Unto Shadows

ix. love notes & closet heroes

Love Notes & Closet Heroes

AS SOON AS I walked in the door to my bedroom, my feet ground to a startling halt. Across from me stood a perfectly not-shattered window. How did he hire somebody to replace my window without my mom or I noticing? I'd been at school for the last eight hours, but surely my mom would have noticed or heard the noise coming from upstairs. She didn't work today.

And then I noticed the note on the corner of my bed with the same messy handwriting I immediately recognized as Revenants.

      Hola, amiga (no? Okay.)

$950 was the price it took to fix your window. Before taxes, of course. I replaced it myself, by the way (and it's a lot harder than it looks.) Debt paid in full, I believe. You're welcome.

Sincerely, the one and only (and greatest Super ever), Revenant

I shook my head and laughed. He was absolutely unbelievable.

✦

      Flynn. That was the name of my hallway-stalker.

My nerves had me on edge. I couldn't shake the feeling there was more to the dark-eyed stare I'd received in the hallway yesterday. I knew I should've left it alone and pushed away my paranoid thoughts, but I still found myself glancing occasionally in his direction in our third period technology class. It wasn't until seeing him walk in today that I even realized we had classes together.

      He typed away at his keyboard, squinting at the screen every once in a while and adjusting his glasses. I hadn't caught his eyes on me once today, and the more I watched him, the more foolish I felt. Heath said it was nothing, and he was probably right. I was acting crazy. There was seemingly nothing out of the ordinary about this kid at all, and I needed to lock that into my brain before I dug myself a hole too deep to climb out of.

      The ringing of the bell to leave class came as a welcome alternative to my paranoid thoughts. It wasn't until I began to gather my books that I looked up and saw it—Flynn's eyes locking on mine. His eyes widened in what could have been surprise, but looked away too fast for me to discern his stare.

      Stop it, Charity, I chastised myself as I stepped into my fourth period journalism class.  I'd barely taken my seat next to Heath before the teacher spoke.

      "I was very impressed with the news reports you all turned in. Enough so, that I would like you to make another." A few groans sounded around the room, but Miss Smith just smiled. "Don't sound so displeased. I don't want you to write just any news report, I want it to be real. Investigate something happening now, be it in this town or somewhere else in the country. My only requirements are that you work hard, and cite your sources so I know it's not fiction." She picked up the remote for the TV and turned it on. "In the mean time, I'll turn on the news to give you some ideas."

      I tried my hardest to drown out the weather man and focus on what subject I should write my report on, but Heath's voice cut into my thoughts. "What are you planning to write?"

      I looked at his paper, the title of his report already written down. The name looked familiar, but I couldn't place from where. Psion. "No idea. You?"

"Psion," he said, as if I should have known immediately who he was speaking of. "The hero that kicked the new bad guy's ass."

"Aren't he and his other friends new to town? I know that Void guy has been around a bit, but the other two I haven't seen before."

      He raised his shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. "I'm pretty sure they've all three been around since Ace's murder."

I shivered at the mention of Ace's death. I still had no idea whether or not Revenant had been responsible, but while he didn't deny it, some gut instinct made me think he hadn't murdered Ace. Or that there was more to the story than anyone knew. "We still don't know if Revenant killed Ace," I argued.

Heath's eyebrows shot up, and I quickly realized my mistake. "I thought you didn't know his name?"

I decided it best not to mention Revenant's notes he left me. "It may have come up before he left." It wasn't exactly a lie, just not the whole truth.

"That makes it sound like he didn't leave as 'immediately' as you said," he accused, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Charity, what else aren't you—"

I was thankfully saved from my interrogation when Ms. Smith raised her remote to the television and cranked the volume. "Here's a good reference," she told the class. "A news report on our newest villain."

"A surprising video of Brooklyn's newest criminal leaked anonymously to Nine o'clock News this morning." They played the video as they spoke, but I stopped listening. Instead, I focused in on the blurry, poorly filmed video someone had taken of a man holding a young boy, around seven or eight, and forcing him into the back of a Honda with no license plates. The boy put up a lot of fight until Revenant appeared through a shadow and forcefully separated the two. He threw a rough punch into the assailant's jaw, then slammed his head roughly against the nearest stop sign. Sirens blared in the distance as he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Instead of running from the police, Revenant turned to the people around him and screamed, "What the hell is wrong with you people? A child was grabbed and nearly kidnapped, and all you can do is pull out you phones?"

Nobody responded, but they didn't need to. I knew his message had been received when several people lowered their cameras, watching as he ran into the nearest alley and no doubt disappeared into a shadow seconds before the police showed up. The video cut out and switched back to the news casters who blatantly ignored the near kidnapping in favor of raving about why the known criminal would help a kidnapped child.

I pried my eyes away from the screen, a scowl on my face. Revenant saving that child was more proof he wasn't as terrible a person as he pretended to be. Some part of me screamed that anyone would have saved that kid, but the video proved that wasn't the case. All those people stood there with their phones when they could have banded together and stopped that man.

"Are you okay?" Heath asked me, his voice low. "You seem upset."

"I am," I told him, pointing at the screen. "You saw that. All those people let that little boy be snatched up and taken away. If Revenant hadn't shown up, that kid could have been killed—or worse."

Heath's face hardened. "I know that look, Charity. Don't start thinking he's some hero because he saved one kid."

"Nobody else did!" I hissed.

He sighed. "Just remember that he's the lead suspect in Ace's murder before you go labeling him as some type of saint."

Maybe Heath was right, or maybe he wasn't. Either way, I needed to know the truth. I had a lot of questions for Revenant, and I intended on finding answers.