Lost
"Not the best way to kick off my morning…" Aiden Pearce mutters to himself as he moves out of an alley into a crowded Chicago street.
He had heard of a group of Viceroys organizing robberies. The plan was easy enough to stop, but a single misstep caused Aiden to be forced to escape several angry, heavily armed mercenaries.
He blends into the crowd with ease, glancing back at a couple of adversaries looking unsuccessfully for him. He knew they wouldn't waste much time searching; they tried not to travel far outside the Wards.
The vigilante pulls down the scarf that covered his mouth. Most people didn't even bother taking notice of him so early in the day. He glances at the clock at the front of a toy store, seeing it read 10am.
He stops at the corner of the street, sliding through profiler results on his phone. The Viceroys would have to wait for now, long enough for them to forget Aiden's interruption.
Absentmindedly, he feels a tugging on his jacket. No heed is taken until a small voice is heard beside him, "Mister?"
The hacker looks down to the right, meeting the eyes of a girl, no older than eight. Her hair was braided expertly and her big, brown eyes looked up at Aiden like he was some kind of superhero.
"Um…hello?" Aiden says, still not paying full attention to her, "You lost?"
The little girl pouts, "No!" her face softens, "well…yes…I kinda am."
"Where are your parents?" Aiden asks, not even really looking at her. He was secretly hoping the child's mother would run up soon.
"I don't know. I'm lost…and mommy said that if I ever get lost, I should ask a friendly person for help!" The girl was beyond happy that she achieved her mother's guidance. However, all Aiden thought of was what startlingly terrible advice that was.
The man stops looking at his phone, glancing at her, "And…you came up to me?"
"I've seen you on TV! You're that phone guy!" she jumps up, as if trying to get a better look at him, "Everyone calls you a fox, but you don't look much like a fox. You kinda just look like a guy—"
"Look, kid," Aiden interrupts the small girl, finally turning and looking down at her, "Where did you last see your parents last?"
"Oh…um…the park," She says, rocking back and forth, he tiny hands behind her back.
Aiden slowly looks down the street of bustling civilians then back, muttering, "The Park? The nearest one is five blocks from here..."
"Mister, are you talking to me?" the girl asks, tugging again on his jacket.
Aiden lowers himself to her eye level, "Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yeah! I was playing in the grass. My mommy and daddy were sitting on a bench…" The girl trails off, puffing her pinkish cheeks, seeming to be summoning the most powerful of her memory. Aiden felt a sudden, painful tinge in his chest.
"And?"
"OH! There was a tall guy, he had a bunch of pretty balloons. I followed him…and then…ah…I got lost…" The girl was either embarrassed or just completely clueless on the situation she was currently in. Aiden sighs again, pinching the bridge of his nose. He pulls out his phone, viewing his profiler. He usually pays attention to every fiber of information, but here he just needed the last name: Vancilla
He runs a search, the map spreads along all of Chicago. Yellow dots designate matches to the name. The hacker sees the girl leaning forward, looking at the screen with a huge smile on her face. Aiden moves the phone away, seeing two dots moving along the park. By this point they must have noticed their girl was missing.
"I'm going to get you back to your parents, alright. But you got to promise you won't wonder off, alright?" Aiden says, feeling bits of his being wanting nothing to do with her, wanting to just drop her to the nearest cop and walk away, but Aiden didn't exactly have a good relationship with the police, and it wasn't far.
"OK! Are we gonna walk together?" The girl asks, clearly already excited.
Aiden stands, holding out his hand, "Yes, but I walk pretty slowly." It was not that Aiden wanted to at this point. He'd rather lift her up and run the whole eight blocks if it meant ending the errand faster, but the last thing he needed was reports of a kidnapping.
The two start down the street. Aiden tries as he might to be as inconspicuous as possible. The girl certainly wasn't helping, beginning to skip as she held Aiden's hand, splashing in rain puddles with her dirty sneakers. She hums random songs ranging from various pop artists to cartoon themes. Aiden stays silent, listening to her antics with a growingly wary mind. He preoccupies himself with his phone, every now and again glancing back to make sure the girl was alright.
After two blocks the girl speaks to him, "You look really sad," she says, "Do you ever smile?"
Aiden looks away from his phone, speaking gently with a naturalness that he didn't notice "I guess I haven't had much to smile about lately."
"Why not?" The girl asks, frowning at the sheer audacity of her new friend not being happy.
Aiden moves his gaze ahead, "I've just had some family problems."
"Like what?" The girl tilts her head, her eyes wide. Aiden always forgot that you couldn't be vague with children, they wanted to know everything.
"It doesn't matter, I don't want you to be sad," Aiden decides to say. It seems to satisfy her, but only two minutes of silence followed before she spoke again:
"What's your name?"
Aiden pauses, then realizes he is speaking to a child, "Aiden."
"Aiden!" She repeats with a jump, splashing in another puddle. Water slashes on Aiden's pant legs, he couldn't help but smile.
It felt appropriate that the girl spoke her own name, but she was already back to humming as if the last few patches of dialogue never happened. Aiden felt compelled to ask her himself, but talking to her wasn't important, it was getting her back to her parents.
The two pass by another alley, waiting at a crosswalk. Aiden momentarily glances back, seeing a group of men emerging from said alley with very familiar orange on. Two speak quietly to one another, a third leans near a transformer, two more stepping out into the street.
And one looking right at Aiden.
The Viceroy darts back toward the group. Aiden's muscles tighten like a drawn bow. He pulls out his phone. Three seconds later the transformer explodes, most likely killing one of the Viceroys and scaring several civilians as Aiden hustles across the street. He almost forget about the person he had been caring for, who looks up at him with big, questioning eyes.
Don't freak her out was all Aiden could think of. He looks at her, "Hey, we are going to drive the rest of the way, alright?"
The girl pouts, digging her heels into the ground as Aiden leads her to a nearby minivan, "But I wanna walk!"
Aiden ignores her, unlocking the van and setting the girl in the back. He locks eyes with another Viceroy making his way across the crowded street. The hacker slips in the car, not-too-gently driving down the street. The girl continues to pout in the back, her arms crossed. She looks around the back of the van, pulling out a coloring book that was haphazardly set on the floor.
"I can draw," She says randomly, flipping around the book as Aiden's eyes dart to the rearview mirror.
"That's great," He says, turning as gently as he could down another street, "What do you like to draw?" He needed to keep her calm, but pretty soon the Viceroys would get their cars.
"Momma says I have a talent," the girl says with a toothy grin, "I draw lots of stuff! Mrs. Straighter said we get to draw tomorrow!"
"That is absolutely fantastic," Aiden comments, glancing back at the mirror. A group of beat-up cars scream around the corner, heading straight for them.
Aiden straightens, pulling out his phone. He couldn't hack and steer at the same time, at least not safely. Increasing his speed he looks between his phone and the girl. Reluctantly he says, "Hey, you want to play a little game?"
The girl's eyes brighten, "OK! But I kinda wanna see momma…"
Aiden tosses the phone to her, keeping his eyes on the road, "You see the little red dots?"
The girl fumbles with the phone, looking at it carefully, smiling, "Yeah! There are a lot of red dots…"
Aiden takes a moment to suppress his innermost need to curse before continuing, "I want you to get rid of all the little dots, so when a blue button flashes, I want you to tap the screen."
"This sounds boring!" She whines.
"No, no, it's fun! Just do it, and I'll drive to the park," Aiden assures her, seeing a car gaining up on him.
"Oh! It's blinking!" the girl shouts, Aiden turning another corner as the gaining car smashes violently into some street blockers. "Oh! One of the dots went away!"
"Great! Keep going!"
Aiden drives around the blocks, leading the cars through paths he could remember with the greatest potential. He was almost disturbed about how accurate the girl was at dispatching them as the cars dwindled down to a single remaining through various acts or steam pipes, blockers and raging traffic.
The girl seemed oblivious up to the steam pipe destroying one of the final cars. She drops Aiden's phone and looks out the back window of the van at the fuming mass of smoke.
"Woooah," She says, seeming to be processing this as the last car steers around the smoke. She suddenly drops back in the seat, "Mister Aiden, are those red dots bad people?"
Aiden takes a while to answer, his stolen van moving on a beeline to the park, "Well…"
"They are bad people!" The girl says in awe, "You are doing that magic stuff!"
"You know what, yes, I'm doing magic. And there is one dot left—"
The girl scrambles to pick up the phone, looking at it, "Oh…the bad people are in front of the arrow thing now—"
Aiden slams on the brakes at the middle of the alley, just nearly stopping a crash with the Viceroy car. He sees two men get out and with sudden energy he lunges into the back, pulling the girl close as a shower of bullets smashes at the windshield. He could faintly hear the small girl screaming from in his arms. Three grueling seconds dragged on before he could hear muffled voices and foots steps moving to either end of the car.
"Stay quiet," Aiden whispers to the girl now crying against him, gripping the front of his shirt. She quiets to a low whine. Aiden moves away from her. He thinks of Jackson at the yacht club, his eyes full of fear, witnessing Aiden's actions, "Close your eyes."
He doesn't wait to see if she does as both doors open at once. Aiden kicks the figure to his left somewhere in the stomach, wiping around to wrench the gun from the other and slamming him in the head with the butt of it. He whirls around one last time, shooting the pervious sloppily in the head.
Silence followed, silence only along with the girl's weeping. Aiden throws the gun out of the car, jumping out himself. He turns, crouching to where the girl was curled up at the floor, her eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
"It's over now…but don't open your eyes OK, we're gonna walk for a little while," Aiden says gently, taking the girl's small, shaking hand, leading her out of the car, wary of the blood.
"W…when do I open them?" She cries, her voice distorted through her tears.
"I'll tell you when," Aiden says, leading her around the far side of the alley. He speaks softly, "What's your favorite color?"
The girl struggles to speak, sniffing several times, keeping her eyes shut, "I like green…"
"I like green too," Aiden says, leading her into the street, the park just beyond them, "You were brave over there."
"Momma said that it's OK to be scared of stuff, is that true?"
Aiden leads her across the street, "Yes…it is. The difference is knowing that being scared is just a feeling, you can move past fear." The two enter the park, it was pleasant and warm, families lying in the grass with picnics and card games. Aiden looks down at the girl, "You can open your eyes now."
The girl does as he says, looking around the park. He grip on Aiden's hand tightens as she scans around for her parents. She shouts suddenly, "Momma?"
A woman appears from among a group of people that seemed to be consoling her. She steps forward, staring straight at the girl, speaking breathlessly, "Lena…!"
Aiden's blood goes cold, watching the girl run toward her mother to the sound of her name, slamming into her clumsily, her wiry arms around the woman's neck. The mother looks up slowly as she embraces her daughter, staring at Aiden.
The hacker could just barely register several of the woman's group pulling out their phones, speaking excitedly, "That's the Vigilante!" "He found that girl" "Quick, take a picture!"
Aiden was already walking back where he came. He distantly hears the woman patting after him, "Wait! Wait!" she says, a relieved sigh escaping her as Aiden comes to a stop, but doesn't turn to her. He could feel the cold, bitter memories, the very feeling he had in the past running rampant in his veins. He wanted to curse fate for that little girl's name.
The woman doesn't try to face him, but speaks with kindness and relief, "Thank you…thank you so much…my husband went to the police and—I couldn't bear to think if anything were to happen to her…" she trails off at Aiden's silence and the sound of shuffling people taking pictures and recording videos.
Aiden stares down at the concrete pathway, "She's a brave girl." He says, "A lot of kids would cry or scream when they got so lost."
He continues on his way, pulling out his phone, leaving the woman and her daughter Lena watching him from behind. He could practically feel the little girl's big brown eyes on him, Lena's eyes.
"No…not that Lena," He says to himself, assuring himself. Coincidence, nothing else.
Some part of Aiden's mind wanted to believe that Fate simply wanted to torture him; at least that would explain how he felt. But, he was smarter than that, he had more common sense than that.
Or maybe he didn't.
Aiden walks across the street, hearing the sounds of civilians discovering the bodies in the alleyway. He looks down at his phone, melting among the crowd, just like he always did.
Mrs. Straighter stands in a bright, elementary school classroom. The day went by just as fast and hectically as usual. However, Lena was hell bent on capturing the whole class's attention on some fantastical story she didn't take the time to listen to. Lena was a great student, if a bit energetic. She loved telling stories.
The teacher tacks yet another picture of Superman onto the hallway bulletin board. The little drawing was beyond adorable with poor figure's disproportioned arms and bright red cape. Their assignment was to draw their favorite superhero, needless to say Mrs. Straighter was hanging up a lot of Batmans and Supermans.
She lifts up Lena's paper. She was very secretive about her drawing, hiding it from view when the teacher came near. Now, she looks at the drawing of a man in a dark coat, a small rectangle in his hand. He stood on what she assumed was a street corner, a big smoke cloud floating on the road.
Mrs. Straighter frowns at the art, perhaps it was a hero she was unaware of. With a shrug she pins it to the board, moving on to the others briskly. After a moment she looks back at Lena's work, a small smile growing on her face.
What a great imagination she has.