The city lights seemed to stretch on forever like the vast night sky. But he wasn’t paying any attention to the lights; all he could see was the way her face lit up when she starred out over the illuminated city. Her short cut dirty blonde hair fell to the right of her smooth porcelain face masking her dark brown eyes. Dimples formed in her rosy red cheeks as her full glossy lips grew into a smile. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, not that he wanted to. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
She had moved into his building a few weeks ago and up until now they had only exchanged glances in the hallway. He never really saw her talking to anyone actually and no one had ever seen the rest of her family, her parents never opened the door it was always her. It was almost as if she lived alone but his apartment building was way too expensive for a seventeen year old to afford on her own. Her whole life was a mystery to the rest of the building but that was about to change tonight. He finally had a chance to really talk to her and he was determined to get to know this girl because this wasn’t the type of girl you let walk out of your life she was a girl you fight for.
He had found her up on the roof and took a spot next to her at the edge of the building, the two of them could hear a helicopter in the distance and it sounded like it was hovering in one spot like it was waiting for something.
“The city looks so beautiful at night doesn’t it?” he asked her.
“This view is the only thing that’s made this move bearable,” she replied, “I’ve loved the city since I was a little girl, it’s always been my dream to live here.”
“Where did you live before this?” he asked awkwardly moving closer to her.
“Oh I’ve lived all over the place. I move around all the time, I’ve met so many people but I never really get to know them,” she said with a slight smile.
“Well we can change that tonight,” he said as he reached his hand out, “I’m Ethan.” She shook his hand and said, “Natasha,” as her smile grew bigger.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you Natasha,” Ethan said grinning from ear to ear. She blushed and looked toward the ground and with a giggle said, “It’s amazing to meet you too.”
This couldn’t be real; he never did this well talking to pretty girls, his palms weren’t sweaty and his voice wasn’t shaking. The whole conversation felt like a scene in a play, like it had been rehearsed so that all his usual awkwardness would be avoided. Ethan was on top of the world talking to Natasha, but soon something tore him right off his tower and back into his sordid past that he thought he had escaped.
The bullet soared over three rooftops and hit Ethan right in the shoulder, he dropped onto his back and Natasha covered her head and dropped to the ground screaming. The helicopter that they had heard before flew in and fixed itself ten feet above the rooftop. Four armed men in black armored suits dropped out and circled the two teenagers. One of the men held Natasha down as the other three pulled Ethan to his knees.
“Don’t you ****ing touch her!” Ethan roared at the attackers.
“Now now Ethan, we won’t hurt your pretty little friend,” the man paused, “as long as you cooperate.” He stepped in front of Ethan and pointed a rifle in his face, “as long as you come with us and don’t cause any problems she’ll be able to walk away from this, but if you try anything she will die.”
Ethan looked toward Natasha and saw tears streaming down her face as she pleaded for the man to let her go. This was his fault. She was being used as leverage because she was up on that rooftop with him. He would never be able to forgive himself if she got hurt because of him but he knew how many people could be hurt or worse if he went with them. His mind was going a mile a minute trying to think of an alternative.
“What’s the plan Ethan?” the man asked pushing the barrel of the gun closer to his face. The scared and helpless look on Ethan’s face suddenly changed into a slight grin, he looked the man dead in his eyes and calmly said, “**** you.”
The man turned and said, “Kill her.” Natasha screamed helplessly as the man holding her raised a pistol toward her head. Ethan clenched his hands tight and a thick wall of ice formed inside the barrel of the man’s gun. He pulled the trigger and the barrel exploded into a thousand pieces.
“What the hell?” the man said as he staggered backwards. Ethan took advantage of the momentary confusion and grabbed the gun barrel in his face pulling it closer to him bringing the man holding it closer to him as well. He landed a strong blow on the man’s jaw causing him to drop his gun and step back. Ethan jumped to his feet and turned to the two men behind him, he spread all his fingers out and ice began to grow over his hand forming a claw. He pushed his hand forward into one of the soldiers impaling him through the stomach. He pulled the icy claw from the soldier and let him drop to the ground. He turned and did the same to the second soldier who was too shocked to even move. Ethan moved on to the man that was holding Natasha and with one hard kick to the chest knocked him right over the edge of the building. A shot rang out and Ethan dropped to his knees as blood began to run down his back. He looked behind him to find the one remaining soldier climbing back into the helicopter with smoke trailing from his gun barrel. Ethan spun around and thrust his right hand forward sending a long icicle hurling toward the helicopter. It pierced through the helicopters tail and exploded into a cloud of grey and white mist. Once the mist disappeared Ethan could see that the helicopters tail rotor had been frozen solid. The helicopter, with the soldier still in it, began to spin toward the ground crashing onto the city street followed by screeching brakes and blaring horns.
Ethan stepped toward Natasha but she crawled away toward the edge of the building.
“It’s ok, you’re safe Natasha, they’re gone,” he said reassuringly.
“You… you killed them,” she stammered as she pointed toward the impaled bodies lying on the rooftop.
Ethan’s voice rose, “I had to; they were going to kill you. I made a choice, a choice that you don’t seem too grateful about.”
“I am grateful I really am, it’s just a lot to take in,” she said slowly, “like how you made ice out of nothing and like that right there,” she said as she pointed to his shoulder where his bullet wound was slowly being coated over with ice. Once it and the wound on his back had been completely covered the ice cracked and fell away revealing a new patch of fully healed skin. “What are you?” she asked with an intrigued and terrified look.
“It’s a long story, one we don’t have time for right now,” Ethan said as he pulled her up from the ground, “I know things look really bad right now and I’m not really the person that you want to put your faith in but those soldiers were not the only ones, there will be more and they will be here soon. Now that they’ve seen you with me they’ll be after you too. It may seem crazy after everything that just happened but the safest place for you to be right now is with me.” They heard another helicopter far off in the distance, “getting off this roof would be pretty safe too.”
He took her hand and led her down the stairs back to their floor, they stepped out from the stairwell and saw a door wide open at the end of the hall. Two men wearing black armor and carrying guns stepped into the doorway. “**** they’re already here,” Ethan spat as he led Natasha down the hallway. They crept closer and closer to the door and just as they were about to sneak past it one of the soldiers stepped into the hallway and came face to face with Ethan. The soldier was blinded by a cloud of ice that shot from Ethan’s palm. He shouted and lunged forward waving his arms blindly, his hands met with Natasha’s shirt and pulled her in close to him. She shouted and smashed her fist into his nose. He pushed back against her sending her stumbling through the open doorway. The other soldiers in the room lifted their guns but Ethan didn’t give them any chance to use them. He leapt through the doorway waving the pistol he had stolen from the soldier in the hall out in front of him. He put two shots into one of the soldier’s chests and hurdled over a sofa right into the second soldier. Ethan knocked the gun from the man’s hands and landed a few punches on his chest before slamming his elbow into the man’s nose. Blood streamed from the man’s nose as he dropped to his knees unconscious. Ethan turned his attention to the last soldier and found a gun being held to Natasha’s head. His eyes widened and his hands clenched tight once again filling the gun barrel with a thick wall of ice. When the barrel exploded Natasha elbowed the soldier in the stomach and tried to run but he grabbed her hair with his free hand and spun her around so she was facing him. He landed a hard punch right on her jaw. The punch sent her stumbling backward tripping over a sofa as she clenched her jaw tight. Ethan’s vision went blurry when he saw Natasha get hit; the only thing he could focus on was the soldier. He slammed his palm into the man’s chest smashing him against the wall. When Ethan lifted his hand there was a long icicle protruding from the man’s chest. He tried to reach out and grab Ethan but the icicle had impaled him on the wall. The icicle exploded into a cloud of grey and white mist just like the one in the helicopter had, and just like with the helicopter the man’s chest and stomach had been frozen solid from the icy blast. Ethan helped Natasha up and carried her out of the room not looking back as the ice spread through the man’s body freezing him to the wall.
Ethan carried Natasha to the elevator and stood her up once the doors closed. As they neared closer and closer to the lobby they could hear sirens, someone had called the police after hearing the gun shots and seeing a helicopter crash in the street.
“Just act normal when we get out there,” Ethan said, “no one will suspect a few teenagers of knowing about any of this.” Natasha just nodded obviously horrified by the ordeal she had just been through. They reached the lobby and hurried out of the building past the line of police cars avoiding anyone who tried to ask them questions and headed right down the street. After walking a few blocks Ethan hailed a cab and told the driver to go to the Ridgewood Savings Bank on Parsons Boulevard.
“Why are we going to a bank?” Natasha asked him.
“I have a safe-deposit box at that bank, I need to get a few things from it,” Ethan replied. They pulled up to the bank and Ethan paid the cab driver, they both stepped onto the sidewalk and Natasha looked around the street nervously. Ethan put his arm around her reassuringly and said, “don’t worry we’ll be safe once we get what I need from my deposit box.”
They walked into the bank and Ethan stepped up to the counter and asked the teller to open safe-deposit box number 167. After showing his ID the teller brought he and Natasha back to the deposit boxes and left them alone to gather their things. Ethan opened the box and dumped the contents onto the table in the middle of the room. Lying in a pile on the table was a manila folder filled with papers, a small drawstring bag, a set of keys, a shiny silver plated pistol and five thousand dollars in cash. “What the hell is all this?” Natasha asked him.
“I have deposit boxes like this in banks all over the city. This isn’t my first rodeo with those bastards that attacked us. I always have a contingency plan. Each box has a set of keys that opens up a different apartment. I have so many safe houses in this city; in the time it would take to search them all we could be hundreds of miles away.” He tucked the gun in the back of his belt and tossed the keys and the cash into the bag and tucked the folder under his arm. “Alright, let’s get the hell out of here,” he said quickly leading Natasha to the street to find another cab.
The cab dropped them off in front of a run-down old apartment building in a shady neighborhood.
“This is your safe house?” Natasha asked him. “I told you I have tons of these all over the city I can’t afford to have them all be penthouses,” Ethan replied.
They took the stairs because the elevator was out of order and no one in the building bothered to get it fixed. Once they reached the fifth floor they quickly walked down the hall to apartment 5G. Ethan unlocked the creaky old door and opened it up into a small room that was lit only by the dim street lamps outside the window. A thin layer of dust covered every inch of the room.
“Looks like you get a lot of use out of this place,” Natasha said covering her mouth.
“It’s not pretty but it gets the job done,” Ethan said turning toward her, “do you see any men with guns in here?” He locked the door, pulled the blinds shut, turned on the small lamp in the corner and put the manila folder on the sofa in the middle of the room. “We should be safe here,” he paused, “for now at least.” He took a seat on the dusty sofa and a pulled the gun from his waistband leaving it on the table in front of him.
“Natasha I’m so sorry you got dragged into this mess but you just wouldn’t be safe by yourself. You’ll be safe with me, no one that they send can hurt me, but that’s why they want me. There is a serum in my blood that alters human DNA, that’s why I can do what I do and that’s why I’ll be able to protect you. I promise I am going to fix this, it may take some time but I will get you home.”
Natasha looked down at the floor, “I know Ethan, I know everything.” Ethan looked at her puzzled, “What are you talking about?”
Natasha still wouldn’t look at Ethan, “I was dragged into this long before I met you,” she said her voice quivering. “I have no real home to go back to,” she paused and a tear rolled off her face and sizzled off into a puff of steam when it hit the floor, “but they said they can give me one.” he lifted her head and Ethan saw that her eyes were glowing red. She slammed her fist into Ethan’s chest creating a fireball that blasted him across the room. He smacked into the wall and fell to the floor with a thud. Ethan rose and lifted his hands to defend himself but before he could react Natasha grabbed the pistol off the table and put two bullets into his chest. He gasped for air and slumped back against the wall. Natasha walked toward him as he slowly slid to the floor.
I’m sorry Ethan, I really am, but we need that serum,” she knelt down next to him and stuck a needle in his arm. Ice began to grow over the fresh wounds on Ethan’s chest, “You were with them? This was all an act?” Ethan choked out. “I did was I was told, established a cover and got in close to you. I was put in place in case the head on attack didn’t work,” Natasha paused, “like you said, you always have a contingency plan.”
A tear rolled down Ethan’s cheek. Natasha’s face grew more sympathetic, “I took no pleasure in this, honestly, but this is much bigger than just you and I, this serum can bring an end to this war.”
“You’ll just be starting a new war Natasha. You don’t know what these people are capable of,” Ethan mumbled before dropping his head. The last thing Ethan saw before everything faded to black was the needle in his arm start to fill with blood.
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