Sunlight and Gloom

Chapter 5

Gloom jerked awake as her phone rang. Shoot, she thought, I was supposed to stay on lookout. She picked up the phone. "Hello."
"Hello. Did you order a pizza earlier?"
"Yeah, did you remember the pineapple?"
"All three slices."
"Go ahead, Juan."
"Okay, great. I was afraid I'd forget the code. Where are you? I've been waiting for 20 minutes now."
"I was doing something. I'll be there soon. Is the new gang there?"
"Yeah, except Buck. He's not here yet."
"Alright. Just wait a few minutes, I'll be there soon."
"Over and out." He hung up. Gloom placed her phone in the inside pocket of her cape. She closed her eyes and a strong gust of wind blew over the roof she was sitting on. She spread her cape and the wind picked her up. Gloom felt the rush of power she had forgotten as she flew over the rooftops toward the park. The wind dropped her next to the park benches, where a group of men sat drinking coffee. To the outside eye, they didn't look like anything more, but to Gloom, they were the key to her revolution.
"Good morning everyone," Gloom started. Since it was daylight, she wore not only her hood, but a mask as well. "I hope you're doing well today." One of the men from the tables stood up.
"Cut to the chase, Gloom. What do you want." The man speaking was considerably taller than Gloom, and had tattoos covering every piece of skin that was visible under his black T-shirt and torn jeans. If she would have been anyone else, she might have felt intimidated.
"And who might you be?"
"You can call me Jones. You don't need any other name than that, little girl."
Gloom took a deep breath. She had been afraid of this. "Alright, listen, Jones. Who's in charge here.
"I don't know. Our supposed leader got to her own meeting 20 minutes late," he stared at her in a way that made her blood boil. "Maybe we should find ourselves a new leader. What would you do then? Come on boys." The ten men who came with Jones stood up to leave, but Gloom quickly put an end to that. A storm cloud formed over Jones, and lightning bolt struck him in the chest. His men cried in dismay as Jones crumpled to the ground.
"I'm the one in charge, and you all should know it," she said. "If anyone else dares challenge me, step forward."
"Please, you've got to let us take him to a hospital," one of his men pleaded. She glared at him, then nodded and the men carried Jones to their van. She watched them drive off then turned to Juan.
"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" he asked.
"I'd hold my tongue if I were you." Gloom was completely exhausted, but she didn't let it show. "Organize another meeting for Tuesday, 11:00 pm. This one didn't go as planned."
      "Where are you going?"
      "Home. Bring the cloak next time."
      "I'm not sure it'll be done by then."
      "It will be done. Bring it." With that, she walked out if the park, too tired to fly again.

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      Amber read and thought most of the way home. Training to use her power with her grandfather, it wasn't something she thought she would be doing a few years ago. Getting powers was supposed to be something that only happened in movies, and now it was happening to her.
      They had watched the Centerville news on Grandpa Rick's TV during lunch. Someone had been struck by lightning earlier in the morning. In the 13 years that she had been on Earth, she had never heard of that happening before in her hometown, especially on a reportedly sunny day with no clouds. Grandpa looked a little suspicious too, but he didn't say anything.
      Now they were a little less than three hours away from Centerville, and Amber's pile of books had diminished noticeably. She took a break from reading and thought about how she would do this training thing. She was too busy in the morning to do it before school, and she had volleyball practice in the afternoon. She guessed they would do it after supper, because there wasn't any other time. If it took them an hour to eat, then they'd have about an hour to practice outside. Her mother didn't like her staying out past 8:00. They surely wouldn't practice inside, especially when they first started. Maybe Mom would make an exception for her. Amber didn't know, but she hoped her grandpa would figure it out.
      She started on her next book. It was one of her favorites, because it wasn't just one story, but several combined. The World's Best Fairy Tales. It wasn't really her book, she had borrowed it from her church's library, but she borrowed it so often that she could tell you about ever single story. The book was several inches thick and had a red cover interlaced with a gold design and pictures from well known fairy tales. The first story in the book was The Pied Piper of Hamelin. She read, and soon her thoughts were filled with nothing but rats, children, and a strange man with a pipe.