“You still haven’t told them, have you?”
Dick closed his locker door and turned to look at Lily who was giving him a look and he let out a heavy sigh. Putting away the last of the books he needed for homework he shook his head.
“No, I haven’t. Why do you want me to bring it?”
She shrugged her shoulders as she adjusted her bag at her shoulder and walked with him toward the front of the school going to meet with their friends. Lisa had track practice and Gav had gone to watch while he and Lily had taken this as time to do some homework. In his mind it had been pretty pleasant until she asked him that.
“Because I saw how spooked it made you. I’ve never seen you like that before.”
He frowned looking away from his best friend and sighed. “Look. I can tell you these things no problem because we’ve been close forever. Telling you isn’t hard.”
She gave a short nod, trying not to make a face at him. However, she did smirk, making a point to not look at him as they walked. “So, when were you going to mention you’ve been hanging out with the new girl. She’s cute.”
He made a sound, missing a step and glancing at her. She still didn’t look at him but she was hiding a smile behind her hand. It had been two weeks since he and Samantha had fought the wraiths in the club and he hadn’t even noticed the fact that he had been talking to her more during school as well as outside of it. “La Diabla Gringa, what are you even talking about?”
“Come on Dick. Lisa and Gav may not pay that much attention but I make a point to.”
He rolled his eyes but let out a sigh. “Yes, I’ve been hanging out with Samantha more. And I didn’t think I had to mention it.”
“Really? You thought that you talking to a cute new girl was not worth mentioning? I’m a little hurt.” She giggled unable to keep a straight face and he pushed her which made her burst into a laugh. “She seems so serious. And you’re not. At all.”
“I’m totally serious.”
“Dick really?”
He pouted, “She is serious. But she cracks jokes and loosens up here and there.”
“I have one class with her. She’s smart at the very least. Doesn’t talk much. Whenever I look at her she doesn’t look like she’s all the way there. Something else on her mind.” Dick made a noise that got her attention but she didn’t press him on it.
They walked out toward the track field which was behind the gym. It was cooler now but not cold. The days still had their humid clogging reminders that the fall wasn’t entirely here yet so the coolness was welcome. Rather than going in they waited just outside of it. “Is Gav already here working out?” Dick asked and Lily nodded. “So, we gotta wait for the both of them.” Fighting a yawn, he leaned his head back. “I can’t wait until we eat.”
“Well if we play it right we can get Gav to pay for it.”
He snorted and glanced at her. “In what way can we get Gav to pay?”
“Well of any of us, he’s the one most likely able to do it.”
At that Dick shrugged. “He is the one with the money out of all of us. Why people keep paying him I don’t know.”
“Questions that don’t need answering.”
A whistle and they both turned to the sound. Lisa waved at them still wearing her track clothes which was a windbreaker and shorts and Gav wearing a hoodie and sweatpants. Lisa looked pissed off and Gav was wrapping up his iPod.
“So, what’s the word?” Dick asked.
Lily nodded, “How was practice?”
Lisa glared at them but the anger poured away to an almost broken look in her eyes and she hung her head shaking it. “I got suspended from the team.”
Everyone looked at her in shock but Lisa didn’t raise her head to look at them.
“What happened?” Dick asked.
“Tiana happened,” Lisa looked at him and he could see she was fighting tears. “You know I don’t care what people say about me but she started that homophobic crap on Gav and I couldn’t take it. I snapped and hit her. Coach came in at the wrong time and saw me. She doesn’t tolerate violence no matter what and suspended me.”
“What about Tiana?” Gav asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I left before I could hear anything else.”
Lily came forward first wrapping her arm around her. Gav and Dick followed suit holding her and she shook under their makeshift group hug. “Thanks guys,” she mumbled and moved so that they could back off slightly.
“At least she didn’t kick you off,” Gav said. “I mean, you and her and pretty close right?”
“For the most part yeah,” she sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “I’d be kicked off if I was anyone else.”
“How long is the suspension?” Dick asked.
“Three weeks. So, I’m missing the next meet up. And I’m going to be out of practice once I come back so I’ll miss the next one too. If I’m not careful I’ll get out of shape and be out of regionals.” She tried not to let that fear show on her face as she rubbed it roughly.
“Well the Riverside killer is still out there,” Gav suggested. “You can run from him for practice.”
She glared at him. “Shut up Gav.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Lily asked gently.
“Ice cream,” Lisa responded with almost no hesitation which brought laughter out of each of them. She even offered a small smile to her friends.
“Then ice cream we shall do,” Dick said throwing his bag over his shoulder and pointed them forward.
Dick and Gav took point with Lily and Lisa behind breaking into conversation. Rather than get on the train they walked down the street itself. It took them a good ten minutes before they entered a small square of shops opened up specifically to take advantage of the high school.
There was a comic shop, a bunch of food places, and the library which was there before the high school was built. J walking across the street they piled into a shop. It was a small ice cream parlor with only a few other students there. It had the classic display near the counter showing off all the flavors available to them.
Before they even got to the counter Dick stopped eyes widening slightly in surprise. Samantha turned around from the counter blinking as she looked at him and then gave a slow wave. She had a small cup of what looked like a mint chocolate chip ice cream.
“Hey it’s the new girl,” Gav said and Lisa glanced away hitting him. “What?”
“She has a name ass,”
Gav rolled his eyes and nodded. “Sorry I don’t know it.”
“It’s Samantha,” Lily said and gave a smile. “We have class together.”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s English right?” Lily gave a short nod and glanced at Dick. “And I have math with you.”
Dick nodded and then pointed. “These are the rest of the gang. Lisa and Gav.”
“Hey,” Lisa waved lamely. “We have gym in the mornings together.”
“I remember now. You like to run a lot,” she said as it came back to her.
“She’s one of the best members of the track team.” Dick said. Lisa looked at her feet suddenly and Dick frowned at that. So, he moved on and pointed to his other friend. “And this is Gav.”
“Excuse you its Gavington. The third.”
Samantha raised a skeptical eyebrow but Dick shook his head. “Su nombre es actually Gavington. Just not the third. He’s the only one. To him it sounds more regal.”
“Because it does.”
“What’ve you got?” Lily asked motioning toward her ice cream.
Samantha held it up slightly, “Just a couple scoops of mint chocolate. Had a craving.”
“Were you heading out?” Dick asked and she nodded.
“Why not eat with us?” Lily suggested. “We were going to sit and relax. We have space for a fifth.”
Samantha made a face at this but Gav smiled at her. “Come on. Just for a little bit. Lisa needs a pick me up.”
“Shut up.” Lisa said to him scowling and shaking her head at Samantha. “If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
Lily walked up to the counter looking at the ice cream and then smiled at Samantha. “Come on. It’ll be nice. Right Dick?”
Dick mumbled under his breath but looked at her with a shrug of his shoulders. Samantha finally sighed and nodded. “I’ll find a table alright?”
“Sounds great. Let’s order our own,” Lisa said glancing at her friends.
Dick waved his hand at Lisa and gave a small glare. “You can order for me gringa,” he said and turned to follow Samantha. They sat at a larger table near one of the windows. She popped the top off her ice cream and took a small scoop of it. As she ate she glanced out the window then looked at him.
“Lo siento. About them,” he said scratching the back of his head.
She shook her head sucking on the spoon, “It’s fine.” She stared at the table for a second. “My mentor says I need to make more friends.”
“Your mentor? The one who rescued you?” She nodded. “Do you not have friends in the legion?”
She avoided his gaze and looked out the window. “No. I don’t have a way to do that. We move from city to city. Taking care of the wraiths. A few times we may work with others but it’s mostly solo.”
He frowned looking at her. “That sounds lonely.”
She gave a short laugh. “I’m used to it Dick. Don’t worry about me.”
Why that made him feel sad, he wasn’t sure. But it did. He was still frowning by the time they came to sit with them. Lily sat beside him, Lisa beside Samantha and Gav at the end of it. Lily slid him a vanilla while she ate a cookies and cream. Lisa had a triple chocolate and Gav also had vanilla.
“So, Samantha, where were you from before?” Gav asked as he ate.
“The east coast. Me and my aunt move around a lot.” She said dismissively.
“You and your aunt? What about your parents?” Lily asked.
“They passed away when I was young.”
The table got quiet immediately, looking down at their snacks. “Sounds like me.” Dick said softly and frowned lightly. “Where else have you lived?”
She looked at him and then motioned at the air. “The west coast. Down south. The north. All around. My aunt is a youth counselor.”
“Do you like it here?” Lisa asked. “The city I mean.”
Samantha looked out the window, looking at the buildings, cars and people moving around and shrugged. “It nice but most cities start to feel the same after a while.”
Lisa snorted and waved her hand back and forth. “No no. You have to see this Richard’s Bookstore. Especially the farmers market right nex to it. And there’s this great bakery in old town.”
Dick glared and pointed. “No no no. You’re not going to make someone else suffer through that like I did.”
“Hey the sweets were worth it loser.”
“No, they were not worth the two hour walk and the third hour of being lost because you let your phone die.”
She kicked him under the table and he let out a grunt as he glared at her. She glared back and Lily rolled her eyes. “This is sadly the norm,” she said to Samantha and smiled. “But we love them.”
Samantha laughed and nodded. “I see that.”
Lisa went back to her ice cream taking a huge chunk and frowning aggressively. “Is it Friday yet?”
“Almost,” Lily said eating another scoop. “One more day.”
“Good. I wanna go out this weekend. Movies on Gav,” she said pointing at him. “Popcorn and candy.”
“A play would be better,” Lily added.
Dick shook his head. “You always want to see plays.”
“Because they’re beautiful and I’m cultured. I keep trying to force it on you but you fight me on it.”
“Hold on. Why am I paying?” Gav asked scowling at them.
“Because you have all the odd jobs and money from the old folks you swindle.”
“Those people love me,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “And I’m very lovable.”
Samantha glanced at Lily as they spoke. “What does he do?”
“The part of the city where we live they know about him and a lot of older people call on him for help. Just odd jobs, most cleaning around the house that they can’t handle. It’s nothing illicit but he likes to play like it is. The rest of us play along with it.”
“Don’t spoil the fun,” Gav said holding a finger in front of his mouth and winked. “The story is the best part.”
Dick was about to speak when he winced suddenly. Pressing a hand to his head he shut an eye as he heard the ringing within his ears. He looked outside and saw it was barely afternoon but glanced at Samantha and she showed a similar look of pain on her face which confirmed it.
Samantha looked at her phone and then waved at everyone. “I’m sorry guys but I have to go. My aunt and I are going to be meeting up for an early dinner soon. It was nice doing this with you.”
“No problem. We should do this again some time,” Lily suggested.
“Yeah, come to the movies with us.” Lisa suggested.
“I didn’t agree to this,” Gav added on.
Samantha smiled at them and nodded before leaving, tossing out her empty cup. The others continued to eat but Dick still felt the ringing in his ear. He felt his phone going off in his pocket and saw a text.
Samantha: Meet me at seventh street.
Dick knew that was a few streets over from the shop. He raised his phone to his ear as if it had been going off and he spoke “Hey Tio. Que? Right now? Simon. Alright, I’m on my way.” He tapped the phone and glanced at everyone. “That was my Tio. Needs me to come home, help him move some stuff around. I’m young he says and thus can handle it.”
“Lame,” Lisa said and pouted. “I need more pick me ups.”
“I’ll get in the group chat tonight and give you some spicy memes.”
“Yes. Make sure they’re hot.”
“The hottest.”
He walked over and gave her a half arm hug and then waved at Lily and Gav. He met Lily’s gaze and she smirked slightly but waved at him. Rolling his eyes, he tossed his cup out and took a quick run toward the train station but took a turn before getting there to head toward seventh.
The ringing in his ears wasn’t getting better as he walked and in some ways it was actively getting worse. Gritting his teeth at the sound of it he turned the corner at the light and saw Samantha leaning against a store front just out of sight.
“A wraith?”
She nodded. “Can you figure out where it is yet?”
“Not 100%. I know that when I look that way,” he pointed down the street from the, perpendicular to where they were. “The pain gets less. So, I assume it’s in that direction.”
Another nod and she smiled. “You’re picking things up quick. Maybe you are a natural.” Her face went serious though as she started going. “Come on. We both need to be ready in case this one is anything like the one from the club.”
He remembered the giant black shade of a creature and shuddered as he remembered it being in his head. Attacking him in the place where he thought he was mind was his only enemy. Samantha took the lead and he followed behind her.
It didn’t take long for the landscape to shift to homes. Places that were old and had been there since the beginning while others were built on top of what had started there. It was heavily residential. But the ringing didn’t lessen as they entered it. The way they were looking around it was obvious they didn’t belong here.
They didn’t stay for long, taking a short cut between two homes and coming out at a manmade creek. It was clogged with all sorts of garbage, cardboard boxes, tires, but what caught both of their attention was the still smoking car in the small river of water. Samantha jumped down into the creek, splashing through the water and going to the car.
The front seat was empty and the door was hanging off lopsidedly. She scowled slightly and stood splashing through the water and looking up toward the sky. “Hey Samantha, think we’re going that way.”
He pointed down the creek toward a hole in the wall. There would have been bars there that kept people and animals from getting into the sewers but they were ripped open like they were made of clay. Samantha took a few slow steps toward it then glanced over to Dick.
“Do you know where that goes?”
“I think it leads to the river. Not that far. It’s pretty close to where we are now. Maybe only a half an hour away.”
She nodded and glanced down at the watery sludge with a face. “Then we walk,” she said walking toward the opening. Making sure to be careful with how she walked over the bars and was immediately assaulted by the smells within it. Grunting she held a hand over her nose and felt the water splashing as she entered.
Making a face Dick followed behind her, raising his shirt up and over his nose. It was immediately darker in the tunnel and he could feel a breeze coming frown the direction they were walking. But as he walked he had to fight the urge to look down and see what he might be walking in.
“Follow the breeze,” Samantha instructed. “It’ll be the way toward the river.”
The path was straight forward with a few beams of light form the ceiling from grates above them. He could vaguely hear cars above them but the ringing was still there like a white noise buzz.
“What are the odds that wraith is at the river and not lurking in here with us?”
“Pretty high,” she said and glanced over her shoulder at him.
“Hurra,” he waved his hands slowly.
Tripping and stumbling in the sludge he put a hand onto the wall to steady himself and instead touched the slimy wall and recoiled with a disgusted sound. Scowling as he looked at his hand and tried to shake it off.
“I really hope we don’t get attacked down here,” he said more to himself than to his partner. He stopped suddenly as Samantha held her hand up. They stopped in the sewer and she narrowed her eyes. She looked toward the ground and the water was still. It felt off. She knew it had to be near them now.
It happened fast. There was an explosion of sound above them. The wraith dropped from the ceiling a snarl leaving its mouth as it lunged for Samantha. They both looked upward but Samantha on instinct manifested her geist. Its jaws closed around her arm and she let out a cry as it crashed on top of her driving her into the muck.
The wraiths throat glowed and suddenly flames exploded around her. The gauntlet immediately created a wide disc to block the flames in its throat but she felt the heat on her hand and it pressed her down even harder.
“Dick do your thing!” she shouted slamming her hand into the water and it iced over instantly around them.
“Manifestar!” The cry left his lips and his concentration was sharpened to a point. Dick’s geist manifested around his wrist and he swung both arms forward the chains shooting out.
Rather than going straight at the Wraith they flew toward the walls, bouncing off them and going around it. Drawing back both his arms the chains wrapped around it tightly and dragged it down into the ice. It struggled on the ice but Dick clasped his hands together and the chains tightened around it.
With her free hand Samantha created a small knife of ice and threw it into the wraiths chest. It stuck deep and with one of her fingers glowed and she tapped it to her palm. The knife exploded encasing the wraith in ice and she stood with Dick’s help.
“I guess this is the one we were looking for.” Taking a slow breath, she turned to look at Dick. “Much better than the last time.”
“Being able to able to shut down their special powers makes me pretty awesome.”
“Don’t get full of yourself. You’re still a rookie.”
“Modesto y amable,” he bowed his head to her and she rolled her eyes again.
Dick laughed lightly as he brought his chains back to just be bracelets but felt something hit his foot. Curiosity overwhelmed him and he hoped that it wasn’t something gross in the water. Getting his phone out he turned on the light and almost dropped it.
Stumbling back, he stared at bones. Legs, arms, a hand and even a skull. There were torn and ripped clothes like hats, shirts and shoes. He stared down at the floor and there were so many. He couldn’t even count how many were one person or multiple.
He felt dizzy and stumbled backwards dropped his phone to the ground. Before he could hit the wall or slip Samantha grabbed his arm looking at him. He looked at her with wide and panicked eyes but the look she gave him was blank but not cold. She squeezed his arm to help steady him.
“This must have been where it ate. Rather than eat people up top it hunted then took them down here.” She frowned walking around the area slowly trying to see more of the tunnel.
Scanning the light over the ground Dick tried to not to freak out but it was beyond hard. He saw something that bothered him more than he thought. As the light scanned across the ground he paused it on something that glinted that he thought was just garbage. Walking towards it, he dragged it out with his foot. It was a bag, not unlike his own. He didn’t recognize anything from the keychains but he was pretty sure it used to belong to one of these people.
Samantha was looking at one of the walls and through the light she could make out marks on the wall. They were smeared in dried red material. Most likely it was blood, one of the victims. She frowned but turned to look at Dick. She’d only known him for about a month but she could tell how stressed he was.
She walked over to him and gave his shoulder a squeeze but stared at the bag on the ground and then glanced at him. “You okay?”
“Okay isn’t the word I’d use.”
“I know that feeling. It’s scary at the very least to see what they do. What we have to prevent.”
“They were just people off the street. Innocent people.” He heard his voice crack slightly and he could see the red eyes flashing in his mind. Hear his father’s pain. See his brother floating. See his mom being dragged away. “And to them they were food. We’re all that’s here to protect people,” he said softly. Clutching his pendent he said, “Let’s get out of here. There’s something I want to tell you about.”
The Harlequin Library 