Fire and Ice

Chapter Five

     The next day, I have to work at the diner longer than I usually do because of me leaving early the day before.  I was hoping that Linda would give me a break because of my 'family emergency', but, of course, I had no such luck.  Usually I only have to work from 9AM- 3, but today she has me stay until 7 instead.  By the end of my shift, I'm exhausted.  The events from yesterday and having to work extra today are started to take a toll on me.  When I finally get back to the apartment, I'm relieved.  I find Lexi in the kitchen cooking dinner.  

     "Hey!" she says.  "How was work?"  

     "Awful." I answer, sitting at the table and putting my head in my hands.  I was starting to get a headache, probably out of exhaustion.  

     "Are you okay?" she asks, concerned.

     "Yeah I'm fine." I reassure her.  "I'm just tired."

     "Okay..." She says, sounding unconvinced.  "I'm making spaghetti and meatballs, that okay with you for dinner?"

     "Of course." I smile.  "My favorite."  Lexi is the cook out of the two of us.  I can barely make grilled cheese without burning it.  You would think that since I work in a diner I'd be able to cook something more than mac-and- cheese from a box though.  I go take some painkillers for my headache, and hope that it will go away after I eat.  Lexi announces that dinner is ready, and after I finish, I sit on the couch to watch TV.  Instead of going away, however, my headache intensifies.  I don't know what a migraine feels like, but I think this is the closest I've come to having one.  It was a sharp pain in the front of my skull.  

     "You are not okay."  Unfortunately, Lexi sees me grimacing from where she was sitting in the kitchen, finishing her dinner.  Of course I can't hide my pain from a nurse.  

     "It's just a headache."  I manage to get out, even though I'm in pain.  "I'm fine."

     "Liar."  She walks over to me and feels my forehead to see if I have a fever.  "You don't seem to have a fever.  Where's the headache coming from?"

     "The front of my skull." I point to the spot above my eyebrows.  "It's probably nothing.  I'm just tired."

     "Did you hit your head at all yesterday?" she asks, referencing the hospital fight.

     "No."  I answered.  "I didn't get hurt at all."  

     "Follow my finger."  she says, moving her finger from left to right in front of my eyes.   "I don't think you're concussed."  

     "I told you." I groan. "I'm fine.  It's probably just exhaustion. I'm gonna go to bed."  I start to get up.

     "Okay..." Lexi says uncertainly.  While I'm walking towards my room, I feel the pain in my head suddenly increase, and I cry out in pain.  My knees give out and stumble to the ground.  "Amy?!" I hear Lexi running towards me, and suddenly instead of seeing or apartment, I see an abandoned warehouse.  Superman, or the man in the mask that I met yesterday, fighting two men wearing ski masks across the room.  A girl that didn't look more than eighteen years old is tied to a chair feet away from me.  I'm fighting three masked men, who look almost identical to the men that Superman is fighting.  Then, I'm back in the apartment, and I feel Lexi shaking my shoulders.  

     "Amy?  Can you hear me?"  She sounds panicked.  I open my eyes.  I'm crouched on the floor, holding my head in my hands.  Lexi is in front of me, her eyes wide with concern and worry.

     "Loud and clear." I joke, trying to make my voice sound like I'm not in pain.  

     "What the hell was that?"

     "That's what I'm wondering..." I'm scared.  This has never happened to me before.  "Lexi, I just saw something, and I have no idea what it means or why it happened."

     "What did you see?"  I explain to her what I saw with Superman and the kidnapped girl.  "Do you think it was like, the future or something?"  she asks when I finish.  

     "But that's insane though." I answer.  "I've never been able to do that before."

     "Hey, a normal person would think the ability to make fire is insane too.  You said you saw Superman?"  

     "Yeah.  I don't know why, I just met him yesterday."   My headache has gone away at this point, thankfully.

     "What if this is happening for some reason because you met him?" she wonders.  That's actually a decent explanation.   I couldn't think of anything else.    

     "Well, either way, if it is the future, some girl is going to get kidnapped, or already is."  I get up, with help from Lexi, and retrieve my laptop from my room.  I look up missing persons reported in the past month in this area.  None of the faces on the screen are the girl I saw in the warehouse.  "Dammit."

     "You don't know if this is going to happen tomorrow, or a month from now.  She might not have even been taken yet."

     "Yeah, but still." I feel powerless.  This girl is going to be kidnapped and I have no way of stopping it, since I have no idea who she is.  "I need to find out where that warehouse is." 

     "Did you see anything that might be able to help us find it?"  she asks.  

     "No I don't think so."  Then I remember something.  "Wait, there were boxes with a logo on them."  I find a pad of paper, and draw what I saw.  

     "That's a logo that was on some of the books at the bookstore that used to be down the street!" Lexi recognizes it excitedly.  She used to go there all the time before it closed.  "We just have to find out where their books were bought from!"  I search the name of the book store and discover that they purchased their books from a warehouse about a mile away from the city.  

     "I have to go check it out."  I go to put on my suit, but Lexi tries to stop me.

     "Are you sure?  You don't know what you're getting into, or if she's even there."

     "I have to try.  I'll be fine."  I smile, reassuring her.

     "Okay."  She says uncertainly.  I put on my suit.  "Be careful!"

     "Always."  I say, smirking.  The warehouse is about five miles away from our apartment by flying.  I land outside of it, and suddenly I'm unsure of myself.  What was I getting myself into?  In my vision, I was fighting three guys at once.  Am I sure I can take that?  Why did they even take the girl anyways?  Then, my internal debate is interrupted.  I hear footsteps behind me, and I spin around.

     "Superman?"