A Normil Day

Armand Cole

This is another of those events that I wasn't there for. I was deep in the Beneath, waiting to come back to what passes for my afterlife. It was ten thirty, or thereabouts, and Jenna was on the phone, when "Guardian" landed softly on her balcony. He'd punched eyeholes in his mask with his thumbs. And for all the people who thought Guardian's eyeless mask was uncanny, Jenna told Rick later, seeing it with ragged eyeholes was worse.

She hung up quickly, as soon as she noticed him. He said, "Hello, sweetheart. Who were you talking to? And why didn't you want me to overhear it?"

Jenna smiled, and it must have looked sincere. "I wasn't trying to hide anything. I was just surprised to see you. Mr. Harris just called me—"

"Are you trying to lie to me, sweetheart?"

If Jenna was extremely quick to answer that, nobody could blame her. "No! No, of course not."

Guardian stepped closer. "Then why do you sound so nervous?"

I'm not sure what it must have taken for Jenna to step forward herself and put her hand on the imposter's arm, but she did it. "Is something wrong, love?"

"Nothing's wrong. Why would anything be wrong?" His voice darkened. "You haven't been talking to Ricky Normil, have you?"

Jenna shook her head hastily. "No, not since the hospital. It's just—" She looked down, then back up again. "You weren't there to stop Adam Stitch this morning, and you aren't going after him now, when he's rampaging outside of Brook Park—that's what the phone call was about—" She turned away and paced towards the kitchenette, affecting distress. "And if something's draining your powers, or there's some other reason you can't fight Stitch and win—I just wanted you to know that I support you. Totally. I'll make sure our headline is sympathetic—there's no need to listen to what the idiots on the wire are going to say, the headlines they'll—"

He grabbed her and spun her around. "Headlines?"

"Well, you know how it is, love. Whenever something happens, the soulless corporate types go looking for blood. 'Is Stitch Too Much?' 'Does Guardian Need Guarding?' That sort of thing. It won't happen at our paper, but there's no way to tell about the—"

The glass door to the balcony shattered. For an ordinary human, it would have taken at least a second to process the fact that Guardian had flown straight through it, at speed, and was gone. Thankfully, most of the shards were catapulted outwards.

Jenna frowned innocently at the damage, went into the bedroom to get a blanket, tacked it up over the door, and then, quite to her own surprise, burst into tears.

I hope I haven't told this in a way that makes Jenna look weak. The truth is, she played Damon Robb like a violin. All of Rick's information, the obsession with newspaper clippings—all part of the trap. And she did it, all the while acutely conscious of the fact that Damon could shatter her as easily as the window—and probably would have, if she'd given the slightest hint of disloyalty.

The only powers Jenna has are a talent for getting into trouble, and friends in interesting places, and words. And that's more than enough to make her dangerous, in the best possible way.

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Author's note: More pieces to the plot.  Rick needs Damon Robb to go to Brook Park—but why? Well, as it happens, the next chapter is up, so you can just read on and find out why.  One climactic fight scene, coming up . . .

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