Hidden Darkness

Chapter 6

    School just ended and I immediately started for my house. Dodging people and poles to get home quickly. I charged inside, dropped my bag near the door where I usually leave it, grab a set of gym bags and walked as fast as I could out the door. It took me several minutes to get to the building we planned to train on, but I got there. I thought I would have to wait in the alleyway for a while until a tendril picked me and the bags up to the roof.
    Both me and the bags got dumped onto the top of the building. "hey Eric," I say looking up at him from the floor of the roof. "Yo," was his response. "I brought a lot of equipment. A miniature punching bag, some balls to throw, and other things." He stared at the bags as I opened them.
    "You really want to try this, don't you? Make me into a vigilante?"
    "Well, yeah. It would definitely make things better for you and also show people you aren't a bad guy." He simply nodded. "Okay, first up. Dodging and blocking," I say while grabbing a container full of tennis balls and dumping them out into a bag. "I'm gonna throw some balls at-"
    "Did you bring any food?" Eric said interrupting me. "Food?"
    "Yeah, I haven't had anything to eat." I went through the bags and pulled out a small box of protein bars. I opened them and tossed one to him. He tore it open and started eating away, quite wolfishly. "Full?"
He nodded. "Okay, as I was saying, I'm gonna throw these balls at you and you have to block or deflect them."
"Okay."
"Alright," I say, pulling back my arm. "Three...two...one!" I throw the tennis ball as hard as I could. Eric didn't even flinch as a tendril appeared from his back and easily deflected it. The ball went sailing over the building edge.
"Matt, I've been shot at before, I can already do that."
"Alright, then. Block it, don't deflect." I threw another ball. In response, Eric's tendrils shot out in front of him and made a large circular shape. The ball slammed into it and quickly shot off and sped past my head and off the roof. "Okay, what else can you do with those things?"
"Wings, shield, cannon, sharp swords and such."
"Woah, a cannon?"
"Yeah, see?" Eric's tendrils spiraled together and merged, then began to fall inward and create a barrel. The entirety of the weapon rested atop Eric's upper half. "Woah. Have you shot it before?"
"No, and I don't want to."
"Why not?"
"Too much damage."
"Fair enough. So it seems you already know that much with your tendrils, but not with your hands. Those things are deadly and powerful, but you need to practice blocking, deflecting, and fighting with your regular limbs. Don't use your tentacles, use only your hands."
"Okay." Eric dispelled his tendrils and held up his hands in a blocking manner. I throw a ball as hard as I could at him. Eric readied himself to deflect it, shot his hands outward, attempting to deflect the ball, but, instead, had it slam into his cheek. "Shit!" Eric said, going to his cheek.
Matt stood there gawking at Eric. "See? You need more practice." I grabbed the tennis ball that, luckily, didn't fall off the building like the others. "Let's try again." We spent the next hour and a half building up Eric's reaction time with his hands.
He deflected only a few and the building was filled with all sorts of obscenities the more Eric got hit. I had ran out of balls so I called break. Eric got hit a lot, but for some reason he had no bruises or injuries. "You're getting the hang of it."
"I don't like getting hurt."
"No one does, dude," I laughed. If I didn't know any better, I thought I saw Eric crack a smile. "Hey, so what are we going to do about-" Eric interrupted himself with a painful grunt as his hand flew to his head. "Eric? What's wrong?"
Eric's hand stopped clutching his head. Without saying a word, he jumped off the building. "Eric!" I hurriedly ran to the edge and was just in time to see Eric running down the street. I looked towards the fire escape and started to scale down it.

I ran as fast as I could. I was some time away, but I'm sure I could make it in time. I rounded street corners, dodged people, and took as many shortcuts as I could. I was finally at the school and still running. Football players practiced on the field under the field lights.
I jumped the fence and charged towards the bleachers. Behind them I can see two figures, one above the other with their hand over their mouth. I felt my anger boil as I charged behind the bleachers, threw my arm out, and slammed it into the one on top, throwing him about two yards. I looked back at the other person. I recognized her from school.
Her eyes were red and watery as tears still fell, her jeans were unbuttoned and her shirt pulled up. The sight only made me angrier. I looked back at the guy I had thrown. He was slowly getting up, holding onto his jeans so they wouldn't fall.  I unbuttoned my coat and took it off.
I walked to the girl and handed it to her. She hesitantly accepted it, obviously recognizing who I was and possibly wondering who is better. I looked back at the guy, who has finally stood up. "What the hell, man!?" the guy yelled as he tried to button his pants closed. I didn't say a thing, just stared at him, dripping anger.
I couldn't kill him, not with witnesses. Once his pants were finally buttoned, he charged at me. At the last second, I stepped out of the way, grabbed his shirt and yanked him away from the girl. he got back up and tried charging at me again. I threw a punch and he walked into it.
I felt something crack and he fell to the ground, unconscious. "Eric," I heard Matt call from behind me. I turn around, seeing the girl wrapped in my trench coat and Matt standing there, observing the scene.

What I saw wasn't any normal sight you see every day. A teenager unconscious and on the ground, a girl wearing a trench coat and teary eyed, and also Eric. You wouldn't expect Eric to be very muscular when he wears his trench coat, so I was shocked. I snapped back to reality and ran to the girl in Eric's coat. "Are you okay?"
She sniffed and nodded. I look up at Eric, who was staring at the teen's unconscious body with so much anger and contempt. "Eric." He didn't respond. "Eric!"
He finally looked away. "What!?"
"We have to help, what's your name?" I ask the girl. "I...I'm M-Mary," she said, stuttering a little. "We have to help Mary. I need to call the cops and I need you to come with me so you won't do anything you might regret later." Eric nodded and slowly backed away. "Okay, come on, Mary, let's go tell the coach what happened."
She nodded silently and stood up weakly. I held out my hand but she backed away from it. She stepped back and hid behind Eric, who was looking at her with a confused look. I grinned a small grin. "Alright, let's go," I said as I started to walk away with them behind me
Some of the football players were talking and pointing at the bleachers while the coach wrote on some clipboards, not paying attention. We walked up to them, drawing attention. The coach looked up. "What's this?" he asked. "Coach, someone tried to..."
I looked at the girl who was looking down and holding onto Eric's shirt with her left hand while Eric stood like he was about to be attacked by a lion. "Someone tried to rape this girl." The coach stood up quickly. "What? Who?"
"I don't know, someone from the school, I think."
"Where is he?"
"Still behind the bleachers, sir."
"Why?" I pointed behind me with my thumb. "Eric knocked him unconscious, I think he broke some teeth or something." The coach looked at Eric. "Is that true, Sullivan?"
Eric nodded. "Okay, you call the police, I'll go get the guy." I nodded as the coach walked off. I dialed the cops and told them the story while the coach and some of the football players carried the guy onto the field, who was still unconscious until when the cops arrived and woke him up to arrest him. Meanwhile, other cops tried questioning Mary, but she was still in shock and wouldn't let go of Eric's shirt.
Eventually, Mary's mother came by in a work suit in tears herself. She hugged her daughter close and cried and Mary hugged back. The only time she let go of Eric's shirt. Eric was free to get up and walk to me, but was cut short when Mary's mother called out to him, "Hey. What's your name?" Eric turned toward them.
"Eric Sullivan, Ma'am." The woman grabbed Eric's hands, began to tear up some more and said, "Thank you for saving her. Thank you so much." Eric nodded and Mary and her mom left. I tapped Eric's shoulder. "Yeah?"
"Follow me, we need to talk." We walked away from the crowd and stopped. "What's with the headaches? They just pop up and you go running." Eric looked at me, unsure if I should know why. "It's how I know who to look for. I get visions and information from somewhere and I just go."
"So you getting headaches means..."
"That either someone is being raped or abused, and various others."
"Like?"
"I get small headaches when someone is stealing, I never felt a headache with a murder yet, and abuse and rape are the strongest. I don't know what it means, just that it's some justice alert system." Eric looked over at the bench he was sitting at with Mary. He saw his trench coat folded neatly on it and went to retrieve it. He came back, buttoning it up. I looked at him.
"What?"
"You're very muscular, man."
"Yeah, thanks. I'm gonna head home, I'm beat. See ya, Matt."
"Yeah, see ya tomorrow, Eric." He walked off without another word. I looked at the guy in the police cruiser, staring after Eric with a nasty look