The Elites

Chapter 2

Alexandra's Point-of-View

Lyra-Rose hailed a taxi and we all crammed ourselves in the back. I called shotgun.

"Where to?" The driver asked. He had his hat tipped low, so it's not like I could see his face very well.

"Fifth Avenue please," Amber said.

And with that, the taxi sped off. I was controlling the music up front. The tension in the car was so palpable that you could have cut it with a knife.

We were there in less than three minutes.

Everyone piled out of the car. I tried to tip the man, but he just waved me off, said he had no time to make change. My fingers had just barely left the door handle when he sped off. The car was moving at an extreme speed, way more than it should have been moving. I noticed he drove from the opposite direction we came.

"That's odd," I thought, but I just pushed it down. There were always odd happenings at a crime scene.

The girls were walking towards the alleyway between the buildings, where all of the yellow tape was. And the blaring sirens and the crowd of people.

Could these idiots make any more of a commotion?

I showed my badge given to me by the FBI and walked right into the scene.

"Holy mackerel," Amber whispered.

"Another one?" Raiyn groaned.

What I was looking at, was a body, stabbed with what looked like, a butcher's knife.

Not once.

Not twice.

But seven times!

"Who had the heart to stab someone seven times?!" I wondered.

The rest of the police officers standing around looked clueless. They were just standing there! How could they? Somebody had just been murdered!

Lyra-Rose, Amber, Raiyn, and Stella were starting talking to everyone on the scene. Rebecca walked over to the body and tried to make sense of how the forensics would examine it. I walked with Elise around the alleyway.

"What if...what if the murder threw something in the dumpster?" I asked.

Elise sighed. "Alexandra, I did not actually brush my hair today to go dumpster diving."

"I'll spot you," I said.

Elise hoisted herself up onto the side of the dumpster, gave a little salute, and fell in backwards. She was only in there a few seconds before she started complaining.

"Oh. My. God. Alex it's your turn next time," she said.

While Elise was inside, I looked around. I checked the graffitied walls, behind the dumpster, anywhere. But I found nothing.

"Alexandra, I got something!" She shouted. I sprinted over to the dumpster as Elise's hand came up.

"Fabric...scrap," she muttered,"take it. Don't show it to the police."

As I helped Elise out of the dumpster, something caught my eye. As soon as she got out, I ran over to the object.

On the ground was a golden nose ring. I picked it up and shoved it in my pocket along with the fabric scrap inconspicuously.

"Alex, let's go!" Lyra-Rose said impatiently.

I ran over and thanked the police. Stella abruptly grabbed my wrist and yanked me out of the crime scene. She whispered in my ear, "Red." Which meant that we needed to have a serious conversation when we got home.

We walked along the streets of New York City for the second time that day, feeling a little less than safe.

Actually no.

New York City didn't feel safe at all. It felt like a prison.

"Exit P," Becca whispered.

We kept walking forward until there was nobody else but ourselves on the street. Then, we all dashed into the nearest alleyway and opened the sewer grate. Once we had all climbed in, Raiyn said, "Headquarters." From there, the miniature elevator transported us to headquarters.

"It still smells as bad as when we first renovated it," Amber complained.

"Nobody ever said being a superhero was going to be glamorous," I said.

"Don't we have something that needs to be discussed here?" Lyra-Rose asked.

"Yes, we do. Everyone take a seat. This might last a while," Raiyn said.

This looked like it was going to take a lot of coffee.