Heroes: Book III

III

"Your insight serves you well. Bury your feelings deep down, Luke. They do you credit, but they could be made to serve the Emperor..."

The dimple in Peter's cheek was illuminated by the blue light of the movie screen. His eyes were glued to mine. I laughed at him beneath my breath and whispered lightly,
"Watch the movie, dork."

"But it's not as interesting..."

I rolled my eyes and he moved his fingers toward mine. Then, there was a snap. A pain shot into the center of my palm and radiated beneath my nail beds. I winced and drew my hand away. In the darkness, I saw my trembling fingertips were stained black, uncontrollably seeping out some sort of dark matter.

I ran out into the parking lot as fast as I could.

I was doubled over on the cement, the pain like fire burning me from the inside out. The ground was scolding like lit coals, and in the Earth I sensed the same energy as the night of the tremor. My lungs strained for air as I gasped like a pathetic fish without water.

The worst part about this darkness is that it had no source. It simply was. It simply denied space and leaked into any crevice it could find, consuming everything like a plague. I swore I could feel the end of the world.

There was a touch to my back. A warmth. A light. Peter crouched beside me, fear consuming the color of his irises.

"Firefly...___," he called out, not knowing whether his embrace was hurting or helping.
"W-What do you need? The forest? Do you need the forest?"

I was paralyzed by the dark energy. I was a gnat stuck deep in black molasses. Peter held me to his chest on the asphalt. My chest began to rise and fall with oxygen at the tempo of his pulse.

I followed the rhythm back like a loose thread. The blood rushed the color back into my hands and the energy sunk back down. I managed to recollect my sanity.

"It was here again," I stated as I wiped the sweat from my brow.

"What's here? What is it?" Peter questioned, trying to calm himself down.

He helped me up from the pavement as I added in a shaking voice,
"That earthquake thing. It wasn't an earthquake. Something's not right. The energy was, like, apocalyptic."

"Well...okay. So what do we do?"

I searched around in my pocket and found a dime,
"Make a phone call."

Peter followed close behind as I entered the glass booth beside the theater entrance. The coin slipped through the slot and crashed down into a sea of change. A few presses of the buttons. A couple rings.

"Hello?" A voice greeted from the telephone line.

"Hank. It's ___."

Hank's voice grew lighter,
"___. What's going on? How are you?"

"That's the thing, I wanted to ask if you knew anything about this weird tremor, like a couple days ago."

My eyes traced Peter as he paced along the edge of the sidewalk, music playing though his headphones. He looked up every so often to make sure I was okay.

Hank answered almost immediately,
"Yes! I know exactly what you're talking about. I witnessed some weird seismic activity Tuesday night."

"So, was it the entire East Coast?"

"Try the entire world."

The payphone almost fell from my fingertips,
"What do you mean, Hank?"

"The tremor originated in Egypt. It was something deep in the crust."

I was about to tell him about the dark energy, but there was an ear splitting scream in the background of the line. A couple doors opened and closed.

"Hank, you alright?" I asked him, concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah, it's okay. There's just this student. She has some trouble with her powers at night. I need to go. I'll call you later."

"Sure. Hope everything is alright. Tell Charles I said hi."

"Will do."

The line cut into the flat dial tone. I stepped outside the glass. When Peter noticed I was finished he slipped his headphones onto his neck and wrapped his arms tightly around me.

"Who was that?" Peter asked.

"Hank," I answered into his chest.

"Oh. Blue monkey guy. Yay."

Peter kissed the top of my head and cupped it with his palm protectively,
"What do we do about the dark energy?" he added.

I listened to the small sounds of Rush distantly playing and took in his scent with a deep breath,
"It's time for a road trip, Quicksilver."