Fire and Ice

Chapter Nine

     I'm cooking dinner in the kitchen of my old apartment, when suddenly I hear Alex's voice coming from the living room.  

     "Amy! Where's my beer?"  I wince.  I can tell by the sound of his voice that he's drunk.  

     "One second!" I call back to him, trying to keep my voice from shaking.  I go into the refrigerator and grab a bottle of beer.  I walk into the living room where he's watching a football game and my hands are shaking so much that I drop the glass bottle.  It falls to the ground and breaks into pieces.  I stare at it in horror.  

     "What the hell did you just do?!" Alex yells.  

     "I'm sorry!" My voice is trembling.  "It was an accident!"

     "It's always an accident with you. you idiot!"  He shoves me to the ground and starts punching me, over and over.  "You can't do anything right!  You're worthless!"

     

     I wake up from the nightmare screaming.  I sit in bed trying to catch my breath for a minute before Lexi comes rushing in.  "Are you okay? I heard you scream."

    "Yeah I'm fine."  I look down at my shaking hands.  "It was just a nightmare.  I'm sorry to wake you up."  Lexi looks at me, a sympathetic look on her face.

     "Do you want to talk about it?" 

     "Just go back to bed. I'm fine."

     "No you're not."  Lexi sees right through my lie.  "Alex is gone Amy.  He can't hurt you anymore."

     "Since when can you read minds?" I joke, trying to avoid talking about it.  It's been a week since I've lost my powers, and I've been living in terror ever since.  I know I'm being irrational.  After our last fight, Alex is dead.  He can't hurt me.  But I can't fight the feeling of vulnerability that losing my powers caused.  

     "If you don't want to talk to me about it, that's fine."  Lexi isn't letting me get away with changing the subject.  "But you need to talk to somebody."  

     "Like who?" I say.  "A shrink?  That'll be a fun conversation.  'Yeah I've been feeling like my dead ex-boyfriend will come kill me ever since I lost my powers that nobody knows about.'  They totally won't throw me into a mental institution."

     "You don't have to talk about your powers.  Just talk about the nightmares.  It might help."

     "I'm not going to a shrink Lexi."  

     "Fine." she sighs.  "I'm going back to bed.  If you need anything or want to talk, wake me up."  She leaves the room, and I immediately feel bad.  I know I'm worrying her with the way I've been acting over the past week.  I've starting working full-time at the diner, having nothing else to do.  I've barely been sleeping because of my nightmares.  I'm a hot mess.   

     I look at the clock.  It says 5:45 AM, so I don't bother going back to sleep since I have to be up in an hour anyways.  I shower and get into my work uniform.  I don't feel like making breakfast, so I walk to a Dunkin Donuts that's right down the street from the apartment.  I order a coffee and bacon, egg, and cheese croissant and sit down in a booth, reading a newspaper that I had bought on the way here.  On the front page, there's a picture of Emmett in his suit, giving the photographer a smile that I can tell is fake.  The headline says Masked Hero Saves Civilians From Fire.  I roll my eyes.  They couldn't even come up with a good nickname for him.  As I read the article, I start feel jealous.  I've never done any of my hero work for the glory of it.  I could care less if there's any newspaper articles about me.  I'm just reading about Emmett doing something that I used to love to do but can't anymore.  What good am I doing without my powers?  I'm practically worthless without them.  All I can do right now is serve people food at a diner.  

     Suddenly, somebody slides into the booth across from me and I jump.  I look up and see Emmett.  Instead of wearing his normal suit, he was dressed in everyday clothes.  He was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a black t-shirt.  I haven't seen him since the day I woke up.  After I discovered, he had left awkwardly, telling me to feel better and to call him if I need anything.   

    "What are you doing here?" I ask, surprised to see him outside of his suit.  

     "Would it kill you to actually say hello for once?" He smirks and I roll my eyes.  "Heroes need caffeine too, you know."  He gestures to the coffee that he held in his hand.  I try not to let my face show the jealousy that I feel for him at the moment.  

     "I'm trying to eat my breakfast in peace."  

     "I just wanted to see how my favorite superhero is doing." he says, ignoring the fact that I clearly wanted to be alone.  I wince at the word 'superhero'.  

     "Not a superhero anymore." I answer.  

     "Sorry."  He says awkwardly, his smirk replaced with a look of sympathy.  "But how are you doing?"

     "Wonderful." I answer sarcastically.

     "Seriously."  He says.  I sigh.  He's not gonna leave until I give him an answer, so I decide to be somewhat honest with him.

     "I don't like feeling vulnerable."  I say, quietly.

     "Everybody's vulnerable."  I glare at him, letting him know that his words aren't helping at all, but he continues.  "But most people stay safe.  Just because you're not invincible doesn't mean you're going to die anytime soon."  Clearly he doesn't know about my ex-boyfriend and I don't plan on telling him.  

     "I know." I say.  "It's just hard."  Suddenly, his face brightens, as if he thought of something.  

     "What are you doing after work?" he ask.  

     "Netflix?" I say, confused.  

     "Not anymore."  he says, grinning.  "I'm picking you up at work."

     "No you're not." I argue.  "I'm going home, by myself.  I'm not in the mood for whatever you're planning on doing."

     "You don't even know what I'm going to do."  He retorts.  

     "I have plans with Lexi."

     "Liar."  

     "Fine."  I say, knowing I'm not getting out of this.  "What are we doing?"

     "You'll see." He smirks, and I roll my eyes.  I've never liked surprises.  

     "Okay."  I know he's not going to tell me, so I don't even try.  I look at my watch and see that I have to be in work in fifteen minutes.  "I have to go.  Pick me up at four."

     "Bye Amy."  He says.  "You'll thank me later, I swear."

     "Whatever." I mumble, leaving.  As I walk to work, I try to ignore the small amount of excitement that I had for whatever Emmett is planning.