Open Your Eyes (Book 3): Con Girls

by Rethuan, H. J.

  “I told you we should’ve run her over!” Emma shouts at Lily.

  “My mistake.”

  The car streaks down the empty highway as Salt flaps her plastic brick wings and takes to the sky. Swooping down in front of them, she disintegrates part of her wings, the Lego bricks raining down on the road in front of the vehicle.

  Unable to avoid them, the sharp plastic bricks blow out two of the rental cars tires.

  “Fuck fuck fuck!” Lily shouts as she fights for control as the car swerves to the side, through a guardrail and down a shallow cliff into a gully below.

  Lily groans as she comes to. Upside down, still buckled in.

  She looks to the passenger side. Emma hangs in there, barely conscious. She slaps her on the cheek.

  “Hey. Hey!”

  She stirs awake. Mumbles something incomprehensible. Lily, bracing for the fall, releases herself from the belt.

  Crawling out of the wreckage, Lily glances to the sky above. No sign of the harpy. Still, she must be somewhere. Racing over to Emma’s side, she carefully pulls out her dazed companion and slaps her across the face again.

  “Come on honey, we got to go.”

  Nodding, Emma manages to get to her feet. With Lily supporting her, the two women head down the gully as the shadow circles in to land.

  As Salt swoops down and lands upon the site of the crash, her phone rings. She answers.

  She has no more time for these two.

  “Emma! Lily!” she shouts. “Don’t you know, people hate you for what you did in Port City! I can protect you from that!”

  They keep on running.

  “You should be heroes ladies, let me help you live up to that! Let me!”

  She sighs.

  “Fine. Think about it.”

  Flapping her wings, Salt takes off into the sky.

  They keep on running.

  “You okay?”

  “My head hurts.” Emma mumbles.

  “Okay, just sit down for a minute. You might have a concussion.”

  Emma groans as she sits down on a rock. She holds her head in her hands.

  “Where are we?” she asks her.

  “I don’t know. Let me check.”

  Lily reaches into her pocket, pulling out her phone and several shards of glass. Needless to say it’s dead.

  “Well, phone’s broke.”

  Emma tosses hers aside too.

  “Same.”

  Lily pouts as she considers her next move.

  “One sec.” she says to Emma.

  Igniting the plasma jets in her palms, Lily takes to the sky. From above, she surveys the area. Her options are limited. She quickly returns to her companion.

  “What you see?” Emma asks her.

  “The highway’s close but the cliff walls are too steep to climb. We could continue down the gully, it opens up...”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “You should stay here; I’ll fly out, find help.”

  “No, I should be fine. I’ll just conjure up a giant eagle or a dune buggy or something...”

  Emma places her fingers to her temple. As she concentrates, trying to conjure a way out of here, the sharp pain shoots right through her skull. She flinches, yelping audibly. Painfully.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” she nods, frowning. “No more superheroics from me today.”

  “I’ll fly out.” Lily reassures her. “I can’t carry you, but I’ll get help.”

  “No. What if that harpy is still out there? She kidnapped Seth, she tried to kill us! Let’s just stick together, and see where this gully leads.”

  Lily nods.

  “Okay. Let’s stick together. Two broads on a broad trip.”

  Emma chuckles.

  “That’s the spirit.”

  As expected, the gully opens up, leading the two women out of canyon country and into the wide, flat wilderness.

  Making another recon flight, only nothingness greets Lily’s view from above. Still, there’s something in the distance. It’s their best bet.

  They trudge on.

  “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you for helping Seth and I back there at Port City.” Emma tells her.

  “Well, I had to help. I saw it on the news. I had to do something.”

  “You really kicked ass out there.”

  “Thanks. I had a good teacher.”

  “Seth?”

  “No. Well, Seth was great, but I had another one. His name was Doug.”

  Emma stops in her tracks.

  “Doug?”

  “Yeah, Doug.”

  “Who the fuck is he?”

  “You know Doug?” Lily asks her, astonished.

  “I think he’s like a fucking alien or something!”

  “I thought he’s just like us, he had powers! He’s an alien?”

  “Did he tell you about The Pool?” Emma asks her.

  “The Pool! The fucking Pool! He had all the answers!”

  “Fucking Doug.”

  “This is seriously freaking me the fuck out right now.”

  Emma laughs.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’ll be dark soon.” Lily says to her. “Let’s make camp.”

  “Yeah.”

  With her powers, Lily ignites the pile of grass and sticks into a roaring fire. Just in time too; with the sun setting the temperature has already fallen enough to be noticeable.

  “Some marshmallows would be nice.” Lily quips. Again, Emma places her fingers to her temple and concentrates.

  Again, the pain. No marshmallows.

  “Still hurts.” she mumbles.

  Lily nods.

  “Hey, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” Emma asks her.

  “No. Go ahead.”

  “Did you sleep with my brother?”

  Lily suddenly bursts out laughing.

  “Boy, straight to the jugular with that one!”

  “I’m just curious...”

  Lily pauses.

  “Yeah. Yeah, we did spend a night together. We just had all this adrenaline from saving some people from a fire... it just happened.”

  “So it was just a one night stand?”

  “Yeah, pretty much.” she sighs. “Anyway, don’t you have a boyfriend I should be asking personal questions about?”

  “I did. He cheated on me.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Yeah, it just came out of nowhere. I had no idea it was happening.”

  Emma sighs.

  “Maybe it was all my fault, I was helping Seth a lot with his thing, I just didn’t have...”

  “Hey, dude. Shut up. He was the one who cheated on you. He walked away from you, and despite all of our little differences during the past few weeks, you seem to be a pretty cool young woman. Not worth walking away from.”

  Emma smiles.

  “Thanks.”

  She sighs.

  “So it’s come to this, on our own and all we can talk about is other men. That Bechdel woman must be spinning in her grave.”

  “I don’t think she’s dead yet.”

  “Oh.”

  “Anyway, fuck men, we’re awesome.”

  “Yeah, we’re awesome!”

  High-fiving each other, the two women cheer as they continue to talk on into the night. Their past reservations of each other soon giving way to understanding and camaraderie, soon they make their best efforts to get comfortable and try to get some sleep.

  Alas, they fail as they continue to talk, and joke, and bond over their shared experiences of becoming ordinary people with extraordinary powers, finally becoming friends as their eyes grow tired and they surrender to the sandman. They need the rest.

  In the morning they will journey on.

  It is not long before Emma and Lily reach the oasis in the middle of the wilderness. An island of budget hotels and restaurants and gas stations and food courts and souvenir shops, by definition it is a truck stop.

  A big, tourist t
rappy one.

  “Huh, the ‘World’s Biggest Truck Stop’.” mutters Lily as she stares at the obnoxious neon sign in front of them.

  “Eh, it’s not so big.” Emma replies.

  “We should find a phone. Call Seth, tell him what happened. Work out how to get home to Port City.”

  “Why?” Emma asks her. “We’re already halfway, halfway across the country. We should keep going.”

  “You sure? I’m still worried about you, you got banged up pretty bad.”

  Emma smiles.

  “You’re worried about me?”

  “I’m not always an asshole.” Lily tells her.

  “Well, I’m fine. Seth doesn’t need to know. Let’s keep going.”

  Lily smiles too. She nods affirmatively.

  “Sure. So, bus or hitchhike?”

  “How about on dragonback?”

  Emma’s jet black dragon swoops down from out of the sky, landing right next to her as a few bystanders scream and flee in terror.

  As Emma pats the beast on its snout, Lily can only grin.

  “Cool.”

  Con Girls

  In front of them, the sea of people seemed to stretch on forever. A mob of superheroes and medieval knights, Jedi Masters and Master Chiefs, magical girls and Iron Men, this year’s PopCon was more popular than ever.

  “Cool cosplay!” a teenage girl dressed as Hermione Granger shouts as them. “Mind if I can get a pic?”

  Lily looks to Emma. She too was dressed in their vigilante uniform of jeans and a hoodie; Emma grey, Lily her signature crimson red. It was the same look they wore when they took on that terrorist in Port City, and thanks to countless hours of news coverage and cell phone videos, now it was world famous.

  Just like they had planned to do, Lily and Emma were essentially cosplaying as themselves.

  “Sure!” Emma replies, as the girl poses with the two while her Draco Malfoy-dressed boyfriend takes the photo. Emma beams, not too concerned about their identities being exposed; still Lily made sure to pull her hood down over her face extra tight.

  “Thanks.” the girl tells them as she spirits away towards a guy in a No Face from Spirited Away costume. The two women move on; surrounded by the carnival of incognito, they feel remarkably at ease.

  “Pretty sweet these costumes you conjured up for us.” Lily says to Emma.

  “Not as sweet as those VIP entry passes. I can’t believe we got in!”

  “I guess there’s perks to being to make up shit with your mind then...” she smirks.

  “Well, that’s an understatement.” Emma chuckles.

  “So, where to first?”

  She grins.

  “Everywhere!”

  The pair manage to find a seat somewhere in the middle of the auditorium. Already it was filling up fast; Doctor Vampire was one of the most popular shows on television, and this will be its very first panel ever at any convention.

  “Excited?” Emma asked Lily sitting next to her.

  “I’ve never sat in on a panel before, I always watch these on YouTube. Hell yeah I’m excited!”

  Soon the screams and cheers of hundreds of fans erupt in the auditorium as the cast and crew make their way on stage: the showrunner with the thick rimmed hipster glasses, the geeky but sexy female lead of exotic origins, the unconventionally attractive but hilarious sidekick, and last but not least the lead of the show, Doctor Vampire himself.

  “Hey guys!” the tall, dark, handsome man waves to the crowd. “How ‘yall doin’?”

  The audience erupts once more.

  The guests sit down, the panel settles in. A comedian moderates the panel; funny and knowledgeable, it’s clear he’s a big fan of the show too.

  Emma and Lily sit there enrapt, like most of the other attendees around them. The panel share some stories; how it’s like to work with each other, the fun things they get up to off-camera, the pranks they play with each other. They make the show seem like the bestest, most awesomest place to ever work at, the everyone just fucking loves it.

  “This the best day ever.” Lily whispers to Emma.

  “Agreed.” she replies.

  “Looks like we got time for some questions from the audience...” the moderator announces as people in costume race down the aisle. A young woman dressed as a zombie is the first to get to the mic.

  “Hi?” she stammers. “I’m Shenae...”

  “Hey Shenae.” the moderator replies. “What’s your question?”

  “Well, uh...”

  The shot rings out in the background. Muffled. Outside. People in the audience crane their heads, looking for the source.

  Another shot, again muffled. Screams. Again, outside. Gunfire? People start to rise in their seats.

  “Attention guys...” the moderator announces as the panel onstage begins to disband and retreat backstage. “I need you to quickly and calmly leave the auditorium through the front exits. They will lead you outside the convention centre. Do not, I said do not take the rear exits. I am told this is not a drill...”

  Another gunshot. Another. More screams. People start moving. Emma looks to Lily.

  She pulls the hood down over her face.

  “Let’s go.”

  Managing to sneak back inside the main hall of the convention centre, the two women find the place still full of people, huddled together in groups on the floor and seemingly unwilling - or unable - to leave.

  “What are they doing?” Lily whispers as the two take cover behind a signing table.

  “Over there.” Emma replies, spying the reason why.

  The man with the guns paces back and forth in the middle of the show floor, lording his weapons over his hostages.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you people?” he shouts. “You come here and worship those freaks? The freaks who killed my wife, and my son?”

  The man laughs.

  “They brought him there, to Port City. That’s why he was there; he pulled down my home to bring them out in the open. They destroyed the city, and you love them?”

  The armed man continues to pace around, giving the two women a better look at the situation. A downed security guard, several hurt convention goers, some serious.

  These were no idle gestures. He is dangerous.

  “I want you to stop.” he continues. “I want you to stop this nonsense. Forget all about this fucking stupid shit!”

  He suddenly grabs a scared-looking Thor off the floor, and starts roughly pulling off pieces of the frightened cosplayer’s costume with his free hand.

  “Fuck this!” he shouts as he shoves the now disrobed patron to the ground. “Fuck it!”

  A young woman stands up, almost hysterical. His attention turns to her.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I have to go!” she screams. “I can’t take this!”

  “Sit the fuck back down!” he shouts at her. “Now!”

  “No! I have to get out of here!”

  “I said sit!”

  “No! No!”

  Enraged, the man raises his gun to fire. Squeezing the trigger, the bullets burst out of the barrel of his weapon only to be stopped in their tracks by the thick steel plate Emma conjures up in front of the hostage.

  Running out of cover, the man is shocked to see the figure in the red hoodie dashing straight towards him, igniting a ball of plasma in her palm and winding it back to swing.

  “No, it’s you!” he shouts. “It’s, you’re, you’re one of...”

  “Them.”

  Lily launches the ball of plasma right at the hostage taker, regulating her power output so that it would only stun him. It splashes over the man, the gentle blast short-circuiting his nervous system and taking him down as his legs collapse from under him and he falls face forward to the ground.

  Lily charges another blast as she checks on her downed assailant. With a wave of her hand she dissipates it. No need for it now: he’s out cold.

  Emma joins her as the hostages around them breathe a collect
ive sigh of relief. A few rush over to the downed security guard and those who are injured; alas the guard is already gone, but the others are luckier as they are taken away for medical assistance.

  However, the majority still here begin to swarm upon the two hooded heroes, thanking them, praising them for their actions, snapping pictures of them with their smartphones. The news quickly spreads: defying the instructions to evacuate, more and more people come, wanting to catch a glimpse of these two real life superheroes. They bring the media, and soon the police with them. It is pandemonium.

  “We have to get out of here.” Lily shouts to Emma as they try to get through the crowd.

  “One sec.” she replies as a second later her jet black dragon crashes through the glass roof above, parting the crowd as it lands almost on top of them.

  Jumping on board, the beast flaps its powerful wings and takes to the air as the two leave both the convention, and the chaos below behind for good.

  The steakhouse at the World’s Biggest Truck Stop was still fairly busy even this late at night. Despite the events earlier that day, the two women felt confidently anonymous enough as they sat at the table in the corner, their food left mostly uneaten in front of them.

  It turns out they weren’t that hungry after all.

  “Maybe that man was right.” Lily says to Emma. “That man at the convention centre.”

  “In what way?” she asks her in return.

  “That the only reason that terrorist came to Port City was because of us, people like us.”

  “He just wanted to see a city destroyed. It could have been any city; he was so filled of hate, he just wanted to kill as many people as possible, destroy as many lives as possible. But...”

  Emma hesitates.

  “But what?” Lily asks her.

  She sighs.

  “I do remember Seth saying that he, the terrorist was looking for him. That the terrorist was looking for Seth, was looking for his home for some reason. That he was going to destroy it before his very eyes.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know, he didn’t know. But he hasn’t said anything else about it since. He just gets on with his work, rebuilding the city one brick at a time.”

  She pauses.

  “He thinks it’s his burden, his responsibility. But it’s not. Not all of it.”