by Dee Benson
Outside, the air was warm, but with dusk descending, the heat was bearable. The sidewalk was crowded and a drumbeat filled the air. There were street dancers and drummers a little distance away. A small crowd had gathered around them.
Axel glanced at her parents. They were holding hands. Mom's death grip on Dad's hand looked painful, and her face was drawn with worry. Dad whispered something to her.
Zanda tugged on Axel's hand. She gave a low whistle. "Check out that dude at two o'clock. Blue shorts. No shirt."
Axel looked.
"Try not to make it so obvious that you're checking him out," Zanda hissed.
Axel quickly lowered her gaze as the guy looked in their direction. He looked a few years older than they were. From the way his blond hair was arranged in neat waves, he was one of those guys who spent more time on his appearance that any guy should. He also had a slightly arrogant look in his eyes. That meant he knew he was cute. Zanda tended to go for guys who were full of themselves. Just like Gareth in school.
"He's hot but not my type," Axel replied.
"I bet you like the dark-haired guy at ten o'clock. He's just stopped to watch the street dancers."
Axel looked. She almost dropped her purse at the sight of a tall guy who looked like he'd just stepped off a male cologne shoot. His dark hair was wet. Water droplets glistened on his dark, sun-bronzed skin. His abs rippled with muscles. "He is gorgeous!"
Zanda smirked. "I know you too well."
The guy glanced at them as they approached the street dancers. Zanda stopped walking. "Hey."
Axel tried to continue walking, but Zanda grabbed her hand.
The guy winked at Zanda. "Hey there, ladies."
"Ah, you're American," Zanda cooed. "Was that a southern lilt I caught in your accent?"
He grinned and Axel felt like the air had gotten about ten degrees hotter. "I'm from Texas."
Mom and Dad stopped a few feet away from them. They were still wrapped up in their own whispered conversation.
"I'm Charlotte," Zanda told the guy.
"Tom," the guy replied.
"Nice to meet you, Tom. This is my cousin." Zanda shot Axel a mischievous look.
Axel glared at her, hoping her eyes were conveying the fact that she was going to kill her if she said anything dumb to this guy.
The guy was looking at her. His eyes were a soft brown that a girl could drown in. "Hey, Charlotte's cousin. Do you have a name?"
"Her name is Dorothy."
Axel squeezed Zanda's hand viciously. Couldn't she have chosen a better fake name for her?
Axel smiled at the dude and then focused on the street dancers. "They're good," she said, hoping to change the subject. They were grabbing people out of the crowd to dance with them.
"Yeah," the guy agreed, looking over at the dancers.
While his gaze was elsewhere, Axel shot Zanda a withering glare.
"Dorothy thinks you're hot," Zanda said.
Tom's gaze snapped away from the dancers and fixed on Axel. Axel wanted to die. Heat flooded her cheeks.
Just when the silence was getting awkward, a pair of strong hands grabbed her by the arms and a young man danced her away.
Axel released a breath. He couldn't have had better timing. She felt like kissing the dancer who'd rescued her. She danced with him, completely unable to keep up, but doing her best nonetheless and making sure not to look in Zanda's and Tom's direction.
Her dance partner lifted her into the air and spun her around. The crowd of spectators cheered and clapped. When he lowered her, she was dizzy.
Some female dancers joined them, in barely-there matching outfits. They juggled flaming sticks. Axel's dance partner twirled her around. All she could see was a blur of orange around her as the female dancers juggled their fire sticks much too close to Axel for her liking.
The dancing seemed to go on forever. When the drum beat stopped, the crowd erupted in applause. The dancers bowed. Axel bowed too. Her dancers placed a garland of bright flowers around her neck and blew her a kiss.
Axel grinned as she walked away. The drum beat began again and the dancers shimmied over to the crowd looking for new unsuspecting dance partners.
Axel pushed her way through the crowd which seemed to have grown much bigger while she danced.
When she got back to the spot where she'd left Zanda and Tom, neither of them was there. Axel looked around for her parents. She couldn't see them anywhere either.
Maybe they'd continued on towards the restaurant without her.
No. They wouldn't do that. Not when Mom was so worried that something might happen. They would have waited for Axel.
She took out her cell phone and called them. First her mom, then Dad, then Zanda. None of them answered.
She tried to stay calm as she walked around the area, craning her neck, hoping to catch sight of a familiar face.
But the longer she searched, the harder it was to hope. A sense of foreboding washed over her. She pushed it away.
I'm sure they're fine, she insisted to herself. She began to walk towards the restaurant. Maybe they had gone ahead without her.
She wasn't even sure of how to get to the restaurant. She asked a passing woman and then followed her directions.
Five minutes later, she arrived at the restaurant. It was overflowing with patrons. The outdoor dining area was crowded. She scanned the sea of tables for her family. They weren't there.
Her heart skipped a beat as she entered the restaurant.
The maître'd, a small woman with waist-length, black hair, scurried over. "Table for...?"
"Uh, I'm looking for my family. Have you seen a man and a woman with a girl about my age?"
The maître'd gave her an, 'Are you serious?' look. "We have lots of families in here at the moment."
"Is it okay if I look around and see if I can find them?"
"Sure."
Axel entered the room and looked around. They weren't here. Just in case, she walked around, making sure to check the tables tucked away in corners.
Where are they?
She left the restaurant and stood outside, not sure what to do. Could they have gone back to the hotel?
Why would they do that?
She steeled herself against the panic threatening to overwhelm her. She took out her cell phone and called them again. None of them answered.
She began to walk back to the hotel. Just in case.
When she got there, she rode the elevator to the third floor and knocked on the door to their suite. There was no answer.
She rode back down to the lobby and approached the reception desk. That guy was still there. The one who'd whistled when they were leaving.
He looked up as she approached, a slight smile on his face. His smile disappeared the moment their gazes connected. "Is everything okay?"
Axel figured she must look as scared as she felt. Tears rushed forward. She managed to hold them back. They stung the corners of her eyes. Forget my mascara. She rubbed her eyes. "Have you seen any of my family members in the last few minutes?"
The dude stared at a spot just under her right eye for a moment. No doubt she had a black mascara smudge there. He smiled brightly. "No."
"You know my family?"
"Of course. I saw you all leaving earlier. None of them have come back."
Axel raked a hand through her hair. What was going on? "Are you sure? Can you let me into the suite to check?"
She knew they would have opened up when she knocked, if they were in. But she didn't know what else to do. Maybe they were in there and something had happened. Maybe there'd been some kind of emergency.
The receptionist handed her a key card.
"Thanks." Axel hurried back to the elevators. When she got back upstairs, she let herself into the suite. Everything was just as they'd left it. And it was empty.
Where had they gone?
Within a week, you will gladly hand yourself over to us.
Axel froze as Desmond Platt's w
ords filled her mind. She'd known it was a threat. Fear gripped her as something she didn't want to consider forced its way into her mind.
What if they've been captured?
If they had, she shouldn't be just standing here doing nothing. She needed to get help.
She made her way back down to the lobby and hurried over to the reception desk. "Hey."
The guy looked up. "Found them?"
"No. Can you call the police, please?"
Chapter 5
AXEL WASN'T SURE HOW much information to give the two police officers who showed up twenty minutes later.
They seemed pretty relaxed about the whole situation. Should she tell them that her parents were hiding Supers who were being hunted by a Supervillain called The Firemaster? And that she'd been approached in a cave a few days ago and suspected that her family's disappearance was because she'd refused to go to the Land of the Supers?
She could just imagine the looks they'd give her if she said all that. Netherlings thought Supers were fiction. They thought their own ordinary world was the only world that existed—at least here on earth. They knew nothing of the Super Land or other dimensions.
But they needed to understand the urgency of the situation.
"Could it be that they have just gone to the beach, or something?" one of the officers asked in thickly accented English that Axel could barely understand. He was tall and bald with a gray mustache.
"No. They wouldn't have gone without me."
"Why wouldn't they?" the other officer asked. He was dark skinned with dreadlocks. Thankfully, he was easier to understand. "You're obviously old enough to be left to yourself."
"Look, my family is in danger," Axel said. "We've been in danger for, uh, years. And I think my parents' enemies may have tracked us down here."
The police officers exchanged a look.
"Your parents' enemies?" the dreadlocked officer asked.
"Yeah."
"Is this something that your police department back home knows about?" he asked. He looked at his partner. "If what she's saying is true, we'll need to get in touch with them and get any information we can."
"No," Axel said. "My parents have never informed the police about it, but…" She stopped, realizing how lame she sounded. "You have to believe me. They're in danger. I know they are. What do I have to do to get a search party out there looking for them? Please don't tell me I have to wait twenty-four hours or something like that."
"No," Mr. Dreadlock said. "You can file a missing person report if you have reason to believe they're in danger."
"So you'll look for them?" Axel asked.
"Yeah. You got any pictures of them?"
Axel felt like kissing him. She took out her cell phone and showed them some pictures of her family. They had her email them to the receptionist so that he could print them.
"Can you tell us more about your parents' enemies?" the bald man asked. "Name, physical description, anything?"
She gave them Desmond Platt's name and described him as best she could, although she doubted that he would have been the one who'd personally captured her family—if indeed they'd been captured. But it was as much as she knew.
"Oh," she said suddenly, before they left. "There was a guy with us. Tom. He's from Texas. He was talking to my cousin, Zanda, before I was whisked away to dance. If you could find him, he might know if they were approached by anybody. He might have seen which way they went."
"Tom from Texas?" Baldie asked. "Would you like to narrow it down a little?"
"He had dark hair, brown eyes, looked around my age. He was wearing black shorts. No shirt. Six-pack."
Baldie lifted a brow.
Axel's cheeks warmed.
"Right," said Dreadlocks. "We'll keep you posted."
Axel watched them walk away. "Wait!" she called before they walked through the door.
They turned.
"I…can't stay here alone. What if my parents', uh, enemies come for me?"
"Stay in your suite and lock the door," Baldie said.
"Alone?" Axel asked. She could tell they weren't taking this as seriously as she was. They had no idea how much danger she was in.
Baldie looked exasperated.
"Can you, uh, send like a bodyguard to stay with me until you return?" Tears blurred Axel's vision. "I know you think I'm overreacting, but I would really appreciate it."
THE BODYGUARD THEY SENT looked barely older than Axel. And he was chubby. His police uniform only just covered his belly. If any Supers came for Axel now, she was completely vulnerable. Her so-called bodyguard—Johnny, he told her his name was—would be no match for them.
Hours passed and Axel's cell phone remained silent. That meant no news yet. No news was good news. Right?
But what if the Supers used a portal to take them away? They could be miles away by now. The police would never find them. They knew nothing of portals and teleportation.
They might not have been captured by Supers, Axel told herself. It'd been four hours since they'd gone missing, so there was no doubt in her mind now that they were missing, but it could be a 'normal' case of missing persons. They might even have been captured by 'normal' non-Super criminals.
Axel desperately hoped so.
A soft snore drew Axel from her train of thought. She looked at Johnny. He was sleeping. Great.
She eyed his slumped form on the couch. She felt like dousing him with a bucket of ice cold water.
There was a ping from his cell phone. He jumped up, blinking his tiny eyes rapidly. His face had a permanent flush. He grinned at Axel sheepishly.
Axel grinned back. "You okay?"
"Yeah." He dug out his phone. "You?"
"Yup."
He tapped his cell phone screen as he lowered himself back onto the couch. Then he glanced at Axel.
"What?" Axel asked. "Is that an update?"
"They can't find Tom from Texas."
"What about my parents and my cousin?"
"No news about them yet." He picked up the TV remote. "Do you want to go to bed? It's getting late."
Axel shook her head. She'd never be able to sleep with her family missing. Besides, since the police preferred to contact Johnny rather than her, she figured she'd better stay with him. She wanted to know as soon as they had any information.
Hours crawled by. Axel could barely contain her anxiety. She cleared her throat.
Johnny looked at her.
"Have you had any more updates?" she asked.
His phone would have pinged if he had. Axel knew that. But it was worth asking just in case he'd switched off the sound on his phone.
"No."
"Do you mind calling them to find out what's happening?"
Johnny shrugged, tapped on his cell phone, and then lifted it to his ear. "Hey, Axel wants an update." He was quiet for a moment and then he tossed the phone aside.
"What?" Axel demanded. "What did they say?"
"They said they're busy at the moment, but someone will come to speak to you in a few minutes.Then they hung up on me."
That meant something was happening. Axel jumped to her feet and paced the lounge.
Her heart thudded in her chest with fear. No! she berated herself internally. Don't be scared. Think positive.
They must have found them. Maybe the police had taken them in for questioning about what had happened to them. Maybe that's why someone was coming to speak to her. They wanted to let her know that Zanda and her parents were okay, but wouldn't get back for a while as they were being questioned.
Yes. That's what's going on.
It was another hour before there was a knock on the door. Axel glanced at the clock as she went to open it. One a.m.
"Let me get it," Johnny said, pushing in front of her. "Just in case."
Axel nodded and hung back while he opened the door. It was the dreadlocked policeman.
"Hey, Roger," Johnny greeted.
Roger looked past Johnny, his gaze settling on Axel. There
was a look in his eyes that made Axel's breath catch in her throat.
"Have you found them?" she asked.
"We found your mom."
Axel's hope buoyed to the surface. "Where is she? Is she okay?"
Roger stepped into the suite's tiny hallway. "Let's sit down."
There was a kick in Axel's chest. "Is everything okay?"
Roger placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let's move to the living room."
Axel allowed him to usher her back to the living room. She sat down.
He sat beside her.
Johnny hovered in the doorway.
Axel looked at Roger. For some reason, tears were stinging her eyes, and her heart was constricting, as though trying to brace itself. "You found my mom?"
Roget inclined his head, his eyes grave. "I'm afraid it's not good news, Axel." He paused to let that settle in.
Pain sliced through Axel's heart.
"We found her at Ala Moana Beach."
Axel frowned. Why hadn't her parents told her they were going to the beach? And why had they gone that far? Kaimana Beach was closest to their hotel.
"Washed ashore," Roger added.
Washed ashore?
Axel's belly caved. She licked her lips which had suddenly gone dry. "B-but she's still alive?"
Roger shook his head. "We need you to come and identify her body."
A gasp escaped Axel's lips. Her heart seemed to stop.
"But you don't have to do that right away," Roger said. "It can wait until morning."
Axel didn't hear him. Her head was spinning. Her pulse was racing.
Mom was dead? It couldn't be.
"We're still looking for your dad and cousin—" A shrill beep interrupted Roger. "Excuse me. This might be urgent." He dug his cell phone out of his pocket. "Hello?"
Axel didn't have the presence of mind to listen to his conversation until she heard him mention Zanda.
She snapped to attention.
"She'll probably be in that same area too," Roger said, his face grim. He glanced at Axel. "I'll let her know."
Axel was quiet as he hung up. She should ask what that was about, but all of a sudden, she didn't want to know. She couldn't take any more bad news. And she could tell it was more bad news by the look in Roger's eyes.