Superhero Effects

1. MY NAME IS TRISTAN

The day my life turned upside down started as a good day. My brother, Lewis, didn't try to leave me behind for school; my best friend, Peggy, got a lead on a really good story for the school newspaper; and my other best friend, Archer, reminded me that I had a ten-page essay due the next day that I had yet to begin.

The essay is why I rushed from school as soon as my last class ended. I hurried a few blocks down to the public library. Attempting to do it at Conquer Prep's library would have been the easier thing to do, but it ran the risk of one of my tattle-tale teachers seeing me rush to write an assignment; then they would have told my mom, the Grade Patrol, and I would have gotten grounded. Again.

So, I sat at one of the back tables of the public library with books scattered about and worked diligently on the history essay about the civil war. I wasn't worried about the assignment not being up to par—if there was one thing I was good at, it was writing. No, what had me rushing was wanting to get home before dark—the same thing that had everyone rushing. But, for me, it didn't happen.

I got so absorbed in writing, watching the blank pages of the document filling up one after the other, that I didn't notice the sun disappear from the large window I sat beside. I was one page from finishing when the little wrinkled librarian tapped me on the shoulder and whispered, "We're closing up, sweetheart. I'm sorry."

When I glanced up at her, pausing on my typing, she gave me the same sweet smile she had the last two times she had, had to kick me out of the library because it was ten at night, and the poor thing had to get home.

I said the same thing as always. "Okay, Mrs. Castillo. No problem-o. I'll be out of your hair in the quickest second in the world."

And that's how it started. That's how it all went wrong.

Mrs. Castillo's husband, only a few inches taller than her, was already waiting in front of the library for her when we walked out together. I held one of her hands while we made our way down the slick cement steps and opened the ice-lined car door for her. She thanked me, and then after I assured them three times that I'd be fine, the little car rolled away, leaving me alone under the lamppost, shivering, with five percent left on my phone's battery.

I called my brother again and left another message, warning him that if he wasn't in front of the library in the next five minutes, I was calling mom.

The two-lane road I faced was empty. The lights above switched from green to yellow to red without purpose. Snow had been pushed to the side earlier, so it was gathered along the edges of the sidewalk. With every exhale, my breath came out almost as a solid.

Aside from my teeth chattering and my body breaking out in shivers at random times, everything was quiet on this side of town, but still—I knew. Strange things had happened in the city of Conquer in the last three weeks: muggings with the perps stealing nothing but a chunk of the victim's hair, leaving several people in comatose states; sightings of flying things in the sky; and the vigilantes, of course.

And all the weird stuff had gone down at night.

"Come on, Lewis, come on," I pleaded through my teeth. I glanced at my phone, it was twenty minutes after ten, and there was no sign of my brother.

I sighed again, glancing around in search of anyone else. Again.

There weren't even any cabs in sight, not this late at night, not in Conquer.

That small voice inside me protested when I straightened my back and started making my way down the sidewalk with the intent of walking a few blocks to my friend Archer's house. It said, stay put; Lewis will come. But I was too angry and cold to wait for Lewis. So, with my arms crossed tightly over my long black coat and my backpack securely on my back, I walked.