Retaliation: the beginning

Chapter 14: "Tale of a superhero"

Tossing his phone aside and flopping back onto the grass of the grave yard, Derek sighed and stared up at the sky with a frown. He went over the events that had transpired earlier that day, trying to make sense of it all. He knew Elias wasn't just messing with him but even if he had been, his eyes would've given him away, they'd either blink more than usual or try to focus on something else because that boy was not a good liar. It had certainly been frantic, but there was no doubt in his mind that he'd been telling the truth.

Or at least he believed he was.

For Brian's sake.

"Harper." He murmured, testing the name. He tried to familiarize himself with it but it felt foreign on his tongue.

Closing his eyes, he replayed Brian's words and racked his brain only to come up short. Shoulders slumping in defeat, Derek rolled over and drifted off to sleep.

The station was bustling with activity. Phones ringing off the hook with 911 calls as men and women in uniform ran around frantically, trying to delegate. Amidst all the chaos, seven-year-old Brian went mostly unnoticed and sat anxiously as he waited for his mom to finish talking to a deputy in the other room.

Beside him there he was, Derek looking as miserable as ever. His unshaved face was scary but not scary enough to make Brian flinch, he was staring.

"Hi." His voice grabbed Derek's attention, dragging it from his thoughts to the boy now standing in front of him.

"What do you want?" He answered certainly, after glancing around to make sure the boy was, in fact, talking to him.

The boy stared, unblinkingly, for a moment, as if he was trying to see into his soul.

"Are you in trouble?" He asked finally.

"No." Derek said quickly, only to falter. "I don't know."

The little boy shifted nervously "Only bad people get brought into police stations."

"Are you bad?" Derek inquired.

"no"

"then shut up."

The boy pouted and looked genuinely disappointed, which wasn't the reaction Derek expected. He was not sure if he should have apologized or not.

"Why are you here?" He asked instead.

"Why are you here?"

"I asked you first kid."

"So?" The boy challenges.

"So –" Unable to come up with an argument, Derek relented. "I'm homeless."

"Homeless?" The boy echoed, as if committing it to memory, before changing the subject. "Why?"

"Because I don't have a job."

"Why?"

Derek took a moment to think. In truth, deep down him he didn't know the reason so he had to make up something a child would understand.

"Because I'm different from normal humans."

"Are you a superhero? Or a villain?" the look Derek gave him was enough answer for the boy to ask another question, "Would you like to be my superhero?" The boy's eyes light up like a Christmas tree, his face splitting into a wide grin, and Derek knew right then and there that he has answered correctly.