Arlington (Book One)

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

I receive the shipment of metal I need the next morning and start working on the power source. I try so hard to push the events from yesterday out of mind, but I slept horribly last night. I kept hearing the sirens and screams in my dreams and I am still exhausted from the amount of energy I had to expend yesterday. Pushing that all aside, I get excited about my new project and I spend hours laboring over it and when I glance at my watch, I see that it is almost seven o'clock at night. I pull my phone out of my pocket and call my dad.

"Hey Avi, are you still working?" His worried voice asks me.

"Yeah dad, I'm going to clean up and head home now," I say.

"Okay, see you soon," he says, and we hang up.

I clean up everything and grab my things. I trip over a stool and my glasses fall off my face. I sigh and bend down and grope for them. The frames are blending into the tiles floor pretty damn well. The door opens, and I knock my hair into my face.

"Aviva," Alexander's voice filters through my ears and I can feel him walk closer to me. He grabs my hand and hands me my glasses. I take them back but don't put them on quite yet.

"Sorry I tripped," I say straightening myself up.

"It's okay," he says and that's when it dawns on me.

I look at his molecular makeup closely and it seems awfully familiar and then I realize that he has the same voice as the man that I ran into it yesterday. Focusing more closely I can feel the slightly enhanced electrical signals that are within his body and I can easily place him as a metahuman at that moment. But was he one of them? Is this just a coincidence? It can't be, that was Alexander's voice! My jaw drops open and I push my glasses onto my face in shock. We exchange a knowing look and Alexander shifts around uncomfortably.

"You're..." I start, and he cringes.

"Don't say it," he says.

I give him a confused look and he sighs. Running his hand through his hair he gives me a frustrated look. I don't know what to say but I can tell he doesn't want me to know the truth. I can't exactly help the fact that I figured this out, it's not like I can erase the thought.

"How did you do it, Aviva?" He asks me after a long and tense silence

"Do what?" I ask playing dumb. A sense of panic starts to consume me, and my heart rate increase two-fold. If I know who he is, that means he knows everything that happened yesterday.

"Aviva," he says in a strict voice.

"Don't talk to me like that," I snap out and he looks surprised. He has no reason to speak to me in that tone, this has nothing to do with work.

"I have just as much to lose as you do," I continue quietly.

He may be a superhero but if anyone found out what I can do I would be in a world of trouble. He pauses for a moment and tilts his head to the side as if he is pondering what I could have to lose.

"What do you mean by that?"

I shake my head frustrated and go back over to my work. I sit down and put one headphone in and listen to some soft music as I try to focus on and not get myself amped up. I hate getting angry; I am always one step away from ripping everything in my immediate vicinity apart. Alexander sits down across the table from me and watches me work.