“Let’s go live to Amy in Main Street for the story.” The anchorman said, looking straight into the camera.
I sat on the couch with a bowl of cereal in my lap, eating slowly. Grandma was in the other room, humming softly to herself. The volume of the TV was fairly low. Neither of us liked loud noises in the morning.
I took another spoonful, chewing slowly.
The screen changed to a short woman standing in front of police tape. “Thanks, George. As you can tell, a very serious break in occurred last night at around eleven-thirty here in Ricardo’s Jewelry shop, just off of Main Street.”
The camera zoomed out to get the entire background into few. The reporter stood off to the side, still speaking into the microphone. The sun peaked up, giving a fairly good view of the damage. The jewelry shop had two cracked windows on either side of the door, glass shattering inward. A few pieces were reflecting off the ground on the sidewalk before it. The window on the left of the door seemed to take the most damage. A large hole had opened up in the middle, leaving just edges of glass hanging around the side.
The metal bars that backed the windows had been bent by what anyone would’ve guess to be a crowbar.
“The alarm had been disabled before entry, which meant that police would’ve never arrived.” The reporter continued, walking slowly to the right, “One neighbor noticed the three suspicious men loitering around the shop and decided to make a friendly phone call.”
A man around his mid-forties appeared into view. He looked as if he had been awoken from his sleep. A robe hung from his shoulders, opening up to reveal a stained white wife beater. The camera kept from the waist up.
The reported looked to the man curiously as she spoke, “This is Pete Vander. He lives across the street, giving him a full few of the shop twenty-four seven. Pete, can you please tell us what you saw earlier today?”
She stuck the microphone in his face.
He grunted before talking, leaning down so that he was heard, “I work late. Got back around eleven. Decided to go get something to eat. Kitchen’s got full view of the shop. Saw three guys just standin’ around. Looked like they actually had some stuff with them.”
“And is that when you phoned the authorities?” She asked, turning to the camera when she talked.
Pete shook his head, “Nah, I watched them for a little while. Just out of the corner of my eye. One of them disappeared around back. Few seconds later, I saw the short one pull something out of his pocket. It had a weird shape. That was when I called the cops.”
“What was your reaction to all of this?”
“I was freaked out. I didn’t know what was going on. I started to wonder if I had called the cops for nothing. I knew I couldn’t go out there and stop them myself, so I watched from the window with a camera for evidence. Thought that was the best way to help the cops.”
“You offered up the video as evidence, correct?”
He nodded, “Yeah. Caught some weird stuff on, it I did.”
“Can you elaborate, sir?” She asked.
“The punks had thrown something into the window and were messing with the bars behind it. I was glad I called the cops then. No alarm was sounding like it should’ve. They were messing with the right side.”
The camera moved over to the right side of the building. The window with the least damage came into view. From the angle, I could see no bars behind it.
“There was a loud rattlin’ and they all started to climb in.” He continued, “I think they moved the back gate up.”
The reporter nodded intently as if she was actually interested. I assumed she had heard this many times already for the earlier hours,
“Then suddenly, some green blur slammed into the left side of the building.” The camera showed the left side with more damage. “A few gunshots went off. I think other people woke up at that. But then a black man—and I ain’t talking about skin. He was dressed in black—he walked out with one of the punks. He pushed the punk down on the ground roughly and went back in until all three of those guys were sitting out front.”
“The police have allowed us to show just a brief clip of what Pete Vander just described to us.” The reporter said to the camera.
The camera flicked over to a shaky video.
There was deep breathing in the background, “Some—some little *beep* are messing around Ricardo’s. Police ain’t shown up yet.”
The camera was looking out a window. It was roughly zoomed in on two guys slowly climbing into the building, avoiding the glass shards that jutted out around them.
“They’re breaking in! *Beep*-ing kids.” He grumbled.
Suddenly, a green blur shot out of the corner of the camera, running straight into the opposite side of the store. There was a loud crash as the glass cracked into the building.
“Wha—what the *beep* was that?! Oh man, oh man, what the *beep*. What the *beep*!” Pete’s voice seemed frantic, fearful.
The spoon slipped from my hands as my breathing quickened. I sat on the couch, eyes wide, unable to look away.
The camera zoomed in close to the building, “Where did it go? Man, what was that? Oh man, oh man!”
A foot appeared in the window as if to step out when the video cut short. The screen switched back to the reporter who stood alone now.
“Three boys were indeed found outside of the jewelry store minutes later with their hands and ankles bound. They seemed to be unharmed, aside from a few cuts due to climbing through glass. It’s likely that these three boys are the thieves.”
The camera moved to get the building in one more time.
“This isn’t the first time a witness has reported to see a mysterious man at a crime scene. In all reported crime scenes, there has always been at least one person near it, tied up, that did in fact commit the crime.” Amy said, a small smile coming to her lips as she spoke the next line.
“It seems that we have our own superhero in our town.”
I grabbed the remote, turning the TV off quickly.
I didn’t want to know the rest of the story.
I didn’t need to.
I stared at the blank box as I waited for my breathing to slow down. A few minutes later, I stood up, dropping my bowl into the sink.
~*~
“Did you hear about this superhero we’ve got?” Karen asked a few hours later as we made our way to our table in the cafeteria.
I stared ahead, keeping my face impassive as I spoke, “Yeah. Weird stuff, huh?”
“I’ll say. It’s kind of weird how he’s been stopping all these crimes, but he didn’t rescue you.” She mumbled, sitting down. We were the first two at my table.
I shrugged casually, “We managed to keep everyone safe.”
“Still, that would’ve been absolutely amazing.” Karen took a bite of her salad in front of her. Karen, unlike me, was a health freak.
“Yeah.”
“You would have told me, right?” She asked curiously.
I looked up, playing off the lie smoothly. It was my specialty, “Of course, Karen.”
“Good. It’d be so cool if one of us actually got to meet him. I hear he actually has super powers, Aves.” She giggled.
“Do you really believe this?” I laughed slightly, “It seems to be incredibly blown up by the media.”
Karen shrugged, “It was on the news.”
“So?”
“Good point. Even if it isn’t real, I still think it’s really cool.”
The remaining three girls that with us walked out of the food line, heading this way. I glanced up, my eyes on them as I spoke. “Let’s drop the subject. I really don’t want anyone else to know what happened two days ago.”
Karen nodded.
The three girls sat down next to us, starting a conversation that was absolutely pointless in my eyes. Nonetheless, I participated. It felt nice to be chatting about nothing important for the time being. The morning had been fairly strange for me. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I had assumed the man had just been a part of my imagination.
Now even the news was taking notice to it.
“Uh-oh.” Lisa, the girl to my left mumbled under her breath, “Satan at twelve o’clock.”
“What are you…” Karen asked, looking around. She stopped talking as soon as her eyes landed on the man referred to as Satan.
My ex, Josh.
I groaned under my breath once my eyes landed on him.
We had dated for nearly a year and a half. Only recently had I gotten the courage to end it with him. We had been the perfect couple in the beginning. But Josh had always been one for drama. He was constantly stirring up problems between us.
It hurt me more than he intended for it to.
My breaking up with him had hurt him more than I intended on doing so. None of my friends liked him. But they put on a fake smile and acted kind when he was around.
“Hey Josh.” I said, standing up to meet him halfway.
He looked like a wreck. Bags hung under his eyes and his hair didn’t look combed at all. His eyes were rimmed red. I knew Josh well enough to know it wasn’t from crying.
My face fell at the realization, “You’re high.”
“I’m not that high.” He argued.
“Forget it. This is one of the reasons why I couldn’t stand you. Josh, please go away.” My mood was only going to get worse from there.
He grabbed onto my upper arm, his fingers holding on weakly, “Please, Avery, I’m begging you. I can change. I…I need you, baby. I didn’t realize how much I did until you were gone.”
“You hurt me, Josh.” I whispered, staring away from him.
“Avery, please. Look at me.” He said, his voice so vulnerable. My eyes flickered over to him briefly, “I’m a wreck without you, baby. Please forgive me. I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“Josh…I…”
“Please, baby, please.” He begged. “I’m trying to forget about you. The drugs aren’t doing anything. I…I’ll go clean for you, baby, I promise! Just give me another chance.”
Behind me, Karen snorted sarcastically.
I ignored her.
“I can’t. Please let go of me, Josh.”
His hand slid down my arm slowly until his fingers curled around my wrist loosely, “Tell me you don’t miss me. Tell me you don’t think about me as much as I do you. Tell me you don’t miss everything that we had. Tell me, Avery.”
I looked at him straight in the face, keeping my expression impassive. “I don’t. I don’t miss any of it.”
Hurt flashed through his eyes.
He pulled himself together, letting go, “I’m not giving up on you Avery. I love you, baby. I’ll earn your forgiveness.”
That last line nearly broke me. And he knew it would. But I looked away, regaining my composure.
“Please leave.”
“As you wish.” Josh turned around, hanging his head low as he trudged away slowly. I sat down next to Lisa, groaning.
“I wish he’d leave me alone. It would make it this much easier.”
“I wish you two had never met.” Karen muttered hatefully under her breath. I chose to ignore her.
Lisa patted my shoulder encouragingly, “Eventually he’ll get over you. Clearly you’re over him. Now it’s his turn.”
“It’s hard when he keeps trying to get me to forgive him.”
“All he’s doing is asking.” Miranda, who sat across from me, said. “If he ever wants to get you to forgive him, he needs to show that he wants it.”
“He looks like shit!” Lisa frowned, “Doesn’t that show enough?”
“No.” Miranda and Karen said at the same time.
“He needs to actually do something.” Miranda explained, “Something noteworthy. But, Avery, you can’t go back out with him.”
“I would never.” I scoffed, hurt that she thought I would, “It’s hard now, but thinking about everything that he’s done…”
While they knew most of the things he did to spice up the drama, they didn’t know all. A few things I kept to myself. Things that were too hard to speak.
Karen groaned, “Let’s change the subject from that loser to something—anything—else at all. How was your day?”
“Alright.” Lisa said.
Karen smiled deviously as a new subject came to her mind, “So… I had my first after school tutoring session with Mr. Marcs today.”
“I thought you were good at math…” Lisa frowned.
“Guys, I’m failing.”
“It’s because she’s too distracted by the teacher to actually try for good grades.” I explained, “Just don’t do anything illegal, Karen.”
“I haven’t…. yet.”
I rolled my eyes.
We chatted away at aimless conversation again until the bell rang. I quickly left in the opposite direction of my friends, heading to my next class.
I couldn’t get my mind off the fact that this man was real. I hadn’t imagined him. The thought alone sent shivers down my spine.
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