Big City Villain | BOOK ONE

Chapter Eleven: Let's Meet, Sincerely City Sweeper.

I needed something to set the tone, something loud and exciting. So none other than Adele's River Lea was looped on repeat and blasting through the speakers in my headphones that were probably too loud.

Standing on the edge of the Brickland building and scanning the cloudy night skies, I was completely alert, but even then it was hard to resist singing along to my current favorite song. The wind whipped around me, blowing my black jacket all around and almost knocking me off the building but my boots held their traction, and really if I fell that was only a proper excuse to use my powers. So push me already, wind.

Looking over the edge brought a flashback to mind. One that made me close my eyes and try to push it down, yet it kept rearing its head like an annoying pimple. You can't change the past, Coal. But you can change your future. For a second there, I sounded pretty inspirational, didn't I?

There was the crunch of gravel as someone landed behind me, snapping me out of my thoughts and bringing me back to the present on high alert, all my sense heightened for whoever it was and whatever happened. See, the thing with super hearing is that it also comes with selective hearing, so anytime something out of the ordinary happens I automatically block out the music and enhance my hearing.

For instance, judging by the crunch of gravel the person was about five foot six inches tall and weighed around one hundred forty pounds. Okay, so that may not be precisely accurate, but you get the point.

"I see you got my note."

I turned around to face the vigilante. I was almost shocked to see him, for some reason I thought he'd be invisible. He might as well have been, most of his body was hidden in shadows and I couldn't make out his face.

"It was pretty hard not to see," I said. The note had been taped to my window, confirming my fears that CS knew where we lived. "You know, there is such a thing as the post office. A nice postcard, say, would have done the trick."

City Sweeper shrugged and walked to the edge next to me. I tensed, ready to absorb whatever hit or shock he was going to send my way. Instead, City Sweeper looked down at the street, clasping his hands behind him. I noted that I was a few inches taller than him, so I straightened my spine and tried to stand up taller.

"Long way down," City Sweeper mused.

"Scared of heights?" I asked, feeling a moment of deja vu.

"You said that to . . . What did you call him? Tights a few nights ago," City Sweeper said, his voice deep and dark sent shivers down my spine. He was there.

"Stalk much?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. Feeling uneasy, I stepped away from the edge. Yes, I know he's been following my brother around, but for some reason I didn't realize just how long CS had been stalking Ben. I wonder just how many times our paths crossed and I never knew a thing.

City Sweeper turned to face me. I sucked in a sharp breath in surprise when his face hit the light, instead of just a regular mask that covered his eyes and part of his face he had a full out white mask covering every inch of skin. I scanned him up and down quickly, trying to assess what I was dealing with here.

Dark gray spandex with stripes of dark green on his thighs and arms covered his body, and thin soled boots reached up to his knees. Thin soled. He can fly. Of course, why shouldn't he be able to fly? I mean, I'm just a plain old boring super villain, I don't even need to fly. Flying is so overrated. Idiot vigilante.