Sidekick

by Auralee Wallace

  She and the gun then floated back towards me.

  “Well it’s just you and me,” she said softly. “I would imagine that you feel quite safe, given who your father is.”

  “Not really,” I replied.

  “Then maybe you’re not a fool.” She looked down at the torn veils, barely covering her creepy, perfect boobs and frowned. “Because you see, the Sultana doesn’t answer to anybody. Not even your father. Not anymore.”

  Fantastic. She was talking in third person. Never a good sign.

  “Now, come with me.” She motioned towards the door.

  We stood on the platform. The crowd was nowhere near dispersing, and there was no sign of Ryder. The only notable difference now was that there looked to be about fifty cop cars parked below. Fifty cop cars doing absolutely nothing!

  The Sultana walked over to the podium. I saw the microphone for the first time.

  “My friends! We’re leaving!”

  Miniature figures down below started flipping and twirling.

  Show-offs. Someone should really tell them that it’s just as easy to walk.

  The performers, including Nine-Lives Pulcinella, then began scaling the ladders around the ship with the greatest of ease. Once they had all disappeared into their various hatches, the Sultana turned back to me.

  “What I said about not answering to anyone? I meant it.”

  “Fabulous. Great. My father’s not exactly on my top ten these days either.”

  “But I always keep my word,” she said ignoring me. “I’m going to let you go.”

  “Really? That’s great. Just tell me how to get d—”

  She put one finger to my lips.

  “See you later alligator.”

  Then she shoved me over the side of railing.

  Chapter Nine

  I flew ass over teakettle.

  The now familiar half-second of free fall shut down my brain. Then I felt the jerk at the back of my jacket. I looked up to Ryder’s face. She was clinging to the underside of the platform like some super sexy praying mantis. She mouthed the word quiet to me.

  Luckily, the Sultana didn’t take the time to watch my fall. Besides the crowd had screamed when I first went over—which restored a little of my faith in humanity—and those screams had probably been enough to convince the Sultana of my street pancake status. Or maybe I just wasn’t that high on her priority list. Either way, we heard her footfalls retreat into the ship.

  When she was gone, I finally was able to communicate some vitally important information to Ryder, “Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!”

  Ryder said nothing, but she helped me grab a wooden plank with my hands so that I could then hook my legs around some scaffolding.

  “You saved me!” I shout-whispered.

  “Yes. And you haven’t been making it easy for me.”

  A stupid smile spread over my face. I couldn’t help it. I had evaded death again. The feeling was a little intoxicating.

  “So what do we do now? Are we going back in? Are we going to take all of those circus freaks out?”

  “No. We are going to jump.”

  My giddy intoxication turned to something more nauseating. “Um, I’m sorry, but did you say we were going to jump?”

  “I would ask if you had a better idea, but I think we have witnessed the quality of your problem-solving abilities.”

  Sure, from her perspective, I was a bumbling idiot, but, but…I wasn’t really sure what the but was, but I was sure there was one.

  “You seem to be missing one extremely important point. We can’t fly. Well, at least, I can’t fly. Who knows about you with your freaky alien eyes.”

  “Flying was not my intention.” Ryder shook a thick black cord in her hand. I followed the cord and saw that it was rigged to the platform’s structure. Then I realized she had what looked to be rappelling gear wrapped around her waist. When had she found the time to do that? There was so much I didn’t know about superheroing.

  I turned back to Ryder. “I gotta tell you, I think this is a terrible idea.”

  Just then, the ship gave a giant shudder.

  “I am afraid we don’t have time for you to think.”

  “Why don’t we go back inside? You can kick the Sultana’s ass again. That had to be fun. It looked like fun. I could help.”

  Ryder gave me the barest whisper of a withering look. It was probably the part about me helping. I should have stopped while I was ahead.

  “Delilah is not alone now, and she has weapons. I have the detonator. That is perhaps enough for one day, don’t you think?”

  “No! No, I don’t think. She—”

  “I think that you are now stalling.”

  “Yes, of course, I’m stalling! I’m scared of heights!”

  “Then why did you climb up here?”

  My eyes widened as I shook my head. “I wasn’t scared of heights then! I’ve had some recent hands-on experience.”

  “We are going to jump now.”

  “No way!”

  “Then I am going to jump without you.”

  “No way!” That idea was even more terrifying. Who knew superheroes were so un-user-friendly?

  She positioned her feet more squarely on the railing.

  “I don’t believe you. You’re not going to leave me up here. You save people.”

  The tiniest whiff of uncertainty wafted over to me from Ryder. I knew it. I had called her bluff. She was going to have to find us another way out. She could—

  Suddenly Ryder was flying towards me, arms outstretched like the most beautiful giant spider monkey the world had ever seen. She slammed into me hard. Her arms were around me, and we were heading into a nosedive, straight for the concrete below.

  My brain suddenly slammed into gear.

  “This is not how you rappel!” I screamed. “Not rappelling!”

  Ryder said nothing.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and buried my face into her shoulder, arms wrapped tightly around her tiny muscled waist.

  We were falling fast. Oh God, so fast. Then there was a tug. Then we were falling not so fast. We were slowing down. I blinked my eyes open. The cord had caught and was letting us down at a very reasonable rate. This was okay. We were going to be okay. That Dark Ryder. I knew I could trust her all along.

  Suddenly I felt Ryder’s hand move in between our squashed together bellies.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “We are out of rope. I am going to release the belt.”

  “What? No! We’re still too high!” The balloon had taken flight and we were now skimming the street still a good fifteen, twenty feet up, travelling at least twenty miles per hour. Now, I was no physicist, but I figured that formula most likely ended in death.

  “Up ahead there,” she said directing me with her eyes, “that series of dumpsters moved to block off the street—that is where we jump.”

  I knew there was no point in arguing with her. She’d just push me anyway.

  “You will have to let go of me so that we do not collide.”

  I nodded.

  The dumpsters were coming up fast. Really fast. Oh God.

  “Now!” Ryder shouted.

  She released the belt and pushed me away from her. I screamed and went flailing headfirst into a big mess of garbage.

  It took a moment for my brain to come round. I blinked a few times then saw Ryder already outside of the bin brushing herself off.

  That’s when it all hit me.

  “That was AWESOME!” I shouted.

  Ryder had been swiping something off her thigh but paused for a moment to look up at me and say, “You have said that.”

  I did a quick check of my body. It was all good. I bounced out of the dumpster high on adrenaline.

  “Can you believe we did that? Yeah, you probably can. You probably do that all the time. But let me tell you, as someone who doesn’t do this kind of thing all the time—”

  “You are babbling.”

  “Righ
t. Totally. I am. But—”

  “I have to go,” Ryder said making her way around the dumpsters.

  “What?” I asked. “No, no, you don’t have to go. I have so many questions. I—”

  “Delilah is up to something much bigger than I had imagined. I have to find out what that is.”

  “Are you going to follow the balloon?”

  “I suspect if they have not already, they will soon parachute out.”

  “But what about the balloon? It’s too big to hide. The police—”

  Suddenly there was a large explosion. I looked to the sky. Yup, giant fireball. I guess that took care of the balloon evidence. Where were they getting the money to blow up balloons like that?

  I turned back to Ryder. She was throwing a long leg over the coolest motorcycle I had ever seen. She looked like a jaguar riding a slick, black panther. “But what are you going to do? Maybe I could help?”

  A smile touched the corner of Ryder’s lips. “I do believe you too have done enough for one day.”

  “Oh don’t give me that I do believe you have done enough for one day. Sure I’ve made a few mistakes, but this has been the coolest experience of my life.” I realized how true the words were as I was saying them. Aside from all the near-death moments, I had never felt so alive. This was a world I had never known. A world where decisions weren’t always being made for me in advance. A world where my father’s expectations didn’t matter.

  A world where I was alone.

  Guilt washed over me. I didn’t mean that. Jenny was a part of me. We had that bond that only twins could understand. It was just that—no, I wouldn’t even think it. This experience would have been even better with Jenny.

  “I must go,” Ryder said revving the bike’s engine.

  “Wait!” I shouted. Ryder looked at me, her eyes suddenly widening in horror. Probably because I was throwing myself towards her, arms open, for a very big hug.

  I wasn’t sure myself why I had done it until I was in it.

  “I have killed people for less,” Ryder said over my shoulder.

  I pulled back hurriedly.

  Ryder once again gave me her slightly withering look. Then she was gone, rubber peeling into the distance.

  No, I hadn’t been sure why I had gone in for the hug. The universe must have been at play again, because in that moment I done something…something that would change my life forever.

  And it was awesome.

  Chapter Ten

  My phone had twenty-something text messages on it.

  They all ran something like this:

  You’re on the news!

  Don’t think that crazy new, I dyed my hair brown, disguise is going to fool me.

  What the hell is going on with you?!?!

  What do you think you’re some kind of superhero?

  Nice save on the boy BTW.

  Hello???

  I felt like such a jerk. It was unfair what I was doing to Jenny. And what I was going to do next would make it even worse.

  I ignored all of the messages and simply typed:

  Where am I Jenny?

  The words brought back so many memories. It was a game we used to play. Jenny, with her condition, wasn’t always mobile, so she often encouraged me to go out exploring for the both of us. Whenever I got to my location, I would type Where am I Jenny? and she would use the GPS on my phone to track me down.

  I thought you weren’t using that phone anymore?

  I’m not. Please just tell me where it is.

  Yup, that’s right. The universe had been speaking to me during that hug with Ryder. My brain had never worked faster. Everything suddenly had become very clear. I knew that if I didn’t do something, Ryder would be gone from my life forever, and I couldn’t let that happen.

  She was everything I wanted to be. Strong. Confident. Brave.

  So I had grabbed my old phone, which I was still hanging on to for emergencies, and I shoved it into the leather satchel attached to the seat of her bike. I was guessing my father had stopped paying for the plan, but maybe along with free 911, the GPS still worked.

  Hang on.

  My phone buzzed a moment later. I crossed my fingers and looked at the screen.

  An address! Jenny had found Ryder’s address!

  You’re the best!

  Wait! Don’t you dare disappear again! Tell me what’s going on!

  I will! I promise. I need a little more time. And don’t tell Dad any of this.

  I waited for a reply but nothing came. A lump formed in my throat. She wouldn’t tell our father. I knew that. She wouldn’t betray me. But she was hurting. Badly.

  I thrust my phone back into my pocket. I couldn’t focus on that right now. The only way to make us better was to make me better.

  And I knew how to do that now.

  ***

  Yeah, I knew how to do it.

  I just didn’t know how much walking would be involved…and me, with my shoes back on the top of a fast food truck.

  When I got to the address, the sun had gone down, taking some of my confidence with it. To make matters worse, Ryder’s abode—if this was truly Ryder’s abode—wasn’t exactly inviting.

  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect a welcome mat, but I also didn’t expect to be so…uncertain. Before me was a run-down lot with an even more run-down apartment building in the middle of it—nondescript in every way, right down to its tired brick.

  I watched old wrappers and crumpled newspapers blow across the cracked asphalt like tumbleweeds, and for a moment I thought I can’t do this but then my swollen feet said Oh no you don’t, bitch.

  I really had come a long way. It couldn’t be for nothing. I screwed up my courage and made for the front doors.

  They weren’t locked.

  Once inside, I looked around. Little light from the distant streetlamps made it through the grimy windows, but from what I could see, only a few bits of garbage lay strewn about the cracked linoleum floors. There was also an elevator directly in front of me. A safety inspection clipboard, covered in cobwebs, hung on a nail beside it. On the other side of the elevator, I saw the door for the stairs. My feet screamed obscenities at the thought of it. I couldn’t climb anymore. Then again, the thought of walking all the way back to my apartment made them scream even louder.

  Well, what could be the harm in pressing the up button to see if it worked? If it did, I would check out a few more floors. If it didn’t, well I would lie down on the grimy linoleum until I died or something.

  Just as my finger was reaching for the button, my phone rang loudly.

  I jolted so hard I thought my spine might have cracked. Why didn’t electronic equipment know when you were in a very scary place and adjust the volume accordingly? Stupid phone was going to wake up all the crack dealers.

  I fumbled to answer it.

  “Brenda?”

  “Bren—oh, yeah Brenda here,” I whispered nervously. The reporter. The totally hot watch out I’m going to flex, and it might knock you down reporter. I started to smooth down my hair before I realized that was stupid.

  “How are you? I think I saw you on the news again.”

  “News? Me? Oh no you must have mistaken me for someone else,” I said. I wasn’t exactly sure why I lied. I was already using an alias, but things felt like they were getting too complicated. And my father, thankfully, was leaving me alone for the moment—read erasing my existence from his mind—but that would not stay the case if I didn’t keep my head down.

  “Are you sure? I could have sworn—”

  “Nope. Not me. I would remember climbing a flying pirate ship and saving a little boy from the clutches of death. That girl was so incredibly brave…and beautiful too. Some might even say hot.”

  “Yeah, I definitely would,” he said with a questioning tone.

  I wasn’t very good at this.

  “So, what are you up to right now?”

  “I’m, uh…I’m, uh, doing feminine things.”

 
“Feminine things?” he parroted slowly. “You know this isn’t the 1950s. I am aware of the Dark Arts.”

  “Ha! Dark Arts. That’s good…yeah,” I said, softly punching myself in the forehead with my knuckles.

  “Right. Okay, seeing as my career as an expert rapport builder is going nowhere, I might as well get to the point. I’m doing a piece on the Sultana and her crew, and I wanted to maybe interview you.”

  Sure. Interview me. That’s all. It wasn’t as if he wanted to see me.

  “And I wanted to see you.”

  “You’ve got to stop doing that,” I muttered, pondering for half a second the possibility that he was a mind-reading witch, but I pulled myself back before I got too sucked into the fantasy of him stirring a cauldron without his shirt on.

  “Doing what?”

  “Never mind.” I paused, taking a moment to think. Was this really a good idea? I hadn’t exactly gotten my life sorted out. Mr. Pushkin was going to kill me if I didn’t come up with another thousand dollars, I was indebted to Mr. Raj who was raising baby stripper-vipers, and I was using an alias to protect myself from my very own father. It really didn’t seem like the best time to add romance to the mix. Then again, anything involving that many muscles couldn’t be a bad idea.

  “Sure. I’d love to do an interview.”

  Reporter dude probably said something in return, but I didn’t hear it. The elevator had suddenly hummed to life.

  I sure hadn’t pressed the button, but it was moving, coming down to be precise.

  “Um, I’m going to have to call you back.”

  “Sure, I—”

  I hung up on Muscles. I really needed to find out his name.

  Glowing yellow numbers above the elevator door were pinging down, four…three…two…

  Okay, I didn’t have any weapons, and my feet were swollen and possibly explosive. That meant my only shot was to throw my cell phone directly at the head of whatever was coming out of that elevator. I lifted my arm, poised to strike.

  The elevator pinged one last time and then stopped.

  The doors opened.

  It was empty.