by Dee Benson
"They've found your dad now, too," Roger said. "He's also dead."
Roger said more. Stuff about how they'd need Axel to help with confirming his identity, too, but Axel didn't hear. Tears were coursing down her cheeks. She jumped when Roger placed a hand on her arm.
"This is so unfortunate," he told her. "The current is particularly strong a few miles into the water. There are warning signs around that beach, but people still swim too far out. Unfortunately, this is not the first time people have drowned out there. Something needs to be done—"
"They didn't drown," Axel cut in. "They didn't go swimming."
Roger gave her a sympathetic look. "They did. They were wearing bathing suits."
"Maybe it wasn't my parents that you found," Axel said, a glimmer of hope rising in her heart again.
"We're pretty sure they're your parents from the pictures you gave us. But we still need you to confirm their identity, just to follow protocol."
Axel's feeble hope disappeared. "Well, they didn't drown," she insisted. "They were murdered."
Roger shrugged. "A post mortem will be done. I guess nobody knows for sure until then."
Axel wiped her cheeks with trembling hands. "I c-can't believe this."
"Is there anybody you'd like me to call?" Roger asked. "Who is your next of kin?"
Axel considered it. She didn't have any relatives here. They all lived in the Super World. She'd never met any of them.
The Super World. Axel's nerves began to jangle. Whoever had killed her parents had done so to make her go to the Super World. Without her parents, how would she hide from them? How would she escape their plans for her?
"Axel?" Roger asked.
She jumped to her feet. "I'll call, uh, someone." She took out her cell phone and hurried to the bedroom she'd been sharing with Zanda. She shut the door behind her. She needed to call her parents' best friend, Brett.
He and Vivian weren't relatives, but they were the closest thing to relatives that Axel had. And they would know what she should do in this situation. They knew about the enemies and how powerful they were. In fact, Axel should have called them as soon as her family went missing. They would have done their best to help, and maybe her parents would still be alive now.
Guilt stabbed at her heart. A painful lump lodged in her throat.
I handled it all wrong. I should have called Brett and Vivian.
She found Brett's number on her cell phone. She paused before calling him. Her parents didn't trust phone calls. They rarely called Brett and Vivian—especially not when they thought they might be in danger.
But what choice did Axel have?
She called.
Brett answered on the first ring. "Axel?"
"Brett," she choked out around the lump in her throat.
"What's wrong?" came Vivian's voice.
"My mom and dad are dead," Axel blurted. "And Zanda is missing."
There was silence for a moment.
"We're on our way," Vivian said. "Are you still in Honolulu?"
"Yes." Axel drew in a shaky breath. Her hands were trembling even harder now. "How long will it take you to get here?"
"Oh, honey, this is an emergency," Vivian said. "We'll use a portal. Text us the name of your hotel and room number."
"Okay." Axel hung up and sent the text immediately. It took her way longer than it should have since her vision was blurred with tears and her hands were shaking.
When she finished, she collapsed onto the bed. On the other bed, a bunch of Zanda's clothes lay in a tangled heap. Just a few hours ago, Zanda had been giddy at the prospect of going out for dinner. Now she was missing.
They shouldn't have gone out.
She heard loud knocking on the door to the suite. There was a spasm of fear in her chest. Maybe that was another police officer, come to tell her that Zanda had been found dead, too.
She remained on the bed. If Zanda was dead too, it'd be too much. Her whole family wiped out in one night.
How was she supposed to continue with life without them? How was she ever going to recover from this?
"Axel?" Roger called from the other side of the door. "Your uncle and aunt are here."
"Axel," a familiar voice called. "Come and tell this cop to let us in."
Brett!
Axel jumped to her feet and opened the door. She hurried into the hallway. Brett and Vivian stood in the doorway.
Roger was eyeing Vivian suspiciously. Little wonder. Vivian was wearing an ancient looking, ankle-length dress and a brightly colored head wrap. Her spirally curls poked out from under it. She always dressed a little…unconventionally.
"We were vacationing in Honolulu too," Vivian said. "What a happy coincidence."
Brett grinned bleakly. He looked way older than he was, with completely gray hair and deep lines around his eyes.
"Let them in," Axel told Roger.
Roger stepped aside.
Vivian rushed forward, her curls bobbing wildly. "You poor dear," she cried, pulling Axel into a hug. "Tell us everything from the beginning."
Axel shut the door once Vivian and Brett were in her room. She didn't want Roger and Johnny to hear any of it.
"We knew something was going on when your parents sent us the emergency code on Friday, requesting a portal," Brett said. "What happened?"
Axel sank onto the bed and told them the whole story, from her meeting with Desmond Platt in the mountain cave to the present."
Vivian looked increasingly disturbed as she spoke. Brett didn't look the slightest bit surprised.
"The Firemaster's people have killed them," he said when Axel finished. "Zanda will be dead too. It's only a matter of time before the police find her body, too."
Axel was glad to finally talk to people who understood. However, Brett's matter-of-fact tone wasn't encouraging. "Zanda might have managed to escape them," she insisted.
"Let's hope that she did," Vivian said.
Brett didn't look convinced. "I doubt it." He nailed Axel with a look. "They've done this because they want you. Otherwise, they would have killed you, too."
"But why?" Anger flashed through Axel, stronger than she'd ever felt in her life. "I have no powers. What in the world do they want me for?"
Brett and Vivian exchanged a look.
Axel turned away as fresh tears flooded her eyes. Her parents were dead, Zanda was missing, and a Supervillain wanted to recruit her.
Chapter 6
A SCREAM TORE UP Axel's throat the next morning when she went to identify her parents' bodies. She gulped it back, making a choking sound.
Her mom's skin was white as the sheet on which she lay. She was so still. Her lips had taken on a bluish hue.
It was true.
Mom was dead.
Tears streamed from her eyes.
Vivian took her hand and gave it a squeeze. She nodded to the morgue attendant, who made a note on a piece of paper he held.
Axel couldn't speak. Choking sounds filled the room. She realized it was her. A strange numbness washed over her, like she was watching some other girl grieve her mom. But at the same time, acute pain wracked her body.
"We would like a post mortem to be carried out immediately," Brett told the morgue attendant. "Within twenty-four hours at the very latest."
"The coroner will be informed," the morgue attendant replied.
A few minutes later, Axel was led out of the room by Vivian. She was still choking and sobbing. Roger had told her that her mom was dead, but it was only just really hitting her now.
"To minimize her shock," the morgue attendant said, "maybe we'll just show her a photograph of her father and let her identify him that way."
Vivian looked at Axel. "Maybe that would be better. I don't think you can handle seeing him."
Axel didn't know. She still felt numb.
She waited in a small room with Brett and Vivian for a few minutes before the morgue attendant reappeared with a picture of her dad's body.
Axel clench
ed her teeth as she looked at it. Both her mom and dad were gone. So suddenly, without warning.
Within a week, you will gladly hand yourself over to us.
So this was how they expected to win her cooperation?
Axel squeezed her eyes shut. She refused to give in to people who would kill her parents in cold blood like this. If they thought this would work, they'd better think again. She'd rather die than do what they wanted.
"What are we going to do?" Vivian asked Brett, as they left a few minutes later. It was early morning and darkness still covered the city. "They're going to come for Axel. She'll get another visit soon."
Brett was quiet.
"We have to hide her," Vivian said.
Brett shook his head. "Where can we go? I'll bet they're watching us now."
His words made Axel shudder.
"We'll do our best to keep you safe," Vivian told her. "You can stay with us. We'll move somewhere far away where, hopefully, they'll never find us."
Brett shook his head. "They have ways. It'll just be a matter of time."
Axel was getting sick of his pessimism.
Back at the hotel, they ran into Roger and Johnny in the foyer.
Brett asked for news of Zanda. There was none.
They made their way to the suite in silence. Brett's face was pale, and his eyes were haunted.
"I think we should leave immediately," Vivian said, shutting the door to the suite behind them.
"We can't leave until they find Zanda," Axel replied. "What if she's still alive?"
"We'll leave them a contact number," Vivian replied. "You're in danger, Axel."
"You're probably in danger, too." Axel looked at Brett. "You escaped from the Super Land, just like my parents did, so they must be looking for you, too."
Brett shook his head. "I'm not important. But your mom was. And you are."
"I don't understand."
Brett gave her a careful look.
"What is it?" All of a sudden, Axel was certain there was more to the story than her parents had told her. "Please tell me, Brett."
"Your mom was aristocracy."
"I know. What else? What aren't you telling me?"
"She was able to tap into the best powers. I'm sure they're assuming you can do it too."
"But I can't."
Brett looked away.
"Can I?"
He didn't answer.
"Brett?" Axel's voice shook. "Am I a Netherling or a Super?"
"It doesn't matter," Vivian said. "You can come and stay with us. We'll protect you and make sure The Firemaster never gets his hands on you. Go and pack your things so that we can leave as soon as we get news about Zanda."
Axel looked at Brett. There was something going on. He knew something, and he wasn't telling her about it. What was the big deal if she was Super? Why didn't he want her to know? Why hadn't her parents wanted her to know?
"Brett?" Axel asked.
He shook his head. "Go pack. We'll wait a few more hours for news of Zanda, but I'm certain she will have been killed too. Unfortunately, the police won't find anything to pin their deaths to. They'll conclude that they drowned. They know nothing about our kind. It's better we leave while we have the chance. I won't be able to create a portal so soon after using one to get here, so we're dependent on public transport."
Axel went to the room she'd been sharing with Zanda. She didn't have much to pack since she'd been wearing Zanda's clothes.
As she looked at Zanda's chaotic side of the room a powerful itch shot across her forehead. It was like the itches she'd felt in the mountains, just before she met Desmond Platt, but ten times stronger.
She stumbled backwards as black holes spotted her vision.
She was distantly aware of Vivian and Brett entering the room and asking her what was wrong but she couldn't speak.
An image imposed itself over her mind. It was Desmond. He held out a computer tablet to her.
Axel felt herself reaching for it and taking it from him. Then the image disappeared and she became aware of her surroundings again. She was sitting on the floor.
Brett and Vivian were staring at her hands. She looked down and screamed. She was holding a computer tablet.
"What happened?" Brett asked.
"I felt the itch, and I saw Desmond. He gave me this."
The screen of the tablet lit up. Axel jumped, tossing it to the floor.
An image appeared on the screen. Vivian quickly picked it up. It was Zanda. Axel snatched the tablet back, horror filling her as she took in the cuffs around Zanda's wrists and the bruises on her face. Zanda screamed as a man in a balaclava stabbed a needle into her neck injecting her with a syringe full of something colorless. A moment passed and then Zanda slumped against the man.
Axel clamped a hand over her mouth. They'd killed her?
He flung Zanda over his shoulder. Then the screen went black.
"We need to show this to the police," Axel said frantically. "Maybe they can identify that man, or work out their location—"
Words appeared on the screen, scrolling across the bottom: Your cousin is alive.
Axel held her breath.
But whether she stays alive is up to you. You have five days to think about our offer. But be advised that each day that you delay, one of your cousin's limbs will be severed.
Vivian gasped.
On the fifth day, she will die.
A tear dropped onto the tablet from Axel's eyes.
Your five days begin today. Zanda's right arm will be sliced off today at midnight…unless you come.
The screen blacked out again. Then, the tablet vanished from Axel's hands.
Chapter 7
EACH SECOND Of THE ten-hour flight back to New York was agony. Axel felt like her heart was caving in on itself, buckling under the weight of grief bearing down on it.
Tears ran down her cheeks.
I have to go.
I have to save Zanda.
Brett and Vivian had tried to talk her out of going but they had no alternative plan so Axel had to go. Zanda was in danger. Axel would do anything to help her—even if at the risk of her own life.
Vivian had stayed in Honolulu to arrange for Axel's parents' bodies to be transported back to New York.
Axel's hands were still shaking, and she still couldn't believe her parents were gone, but a newfound resolve filled her heart. They'd taken her parents, but she could stop them from taking Zanda.
They were scheduled to touch down in New York at ten p.m. That fact alone was worrisome. By the time they made it out of customs, she'd have less than two hours left before Zanda…
It didn't bear thinking about.
When they eventually arrived at JFK airport, Axel pushed her way through the crowd waiting to get off the flight.
She ignored the nasty looks and muttered comments. She needed to get off the plane as soon as they opened the door.
Once the door was opened, she ran down the steps, Brett close on her heels. They made it out of the airport in record time and jumped into the rental car that Brett had called ahead to hire. If they'd had to depend on a taxi now, Axel would have torn her hair out.
Brett was quiet as she drove through the city like a girl possessed. She was glad he'd let her drive rather than insisting on driving when she would have had to direct him anyway.
It was almost eleven p.m. when they got home.
"What do I do now?" Axel asked, bursting into the house. She'd half expected to see Desmond waiting for her in the hallway. She entered the den, just in case. It was empty.
The sight of the large, framed, family picture above the mantelpiece was like a fist to the gut.
"Look for your Mom's old Super suit," Brett called from the hallway.
Axel tore her gaze away from the picture and left the room, tears welling in her eyes again. She bit them back. She'd cried enough today. She needed to get a grip on her emotions. Zanda was depending on her.
She passed Brett in the hal
lway, and then she raced up the stairs to her parents' room. They kept their old Super suits in a box in the closet.
Zanda used to beg Mom to let her try her suit on. Mom had never let her. But Zanda wore it one time when Mom and Dad were out. After that she began to wear it whenever Mom and Dad weren't around. Mom's suit hung loosely on Zanda's small frame. However, Axel was Mom's height now, and had a similar build, so it should fit her just fine. She'd been tempted to try it on too, whenever Zanda did, but she hadn't dared. Mom and Dad were vehemently against their interest in anything Super.
Axel entered the closet and found the box. She hesitated.
Doubts about what she was about to do flooded her. If Mom and Dad were still alive, they would forbid her to go to the Super Land—even if Zanda had been kidnapped.
They would have tried to come up with some other plan to rescue Zanda. One of them would have offered to take Axel's place. They'd never let Axel go to the Super Land.
But Axel knew no other way of rescuing Zanda. Neither did Brett or Vivian.
Mom and Dad are gone, she told herself.
She opened the box. She pushed aside Dad's dark gray suit and stared at Mom's navy blue suit. She was almost afraid to touch it.
"Axel?" Brett called from downstairs.
"Coming."
Axel grabbed the suit. It felt surprisingly light in her hands. The material was thin and had a rubbery quality to it.
When she stepped out of the closet, she noticed the necklace that she, Dad, and Zanda had made for Mom last Mother's Day. The chain was sterling silver with a heart-shaped locket. Axel picked it up and opened the locket. A picture of the four of them smiled back at her.
Pain cut through her heart.
She tucked the necklace into her pocket and then hurried to her room. She grabbed a tote and packed a few clothes. She folded the Super suit, almost reverently, and then tucked it into the tote too.
When she got back downstairs, Brett was glancing at his watch. "Maybe they're expecting me to create a portal for you." He shook his head. "They don't know I can create portals."
"I'm going to the caves," Axel told him. Maybe that was what Desmond expected. "If anyone shows up here, you can tell them that's where I am."
Brett nodded. Axel noticed that his eyes were shiny with tears. Suddenly, he reached out and pulled her into a hug. "Remember what your mom always used to say," he whispered fiercely. "It's better to deny your powers than to use them for evil."