The Dawn of the Elites

1 | A Secret We Share

Superman's fall from grace wasn't engineered by the man who often thought of himself as his greatest threat. It didn't come from afar, with enemies storming the border and taking hostages. Nor did it come from within: a disease that ate away at what he held most dear.

No. None of these things caused his descent.

The day Superman tore the winding river from his chest was the day Lois Lane was found dead. Fairity had been one of the few to see her in her last moments. As well as Ja'Karsen Lee who had witnessed the event six feet away in a suspiciously dark alleyway. He'd simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now he was forced to watch a horrific scene without a sound coming from his lips.

Lois Lane was chasing a story. An underground network of drugs, sex trafficking and guns had raised its head out of the sand just far enough to peek her interest. She'd slipped into the neighborhood on the wrong side of the tracks and bet on her own life. 

She lost.

And now, her bright red hair was soaked with sticky, dark red blood. Her bright blue eyes were covered in film. The lips she painted fire engine red were stretched open beyond normal with a smashed jaw, frozen in time and facing the sky with a silent scream. It wasn't so silent just a few hours ago when the men dragged her there, and broke her resolve and her body in a few short hours.

Fairity had done nothing but watch, just like Ja'Karsen. What were they to do? The men belonged to the notorious Blood Boys gang. To utter a word meant a sentence worse than death, so they hid and kept silent as her screams bounced around the narrow corridor, begging and pleading for help that wouldn't come.

When the police were finally called the men were long gone and so was the breath in her body. She'd laid there, her arms and legs splayed out, naked, trembling in the howling, cold winter wind until the sun dipped below the horizon and the air no longer entered her lungs. Fairity had been too afraid to move. She'd sat there, her hoodie pulled tight across her shoulders, trembling with the pale skinned woman from the other side of the tracks dying just a few floors down from where she hid.

Superman had been there before the police. He had cradled her broken body to his chest and let out a howl that slid fear down Ja'Karsen's bones. The young football star had managed to escape the dark alley unnoticed and made it up to the third floor of the adjoining abandoned building without being spotted by the police. There: his luck ran out.

Ja'Karsen and Fairity found themselves trapped in each other's gazes the moment he cleared the railing and eased himself to his feet. His eyes accessed the possibility of danger with flared nostrils and a tight jaw, but when he saw her frightened brown eyes hoping for no trouble, he'd relaxed his threatening stance and simply sat down next to her. She quivered when the wind broke through the aging building and glanced at the falling bricks as it shifted against the invisible foe.

Neither one dared to speak. Even when the police showed up and requested that Superman release her, not when he growled and screamed again, and definitely not when he shot into the sky with a loud boom. Ja'Karsen, known in the neighborhood as Jake, had simply stood and walked away as if none of it had happened. 

Fairity wasn't so lucky. 

When her shaking bones finally made the jump from crouching in shadows to standing in the sunlight, they screamed with pain. She gritted her teeth, stretched her back to stand straight, and headed towards the dilapidated stairway to head home. Ignoring the catcalls and the invites from her older brother's friends, she jolted through the front door and up the stairs to the fourth floor of the apartment building her family lived in.

Her mother, Vheta, stood in the living room, eyes bloodshot and wild, pacing like a cage animal. She immediately jumped on Fairity, pulling her into her arms and against her chest with quivering limbs and tears silently dripping down her chin. Vheta stared down at her child, touching her natural, unruly hair with care and laid a kissed against her forehead. Vheta directed her daughter towards the torn couch and pulled her down next to her.

"Where have you been, little one?" She whispered, "It's all over the news and I was so worried about you." Even though she knew the answer, Fairity still asked the question. "What's all over the news?"

"That little reporter that was with Superman is dead." Vheta still held Fairity's hand in a death grip, "Lana.. Laura.. something or other."

"Lois Lane?"

"Yes, Lois. That's her name." Vheta gripped so hard for a moment that the knuckles on her left hand turned white. "She was killed here in North Hills. They aren't sure by who. The police are offering rewards for anyone coming forward with information that may solve the murder."

Fairity scoffed before she could stop it, "that's not going to happen, momma. Not in this neighborhood. Everyone knows that snitches get stitches."

Vheta leaned back to catch the gaze of her daughter with a probing eyebrow raised. "And what would you know about snitches and stitches? I raised you to be better than that. I raised you to always tell the truth, no matter the cost." A nervous giggle came from Fairity's throat, "you know. That's just what I heard."

"Uh huh.. what you heard?" Vheta didn't believe her daughter for a moment. A thought struck her as she stared down at Fairity's delicate features. Her slanted almond shaped eyes weren't bright with affection, the normally upturned edges of her lips were pointing downward, and nervously she kept fidgeting with the puff of neatly held back hair on top of her head. "Did you see something, sweetheart?"

"No!" But Fairity answered too quickly and quickly shot a look to the left with a quick bite of her bottom lip. Vheta's stomach sunk and she sucked in a belly fully of air. Fairity never lied. Yet, she had just now. 

"Fairity, baby, I am not the police. I am your mother and I need to know the truth." Vheta leaned down and caught Fairity's gaze with her own. "Tell me the truth, love. Did you see what happened to Lois Lane?"

Two buildings down Ja' Karsen Lee stood on the roof top of his apartment building where Fairity lived with only one prayer on his lips.

Keep your secret so that I can keep mine.