Page 22 of The Not So Super Hero
“You sure?”Terry pursed his lips.Zane swore he saw a light bulb go off above Terry’s head when his eyes widened.He playfully nudged Zane with his elbow.“Is that why you’re out today?Feeling a little restless after not seeing your boyfriend?”
Zane yanked Terry into a headlock so fast that the guy dropped his food.Terry shouted more about his food than the assault.Zane’s heart palpitated strangely, which he passed off as a heart problem.
Bailey?His boyfriend?Feeling restless because he hadn’t seen him?That was ridiculous, though his mind reminded him that his restless nature had happened after Thursday, when he spent most of his time with Bailey.Whatever didn’t matter.Wasn’t true.Like he wanted to date someone as troublesome as Bailey, or anyone.Dating was exhausting.Relationships were tedious.Feelings and all that gave Zane the shivers.
Terry punched Zane’s leg right to be released.
“With that reaction, I think we both know the actual answer,” Terry said between chuckles.
Zane grabbed Terry’s take out and held it over the nearest trash can.With wide eyes, Terry held out his hands like a toddler and whimpered, “No, I just got that.Come on, I’m teasing.It was a joke, a joke!”
“Your life is a joke.”
Terry placed a hand over his heart.“That hurts.”
Zane handed Terry his precious food, which he held like a sacred gem to his chest.Continuing to smile, Terry suggested the two of them head back to get Zane some food, maybe hang out and have lunch together.Though Zane was not one to spend time with someone, he rarely said no to free food.
Zane followed Terry, who chattered away over a few odd happenings at work.Zane listened for a moment, though a frigid chill running down his spine had him halting in his tracks.It could easily be ignored, passed off for nothing more than a random tremor except the chill never left.The odd sensation lingered, causing the tips of Zane’s fingers to tremble.Shivering, he rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling the goose bumps that appeared on his skin.There was a peculiar feeling that overtook him, like he was being watched.
Zane glanced about the street in search of the culprit, though he saw no one paying him any mind.Everything was normal, and yet Zane couldn’t brush off the sensation that something was terribly wrong.
“Zane, what’s up?”Terry asked, hesitating a few steps ahead.
“Nothing,” Zane responded in his signature monotone voice, though his eyes were more alive than ever.They took in every aspect of the environment, from the college girl texting on her phone to the rat scurrying back into the sewer.
Before Terry argued, Zane continued on the path leading to food.Terry ran to catch up to Zane’s long strides.Although the two had a meal together, he never stopped looking over his shoulder.By the time he returned to his apartment, the feeling of being watched had disappeared.He hadn’t felt eyes on him since he left Terry after lunch.Part of him wondered if it was his imagination, while another hoped for it to be his imagination.
Sighing, Zane kicked his door closed behind him, double-checking that the door was locked prior to doing the same with his window.He slid the curtains shut, blocking the outside world as he sank into his bed, where he should have been all day.The rest of Zane’s day went as it should have been from the beginning; on his bed, watching TV.Though he hesitated on the Live TV option where the news played.
“Yet another sudden attack took place today by unknown perpetrators,” Carrie Kempt reported.Her co-host of the evening, Gordon Wessell, sat at her side.Their voices carried over the video being displayed for the world to see.“This time, the attack was in Fredericksburg.Two unknown villains came seemingly out of nowhere and overtook the city central in a matter of minutes.”
Two villains were visible through cameras on the streets.The villains wreaked mayhem and havoc.Both wore typical ski masks to obscure their identities as people fled like mice in every direction.
“Thankfully, Jax showed up in time before too many lives were lost.However, he failed to capture the villains who disappeared without a trace,” Gordon finished.Footage of Jax from a vertical angle came onto the screen.The camera shook tremendously, barely making out Jax’s figure sent hurtling back to smash a car.The alarm blared so loudly that Zane turned down the volume.Jax, with weapons of his own design, fought off both villains.Those trapped in central Fredericksburg escaped with his help.The footage abruptly cut to Carrie and Gordon at the news station.
“We’ve seen an unusual amount of activity from villains the last few weeks.The public is growing scared as questions have come up that perhaps these attacks are coordinated,” Carrie said with a frown.“Police have been looking into it, but so far, there are no leads.”
Zane switched to a random streaming service before Gordon could go on.He was no longer interested nor wished to listen to the troubles of the news.Putting on a series, Zane did his best to forget about real-world problems.
During his marathon, Zane fell asleep only to awaken in a fright.He shot up from his bed, chest heaving and mind reeling when he found himself incapable of breathing.He couldn’t move, simply sat there on his bed, staring into the darkness of his apartment, wondering what lurked in every corner and within every crevice.Goose bumps appeared on his skin, lasting a second before his eyes adjusted to the light coming from his TV.There was nothing there, no one but him.
Zane calmed himself enough to grab a glass of water.The immense pounding against his skull, like some drunk took a jackhammer to it, was so painful that he dropped to the floor with a low growl.He thought he was too old to be having nightmares, though it seemed age had nothing to do with it.No one could run away from their past; Zane’s liked to visit him in his sleep.
His alarm went off before he got any more shut eye.Like every other Monday morning, Zane prepared for work with the least amount of effort required.He grabbed his keys and left.Yet again, he found that same woman from some time ago standing outside with flyers.Her cheeks had sunken in, eyes grown dark and gray while she barely spoke.The lady was so out of it she didn’t recognize him, simply held out the flyer for him to take, which he did.
“Thank you,” she said, softly.
Zane nodded and quickly made his way to his car.Before he reached his vehicle, the feeling from yesterday returned in full force.A tremble wracked his body that had every hair on his arm stand up and his breathing became ragged.Unlike yesterday, he did not stop nor look back.He continued on his path, reaching his car, pretending like he didn’t feel someone’s gaze burning into the back of his skull.Perhaps it was his lack of sleep.Zane told himself it had to do with his nightmare, or rather, the nightmares he had been having recently.They were making him paranoid.
Like yesterday, the feeling came and went.By the time Zane reached work, he no longer felt the icy chill running down his spine.He got out of his car, kept his head on a swivel, and examined the parking lot for anything suspicious but saw nothing.
“Stupid, it’s nothing,” he told himself.
Walking into work, he wondered if he could pull off getting everything done later in the afternoon.He needed rest in order to function.Hell, with rest, it was hard to function.With heavy eyes, he dropped onto the couch, staring at the ceiling that blurred in his vision.
Shit, if he stayed like that, he would fall asleep.Huffing, he pushed himself to sit up, swaying a bit as he did.For once, Zane told himself to get to work immediately.As much as he hated working, he didn’t want to lose his job, because then he would have to look for another.
While Zane worked on removing all the dirt from the entryway—courtesy of rudely returning students—a pair of familiar green eyes popped into his vision.He stopped in his mopping to stare with half-lidded eyes at Bailey.He couldn’t help but notice the boys’ glasses were crooked.What trouble did Bad Luck Bailey get into in order to cause the slight curve of said glasses?
