Shadowbreath: The New Avenger

Chapter 2

Note: Edit (02/01)

"Please...please!" The pure desperation in her mother's voice brought the destructive world around Alex into focus. The middle-aged woman was on her knees in a tattered pale blue nightdress, surrounded by shattered glass from the window and blocking the man's view of her daughter.

Alex's eyes flickered wildly around the room, taking in the swarm of terrifying men dressed in blood red suits. The color matched the murky liquid pouring out of her father's chest just five feet away. The man stuck his hand out towards her whimpering mother, enclosing his fist around her thin neck and slowly lifting her so that her bare feet dangled viciously. Alex tried to scream.

She tried to do something...anything...

But whatever the men had placed across her wrists made her completely and unforgivably useless. "Leave her alone! Please! Leave my mommy alone!" She cried out, barely noticing the cascade of tears pouring out of her eyes, and reached out to beat her small fists against the man's legs. The men surrounding them didn't move an inch in their direction, no doubt realizing that the child was no threat. Not without her powers.

His icy blue eyes flickered downwards to meet hers, and she felt true fear paralyze her for the first time. While never removing his gaze from Alex, a horrible grin stretched across his scarred face, and the man crushed his fist together, effectively ending her mother's frantic movements. Alex dropped to her knees in disbelief, shaking violently from the shock and utter heartbreak of losing the last of her family right before her eyes.

When the man dropped her mother to the floor like a lifeless ragdoll, she didn't even attempt to move closer. Alex knew that she was gone. That her family was gone. Dead.

And this man was going to kill her too.

He reached out to brush a stray lock away from her face; She barely registered the contact. Before her brain could catch up with the chaos that had unfolded, her world exploded in an array of frenzied gunfire and arduous shrieking.

The door to her bedroom burst open. Men in black uniforms with large guns swept the area, dropping bodies of her attackers left and right. The gunfire was deafening, but still Alex remained motionless. She didn't even so much as flinch. Her mind was too busy replaying the murder of her parents over, over, and over again. The man with the icy blue eyes moved to grab her and she met his gaze for only a moment before a loud bang stopped every movement in the room. The bad man's eyes fell closed, and he dropped to his knees in front of her. Alex stumbled backwards to avoid his heavy fall and the silence tore through the entire room as he lay motionless in front of her.

And then there was his face.

The one that stopped the bad man.

The one that saved her.

He had soft, kind brown eyes that reminded Alex of her favorite chocolates. He knelt down in front of her, handing his gun wordlessly to whomever was next to him. Alex didn't dare move even a muscle, in quiet fear that this new man would want to kill her too.

Instead of doing exactly that, he gripped her tiny hand in his own, snapping off the disarming bracelets, and looked in her eyes. "Alex, the bad man is gone. I'm not going to let him hurt you anymore. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you ever again, okay?"

His words sped her brain up to her current reality, and her entire body broke out into shock-inspired vibrations. "W-w-who a-are y-y-ou?" Her quivering voice escaped barely above a whisper, but the new man seemed to have heard it nonetheless. He smiled warmly at her, such a stark contrast to the bad man, making her feel completely, and utterly safe.