Invisible Girl

Chapter Three

The fire had almost grazed her nose when she turned half-ghost, still vaguely visible to the naked eye. Warren didn't give her a chance to gather her bearings as she almost flickered back to her solid state when he drew his flaming fist back. Letting out a small shriek, she went intangible and invisible completely, allowing him to fall through where she once stood. Warren was stunned by the usual nauseous wave that occurred when she defied nature, she took the chance to get as far away as possible.

Not thinking twice, she ran over to where Lash was to find some sort of cover, where he was busy hanging Tom off the lamp post by the back of his oversized shirt, while his glasses were on the floor, rendering him practically blind. That sure didn't take long. Tom was more of a study, someone who connected the strengths and weaknesses from the sidelines. Sadly, his physical traits still needed some work as he tried to wriggle himself free, blindly swiping his fists around, hoping to catch the bully. He really stood no chance against the bully.

"Come back and fight me like a man, you scalawag!" he jeered, not at all intimidating. The taller boy didn't pay him any mind.

"I don't want to fight Warren!" she told Lash, giving a tug on his sleeve. "He's scary!"

He jumped at her sudden voice since she was still invisible but he turned his head toward her general direction. Running feet could be heard as the Hero charged at the Villain, the taller boy oblivious to the girl's horror.

"Man up. He's not that scary—"

Before he could finish, Sammy had maintain her solid body and invisibility in order to shove Lash as hard as she could, making him topple over just in the nick of time. Since she had used all of her momentum to move the Hero, she didn't have enough of her balance to pull herself back up and out of the way or focus quick enough to revert back to being fully intangible. The inhumanly hot fist came and slammed into her shoulder, forcing her back into view and sending her flying off her feet with a sharp shriek. She hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop a fair distance away and it seemed as if the whole gym fell silent. Even Lash and Warren seemed a little stunned.

Warren's dark eyes widened when he saw Samantha fly at his hit. He honestly thought he had just missed Lash, not that she had pushed him out of the way and in stayed within his range. To everyone's surprise, she was back on her feet relatively quickly and she disappeared again. Warren was shoved back with what felt like an improvisation football tackle, a shoulder ramming into him to knock him back. Lash took the chance and his arms stretched to wrap around the fire boy's neck. He recovered his balance and took a deep breath in order for his entire being to be encased in fire, making Lash let go instantly with a hiss.

"What do we do?" asked Sammy, still out of sight. Lash didn't notice the slight hitch in her voice as he glared at the dark clad boy who was now making his way toward the helpless "citizen", still flaming and unapproachable. His face lit up as a thought struck him. He whispered quickly to her and after a slight pause, she agreed.

"We're not done yet, hot head!" yelled Lash, earning the other's attention. His striped arms raced out and knocked his feet clean out from under him. The timer was down to the final minute and they just had to keep their Hero away for a little longer. Boomer had shortened the time frame for the rescue now that they were closer to becoming Heroes.

Warren tried to get up but an unseen person pushed him back down, the back of his head lightly bouncing against the floor. There was no indication that a person was there but he could distinctively feel two hands pushing against the P.E chest plate, the weight of a person now apparent to him. The Sidekick. The invisibility power was starting to become a real pain in the rear for the Hero and his distressed citizen.

"Please just stay down," she whispered. The voice was clear too, not muffled over or fading despite her fluctuating physical state.

"No," he gritted.

She was the Villain, he was the Hero. He couldn't back down just because she asked nicely. He fought to get back up and he didn't hear her breath catch in her throat. She pushed him back down with extra force and his body almost convulsed when something freezing entered his chest cavity, past the armor and even his own skin. Something was inside him, an unknown pressure but there was nothing physically touching him, the sense and weight of her hands had oddly vanished, yet not completely all at once. His heart was pounding against something, thumping against something physically solid. He could feel his chest tighten, trying to force out whatever was invading him. This time, he could hear someone almost gagging but he couldn't focus on it as the foreign pain sizzled within him, unable to tell if the sound was even coming from his own mouth.

"Oh no..." came a breath of a whisper. He didn't even hear her, his pulse pounding away in his ears.

"Three...two...one..." counted down Coach Boomer.

The blonde doll fell into the death trap and its limbs popped out of socket on contact with the spinning metal blades as the timer buzzed.

"Looks like you guys failed to save your citizen. Hit the showers," huffed the coach. No sooner had the words been said, the doors slammed closed as Sammy ran out unseen, the feeling leaving the fire Hero like a taunt string being suddenly cut.

Sammy had showered but she could not scrub out the feeling. The revolting sensation of Warren Peace's heart beating against her hand. Simply recalling it made her want to throw up again and she had to force the bile down. She sat down on one of the benches by the door only dressed in her pants and bra, wringing her hands in her shirt. Tears brimmed but she tilted her head up and willed them to fade as she sniffed again.

She could have killed him, purely by accident. If she had made one wrong move—

"Hey, you done yet?" Lash pushed the door opened and leaned against it, unabashed that he was standing in the girl's locker room or even the fact that she didn't have a shirt on. He had some nerve or sheer lack of consideration.

"Come on, class is almost done. You've got the schedule right?" he asked, checking his phone with the flip of his wrist.

"Get out."

He raised an eyebrow at her voice, not taking her seriously and scanned her exposed top with no shame whatsoever, the cellphone snapping close. Her emotions were so tangled she didn't even remember to have the decency to blush under his gaze.

"Nice rack. C, maybe?"

She got to her feet slowly, unsure of how to work her body for the moment, feeling oddly disconnected physically while her emotions were coiling up tightly inside of her. Her feet scuffed forward, almost as if they were asleep, the sharp pains shooting up her legs.

"You don't even want to know what happened—why I ran? What happened to Warren?" she asked softly, as if she wanted him to be worried and to ask her what was wrong. He shrugged, still eyeing the ugly bruise that marred her shoulder courtesy of Peace. She hardly noticed him staring at it.

"What do I care what happens to Peace? I thought you just wanted to get out of class. From what I could see, you just had him pinned. What's the big deal?"

Her fists clenched. So, he couldn't connect the dots. She honestly shouldn't have expected him too. The power she carried tended to be a difficult one to understand it seemed. Her jaw closed tightly as her resistance fell, the hot liquid rolling down her cheeks. Now Lash was starting to look worried. Tears were never good.

"What the hell are you crying over? Boo hoo, we were the Villains. We won. The end. It was no big deal." She shook her head.

"You don't get it, you don't know what I did!" she cried out. He tried to step further into the locker room but she cut him off, shaking her head still.

"Get out! Get out now!" He didn't move to get out like she had said and so she reached for her grey jacket and advanced toward him, using her striped shirt to halfway conceal herself with one arm while gripping her jacket tightly with her other. She tried to order him again.

"Get out!"

He stumbled back into the hall as she continued to walk toward him, jacket a lethal weapon in her clutch.

"What's your problem?" he yelled back. If there was anyone else in the hallway, they didn't notice or particularly care. She only shook her head again, unable to explain it properly. How could she possibly convey what it felt like to have a heart beat against her hand? The way that every pulse it made fit into the curve of her palm perfectly? She just about gagged again at the thought. No, she couldn't tell anyone.

"Just get out!" she cried out, her voice wavering.

"I'm already out, you psycho!" He finally turned tail and she took the chance and whipped her jacket, hitting him square in the back of the head. She hoped that the zipper scratched him.

"Get out! And don't you ever, ever ask me to do that again!" she screamed, volume cracking halfway though. He disappeared around the corner and she ran back into the locker room, slamming the door closed.

Warren stepped from behind a row of lockers, glancing back at where the scene had taken place. Originally, he was going to retrieve the watch he had left in his locker, but now he had witness something a bit more interesting. His hand absent mindedly rubbed his chest, where her hands had literally touched his heart. He walked away with more than his share of thoughts to mull over.

Sammy was first on the bus at the close of the day and she picked out her window seat and tossed her backpack onto the open seat next to her, the international sign for no one to even try to take that seat. Other students loaded the bus and abided her rule, leaving her seat unoccupied. She brought her feet up onto the seat as her music played, successfully blocking out everything. Her inner turmoil about P.E class with Save the (stupid) Citizen and then Lash just being a jerk was still fresh to her, and rightly irritating. Her skin prickled in discomfort and she rubbed her arms to get rid of the goosebumps that had appeared again.

Other students boarded the bus and avoided her seat, which was normal and also amplified by her backpack. She just wanted a quiet ride home, save her music. So, when someone moved her backpack she turned with the best glare she could conjure, but it fell away instantly when Warren Peace took the seat next to her. At first she blinked a few times to make sure that her eyes weren't playing a mean joke on her. Yes, it was him. Warren, with his long dark hair and the faded red streaks that had always existed ever since she knew him, and the familiar thick leather jacket he sported every now and then. Sitting next to her like it was something they always did. She could only daydream such an adorable concept.

Immediately, she flashed invisible and scooted closer to the window, trying to shrink as small as possible without phasing out of the bus by accident. He quirked an eyebrow and placed his bag on the floor next to hers.

"Why do you do that? Vanish when I'm nearby," he asked, bluntly but not quite rude. Her cheeks pinked and she looked away even though he couldn't see her. She shifted awkwardly in her seat before giving a mumbled answer.

"I don't know...a kind of habit I guess?" He nodded in understanding.

"So what happened in Boomer's class was that a habit too?"

She inhaled sharply and flickered back her normal state, turning in her seat so to face him.

"Oh my god, I am so, so, so sorry about that!" she apologized with the utmost sincerity, eyes misting over again. "That wasn't supposed to happen! Heck, I didn't even know that I could do that!"

He chuckled and she allowed confusion to written plainly across her face at the sound. What did he find so funny? She almost killed him! That was not a laughing matter!

"It's not funny!" she told him, stunned that she had to remind him of such.

"You're right," he agreed. "But I'm pretty lucky that you're the one with such a lethal power." This time she quirked an eyebrow.

"Lucky? It could've been a disaster! I didn't know what I was doing!" Apparently, he was not as nearly as concerned as she was about the status of his heart in her hand.

Warren was about to speak again when Sammy disappeared again as a stripe clad boy walked up the bus aisle. Lash spared him a look but the fire boy didn't even acknowledge him.

"That's odd, usually you're off skulking in the back, not here with the rest of us social folk," taunted Lash. His brown eyes noticed the purple messenger bag and a knowing smirk formed. Though he didn't say anything as he took the seat directly behind them. Warren looked back at Sammy's seat and she refused to become visible again. She still didn't want to hold any of Lash's attention.

The flying bus landed and they came to the second bus stop, the silence still hanging in the air among the three students. Some kids made to get up, including Sammy and Lash. The tall boy was faster by far and was up and out of the bus in record time and she caught a flash of purple hanging over his shoulder and she groaned. He had snagged her backpack, which gave her no choice but to follow him and take it back, her science assignment was in her folder.

"See you," she mumbled to Warren. He gave a brief nod in return.

She had to jog to catch up with the boy and she fell in step beside him, tired. All she wanted to do was go home, chat with her mom and maybe go for a jog later. And eat dinner, she was starving.

"Are you going to give me my bag back? I have homework to finish," she informed him.

"Are you going to show yourself?" he asked back. "C'mon shorty, surely being invisible gets boring." She shrugged, not that he would see.

"Not really." She snatched her bag back and it vanished as she slung it over her shoulder. "It gives me ninja moments."

As soon as she flickered back he raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Ninja moments?" he scoffed. "How old are you, five?" She gave a humored pout.

"It gets the job done." They made it down the first block in silence and she was tempted to play her ipod, though it would be kind of rude. Not that he would care.

Apparently he could only keep quiet for so long, seeing as he had to ruin the nice silence that had bubbled over.

"So, feel like explaining yet?"

Eyebrows rose again and she decided to play innocent. She'd rather not relive it, in fact, she would like bury it deep in the back of her mind and lose the file forever and ever.

"Explain what?" She almost stilled completely when something flashed across his features. But when she blinked, it had vanished since he angled his face away. If she had to guess she would have said concern, but it had been too brief for her to properly tell.

"You know what," was all he said.

A patch of quiet had made itself known before she finally decided to confess. One of her incisors snagged her bottom lip to keep it from trembling.

"I had pinned him, like you saw, but then I had accidentally phased. Well, I kind of meant to, so to make him a little dizzy, but it didn't work out the way it was supposed to." Lash looked back at her, expression giving nothing away, still cool as usual. She paused again, not wanting to answer still.

"Yeah? Sooooo?" he encouraged. "What happened after that?"

A lump in her throat threatened to prevent her from answering, but she swallowed and forced the words out. "I...didn't phase through like I should have…I touched his heart...I…I could feel it beating..."

Sammy didn't even care to notice how Lash was still on her same path home. She couldn't really recall if he was on her same bus stop. She always thought he was the next one over. Oh well.

"Hey, Sam-" Before he could say her name, she had vanished again and ran the rest of the way home. She didn't want to even see his face, how he would regard her. The freak who could stop hearts.

Lash sighed loudly, grey jacket still in hand.

"She'll want this thing sooner or later," he mumbled to himself as he walked the rest of the way home. He still had to help unpack and everything. No way were the movers going to screw with his stuff.

The door closed behind her as she ran into her house. Warm, safe and secure home. Her mom reminded her that she promised to take the casserole over to their new neighbors. She only nodded and made her way to her room where she landed on her soft bed, face down on her pillow, exhausted.

REVIEW! I'm sooo tired, like you won't believe but I'm really loving this story and I've got scenes constructing themselves in my head as I work and listen to music =] Please, please, I love your thoughts! I know it's short, but hey, I'm running on nothing long days and random sleep patterns =]