by Jaz Johnson
“Where is Saphora?” he asked. Johnson sighed, crossing her arms.
“Home, I’m guessing.” Glover shook his head.
“Have you spoken to her?” Johnson shook hers.
“Why’re you worried about her? She left you at the scene.” Glover shook his head again, looking up at the ceiling momentarily.
“The story that she told her doctor. That she tried to tell us?” he began, looking over at Johnson. She half nodded, signaling him to continue.
“Yeah? What about it?” Roland asked.
“She was telling the truth.”
Both Johnson and Roland froze at the statement, hesitating to even look at each other.
********
Sitting at his desk, Lupin sat with his forehead against the palm of his hand. She’d slipped away from him again. When was he going to find the time to examine her properly? He sighed, rubbing his hand against his forehead and burying his fingertips in his hairline.
It was then that his phone rang. His office phone. Looking up from his current moping position, he cleared his throat and reached for the phone, picking it up on third ring and holding it against his ear.
“Hello, Dr. Lupin’s office. Lupin speaking,” he answered, slightly exhaling.
“Dr. Lupin? This is Officer Johnson. How are you?” Lupin shook his head slightly, raising his brows.
“Well, I’ve been better, Ms. Johnson. What can I do for you?”
“Have you spoken with Saphora lately?”
“Briefly. She was in my office not too long ago.”
“Is she still in the building?” Lupin slid his hand down his face, exhaling.
“No, I’m afraid she cut our session short. Were you wanting to speak with her?” Johnson hummed.
“Yes, but we can talk to you as well. I need you to tell me the story Saphora told you.” Lupin blinked, his brows raising momentarily again.
“Story?”
“The story she told you about what happened to Jones,” Johnson clarified. Lupin’s posture straightened as he sat up in his seat, instantly more alert about where the conversation was headed.
“What about it?” he asked after some hesitation.
“We need to … compare it to that of one of our officers.”
“What happened?” Johnson huffed, putting her hand on her hip as she turned slightly to look over at the alert Glover.
“There was an incident on the highway involving Officer Glover, Saphora, and what he describes to be the fire-wielding man known as Tebias.” Lupin’s eyes widened as he pushed away from his desk, stretching the cord of the phone slightly.
“Tebias …” Lupin’s eyes darted about, almost as if denial, before quickly shifting to that of curiosity. He reached to the side and opened the drawer to his desk, aiming to find his notes. But what he found alarmed him. All of his binders, notepads, and stationary that he had gathered over the years of Saphora’s case, were now sitting in a minuscule mound of ash. He started at the inside of the drawer in disbelief, his mouth agape. His eyes raised to look forward, as his brain scrambled for some sort of explanation. Coming up, with only one, he stood up, gripping the phone as the cord stretched.
“Is there somewhere we can meet?”
“So what happened to your car?” Jared asked, cleaning out a mug and leaning on the counter behind the register. Maverick shook his head, closing the register and handing the woman her change. She smiled to him and he returned the gesture, before turning around to face Jared as she walked away.
“I had to uh, get some work done on it. I got into a little accident on the highway,” Maverick said, crossing his arms.
“Aw, man. Not the Camaro. Not Black Beauty. Is she doing alright?”
“Yeah, she should be out of the shop in a few days. It wasn’t anything too serious,” Maverick chuckled.
“Oh thank god. And speaking of highways! Did you hear about the massive accident that happened? A car blew up and everything. Like in the movies,” Jared said, coming closer to Maverick, and leaning beside him on the register’s counter. Maverick’s body grew a little stiff as he averted his eyes.
“Oh yeah? What caused it?”
“I don’t even know. I haven’t had time to watch the news about it. I just heard my sister talking about it this morning. Pretty wicked. I think she said there was some like, fire that came out of nowhere – whatever that means.”
“Random fire, huh? Maybe a gasoline truck exploded?”
“I don’t know, but that whole road is messed up. It’s probably not going to be open for like, the next week.” Maverick sighed, letting go of any chance he had to get his car back within the week.
“Yeah, most likely.” Jared nodded, pausing in the conversation before changing it entirely.
“So,” he sighed, looking over at Maverick. Maverick raised his head to give Jared his attention, noticing the change in his voice. Seeing the wide grin on his face, he groaned, knowing exactly where the conversation was going.
“Drop it, Jared.”
“Like hell I will. And you’ve got some nerve, man. This is the first girl you’ve looked twice at in the past two years and you’re keeping her a secret? Not cool, man,” Jared complained, shaking his head. Maverick rolled his eyes.
“Well maybe if you weren’t so critical of her I might talk about her a little more,” countered Maverick. Jared raised his hands in surrender and lowered his head.
“Okay, okay. I will not bad-mouth the girl. So please.” Maverick sighed, shifting the weight on his leg to the other and tapping his foot slightly.
“What do you want to know?”
“Let’s start with why you like her.”
“She’s different.”
“Different how?”
“She just is. She looks at things differently. Experiences them differently. And everything she says is genuine.”
“Genuine, huh.”
“Yeah.” Jared shook his head.
“Is she the one?” Maverick rolled his eyes and dropped his arms.
“Come on, man. It’s been like a week.”
“Well! You seem to be head over heels already. Leaving work to talk to her. Ignoring my calls. Ditching game nights,” Jared pointed out, theatrically counting them on his hand. Maverick shook his head.
“I just … I really like her. I don’t know.”
“You guys bang yet?”
“Dude!”
“What!” Jared laughed, shrugging his shoulders innocently. “It was an innocent question, I swear.”
“No, we have not banged, yet,” Maverick groaned. Before Jared could respond, Liz came out of the kitchen.
“Good. That means there’s still a chance,” she chimed, coming behind the counter area with the boys. Jared’s brows shot up as he heard Liz’s voice from behind him. He made an expression that read ‘uh-oh’, and averted his eyes to the right. Maverick scoffed, looking at Liz, unmoved by her flirtatious tone.
“For you? I’m afraid not,” he responded with sudden bluntness. Taken aback, Liz frowned with the rather forward rejection. She crossed her arms, jerking her neck to move her hair from her face.
“You’re forgetting that you owe me a favor for closing by myself,” she warned. Jared looked from her to Maverick, knowing better than to interrupt the conversation.
“I’m going to fix that. The next time we close together, you can leave. And I’ll do it by myself, so we can be even. Aright? How about that?” Maverick said matter-of-factly, quickly dismissing the problem before it could escalate. Liz frowned, as Jared fought to contain his laughter. Liz scowled at Jared, smacking his arm with the back of her hand and making him jump slightly with a smile.
“Whatever. I’m sure you’re horrible anyway,” she countered, turning away and going back into the kitchen to retreat. Jared snickered as Maverick’s brows pinched together.
“Horrible?”
Jared chuckled, shaking his head.
“Don’t even worry about it, dude. You did good. Y
ou did good,” he laughed, patting and gripping Maverick’s shoulder.
“Now, when I attempt to strike you, I want you to push my wrist away, and blow fire at me with your other hand,” Hydra instructed, easing her stance into a more battle-ready one. Saphora shook her head slightly, her stance similar to Hydra’s as they stood in the middle of Maverick’s living room. They had pushed Maverick’s furniture out to add to the space they had.
“I don’t know if I can do that so quickly … And even if I could, I don’t want to hurt you – or Maverick’s apartment,” Saphora argued warily. Hydra reassured her.
“You won’t. I’m covering myself in a layer of water. It will absorb the fire that makes contact. I’ll put out anything that misses.”
“I still don’t know if I’ll be able to do it,” she said, glancing down at her hands.
“That is why we’re practicing. I’m not expecting you to get it right the first time. Come. Are you ready?” Hydra stepped forward. Saphora sighed, raising her hands and swallowing the lump in her throat.
“Whatever that means,” she said, steadying herself. And without any warning, Hydra came at Saphora, swinging her right fist towards her face. With hesitance and shock halting her before she thought to raise her arm in defense, she was too late by the time Hydra’s knuckles stopped about a centimeter away from her left eye. Her eyes were wide, staring straight at Hydra, who was looking back with somewhat of a frown. A few seconds passed before she lowered her hand and took two steps back.
“Again,” she said, putting her right foot forward. Saphora sighed, feeling her heartbeat come back with a thump.
“What if I hurt you?” she asked worriedly.
“You won’t,” she reassured, taking a step forward. But Saphora took a step back. Hydra frowned. “You need to learn. You must attack as if you believe I am trying to hurt you.”
“But I can’t.” Hydra paused, before making a necessary decision.
“Very well,” she said, spinning as she stepped forward towards Saphora with a quick pace. Saphora blinked repeatedly, taking a step back off guard. But the spinning continued, until Hydra’s left palm made contact with Saphora’s jaw, knocking her back and to the ground with a thud. Saphora curled up on the floor slightly, as she went to lift herself up in shock. She looked up at Hydra with wide eyes, one of her hands going to delicately hold her stinging chin.
“You … You hit me,” she breathed.
“Get up,” Hydra instructed. Saphora scoffed and stood up, keeping her eyes on the slightly swaying Hydra. She didn’t actually know which one of them was swaying.
“Hydra-“
“Again.”
“This is ridiculous. I’m not-“ Before Saphora could finish her sentence, another blow was delivered – this time, just below her ribcage. The breath was knocked from Saphora as she stumbled back and doubled over in pain. She hissed and groaned as air returned to her lungs a little slower than she would have liked. She grit her teeth, blinking hard. It wasn’t long before her eyes began shifting colour as she blinked – being brought on by pain and anger. A known stimulant for Saphora’s power. She looked up at Hydra, who backed away again.
“Again,” Hydra demanded. Saphora slowly corrected her posture, her hand still against her ribs. “Defend yourself as your life depended on it. Attack with power blinded by rage. Again!” she shouted, coming at Saphora once more. Her right fist aimed for the side of Saphora’s skull. But this time, Saphora reacted. Her wrist came up to deflect the blow as instructed, and her other hand pushed forward, her open palm thrusting itself into crease of Hydra’s ribcage, knocking her back.
But Hydra didn’t stop at being pushed away. She spun on her heel and went to send a kick towards Saphora’s shoulder. With wide eyes, Saphora ducked, coming back up when the leg had made its way around. But when Saphora stood back up, she was greeted with a blow to the crease of her neck by Hydra’s vertical hand. Saphora cried out in pain as she stumbled back, gripping the area. An involuntarily slash of wind whipped off of her body, and Hydra paused her attacks.
“Do you expect to make a difference on our planet like this?” Hydra jabbed. Saphora’s eyes narrowed as they found Hydra’s. Taking a jab at losing her home was a bit of a push, but one that was needed to get Saphora motivated in putting forth some effort in combat practice. She stood straight again, shaking her head.
“Don’t,” Saphora warned.
“Then show me you can handle going home. Again!” she said, going at Saphora again. Saphora countered most all of Hydra’s moves, taking some hits and giving some in return. What fire she did manage to spawn from her hands was small, but Hydra was happy to take the progress.
Saphora continuously shocked herself during the spar. Never in her life had she so much as taken a self-defense class, and yet she was able to see and manage some way of blocking or avoiding most of the attacks. She didn’t know if was because she had been taught early on in her childhood, or if she was just getting lucky.
About 15 minute into their sparing, the door to Maverick's apartment was unlocked, followed by his entrance. But his appearance caught Saphora off guard, having interrupted her concentration. Her hand shot towards Maverick before either of them could realize, and unleashed a fireball. Maverick dropped his keys as Saphora’s eyes widened. A gasp left her lips as the glow in her eyes immediately dissipated, and the fireball stopped in midair. Saphora’s palm had widened, as if to stop the ball. And as it turned out, she had. Hydra had spun around, ready to put out the fire, but stumbled to a halt upon seeing the fire floating in the middle of the room, closer to Maverick. Maverick looked on with wide eyes and a held breath, as the fire hovered just over a foot away from him. He swallowed, looking up at Saphora.
“Did … Did I do something wrong?” Saphora was speechless as she strained to keep the ball where it was, worried about it hitting Maverick. Hydra slowly walked up to the ball, circling it as she observed the consistency. Finally, she smiled, looking back to Saphora.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Chapter 12
“You’ll be fine,” Maverick cooed, resting his hand on Saphora’s back. She shook her head warily as she stared at the book in Hydra’s hand. They were trying to coax her into doing another memory session – this time with the aid of the book. But she was still a bit shaken up from the previous session. Not being able to stop the flow of memories, though she would want them in due time, was drifting her away from the idea. It was overwhelming for her, to have everything flood back to her memory. And although there was not much left to remember, aside from Arol, she was still wary about going back under.
“What if she can’t stop them?” Saphora asked, her eyes focused on the turning pages of the book.
“Then I will,” reassured Maverick, leaning forward until Saphora moved her gaze to his eyes. Immediately, she felt some level of reassurance. But she wondered if it was enough. If Maverick could be lucky enough to be able to do it again. “Come on. You’ve gotten way too far to deny yourself your memory.” Saphora grit her teeth, nodding slightly and exhaling through her nose. He was right. She nodded more firmly, looking at him.
“Don’t go anywhere, okay?” she pleaded to him in a soft voice, almost with embarrassment. Maverick nodded, grinning.
“I’ll be sitting right here.”
“Hello?” Fran answered on the second ring of her cellphone.
“Hi, Fran. It’s Dr. Lupin. How are you?”
“Oh, doctor. I’m fine, thank you. Just preparing for this exhibit, haha. How are you?”
“Well, I’m a little concerned, to be honest, Fran,” he answered, looking up at Officer Johnson, who was in front of him, leaning back on the desk in her office. They had been speaking about Saphora. Fran grew silent, for a moment.
“About what, doctor?”
“About Saphora.”
“Saphora? Didn’t she come to your session this morning?” Fran asked with concern.
“Yes … But she cut it short.
I had left the office to handle a visitor that had shown up in the lobby, and when I returned she was gone.”
“Gone? Gone where?”
“Well I don’t know. But there’s something more discerning than the fact that she left.”
“Like?”
“Well … Although I don’t have any proof to hold her to it, I believe she burned all of her notes. There’s nothing left of her files but ashes, I’m afraid.”
“What? Saphora would never-“
“Well, Fran. She had the motive. You were with us the other day during our conversation. She wanted her files. Who’s to say that she wasn’t willing to destroy them if she couldn’t have them?” Lupin proposed. Fran shook her head in silence.
“N-No, doctor. She wouldn’t do that,” Fran argued, tired of just throwing Saphora’s morals to the wayside. Lupin sighed, pushing up his glasses.
“But what if she did, Fran? She was the only one that was in my office from the time I left, to the time I returned. The security cameras can vouch for that.”
“Can they vouch for her setting the files on fire?” Lupin hesitated.
“Fran, I know you’re concerned for Saphora. And another situation like this does not put her in favor of the law. But I need you to listen to me.” Lupin paused, looking up at Johnson. She nodded. “You may want to consider sending Saphora to a mental institution for evaluation.”
Fran’s mouth dropped at the suggestion. She even moved away from her phone so she could look at it in disbelief. A mental institution? Surely he had to be exaggerating. Saphora could not be that far over the psychiatric edge.
“Institution?” Fran choked, bringing the phone back to her ear. “Doctor, surely you must be joking.”
“I’m not, Fran. I need you to consider this carefully and-“
“No, doctor. I’m not sending my child to a mental institution when there’s nothing wrong with her. And if you didn’t treat her like you have been, maybe she wouldn’t be so hostile towards you,” Fran spat. Lupin paused on the other end of the phone for a moment before speaking again.