Perks of having an Alter-ego. [POHAA]

Chapter-5a Dream a little dream of me

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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City's Radio channel played an old song -'Dream a little dream of me'-instead of their usual EDM music, since it was weekend and holidays, while I drove across the streets of pristin-town.

There were two circumstances under which I was allowed to drive the car; first was when Barb and I went for movies on Sundays, not that I enjoyed it, but for babysitting her of course. And the second was, when I had to get groceries to the house.

Today was one of those days. Barb sat beside me, chinned up and as cheerful as ever. She peeked out into the windshield at the buzzing traffic, licking a lollipop. It was a living agony to babysit her all through the movie, and the movies she watched were way under my age limits.

We parked at the parking lot of the city's mall. The mall had a big movie hall, a game-zone and various food and garment sections. So many so that all twenty floors of the building were lit and chaotic with swarming people.

We bought a pair of tickets at the counter and a big bucket of chocolate- popcorns and a soda for me. It wasn't a minute before we settled inside the hall and the cartoon movie started.

Barb squealed clapping her hands. Her laugh was wide but toothless, since she had lost her canine only very recently. And this absolute time was my golden time for a quick nap, as the last night wasn't that great either. I hooded my head and zipped up stuffing my pockets and slid down a little along the chair, making myself comfortable.

Even with all the high pitched goo-goo and ga-ga sounds of the speakers, my tired eyes some how drifted off into a deep sleep.

Next time when I gasped and opened my eyes, the theatre was dark, empty, silent and Barb was screaming my name out loud and was swatting my face.
'Man! That was deep.'
I fumbled to get on my feet and wiped a sticky drool at the corner of my lips before I straightened my back and yawned my mouth wide open to allow all the flies inside.

"I don't believe it!"
Barb face palmed. I ignored her ridicule and grabbed her by hand to reach for the exit door. The movie hall was gigantic and was located on the eighteenth floor. So we had to wait till the elevator doors dinged open.

Bling!
We hopped in, Barb shook her hand off of my grasp and hurried turning back to look into the glass pane of the elevator. The mall was fancy, with glass elevators that overlooked the city Scape and all that. But that never amused me, as a matter of fact.

I felt a tug on my shirt's tail. I turned towards Barb. A young couple were holding the takeaway cups of coffee, midway to their opened mouths and were already frozen in shock. I whipped my neck around to see what was happening. My jaw dropped as I saw White-hawk fighting in the sky.

Not just that, another red and golden suited super was juggling with him in the mid air, my mind suddenly recalled him- the Hell-fire.

'Didn't he disappear a few years ago?'
My eyes widened as Hell fire shot a ball of red hot lava at white hawk. But he gracefully jerked himself escaping out of its trajectory and the fire-ball whooshed like a rocket and bombed itself on the ground creating a big blast.

Hell-fire's red shining suit had flames emanating from his arms and legs. He shook his head and brought his hands together and rubbed with each other in a circular motion and created another orb of fire. He jutted it out, towards White-hawk again. White hawk flinched his wings and hovered aside, barely escaping from the fire. The orb flew towards the Electrical room, which was right beside the parking lot and burst the room into an arson.

The ceiling light of our elevator flickered and slowly died off. Our elevator squealed with metallic clicks and stopped midway down. Barb gasped and clenched my wrist mumbling, "kaBoom!"

"Sh..sh..it's alright. I am here."
I pulled her towards me and rocked her, caressing and rubbing her back. Right then, corners of my eyes saw a mirage of white silhouette rocketing towards us. Before it neared the glass pane, I jerked away and yanked Barb along with me, distancing ourselves from the glass. It took a little more time than it was supposed to, to get things around my head and to accept that our elevator was stuck midway, and there were super heroes fighting in mid air, turning up a storm of chaos.

'What's it with me and the elevator?' I asked myself.

White hawk's body thudded against the glass, all of us ducked down fending ourselves with our arms. The couple hugged each other, Barb hugged me, I clenched my teeth, squeezing​ my grip around the railing behind me.
And 'IT' began.

"Lee!"
Barb rolled her eyes up, gasping and hyperventilating for more air. My stomach churned, my eyes swayed aimlessly until I gathered myself to go through the backpack to find her inhaler. As I held it to her mouth, her breathing returned to a shallowing pace. My brisk breathing synced with every rhythmic fog appearing and disappearing inside the transparent  inhaler with Barb's every breath. Finally, my fingers trembled and fell loose to the ground as she nodded to me.

Another black suited feminine figure pitched herself from a wall beside us and jolted White-hawk away with a swift acrobatic stance. She did three stylised back flips in series on 'a freaking wall' and landed smoothly on a ledge like a black cat. I instantly remembered her. She was her, the Black-ninja, one who used to save us commoners of Pristin-town. It's a shame that she had to return as a deadly Villain.

'What's happened to them?'

As if all of this wasn't enough, the elevator lights flickered and the cabin suddenly started falling down, so rapid that the running facade of buildings in the glass pane appeared as blurry grey lines.

I squeezed my eyes shut, as the darkness consumed me into its infinite vastness. I felt myself suspended in a void. I could do nothing as I laid there, motion less, with Barb holding on to me, counting on me; hoping it was all just a dream. But it wasn't. Was it?