by Bryan Cohen
"It's fine." Natalie looked around the room to make sure they were really alone. "I never got to thank you."
Travis finally looked at her. The look of confusion on his face was so apparent, Natalie almost had to laugh.
"Natalie Dorner wants to thank me? I feel like that's less likely than winning a state championship."
She smirked. "Okay. Okay. You were obviously an idiot. And you shot me in the frickin' back."
Travis turned off the water and gritted his teeth. "That's true. But it was just with a rubber bullet."
"Anyway…." Natalie attempted to push out the memory of the sharp pain that bullet had caused her. "You got yourself kicked out of the cult to save us. It was a selfless act."
Travis poured some more soap on the stain and attempted to scrub away at it. "Not completely selfless. Even though you pretended to have feelings for me, I wasn't pretending. I cared about you."
Natalie grumbled and spoke under her breath. "I wasn't pretending."
Travis leaned in. "What was that?"
Natalie looked toward the exit and then back at him. "I liked you. For real. I don't know why, because you're a terrible person."
Travis smiled at that.
She continued. "Lord help me, I actually missed you afterwards. It must've been a bout of insanity. One that I'm thankfully cured of."
Travis sprayed water all over Natalie. She suppressed a shriek and blinked to get the liquid out of her vision. Before she could retaliate, she was completely drenched. Natalie pounded on Travis' chest with her fist.
"You jerk!" She slammed the other fist into him as well. "I'm gonna destroy you."
Travis scowled. "Not if I destroy you first."
They locked lips and started making out right there in the college cafeteria kitchen. Natalie's fists became flat and felt for his chest and his back. Travis tossed away the shirt and lifted Natalie up onto the edge of the sink. She felt the passion coursing through her body and wanted nothing more than to have Travis close to her. That feeling didn't go away all summer long.
Natalie rubbed her hands together as Dhiraj waited for an answer.
Jennifer stayed a few feet behind her boyfriend, as if trying to keep herself safe from the confrontation. "I hate to say it, Nat, but Dhiraj has a point."
Natalie snorted out of her nostrils. "First of all, I want to point out that Travis and I have been dating all summer long and you two didn't notice because you were so lovey-dovey."
Dhiraj and Jennifer shared a happy glance.
Natalie stretched out two fingers from one hand and tapped them on the other.
"Number two, people can change. Jen, you used to have to worry about Erica drinking too much or doing something stupid 24/7. And Dhiraj, Ted couldn't even open a jar of peanut butter and now he's off saving the world." Natalie leaned her back against the wall. "Can't a massive douchebag turn over a new leaf?"
Dhiraj opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He looked back at Jennifer and she shrugged her shoulders.
He tried a second time. "Look, Natalie–"
"Go on a double date with us."
It took Natalie a second to realize that she'd been the one who made the ridiculous suggestion. Maybe her friends' approval mattered more to her than she realized.
Dhiraj raised his eyebrows. "A double date?"
She groaned. "Yeah. Who knows? Maybe we'll even have fun."
Dhiraj seemed like he was about to launch into another rant, but Jennifer gripped his shoulder before he could start.
"Let's do it."
Dhiraj looked uncomfortable. "Fine. We'll do it. But we're probably not gonna like him."
Natalie felt a sense of pride over beating back the intervention. "Good. And I probably still won't care."
19
Sandra felt warm around the hundreds of people crammed into the college auditorium. She couldn't imagine how hot her husband must have been behind the podium with the lights shining off his face. She kept her face as neutral as possible as President Blake delivered a response during the first Presidential debate. Her husband's demeanor on the other side of the stage was calm with a slight smile. He looked as if he were in on a joke that he wanted to clue millions of people into. Sandra smiled and glanced down at her attire.
Her light blue dress was more expensive than her entire wardrobe combined had been when she was a waitress. The diamond from her massive engagement ring glistened in the light. She recalled the days she'd spent toiling in the back of Page's Diner, her wrists aching from the heavy trays she lifted from the kitchen. The only pain she'd felt since then was the five-story fall to her death and the beating she'd taken from Erica LaPlante. If her husband's plan went off without a hitch, she might never need to feel any kind of pain ever again.
Sandra was only a few feet from the moderator's table. YNN blowhard Rudy Bolger had somehow secured the spot that was usually intended for serious, neutral journalists. Sandra knew the order of the questions Bolger would ask. With foreign policy out of the way, it was time for the one that would make or break her husband's campaign.
"Thank you, Mr. President." Bolger's intonation made him sound every bit the ratings hog he was. "We'll start with you for the next question. In the last two weeks, we've seen devastating otherworldly attacks in Treasure, Pennsylvania, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which seem to have shown that we are truly not alone. How would you handle encounters like this in the future as we deal with creatures from another realm?"
Sandra watched President Blake shift ever so slightly behind the podium. She caught her husband's eye, which rewarded her with a twinkle.
He's got him. He knows he has no chance.
President Blake stood straight up to hide his fear. "Thank you, Rudy. The White House strongly condemns these otherworldly attacks as cowardly acts of terrorism. We also offer our condolences for the lives lost during these senseless and ruthless incidents."
Blake seemed to collect his thoughts for a moment and looked straight ahead into the camera. "We have mobilized Ted Finley and a team of trained agents from the Department of Homeland Security to deal with the problem. Finley and the agents are tracking down the creatures as we speak. In the next four years, with Ted by my side, the White House will work to end these attacks by reaching out to these other worlds, thereby becoming the first Presidency to engage in diplomatic relations with another dimension."
Bolger nodded with a wide expression for the camera. It wasn't focused on him, though. It was focused on Blake, who appeared visibly shaken by his effort to answer a complex question. Bolger pointed toward Sandra's husband with his fingers in the shape of a gun.
"Senator Kable, same question."
Sandra smiled in sync with her husband. It was time for the shark to eat.
"My staff and I likewise offer our heartfelt condolences to the families who've been affected by this tragedy. As President, I won't rely entirely on a superhero for help. You know who should be a hero? The President of the United States of America."
Despite the instructions that the audience should remain silent during the answers, several students expressed their fervor with a hearty whoop. Sandra kept her laugh to herself.
"As President, I'll create a new governmental body to better understand the other worlds, and unlike my opponent, I'll share all the information with the public. We are the United States. We don't like getting pushed around."
Later that night, Sandra felt exhausted and collapsed on the hotel bed. She wiped at her makeup and facial prosthetics that made her look like the ideal first lady. It didn't take long for her to take herself back to her real face. She didn't care that she'd need an hour in the makeup chair the next morning before she left the room. Her shoulders relaxed and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Sandra walked into the bathroom and watched her husband perform the same ritual. He removed the toupee from his scalp, revealing scars on the left side of his head under a graying patch of thin hair. He frowned back at Sandra with a look lik
e he knew the image before them still wasn't right. Kable reached behind his left ear and unpinned the fake skin from his face. As he peeled it off, the man looking back at them was much more genuine. He laid the half-mask down on the hotel bathroom counter.
Some would call her husband's true face unfinished, but she knew this was the only version of him that looked complete. She'd known it the second he saved her from the school gymnasium; it'd been reaffirmed when the two of them blew up the police van the following day.
Sandra put her hands around his waist. She kissed the back of his neck and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I love seeing you." She ran her hands over the scars on the left side of his face. "I wish I could see you like this all the time."
He smiled. The broken side of his mouth was unable to curl nearly as much as the side that still looked human.
"Do you think the world would accept how I truly look?"
She thought of her own disguise as she placed her face beside his. "After all this pretending is over, we can just kill all the people who don't."
Kable put his hand around Sandra's back. He dipped her deep, sending all the blood rushing to her head like she'd had too much champagne. Sandra squealed with joy as he pulled her back upright.
"You know just what to say to make a man happy."
She grinned and gestured toward the bedroom. "I think it's time for that celebration now."
He nodded and flipped off the light in the bathroom. The nightlight reflected off his mask. On the counter lay the face of the next potential President. As he carried her into bed, Sandra couldn't help but think that the title "First Lady" had a good ring to it.
20
Erica sat before the two people who had clothed her, fed her and put a roof over her head for the last year. That’s what made the words she had to say so much more painful.
"The last year has been amazing. You two are great parents." A nervous pain grew in her stomach. "You just aren't my parents."
Mr. and Mrs. LaPlante's reactions were as different as steel and cotton. Her father's face grew stern and cold, while her mother's countenance surprised Erica. She almost looked relieved.
Mr. LaPlante leaned forward and spoke quickly. "Erica. I can assure you that your mother and I... we have the birth certificates and everything."
Mrs. LaPlante put her hand on her husband's chest. "I don't think that's what she means, dear."
Erica looked into her mother's eyes.
She knows. How does she know?
Mrs. LaPlante sighed and her voice started to waver. "You're not my daughter, because somebody killed her, right?"
The color went out of Mr. LaPlante's face. Erica wasn't sure how to respond.
"Yeah." Erica felt the pain grow within. "How did you know?"
"You told me." Mrs. LaPlante touched her husband's leg. "Earlier this year. You said that you died."
It all made sense now to Erica. In addition to busting a hole through the wall, the brainwashed version of new-Erica must have had visions about her body's death. Seeing something that grotesque in her mind must have been worth sharing.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to find out–"
Mrs. LaPlante waved away Erica's words. "No, no. I should've known my own daughter. You acted so differently when you came back. We just wanted to believe."
Mr. LaPlante remained silent, and Erica wished he would say something. She supposed that one positive reaction out of two wasn't so bad.
He finally broke his silence. "If you're not her, why even come back here? Why give us that false hope?"
Mr. LaPlante's words broke Erica's heart. She wanted to move across the room and hold him. But that likely wasn't going to be an option anymore.
"The people who gave Ted his powers put my spirit into your daughter's body. I still have all of Erica's memories. I know she didn't express it, but she loved you deeply."
Erica's father gave a single laugh. "Maybe you got the wrong memories."
Mrs. LaPlante grabbed a tissue from the side table and dabbed her eyes. "What happened to my daughter?"
Erica brushed her hand against her forehead. "A guy she was dating killed her. But he’s in prison now."
She felt some relief over the top of the anxiety. The secrets were out, and her mission would have to adapt. After exhausting all their questions, Mrs. LaPlante cried softly while her husband remained stoic.
He refused a tissue from his wife. "Erica, if that's even what I should call you, what do you want from us?"
Later that evening, Erica got what she needed. Mr. and Mrs. LaPlante agreed to emancipate her and give her a roof over her head as needed for the rest of the school year. While her father had asked what she wanted, Erica couldn't bare to request the truth. She wanted things to remain as they were, with her parents treating her like a daughter. That aspect of their relationship remained up in the air.
Later that night, Erica felt drained as she lay down beneath the sheets of her bed. She could've slept right then and there, if she didn't have to make one more revelation of the truth. Erica pulled out her tablet and dialed up Ted for a video call.
"Hey!" Ted seemed to have all the energy Erica lacked.
"Hey. How's North Carolina?"
Ted didn't appear to notice Erica's lack of verve. "Warm. And we haven't found the bad guys yet. How are things in–"
"I told my parents who I really was."
Ted's grin left him. His voice dropped an octave. "What?"
Erica sighed. "Yoshi and I are going to investigate the attacks. And if I can't be out there with you, I can't be in Treasure."
Ted leaned forward and rubbed at the back of his head. "Erica. We don't know how long this'll last. Maybe we'll stop ‘em by the end of October and there'll still be–"
"Ted, I had to tell them at some point."
Ted glared into Erica's eyes through the screen. As if she hadn't been made to feel bad enough already that day.
He looked up at something off-screen before looking back at the screen. "I'm sure that was hard to do."
Erica's nervousness diminished slightly. "It was."
He leaned his temple down on his hand. Erica found his attempt to smile through his dissatisfaction incredibly cute. She mimicked his position and pretended for a moment that she was right beside him.
Ted sighed. "It's been one hell of a week."
Erica matched his breath. "It has."
He sat up and moved the tablet accordingly. The shift in perspective made Ted's chin look way bigger than it actually was. "You've gotta do what you've gotta do, and I won't stand in the way of the mission. Please be careful out there."
Erica pursed her lips together. "Of course."
Ted looked over his shoulder at something before turning back. "Look, I have to go on a night patrol. We've been doing it all week. I wish I could–"
"Ted?"
"Yeah?"
"Lychos. They're like big dogs. Keep that in mind if you find one."
Ted frowned. "Ok. Goodni–"
"Ted?"
"Yeah?"
"I miss you." Erica concentrated on the little video camera on her tablet. She sent all the love she could muster into the tiny circle.
Ted closed his eyes for a moment to soak in her words. He opened them with a sigh. "I miss you, too. I hope you're doing the right thing."
Right then, she vowed to herself that before the month was up, she'd hold Ted Finley and kiss him like he'd never been kissed before.
"I hope I am, too."
21
Two nights later, Ted used his powers to move a fallen tree to his left. He was starting to get familiar with these woods after a few days of patrolling, but he was tired of flying or jumping over the same barrier. At least it gave him something to do, because at this point, there'd been no clues whatsoever.
Ted had Erica on his mind as he and Allison held their flashlights on the dirt and leaves in front of them. The trees were much taller than the ones behind his hou
se, but they reminded him of the pond and the smell of Erica's perfume as she lay beside him. He wished Erica had consulted him before she made such a major decision. Even his parents didn't know Erica's full story, but she said it wouldn't take long before the word spread. He figured he wouldn't have been able to convince Erica to continue living a lie, but maybe he could've delayed it just one more month. The threads of normalcy in his life were being snipped, one by one.
Ted was supposed to be in school getting his college applications together. He was supposed to be enjoying everything that came with being a senior. Instead, he was trudging through the woods with the federal government monitoring his every move. If there was one positive, it was his new handler, Allison. Her blond hair was lighter than Erica's and hung straight down to the base of her neck. She was smaller than any of the other agents Ted had met in the last few months, but she was far stronger, faster and more capable than she looked. While he'd made efforts to keep things close to the chest, spending so much time with an attractive female made him spill the beans pretty quickly.
"So, she's not going to be a high school student anymore?"
Allison's voice played softly against the backdrop of crickets and the wind.
"I guess not. Who knows how long she'll be gone. I just wish she were here. I think you'd like her."
Allison laughed. It was more like one sharp note than a rolling giggle. "I tend to get along with girls who don't take crap."
Ted smiled. If he had to be away from Erica, he might as well spend his time with someone who was almost as cute with the same take-charge attitude. They reached a clearing in the forest and saw a railroad track cutting through. Allison sat down on the track and Ted took a seat next to her.
"Here's my question." Allison shook out her hair and ran her hands through it, then tied it into a ponytail. "Can you trust her?"
If Allison had asked the question six months earlier, he couldn't be sure how he would've answered. Erica hid the sword and the books from him. She neglected to tell him that there were other powers at his disposal. She kept all sorts of information from him and used her "protector" status as justification for holding back. Since that time, however, she'd been much more forthcoming.