I Need A Hero (BxB)

Chapter Three

A couple hours after I had flopped down on the couch with an obnoxious amount of snacks and a tv to watch, my mom got home, earlier than usual. I don't think she even noticed I was sitting there on the couch until I said hello.

"Hello, Winter." She said as she took her shoes off. I looked over at her, and she looked pretty tired. I don't look like my mom at all. While my hair is brown and my eyes are blue, her hair was red and her eyes were green. I know that means I look like my dad, and I wonder if that ever upsets her.

"What are you doing home so early?" I asked her. It's not that I was upset, but she only came home early when something interesting happened.

"There was an incident, near where I work, so they sent us home." She said as she walked to the kitchen. I picked up the remote and switched the channel over to the news, sure enough there had been a huge fire down the block from where she worked. Looked pretty dangerous.

"That's what, the second or third random fire this week?" I asked her when she came back.

"I think so. Probably one of those freaks abusing their powers." I just shrugged in response, not sure I was even supposed to respond to that. "Make sure you're careful when you're out from now on, okay?" She said, ruffling my hair.

"Sure thing mom..." I told her, staring at the tv now. She didn't say anything else, just left the room, probably to go to sleep. I changed the channel once she left, trying to get the thoughts of heroes and villains and powers off my mind.

***

The next day I went to Amber's after school to do some homework. Unfortunately I didn't leave until late that night, yet not late enough for my mom to be home. So that left me to walk home, in the dark, freezing, downtown area. I was more scared of freezing to death than I was of getting mugged.

Only about fifteen minutes into my walk did I realize something was... wrong. What gave it away was the strong smell of smoke, but what also gave it away was the fire trucks that raced past only moments later. Now, any normal person would walk away from a fire. I on the other hand am an idiot, so I followed the fire trucks. Sure enough it led to an apartment building completely engulfed in flames. This was the first time there was a real danger to innocent people, all the other fires took place in empty locations. It looked like most of the people had escaped but there was still some left in there. I looked up towards the roof of the building and saw someone standing there, dressed in black and red. I watched as he jumped down from that building on to the one next to it, only a short leap away.

No one else seemed to notice him but I was incredibly curious so I kept my eye on him. He sat down on the edge of the building and just watched everything going on. If no one else was gonna find out what he was doing I just had to, so i went along to the other side of the building, peering into the alleyway. I was lucky enough to see some stacked crates that were high enough for me to climb up on to and reach a ladder leading to the roof. I'd say climbing on the crates was more difficult than the ladder, and I tried to keep myself quiet so I wouldn't scare him away, but I guess I didn't do a good enough job because the moment I climbed on to the roof he had turned to face me. His face was mostly covered by his hood, and he didn't say anything, or even make a move, he just stared at me. I stayed standing there, not sure what he would do if I walked towards him. I don't know how long we just looked at each other before I said,

"You did that, didn't you?"

"..." He nodded.

"Why? There's people in there, why would you do that?!" I could feel myself beginning to get angry now that I was actually confronting him. He didn't respond and instead stood up, beginning to walk over to me. I clenched my fists, getting ready to defend myself if I had to. He walked up to me, and I still couldn't see his face very well. "You could've killed someone." I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "You probably did!" he still didn't say anything, instead he grabbed my shoulder, his grip painfully strong and burning hot, and he leaned down close to me.

"I don't want to hurt you. Get out of here before I have to." He whispered before letting go of me and walking past me. I turned around quickly as he was getting ready to jump to the next building.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. He turned around to face me again.

"Exactly what I said. Now, if you feel so strongly about helping someone, do it. I'm sure that little girl about to jump out a window will appreciate it." He said, his voice still low. I spun around and saw there was in fact a child about to jump from her window. There was no way she could've possibly made it to this roof, and no one had bothered to check that side of the building. I raced across to the other side of the roof, and before I could call out to her she jumped. I panicked, quickly holding my hands out and trying to stop her from falling. I was used to picking up small things with my power, remotes, my phone, bowls of food, not 6 year old girls, but I guess there's a first time for everything. I managed to catch her, causing her to cry more since she was hovering four stories in the air, and then I pulled her towards me, only releasing my hold on her when I had her in my arms.

I wasn't ever particularly good with children, so I had no clue how I was supposed to calm down a crying little girl. I felt awful about just letting her cry but it was all I could do as I held her in one arm and carefully got us down from the building. I took her back to the crowd around the apartment building and started to look around, unsure of who to take her too. She had calmed down a little bit by then and she tugged on my sleeve to get my attention.

"Mommy and daddy are over there..." She said quietly, pointing over to an incredibly worried couple. I carried her over there and she called out for them. When they turned around I quickly handed her off and let them have their moment, backing out of the crowd before I turned to go home. I decided I'd had more than enough excitement for the night.

When I returned home I found my mother beat me there. She was sitting on the couch when I came in, and she stood up when I came in. From the look on her face I could tell she heard about the fire.

"You're getting here late, was everything okay on the way home?" She asked, sounding worried.

"Yeah, everything was fine." I told her. I realized she had stopped looking at my face and was instead staring at my shoulder. I looked to and saw my blue hoodie was charred black, probably from when the guy grabbed me.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Nothing." I told her. "It's been like that." I really didn't have a good excuse, so I hoped this would do. "I'm like, reeeeally tired so I'm just, gonna go to bed." I told her, slipping by her and rushing upstairs. Of all the nights for her to get worried about me this was NOT the one I would have chosen.