Red and Black

by Nancy O'Toole Meservier

  And it was all a lie.

  I had gone over the events of that night countless times, trying to figure out different things I could have said or done. In hindsight, dozens of better options became apparent. My powers had clearly been out of whack. Perhaps instead of going to save her myself, I could have tossed her a rope or something. Had there been a rope available? Maybe a piece of clothing?

  But I had done none of those things. Instead, I had failed to save Calypso. And that didn’t make me feel like a hero.

  And then there was the comic book. I had just started reading it, and the experience had been…well, I had stopped about ten pages in. Of course, the book wasn’t about Dawn Takahashi, but Carol Higurashi, a shy young woman working at a medical school library. After being exposed to an experimental device that let out a strange, phosphorescent light, she found that she could transform into a superhero who seemingly lacked all her personal hangups. She picked the name “Hikari,” as it translates into light.

  The reveal was, I dunno…after weeks of waiting, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat disappointed. What did the name Hikari have to do with me, personally? I’m pretty sure I hadn’t been exposed to a mysterious phosphorescent light. I don’t even think the science behind that worked. Was it just picked because of my Japanese heritage? It’s not like I could speak the language. The only reason I even knew what the word meant was from my grandmother’s old enka CDs.

  Was Hunter Davies trying to send me a message? Did the names he gave people actually mean something, or were they just chosen because they sounded nice?

  I shook my head as I stared down at the comic. As one might guess from the cover, Alex was in there too. He was a medical student named Hank, moonlighting as a supervillain to help pay for his tuition. On page five, we learn from Carol’s inner dialogue that she has been mooning over Hank for months but had never had the confidence to talk to him.

  I couldn’t go any farther from there. It was like the uncanny valley, close to how things had happened, but different at the same time. I wondered if the comic book would have a Sunshine, or an Amity.

  “Well, well, you managed to get one of the new Hunter Davies comics. They’re not that easy to find, you know.”

  I jumped at the new voice, all bright and falsely cheerful. I recognized it immediately.

  “Amity,” I said, turning toward her with a scowl. “I didn’t think you’d be into comic books.”

  “Oh, I hate the things, but it’s always a good idea to keep tabs on your colleagues.”

  She was wearing a power suit, her feet encased in heels, her hair perfectly styled. The only thing off about her were those red-rimmed eyes.

  “I’m…sorry for your loss,” I said, somewhat lamely.

  “Well,” she replied, with a sniff. “They have yet to find a body, so there’s still hope, but…there is no way Callie would have given up all of her drones voluntarily. The chances of her actually being alive are minuscule.”

  I swallowed. From where she had been standing, Amity couldn’t have seen what I had. Calypso’s head snapping against the floor two stories down, cutting off her scream—

  I swallowed. Best not to mention that gory detail.

  The last couple of weeks had gone by in a blur. It hadn’t taken too long for people at the benefit to notice that several key members had been missing. When you combined that with the ignored distress calls from Amanda at the Tong Building, several of the phone calls made by people who had caught the tram fight between Alex and myself, and they were able to put things together at the BCPD. The police had arrived soon after Calypso had fallen. Some of Calypso’s followers had escaped, but the majority of them, like Noel, were now under protective custody alongside Sully and Martha. Amanda had covered for me, mentioning nothing about my second life. Everyone had accepted it. And why wouldn’t they? Amanda, from what I witnessed, was a highly respected member of the force, even if she did appear to be a bit of a loner.

  This, of course, had started up the media train all over again. Being kidnapped once was one thing, but twice? Fortunately, this time around, I had several fellow abductees to distract the press, and they made a lot more noise than I did. Edison Kent especially. There were even rumors that he was going to use this newfound media attention to launch another mayoral campaign. Regardless, I had learned my lesson from how I had handled the press last time and had decided to do things differently—a move that shocked my mother. I hadn’t done any televised interviews, but I did do one uncomfortable/dull interview with a newspaper reporter where I talked about being wheeled into an empty room and left there for hours on end. This seemed to placate the savage beast that was the media.

  For now.

  Given that I had been found bleeding on the floor of the Grand Bailey, I had been immediately taken to the hospital to take care of my torn stitches. The doctors had been confused at my injuries, which I claimed had happened “at some point” during my capture. Since rapidly healing them would have made people all sorts of suspicious, I had resisted the temptation to transform until the shiny new stitches had been taken out. And let me tell you, healing the old-fashioned way was a hell of a lot more painful than my way.

  Sunshine had been the first one to visit me in the hospital, and I had hoped this was a sign that things were going to be better for us. But in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but linger over the secrets building up between us. Sunshine was my best friend, after all. Was it still the right decision to keep all this from her?

  “It’s…strange,” I said, bringing myself back to the present. “But as cliché as it sounds, the more I think about her, and what Arthur Hamilton tried to do all those years ago, the more they begin to sound…well, more like me. Wanting to protect the city from Empowered villains. Only she ended up becoming Bailey City’s first true threat.”

  “You create your own biggest enemies,” Amity replied.

  “Um…huh?”

  I looked at Amity, whose gaze was focused out over the skyline. At my inarticulate response, she turned and looked toward me.

  “Just something a certain know-it-all used to say back when I worked with the Forgers,” she replied, then swiftly changed the topic. “So what about you and little Ally?”

  “That’s…none of your business,” I said with a frown.

  “Oh, come on now. Prying eyes want to know. Did certain…revelations about his character spoil things for you completely?”

  Ugh. She really knew how to get under your skin. And I think I knew why. Annoying as she was, what she said had a kernel of truth in it.

  Alex had disappeared before the police arrived. I hadn’t even seen him leave the room. And in the weeks since then, I just hadn’t gotten around to talking to him.

  But I had just been so busy! There was the newspaper reporter, and my mom getting home, and catching up on missed classes. And it wasn’t like he had made any efforts to talk to me. Maybe it was a sign he didn’t want to.

  Or maybe it was a sign that I was just running away from my problems again. Amity’s harsh words from before still dug into me, a constant reminder of my own undeniable faults. But when it came to Alex…

  Even with the proof right in front of me, I still had a hard time connecting the friendly guy who had taken me out for pastries with the dark, angry man who had worked for Calypso. The fact that he had saved me, twice, proved that he wasn’t a bad guy. He probably had good reasons for joining up with her. Regardless, this showed me how little I actually knew about him. If I dug deeper, would I be just as happy with what I found underneath?

  And would he be happy with me?

  “I’ll take your silence as confirmation,” Amity said, her grin spreading wider.

  “Why do you do that?” I asked.

  “Do what?”

  “Constantly attack people like that, pointing out their weaknesses.”

  “Hard to deny myself the pleasure.”

  “Well, have you picked up on the fact that you tend to double dow
n on it when you’re feeling vulnerable? It’s like you want to distract from your own weaknesses by drawing the attention toward someone else’s.”

  The smile fell from Amity’s face.

  “I think I liked you better in your other form,” she said. “So meek…and always second-guessing yourself. Is that why you decided to slip into this disguise right now?” Her gaze slid down to the comic in my hand. “Feeling the need for some confidence, Hikari?”

  “Ugh!” I threw up my hands. “You don’t even realize you’re doing it.”

  “Oh, so harsh. And after the wonderful favor I did for you.”

  “Um…What favor?”

  “It wasn’t very smart, transforming in front of all of those drones like that. Haven’t you wondered why none of them have turned you in?”

  I felt my mouth go dry. I had been wondering that. Sure, none of the hostages besides Dana had seen me transform (and he had promised to keep my secret as a thank-you for saving his life), but the drones were a different story. There had been a good half-dozen of them in the room alongside Alex. Of course, he had his own secret and wasn’t likely to expose mine. But what about Noel, Susan, and the others?

  Unless…

  “Did you—” I began.

  “Took a little visit to the police station and altered a few memories. You’re not the only one who needs protecting, Dawny. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to Marty. He somehow managed to slip away.” She gave me a sly smile. “Did you forget about my contacts with the police?”

  “Your contacts? I thought—”

  “That they were Callie’s little helpers? Oh, please. A woman has to have her own resources.”

  For a moment, all I could do was shake my head. Okay, so the list of people who knew my identity was now made up of Alex, Amity, Amanda, and Marty. I frowned. Some of those names I could live with. Others…

  “Why?” I finally spat out. “Why help me? You don’t even like me.”

  “Don’t like you? I find I’ve become rather fond of you, little Dawny, even if I do prefer you all meek and shy. Granted, I didn’t do this out of the goodness of my heart. This way, you owe me a favor.”

  “I didn’t agree to anything!”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. I’m sure I can find something to do that won’t completely offend your delicate sensibilities. It may be next week; it may be years from now. But this way, you know to expect me back in your city. I will collect this favor, Dawn Takahashi.”

  I felt my face harden at the mention of my name. She knew who I was now. And I couldn’t think of anything more dangerous.

  “Anyway,” Amity said with a sigh. “Since I don’t have the benefit of jumping around like you do, I’ll have to take the stairs. Good-bye, Dawny.”

  And with that, she turned away from me and headed back to the stairwell, leaving me alone with nothing but a comic book in my hand.

  For a few seconds, all I could do was stand there, wondering what this all meant for the future.

  Then, I let out a sigh. Looking back over my shoulder, I scanned the roof to make sure no one had entered as we had been talking before turning back into Dawn.

  I didn’t have much time to think right now. I had Rule #1 to worry about. Professor Andrews had agreed that being kidnapped was a pretty good excuse for missing my presentation on Thursday, so we scheduled a meeting this afternoon to discuss things. If I was going to make it to his office on time, I had to get down to the ground floor and head across campus right away. I needed to protect my secret identity, of course. Because as long as I kept Dawn Takahashi alive, Hikari could thrive as well.

  After all, Bailey City had waited ten years for its very first Actual. I had to make sure I didn’t screw it up.

  Epilogue

  Somewhere in the Arizona desert

  The sun beat down on the camper, parked against the side of the nearly abandoned highway. Every now and then, a car would go by, and Riley, sitting behind the wheel, would raise his head and a trail of sweat would trickle down his back.

  It wasn’t like he was unfamiliar with hot weather. He was from Nashville, which wasn’t exactly a frozen tundra. But growing up, he had heard people praise the “dry heat” of this area like crazy. Riley thought he could have handled it too, had the air conditioning in the camper not crapped out ten days back. It may have been dry, but heat was still heat when you had nothing to do but sit in it.

  Of course, it wasn’t like he and Jane could just go to a hotel or anything like that. Their salary was…well, it was pretty much just enough to keep the camper gassed up and food in their bellies, and only then if you weren’t too picky about the food thing.

  “Hey, Rile?” he heard Jane call from the back.

  “Coming, Jane,” he said, pulling his sticky back away from the leather seat. Twenty-seven-year-old Riley had a lean frame, an easy smile, a deep tan, and dark-blond hair that fell just in front of his eyes. Certain girls found these elements, when combined with his Tennessee drawl and laid-back manner, to be charming.

  Jane was not one of these “certain girls.” Which was a good thing, given that she was only sixteen.

  He walked to the back of the camper to see his partner huddled over her laptop once more, the kitchen table and chairs covered in binders filled with printouts. The heat had been getting to the curly-haired Jane as well, but it would take a lot more than an 88-degree day to persuade her to take a day off.

  She reached up and adjusted her glasses as she turned to him, a motion that left behind fingerprints.

  “We have an email from headquarters,” she said. “Confirming the identity of that Empowered woman from Bailey City.”

  Riley nodded. He suspected that most Forgers (or people, really) weren’t familiar with the small city, but it had been on everyone’s lips since an Empowered woman had brainwashed several dozen citizens, turning them into a makeshift army. The information was pretty murky beyond that, even coming from the higher-ups, but if the latest Hunter Davies comic was to be believed (Riley had found scans online), a brand-new Actual named Hikari had emerged during Calypso’s fall.

  “So,” Riley said, moving behind her so he could see the screen. “She one of ours?”

  “Unsanctioned. Weirdly enough, she was also a rejection,” Jane replied. “A woman known as Callie Saunders. Apparently, ten years ago, she attempted to Awaken her ability through outside means, and it went very poorly.”

  “Hmmmm. That Callie Saunders,” Riley said with a slow nod. Everyone knew about her. The report of her failed attempt, written by the now-missing Amity Graves, was pretty much required reading for anyone who wanted to work in the field.

  “Unfortunately, headquarters doesn’t have anyone situated that far north,” Jane continued. “And the whole situation…well it just sounds like a mess. They want us to go over and look into it. Talk to the Empowered that were involved.”

  “I see. I suppose while we’re there they’ll want us to open up the Bailey City office as well?”

  The sound of Jane’s clacking fingers filled the air.

  “You’re right. It looks like there are…two bloodline members that are looking to Awaken.”

  “Wonderful,” Riley said with a sigh. “The higher-ups do realize that we are all the way across the country? What about Marcel, up in Ontario? And Christine—”

  “There are no other open teams available,” Jane replied, voice sharp. “And we agreed to be on call.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He waved a hand. “Well, it should be a lot cooler up there, at least.”

  “One would assume,” Jane said, then went back to typing on her computer without another word.

  Riley sighed and moved back to the driver’s seat. There were times when he tried to sneak up behind Jane, to see if she was playing a game or using Facebook or something, but it was always the same. Reading up on bloodlines. News reports from headquarters. Searching out articles that might be connected to an Unsanctioned Empowered. It was all work. Important work, sure.
Riley was just as devoted to the cause as anyone else, but at her age…

  “We’ll need to supply up first,” Jane called out from the back. “We need more toilet paper and ramen.”

  “Man was not made to live on ramen alone,” Riley murmured as he turned the key. The camper, in defiance of its shabby appearance, immediately flared to life. Reaching back, he buckled himself in, then checked his mirrors before flipping on his turn signal.

  The nearest supermarket was only about an hour away. And after that, it would be days on the highway, with him doing most of the driving as Jane technically didn’t have her license yet. It would be a pain in the ass, but he wouldn’t have signed up to be a field agent for the Forgers if all he wanted to do was sit at home.

  Next up, Bailey City.

  God only knew what he would find there.

  Hey there!

  You’ve made it to the end of Red and Black, and for that I’d like to thank you for giving a new author a chance. This may be the end of the book, but it’s clearly not the end of Dawn and Alex’s story. I am currently hard at work on the second book in the series. If you’re interested in hearing more, please consider signing up for my mailing list. I promise not to fill your inbox with spam, just the occasional update on book two, as well other future writing projects.

  If you’d like to help spread the word about Red and Black, then posting a review on amazon, goodreads and/or your personal blog would make my day.

  Red and Black has been a labor of love for the past few years. As with any book, it wouldn’t have come to be without the support and patience of others. I’d like to express gratitude to my husband Tanner Meservier, who kindly listened to me read aloud the first several chapters, back when the book was in its earliest stages. To the members of my writing group—Kim Kennedy, Shanda Gardiner, and Meghan Trimpop—thank you for your helpful thoughts and encouragements during the book’s development. And of course, thank you to my beta readers Caleb Orion, Nicole Easterby and Tanner Meservier (again!) for all your feedback.