A Flame in the Darkness
Chapter One: The Chase
It had been a long night for Samantha Bennett. The full time college student was struggling to find words to describe what she had been through. A blustering roommate had entered her dormitory earlier before, drunker than she had ever seen before. She was covered head to toe in sweat. Apparently Friday night had much more interesting things in store for Sam's roommate, Eliza. It had taken her an hour to calm down. Samantha had pressed her to take a shower. The judgment impaired girl didn't pay notice when the knob had turned to cold water. Sam was half surprised she didn't leap out in shock- but stayed under the cascading coolness. Thank God for the essay that she had due the day after next that she hadn't even started on yet. Thank God she didn't go to that party. Samantha shivered at the thought of her awkwardly trying to mingle without clinging to Eliza.
After a while, her best friend, her comrade in arms, her partner in crime- had finally fallen asleep on Samantha's own dorm bed. Of course, Sam didn't mind. The girl was clean. However, after an hour or so of peaceful sleep, Eliza woke up complaining of a massive headache. "God damn, Gotham University sure knows how to throw a party," the red-headed teen stated. Samantha rolled her eyes. Eliza was only nineteen- approximately a half year older than her own eighteen year old self. The underage drinking had to come to a stop. Of course, Samantha found herself going to G.U.'s many parties, yet just for the dancing and socializing. Drinking had never been her thing. "That's what you get, Liz," Sam replied.
"I'm not going to make it, Sam. This is the end," Eliza said dramatically. Another sarcastic roll of the eyes came from her auburn-haired friend. "I'll get you some Tylenol." Samantha stood up and reached for the pill bottle on her bedside table, only to have her heart fall she felt the lightness of the container. Empty. "Damn. Sorry Liz, all out tonight." Eliza replied with a groan. "The store should have some. Across the road."
Samantha shot her a look that said, "are you dumb?". A glance at the clock revealed her fear. "Eliza. It's two in the morning. We're in Gotham- let alone the University campus, mind you. We're smack in the middle of the city. Do I need to remind you about the crime rate…? I'll just borrow some from Rebecca-" Eliza quickly interjected. "Gone for the weekend. So is the entire wing, it seems." "Dear God, you're just asking for me to get mugged, aren't you?" Samantha said and stood up. She slid on her running sneakers, just in case, and slipped on a light jacket to protect her from the autumn air. "If I'm not back in thirty minutes, call the cops. I'm just going across the road." Eliza flashed a lazy thumbs-up in agreement. With a heavy sigh, she snatched up her dorm keys and cell phone and left the building.
It was much cooler outside than she had expected it to be. The brisk fall wind scratched at every patch of unclothed skin as she walked. It was a paved pathway for most of the way there. The store sat just across the road, in view even as she left her dorm building. Thankfully, the dorms were close to the edge of campus. Something felt odd about this time of night, however. Usually there were students milling about coming from and going to parties- the weird kids who hang out by the clock tower in the early hours of the morning were strangely absent- the only sounds were of her own footsteps, and the wind breathing through the trees. It was ominous. Samantha tucked her hands closely into the pockets of her jacket as she traversed on. She had reached the edge of campus now, and was approached with a city street. She looked both ways, and began to cross. But as she crossed, the lights of the little convenience store fluttered out. Inside and outside- even the four little gas pumps seemed to lose power. Her curiosity and nervousness had reached a new high. As she approached the store, there was no sign of life inside. No cashier, no clerk- the doors were even locked. "Damn!" Samantha swore to herself.
As the teen turned around, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. Something dark. She turned around completely to see a strange, shadowy figure standing about ten yards away. "Hello?" Samantha shouted out. Her hand grasped around her cell phone in her pocket, ready to call 911. The figure remained silent. In fact, several other figures emerged from the darkness. "Son of a bitch; I told you Eliza." At that, Samantha took off in a dash. All those years of high-school track had led up to this moment. The once crisp air now bit at any exposed skin. Neck, hands, face, ears- all of it was quickly becoming numb; either with fear, or with the cold, Samantha wasn't sure. All she knew was that she needed a safe place. Now.
There was only one place she knew of that wasn't too far off- it was a newly created Reach Medical Clinic; it was open all day and night, every day and weekend, as the advertisements stated. Right now, it was her only chance. She took off in that direction, with her pursuers hot behind her. Her hand slipped into her pocket to get the police on the line- only to find that it had somehow slipped out during the run. A jacket with shallow pockets was never a good idea. Samantha swore loudly, but continued on.
As the medical center was in eyesight, she found herself quickly out of breath. Her legs had had all they could take. Never once before had she felt this exhausted and out of breath. Footsteps clambered behind her. This was the end, she decided, as she collapsed to the ground. She would be mugged- killed- no one would notice until tomorrow. She was positive that Eliza had passed out on her bed again; that she was sleeping like a baby without a worry in the world. Her vision quickly faded to black.
((Woo for cliffhangers! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of my Young Justice series. I plan to get a chapter up every day, but we'll see how that works with my college/work schedule. I love writing this so far, so it should be no problem! Not much action in this chapter, but next chapter we'll see Samantha meet the team. Things will get interesting, I promise.))
-OpaqueSky