it but I was shaking, not because I was cold, but because I was in shock. Then I sat down on my bed and folded my hands together to try and calm my nerves. I had just been sitting on a bomb and rescued by a super hero. Whatever happened to my normal invisible life? After a few minutes of reviewing my situation, and pondering my ability to trust anyone, I decided I wasn’t comfortable just sitting in my room. Maybe I could go and see if Andrew was still in the café. I needed something to get my mind off of this until I could think about it with a clear head. I grabbed my purse, which I rarely carried because it didn’t ever have any money in it, and took a handful of bills from the bar’s shift two nights ago. I walked out of my room and made sure my door was locked behind me before I dropped the key in my pocket.

          I walked down the stairs expecting Ms. Hodgens to come out of her room and question me, or at least ask why I didn’t come in last night but she didn’t make any noise as I passed. I carried on down the other flights of stairs and walked out the front door.

          What I saw caused me to stop dead and wish I had stayed in my room.

          Two flashing police cars, a news team, and Ms. Hodgens in her Nightgown and curlers were standing outside. The police and Ms. Hodgens looked worried but the news crew looked like they were about to receive a whole truck of free ice cream. Just as I was about to duck back into the door one of the camera men spotted me and it didn’t take long for the rest of the team to notice.

          “Ms. Glace, were you pretending to hide? Where have you been for the last twelve hours?”

          “Riel! Where have you been?!” Ms. Hodgens scolded and hobbled up the apartment stairs.

She surprised me with her agility to bulldoze through the news team.

         “I-uh- I’m.”

          “Get off my door step. She’s had enough trouble from you.” Ms. Hodgens grumbled at the news team and I’m sure she would have pushed some of them down the stairs had the police not been around. She looked like a crazed mother just finding her lost child. For an instant I felt a little touched as well as confused. Three officers soon joined us on the stairs and it was getting uncomfortably crowded. Instinctively I threw my good arm across my side to defend my injury. It was like they were all fighting to see who could get closest. I reached out with my hand and turned the knob behind me. The door swung open and a police officer, Ms. Hodgens and I fell inside.

          Immediately the police officer slammed the door shut behind us and placed his weight against it so no one else could come in. He flipped the lock just as they started banging on the door. I bit my tongue and winced away the pain as the officer went to help Ms. Hodgens up and then come over to me. He lifted me with a single heave. It wasn’t as gentle as Hero had lifted me up and not quite as painless either.

          “Where have you been?” They both seemed to yell at me in unison as though I was being punished. Well, Ms. Hodgens did the yelling, the police officer asked rather calmly.

          “I was-“

          “First, that little friend of yours comes asking where you were and then I go and search your room to find that you weren’t there.” Ms. Hodgens sounded furious, “I called the police and I’ve been here for hours trying to figure all of this out, and now you decided to just show up. and prance out the front door as though nothing has happened.”

          “Ms. Hodgens, I’m sorry. That man you left me with last night kidnapped me.”

          “I don’t understand how he had kidnapped you when you’ve been here this whole time.”