Keith watched Eric sit at the table, smiling at his phone and typing. He’d been doing that a lot lately. It made Keith feel uneasy. Who was he texting? About what? Could they be a threat to their freedom? Eric wouldn’t let that happen, right? He was always the most concerned about that out of the three of them.
Keith got off the couch and went to the kitchen, passing the table. He opened the fridge to grab a drink while he tried to catch a glimpse of his phone. He was texting someone, but Keith couldn’t see who. He pulled a bottle of soda out of the fridge. He decided to ask, “Who are you texting?”
Eric turned to look at him. “Huh? Oh. A friend from the writing group.”
Keith grabbed a glass from a cupboard. “You did make actual friends?”
“Only one. He doesn’t talk to any of the others, either.”
He. Keith poured the soda into his glass. “What’s his name?”
“Ben.”
He put the bottle back in the fridge. “You think he’s trustworthy?”
Eric shrugged. “I know he doesn’t have anything against supers, at least. He’s fascinated by us.”
“Fascinated isn’t always a good thing.”
“I know. I swear I’ll be cautious, okay?”
Keith hummed as he took a sip. “What do you talk about?”
“Our stories and writing, mostly.”
“Why do you need to text for that? You already have a weekly meeting.”
“Because it’s nice to have someone to discuss ideas with when they come to you, and not have to wait a week.”
Keith frowned. All this gave him an uncomfortable twist in his stomach. He didn’t know what it was. “You can talk to me about it, too. I might not be a writer, but I can still discuss ideas.”
Eric sighed. “But then I’d have to explain the whole thing first. He already knows it.”
“Would that be so bad? You’ve told me about your stories before.”
“It’s easier like this, he understands it better. And he actually remembers what I tell him,” Eric ended in quite the accusing tone. It startled Keith.
“What? I remember. Maybe not all the intricate little details, but I know what your stories are about.”
“Well, he does remember the details.”
Keith looked away, tense and upset. He didn’t like that Eric compared them so directly. He didn’t even know this guy! Was remembering the details of his stories all that mattered to him?
Eric stood up from his chair and came up to Keith with a frown. Keith glanced at him for a moment before evading his eyes again and drinking from his glass.
“Hey.” Eric pushed the glass down. Keith didn’t let him catch his eye. Eric turned Keith’s face towards him with two fingers on his cheek. “Keith.”
Keith made eye contact and groaned a question.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m not replacing you, okay? I have different friends for different things, and Ben is my writing friend.” Eric smiled and rubbed his thumb over Keith’s cheek. “You’re still my friend for everything else. And Abi for whenever I want to complain about you,” he joked.
Keith chuckled. “Yeah, friend. I’m sure friends caress each other’s cheeks all the time.”
Eric retracted his hand, startled. He forced his hand down and got a grumpy look on his face. “Friend,” he insisted. He walked away.
“Right,” Keith called after him and took a sip of his drink.
Eric sat on his bed with his phone, still grumpy. He could only be friends with Keith, he didn’t have to touch him in particular ways. That was a fluke, he needed to get used to it. And he will! They’re just friends now, no more cheek touches.
Keith won’t be happy. Eric hoped he could accept it. If not, he didn’t know what would happen between them.
His door opened, snapping him back to reality. Abi stood in the doorway.
“It’s time,” she said.
Eric squinted. “For what?”
“We’re almost out of money.”
Eric let out a long, exhausted groan. This too, now? Ugh.
“Come on, we’ll go over the plan.”
“As if it’ll be any different than what we always do.”
“You never know.” She walked away.
Eric begrudgingly got off his bed to follow Abi.
Esprit drove the car to the back of a bank, Andern next to him. Tarian sat in the back, tapping her foot in anticipation. The street was dark, narrow and empty. The car stopped. Esprit got out and searched the area for something to smash into the wall. A boulder that came up to his hips lay on the ground. This city always had convenient rocks and boulders everywhere, Esprit had wondered for a long time where they came from. He turned back to the car, Andern and Tarian had stepped out too.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Ready?” he asked them.
Andern had a duffel bag ready to be filled. He nodded. Tarian gave him a thumbs up. Esprit lifted his hand, taking the boulder into his power’s grip. A weight came onto his hand, but not nearly as heavy as the boulder should be. He retracted his arm, ready to swing, feeling the vibrations in anticipation. With a loud grunt, he swung forward and his whole body went along. The boulder flew across the street and smashed into the wall, cracking the back of the bank open like an egg. A gaping hole was left, Esprit could already see the money. He grinned. Lucky shot, straight into the vault. This could be over quick, then.
Andern climbed through the hole and began filling the bag with money, turning invisible. Esprit and Tarian stood in front of it, ready to fight anyone off.
Security finally noticed them and came around to the back of the building. They pointed their firearms at them. Tarian made half a bubble of an energy shield around them. The guards fired a few bullets, they bounced off the shield. Esprit gave them a mocking gesture with his hand and tongue.
One of the guards spoke into his radio, saying, “Call the police, have them send Spark.”
Esprit groaned. “Leave the poor guy alone for once, would you? He’ll lose again.”
It didn’t take long before police surrounded them. Spark was fashionably late, as always. He probably didn’t want to bother either, knowing the outcome already.
Esprit looked at Tarian, she seemed to be struggling a little with all the bullets fired at them. He stepped closer to her and quietly asked, “You good?”
“I’m fine.”
“Okay, because it’s important if you’re not.”
“I know,” she snapped.
Electrical cracking came near. Esprit tensed. Spark appeared, surrounded by an aura of electricity. The bullets stopped. Sparing no time for pleasantries, Spark went several feet up with a supercharged jump and landed on top of the shield, releasing all the electricity onto it like a bolt of lightning. Tarian flinched and struggled to keep the shield up. Esprit prepared himself for a fight. Spark stayed on top of the shield and stared down at them, panting. Esprit saw the scar on his left eyebrow. He wasn’t sure why he noticed it all of a sudden, he’d seen it numerous times before. He smirked up at him.
“I almost thought you weren’t gonna show up.”
Spark let a single, quick chuckle out. “You wish.”
“Would’ve made sense if you had given up, you haven’t been able to catch us in four years. Why would this time be different?”
“Who said I want to catch you?” Spark grinned. “I like this cat-and-mouse game of ours, keeps me employed.”
“So, you’re making things difficult for us for the hell of it?”
Spark shrugged, keeping the same grin on his face.
Esprit noticed Tarian’s arms trembling beneath the shield, Spark’s weight must be too much for her. Esprit raised his hand and clenched his fist at Spark, then threw his arm to the side, throwing Spark off the shield into a cop car, making him yelp in fright. Spark groaned in pain and rubbed his head. He stood up, the car had a huge dent. He glared at Esprit.
Oh jeez, was that too much? Was Sparky mad now?
Spark charged himself up, letting electricity into his muscles. He ran into the shield with all the power he had, cracking like thunder on impact. Tarian cried out and dropped her arms to her side, the shield disappeared.
Esprit heard some noise behind him and ignored it, assuming it was Andern rummaging around in the vault.
Spark ran up to him, Esprit threw the boulder at him before he could get too close and electrocute him. Spark flew to the side and crashed into a wall, the boulder possibly crushing some of his ribs. Esprit winched, he hadn’t meant to break anything. Spark fell to the ground, he coughed and struggled to breathe. Tarian got the shield back up.
Esprit checked the hole in the wall. Andern hadn’t let himself be known to them for a while now. He looked inside. Nothing was moving. “Andy?” he quietly called out. No answer. He waved his hand around inside, hoping to feel something, but he wasn’t there. Where did he go? Did he get captured again? How? Spark was busy with them. And he’d been invisible the whole time, no one could’ve seen him, even when the shield was down. Esprit glanced at Spark. He sat on the ground with a hand on his chest, getting the air back in his lungs. There was no way he caught him. Esprit stepped closer to Tarian and asked, “Where’s Andern?” in a whisper.
Tarian was confused. “Isn’t he in the vault?”
Esprit shook his head.
“Then I don’t know,” she said, concerned.
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know.”
Esprit considered it. Spark was out of commission for now, the police didn’t know they were vulnerable yet.
“We should make a run for it.”
“Huh?”
“We can search for him later, but this might be our only chance to get away without him. I’ll shake up the dust and debris to make a dust cloud, then we’ll run.”
“What about the car?”
“Leave it, it doesn’t have a licence plate. They can’t track it to us.”
Tarian thought it over. She nodded.
Esprit stepped away and grabbed everything on the ground with both fists. He swung one arm to the side, making all the debris orbit around him like a dust storm. Dust obstructed everyone’s vision, people covered their eyes. No one came near, afraid of getting hit by the debris. Esprit grabbed Tarian’s hand and ran.
They ran all the way home, through back alleys and dark streets. Good thing their clothes were so dark. Inside, Abi collapsed on the couch and pulled her mask off her face. Eric leaned against the door and slid down, sitting on the ground and gasping for air after the miles-long run. He took his mask off too. He searched around the house, then frowned.
“For some reason,” he panted, “I hoped he’d be here.”
“What could’ve happened? He was by our side the whole time, wasn’t he? There’s no way Spark could’ve gotten him.”
Eric shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe he left the shield for a moment and something else got him?”
“Why would he? We were only planning to fill that one bag.”
Eric shrugged. “Maybe he had a change of plans?”
“He would’ve told us.”
“I don’t know, Abi. We’ll ask him when he’s back.”
“Should we search for him right now?”
“Let’s wait a day, as always.”
“Okay.”
Eric paced around his room. It had been several hours now and Keith wasn’t back yet. But a few hours wasn’t a day. He could be back any moment. But he needed their help last time, what if he can’t escape at all this time? No, calm down. This was Keith, he could always escape. If he can’t by himself, he’d only need a distraction again. He’ll come back, one way or another.
Eric gripped his hands into his hair and felt his eyes sting.
What if he didn’t, though? What would they do without him? What would Eric do without him? He’d always been by his side for ten years, he couldn’t imagine him being gone. He didn’t want to imagine it.
He jumped at a vibration in his pocket. He grabbed his phone, hoping to see a text from Keith, asking him to pick him up somewhere. But, to his surprise, it was from Ben.
“Hey, are you okay? In case you were near that bank or something.”
Eric was a bit confused. Why would he think he was anywhere near there? Regardless, he answered.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Okay, good. Can we meet up tomorrow? I want some critique.”
Eric thought about it. He supposed he could use the distraction.
“Okay, where?”
“At the library as usual? Unless you have a better idea.”
“No, library is fine.”
He’ll worry about finding Keith when the day was over. First, sleep. It was the middle of the night, why was Ben awake this late? Whatever. If he wanted critique, he might’ve been up writing until way too late.
