Guilt lies heavy on a burdened head ... - Part 1
Alaina stared at Caitlyn, open-mouthed, for a long time. Then stared for even longer before making the slowest blink that Caitlyn had ever seen. It was a blink of epic proportions. The kind of blink that some social media influencers would have practiced in front of mirrors, for, literally, years before they even thought of posting a video doing it and would still have not come anywhere near to the sheer quality of that blink. There really should be awards for something like that.
"Say that again, but, this time, make it make sense." Alaina tilted her head, frowning, and rolled both hands at the wrists, urging Caitlyn to repeat what she had said. "Slowly. In English. Not that useless gibberish you just talked in."
"I'm quitting." The hands continued to roll, expecting more and Caitlyn wished she hadn't said anything. "Being, you know, that thing that I did those couple of times. In that costume ... thing. I'm quitting."
"See, there you go again, not making sense. Because no friend of mine would ever have that kind of ... thing, in the costume ... thing, and give it up. No friend would do that. No friend!" She turned to the side as she lifted her phone from her pocket and began typing, two-thumbed, on the screen. "I don't think so. Not on my watch, sister."
The only time Alaina lifted her eyes from her phone was to give Caitlyn the stinkiest of stink-eyes, a curl of the lip and nose and a sniff. A sniff! For Alaina, that was tantamount to absolute fury, which was something that never happened. Alaina was one of the happiest people Caitlyn knew. Probably one of the happiest people in the world. Nothing ever angered her. Well, not for long. Usually.
"What are you doing?" Caitlyn tried to look at the phone screen but Alaina blocked her view with her shoulder. "Alaina! I'm being serious. Rayna Alden nearly died because of me and I can't have that on my conscience. I can't. What are you doing?"
She had lapsed into a hissed whisper, eyes flickering everywhere to make sure no-one was listening. No-one was. They never did. No-one had even mentioned the fact that she had skipped out of school the day before. In fact, short of Alaina, Caitlyn was pretty certain not one person had noticed her gone, anyway. Right now, though, Caitlyn felt far too tired to deal with all these Alaina-isms.
She had only just made it home before Aunt Mary had woken up and she still needed to find some explanation for managing to walk into her bedroom the night before without Aunt Mary seeing her. Of course, there was no explanation. She hadn't made it home at all. The only silver lining she could find was that the suit had healed her face before every other part of her body, which, silver lining aside, hurt like hell. All of it.
"I am searching for ... what size are you, anyway? Only joking. I know every inch of your body." Not at all creepy. Not from Alaina. She always said weird things like that, though she still hadn't explained what she was doing. "I'm searching for a straight jacket, because you've clearly gone insane. Ooh! Fifty bucks! Boo! Too much. But professional looking. Noice!"
She showed Caitlyn her phone and she had, indeed, searched for straight jackets. And, in Caitlyn's new world, that wasn't even close to being the weirdest thing she'd experienced lately. Hell, it wasn't even in the top three weirdest things she'd experienced in the last twenty-four hours.
"Nice stitching." She gave an appreciative nod before over-dramatically tugging at her hair, pretending to scream. "Did you not hear what I said? I nearly ..."
"No, you didn't because she is, literally, stood right there. Look, if I pace it out, she's ..." Alaina uttered an 'urk' as Caitlyn dragged her back around the corner before she could make measuring strides to Rayna Alden's side. "See. Rayna Alden. Safe and sound and not a mark on that perfectly smooth skin. Have you ever seen cheeks so smooth you just want to lick them? Not in a sexual way. Probably. That would be weird."
"Yeah, because only that part was weird." Caitlyn glanced around the corner. "She really is here. She really is fine. Wow! She really does have amazing skin. I mean, like ... wow, that is smooth skin!"
That wasn't possible. It simply wasn't possible. That cop, Chief Watson, had said Rayna had suffered life-threatening injuries. Life-threatening. Nothing about Rayna looked as though her life were threatened at all. In fact, she looked like she could sprint a half-marathon. Maybe a full one, even. Caitlyn looked down to see Alaina looking around the corner, too. She had smug look on her face, mixed with a little bit of a crush for Rayna.
Caitlyn wanted to talk to Rayna, break the ice, casually ask what she was doing at one of her father's facilities the night before and why her father was hooked up to medical equipment instead of in a hospital and, most importantly, how she had survived 'life-threatening injuries' with not a scratch in sight. Not that she could ask that question, those questions. Like, at all.
There was nothing on the news about the incident. Well, nothing more than a pair of supers battled near an old Ald-Tech facility that was closed down years before. Caitlyn could hardly tell Rayna that she knew the facility was in full working order the night before without having to explain how she knew. Which just proved that she simply wasn't equipped to deal with the whole superhero thing.
Classes were about to start and Caitlyn was already at a sleep-deprived disadvantage without having her mind wandering away during class. She had to stop thinking like that. Quitting was the best thing for her. Besides, she had to study to get into a good college and if she didn't set her head straight, her grades would start to slip. Even with the prestige of having a Summer internship at Ald-Tech, she still had to make her grades. Some things never changed, no matter who you know.
-+-
Later, after school ...
Aunt Mary sat at the table with the letter in her hand and Caitlyn could feel the disappointment emanating from her. Returning home from school, Caitlyn had walked into a silent apartment and Aunt Mary always called out to greet her, come rain or shine. A couple of questions about school, some mentions of events in her own day. Something. Not today.
The worst thing was that Aunt Mary took it so personally, as though it was something she had done wrong, or, worse, that it was some kind of delayed reaction to Uncle Richard's 'mistake'. It wasn't her fault, at all. It couldn't be. Something else had happened here and Caitlyn could only think she had said, or done, something incredibly dumb when she had visited Ald-Tech headquarters a few days before.
"I'm so sorry, Caitlyn." She laid the letter on the table, flattening it out with the palm of her hand before folding it up, the corners lining up perfectly. "I know you were so looking forward to it and I wish ... I wish there was something I could do."
Caitlyn had read the letter, twice, before putting it down. Ald-Tech had revoked her internship. Cost-cutting, they said, but Ald-Tech was one of the largest companies on the planet. It had to be something she had done and, if Aunt Mary thought about it, she'd know it too. Having Raymond Alden, himself, tell her she had been accepted was one of the biggest moments of her life and now it lay shattered before her.
"It's okay, Aunt Mary. I'll find something else. I'll be in college soon and there are other companies I can work for." Her words were empty. Apart from Skein Enterprises, Ald-Tech was the absolute best technology company. Why would she want to work anywhere else? "Everything will be alright. I promise. I'll make you proud one day."
"Oh, honey. I am proud!" The letter dropped from Aunt Mary's hand and she almost jumped up from the chair, wrapping her arms around Caitlyn. "I've always been proud of you and so was your Uncle Richard. Now, how about pasta tonight? Mavis, at the salon, gave me a new sauce recipe I'm just dying to try out. You go wash up, while I get started."
As she released Caitlyn, Aunt Mary turned away. She smiled and sounded as happy as any other time, but Caitlyn saw the quick flash of a hand toward her cheek, wiping away a tear. Aunt Mary only wanted the best for her, but Caitlyn always managed to screw things up. Starting tonight, however, that was going to change. And the first change would involve giving up something.
-+-
Stormfield Island prison ...
Stormfield Island had held a prison on it for almost a hundred years. Rebuilt and expanded a dozen times over that period, it had become renowned as inescapable. Like Alcatraz, but better. Sharp, towering rocks stopped anyone reaching the island by boat anywhere but at the designated pier. Rip tides discouraged swimming to freedom and the overhanging rock face, shaped like a great, calcified wave, put off anyone but the best helicopter pilots from landing there. It was as much a danger to the guards as any prisoners trying to escape.
There had been one or two escapes, but they were supers and even the greatest of natural obstacles couldn't stop all of those people. Still, Michael 'Mack' MacOne had never seen an escape in near ten years of service, but he remained diligent to a fault. When on monitor duty, he never missed a thing. On the wings, he was known as tough, but fair and when walking the perimeter, he checked every nook and cranny, every chainlink fence and every inch of barbed wire.
Nights like this made that difficult, but it didn't stop Mack. With his thick rain poncho covering him, heavy, powerful flashlight in hand, he took to his rounds with the same care and attention as ever. Rain battered his face, pattering like a thousand drums against his poncho as he started his rounds. Almost to the first guard tower, ready to move through and into the next section, he stopped, flashlight sweeping around.
It could have been the wind, but no wind he'd ever heard sounded like that. A high-pitched, cackling laugh that seemed to roll off the face of The Wave, rebounding back toward Mack. He reached for his radio, ready to call an alert, but it was too late. Something exploded against the top of the supers cell block, rubble flying outward, tumbling down to the yard below and Mack saw something he would never forget.
There, hovering near the hole created in the cell block wall, was something twisted and monstrous, caught in a flash of lightning from the storm, throwing its extended head back and laughing at the rage of the winds and the rain. Then it fired something into the exposed cell before turning in the air and flying back toward New Hastings. As alarms began to sound, Mack ran back to the guard room. They were going to need everyone on deck to calm the inmates after this.