𝖳he Horde (On Hold...)

A Friend To Talk

The evening, in Philadelphia, a man walks in the street, hands in his jacket pockets.

He walks between people, he looks straight ahead, with tired eyes.

After a few more steps, the shop sign "Dunn" scrolls to his left. With a metal curtain and a poster indicating its final closure.

The man takes a pen out of his pocket before looking at it for a moment, thoughtfully, as he approaches a comic shop. Inside, the seller shows to a women a video on his phone of a very muscular man galloping towards a person wearing a green rain cape.

Without paying attention, the man continues to walk before passing the comic shop.

"'Hey, it's me. Um... I, uh, you forgot this, so I bring it back to you'. No that's stupid..." he murmurs to himself.

He continues to walk, before rubbing his neck nervously.

"'Hi ! Remember when I borrowed you this ? Well, here it is'. God, this is so lame..." He sighs.

Suddenly, he gets cut by a group of guys who were laughing loud and a sound of paint bombs.

He stopped walking, turning to the laughs that came from the small lane to his left.

Curious, he began to walks slowly to them, when they start running away, talking and laughing louder as if they had committed an offense.

The man frowns, intrigued, while he walks to the wall where they were standing.

And on that wall, he discovers a graffiti representing the face of the brand new symbol of heroism.

'The Overseer'.

And it's here, that Joseph Dunn's heart beating faster.

He sighs deeply, a smile curving his lips lightly, with sparkle in his eyes.

Joseph admire it, for a while.

He was so proud of his father... He couldn't tell how much.

Then, he was walking again and he was arriving at his destination.

He climbs the few steps of stairs, before stopping in front of the door. And, after hesitating a few seconds, he knocks three times.

Nervously, he looks around slowly, waiting that someone opens him. Why was he here ? Wasn't it stupid to come like this ? Joseph starts to doubt. Maybe he should just walk away and forget about it...

But the door opens.

He turns around, before seeing a good acquaintance.

"Joseph, hey..." Mrs.Olson says softly, surprised and smiling.

"Hi, Mrs.Olson." Joseph answers, smiling a bit.

"Wow, it's been... A really long time." She replies thoughtfully. "And how many times do I have to tell you ? You can call me Bonnie." She recalls nicely.

Joseph just laugh briefly, still not sure if he wanted any of human contact for now.

"Are you okay ?" Bonnie finally asks, a bit worried.