The smaller cougar decided the time was right, and lunged at the larger one. The two of them fought in a flurry of claws and teeth. Patrick watched in awe, his mouth slightly open. It was pure ferocity, nature at its finest. Whether they were fighting over territory or over a mate, they were fighting to the death.
The smaller one dug one of its sharp claws into the soft flesh at the spot where the leg connected to the torso on the larger one. The cat screamed in agony and stumbled, limping. This gave the smaller one the perfect window of opportunity. It lunged onto the larger one to finish it off.
Patrick looked away, pressing his back against the tree. His blood pumped furiously, flowing with adrenaline. He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. It was so visceral and feral. His hands felt clammy and his head was hot. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He wasn’t sure whether or not he enjoyed the feeling.
After a minute he opened his eyes and looked up at the sky. It was beginning to get dark as the sun made its way down to the horizon. He jumped up, panic beginning to set in. He’d been gone for way too long. What if somebody was looking for him? He didn’t have a phone so they could call him. What if the detectives had more questions to ask him? If he’d just disappeared, he’d become a prime suspect for sure.
He knew he needed to get home, and fast. He turned and sprinted out of the woods, running as fast as he could toward home. Even through all of his panic and fear, he couldn’t help but smile. This was definitely going to go down as one of his strangest and most exciting days.
Confrontation
Patrick walked into his house a little before six. He kicked his shoes off at the front door and walked toward the living area ahead of him.
“Patrick?” he heard somebody say from the television room.
Patrick stopped and turned, and saw Victoria sitting on the couch. Patrick’s mom was sitting next to her. Victoria looked like a mess. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. Her makeup had run all over her face, but from the look of her, Patrick guessed she’d run out of tears a long time ago.
“Victoria, what’s wrong?” Patrick asked as he walked over to the couch and sat down next to her.
“Something terrible happened at the party night before last, Patrick,” she said, her voice cracking.
“I’m going to go get some water,” Patrick’s mom said, standing to leave.
“I know. Some detectives came by yesterday. I left the party before anything happened, though. I don’t know anything,” Patrick said, placing a hand on her back.
Victoria shook her head as if to tell herself that she wouldn’t cry. “So, you’ve known since yesterday and you haven’t said anything to me?”
Patrick didn’t know what to say. He scoured his mind for an excuse, but nothing came to him. “I-I-I’m really sorry, Victoria. It’s just all so much to handle. Like I said, I don’t even know anything. I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Well, you know what, Patrick?” Victoria said, turning to face him. The look on her face scared him. “Ben’s dead. He died at the party, and they won’t even tell us how. All they’ll tell us is that he died. You weren’t there for him.” Somehow she found more tears to cry, and they began to leak out. “You said you would be, and then you weren’t. Then, when I needed you yesterday, you never came by to check on me! I called, and your mom said you were up in your room all day. You didn’t come to see if Ben was okay.”
Victoria stood, her sadness turning to rage. “I thought I’d come over today and make sure you were doing okay with everything, and you’re just gone! Where have you been all day, Patrick? Where were you when I needed you? When Ben needed you? You were just gone!”
Patrick stood too, unable to take it anymore. “Okay, I’ve been dealing with some things too, Victoria!”
Victoria reeled back. “Oh, you’ve been dealing with things?” she screamed. “Tell me, Patrick, what’s worse than your brother dying and you have no idea how, and your best friend who’s supposed to always be there for you being MIA when you need him the most?”
“You think this is easy for me?” Patrick yelled back. “Everybody died there, Victoria! All my friends, everybody I know, they’re all dead. Why did I survive, Victoria? Huh? You think waking up covered in the blood of everybody you know is something that you can just—”
“What did you just say?” Victoria interrupted.
Patrick froze. Everything had fallen apart before his eyes, and he had to work fast to put it all back together. “I said I’m just going through a lot too, okay?”
“No, you said you were covered in blood. I thought you left the party early, Patrick.” Victoria took a step forward, accusation in her voice.
“I did,” Patrick said, his eyes not meeting hers. “Victoria, I did.” His confidence grew as a story formed in his head. “I meant it metaphorically. I just feel really guilty, like I have blood on my hands. Like, if I hadn’t left the party early, maybe I could’ve done something. Maybe I could’ve stopped whoever it was from doing whatever they did.” He sighed and shook his head. “Can you believe we don’t even know what happened? After everything they’re putting us through, they won’t even give us a hint as to what’s going on.”
Victoria took a deep breath and shrugged. “Trust me, I’ve thought plenty about that.” She sat back down on the couch.
Patrick sat down and put an arm around her. She didn’t push him away, and he breathed a small sigh of relief. It had worked. She believed him. “How are your parents?”
“How do you think? It’s so sad over there.” Victoria looked out the window toward her home. “I had to get out of there.”
“I’m really, really sorry, Victoria,” Patrick said, and he meant that honestly. “The police are going to figure out who did this, and they’re going to get what they deserve.”
Victoria nodded in agreement. The two of them sat there in silence for a few moments longer. Finally, Victoria stood up again.
“Where are you going?” Patrick asked.
“I have to go. You’re acting really weird, and I need to get back to my family,” Victoria said as she gathered up her belongings.
“I’m not acting weird.”
“I’ve known you forever, Patrick. I know when you’re hiding something. I don’t need this right now. I thought you could be there for me, but obviously I was wrong.” Victoria walked toward the door.
Patrick went after her. “Victoria, I’m sorry. This is just a lot, okay?” he said as she opened the door.
Victoria turned around to face him. “I can’t look at you right now. I can’t help but think about how you said you would watch Ben.”
“Victoria, I said—”
“I know you’re sorry. I know it’s not your fault. I know there’s not anything you could’ve done. I just can’t help but think about it, and I need some space. I’m sorry.”
Victoria turned and walked off the porch and down the sidewalk toward her house.
Patrick stood in the doorway watching her walk away. He was having a hard time facing the possibility that after all these years, he might’ve lost his best friend.
He closed the door and stood there in shock, staring at the door, lost in his own mind, replaying their conversation over and over again in his head.
“Did Victoria leave?” Patrick’s mom asked from behind him.
“Yeah,” he said, not turning to face her.
He heard footsteps, then felt his mom’s hand on his shoulder. “You know it’s not your fault, right?”
Patrick nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
His mom stood there a few moments longer, then got the message that he wanted to be left alone. She turned and left, and Patrick got his wish.
He closed his eyes and clenched his fists. It’s not my fault, but it’s my responsibility.
He turned and ran upstairs to his bedroom. After he’d closed the door, he grabbed his notebook and opened it up to the page of notes he’d made about the whole situation. He marked a line through
theory two—the “pop” one—and circled the first one.
“I’m going to find you,” he said, speaking to whoever the other person with abilities was. “And I’m going to make you pay.”
Patrick slammed the notebook shut. It was time to get to work.
Interrogation
Patrick stood in the alley across from the clothing store that Lace worked in. She was standing behind the counter looking at her phone like she’d been last time, except now she had dark bags under her eyes. They were bloodshot, too, and her hair was disheveled.
He took a step out of the alley and began crossing the street. He’d been standing in the alley for a good ten minutes working up the courage. He did his best not to think about what he was doing, because that would just lead to frustration. He had no idea why he was so nervous. It wasn’t like Lace was going to super-out and try to kill him just for asking a couple of questions.
He entered the store, a bell jingling as he did so. It felt strange being inside the store at “normal” speed.
“Hey, Patrick,” Lace said quietly, almost as if halfway through her greeting she had changed her mind about addressing him.
Patrick did a fake double-take and let out a big smile. “Hey, Lace! I had no idea you worked here,” he lied, then walked over to the counter. He put his hand on it, leaning forward slightly. “How’re you doing?”
Lace shrugged. “It’s all so crazy, isn’t it? Nobody knows what happened.”
Patrick nodded. “I know. The police came and talked to me, but I couldn’t get anything out of them. They’re keeping this all locked down pretty tight.”
“Yeah. But you know, it’s started to get some national news attention.” s
Patrick’s heart skipped a beat and he cleared his throat. He’d hoped he would have more time before reporters got involved and started making things even more messy. “Really? Wow. Have they tried getting hold of you?”
Lace shook her head. “They don’t know any names yet. Hopefully it’ll stay that way. I don’t want to be dogged by reporters, you know?”
“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.”
Lace looked past Patrick and waved forward somebody behind him. She set down her phone. “Let me get them real quick,” she said.
Patrick turned and saw an elderly couple waiting in line with a basket of clothes. “Yeah, of course. I’m gonna run to the bathroom.”
“In the back to your left,” Lace told him as she started taking the elderly couple’s clothes off hangers so she could scan them.
Patrick turned and walked toward the back. He entered the bathroom where he knew there’d be no security cameras, then turned and ran back out. This time, he was going at superspeed.
He ran to the front of the store where Lace was frozen as she placed a pair of slacks into a bag. The elderly woman was starting to fill out her check, while the man Patrick assumed was her husband checked out Lace’s ass.
Patrick ran around to the other side of the counter and grabbed Lace’s phone, then turned and ran back into the bathroom, where he came to a stop. He tapped on her Messages app and scrolled up to the search bar on the top. He tapped in “powers” and a conversation she’d had with somebody named Genevieve showed up. He pressed it.
He always wants to watch these movies about people with powers.
Patrick rolled his eyes. Just complaining about her boyfriend. Well, ex-boyfriend I guess now.
He tapped in “abilities”.
No results.
“Dead”.
27 results.
Patrick quickly read through them, but they had nothing to do with the killings. Feeling frustrated, he poked his head out the bathroom door and saw Lace was nearing the end of her transaction, but two more people were lined up. He entered a couple more keywords, but nothing showed up that incriminated Lace. If she had powers, she wasn’t telling any of her friends over text, which was a disappointment. He’d been counting on her not being so careful.
He had one more place to check. He opened up her Photos app and scrolled through the images. “Oh, shit, whoa, okay,” he said as he thumbed through them, trying not to get distracted by all the naked photos. Not just of her, but of other people he recognized from school. “Did my invitation to the orgy get lost in the mail?” he joked, trying to keep himself from freaking out.
He didn’t see anything that looked like it could’ve been photos or videos of her using her powers. It was worth a shot, he thought.
He ran out of the bathroom to the counter. Lace was just finishing up with her last customer when Patrick set her phone back down. He ran back to the bathroom, counted to ten, and then exited, this time at normal speed.
“That was good timing,” she said when he walked back up.
“Yeah, I guess it was,” he said. There was an awkward beat as the two of them just stood there. “What are you doing here at work? Your boss didn’t give you any days off?”
“Work’s helping me keep my mind off things,” Lace said as she reached for her phone.
“So, did you leave the party early or something?” he asked.
“Yeah, I had to open here the next morning, so I left.”
“Who do you think did it?” he blurted out. He immediately regretted not being more subtle.
Lace flicked her gaze up at Patrick before returning it to the screen of her phone. “I don’t know, Patrick.”
She was getting frustrated, and Patrick knew that. He was losing her fast. “I’m just, you know, trying to figure it all out in my head. I can’t think of anybody who was acting really weird.”
“That’s because you were the one acting weird,” Lace said. slamming her phone down. She stood tall, with both her hands on the counter. “You were acting weird as hell, Patrick.”
Patrick looked at her, taken aback. “Are you serious? How was I the one acting weird? I was just hanging out.”
“You were sitting back drinking, being a weirdo like you always are,” Lace said. She was speaking like everything she said was matter-of-fact. “You were drinking, wandering around watching everybody. You’d go from group to group with this weird...blank look on your face. It was weird and creepy, okay? You wanna talk about the other night? Let’s talk about that.”
Patrick didn’t know what to say. He thought back to that night. Had he been weird and creepy? He didn’t think so; he was just drinking and hanging out. “You’re over-thinking it, Lace. I was just waiting for Sam to get there. Once he did, I hung out with him all night.”
“No, you didn’t. You talked to him for maybe fifteen minutes before you went back to whatever you were doing. I left after that, but if I had to take a guess on who it is that’s responsible for what happened, I’d put my money on you. You’re a weirdo. Always have been, but especially at the party. And now almost everybody I care about is dead.” Lace’s voice rose with every sentence she spoke.
“You’re full of shit!” Patrick yelled back, anger swelling within him. He felt his legs begin to shake and his stomach turned. “I had friends there, too! I didn’t do anything. I left that party early, before anything happened. How else would I still be here?”
“You’d be here if you were the one who killed them, dipshit,” Lace said. “Get the hell out of my store.”
Patrick took a step back. “This isn’t your store, Lace,” he said, using her name as if it was a curse word. “And if you don’t think I won’t tell your manager, you thought wrong.”
“Get. Out!” she yelled, pointing toward the door.
Patrick turned and stormed out. He wanted to punch a hole in the wall, and didn’t care whether or not it brought the whole building down. He didn’t care if government agents found out about him and took him away. He didn’t care if whoever had killed everybody and had the same abilities as he did found out about him. He didn’t care about any of it.
He was breathing heavily as he crossed the street. She’s just mourning. Keep it cool. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. His hands
shook, and he began to feel afraid. Emotions that he’d kept bottled up came leaking out.
“Come on, come on,” he said to himself as he entered the alley. The sun had gone down and the alley was completely dark. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. “Just cool it, man,” he told himself. Anger and frustration vibrated within him. He’d made no progress. In fact, his only suspect clearly had no super abilities.
He paced up and down until his anger subsided. After a couple of minutes, he grew exhausted as the adrenaline left his body. He sighed and leaned his back up against the wall, then slid down until he was sitting on the ground. He sat there, his mind clearing from the fog of anger that had grown over.
Then he looked over at the store. From where he was sitting, he could barely see Lace through the window. She had sounded convinced that Patrick was the one who had killed everybody. What if she went to the police with that information? Or worse, the press? He knew this all was going to get out of hand fast if he didn’t hurry up.
A car drove by, breaking his line of sight with the store—a car that Patrick recognized. Old, run down, red from rust or from a bad paint job. Harvey and Tovin’s car.
Patrick stood, a new fire lit within him. It was time for him to get his phone back.
Legacy
First Blood
Patrick ran from car to car, alley to alley, tree to tree. He was determined not to be seen by Harvey or Tovin, just in case they didn’t have his belongings on them. He was going to follow them to wherever they lived and confront them there.
He couldn’t tell whether he was more angry or satisfied. On one hand he was angry just thinking about the whole situation. They’d mugged him, humiliated him, taking everything that he’d worked so hard for. On the other hand, he was satisfied that he was going to get his things back, and he wasn’t going to ask nicely. They were going to know they’d messed with the wrong person.
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