"Gotcha."
To put it simply, Celine was shocked. A searing pain rose in her chest. Though she was durable, she had her limits. And this Follin fellow had a good aim. She'd never been shot at before, so that was a first.
Her coat was now even messier due to the dark red stain that was spreading on her chest.
Dani was yelling, Rosalinda was trying to get him not to yell, and in the middle of all this Celine's eardrums tried to heal themselves but still rang anyway. It helped a little, at least.
Celine opened her eyes and the world was still spinning for a good few seconds after she did.
It was annoying more than anything else. Her ears hadn't finished sorting themselves out, and her chest hurt, and her legs were like jelly… but it didn't really feel like dying.
'Do not be ridiculous, how could I know what is and is not dying?' Celine thought to herself. 'But at the same time… If I WAS dying, I thought I would feel different.'
She tried to stand up, fell down, and Follin laughed.
"Between you and me, this has been easier than it had any right to be. I've just been sitting here cooling my heels for a few hours while you three have been chasing after my Akrillic," Follin began, and he held up the small Stand that was now lifeless in his hands. "I think it would be way quicker for me if you just gave up and died. He's paralyzed, you're bleeding, and I have places to be. You see, I have a water aerobics class at seven. And I really don't want to be late again."
"Forget about your water class! What about me?" Dani said. "I'm still stuck! I can't move my anything!"
"It's not MY problem what you do with your life. I have mine to live, and you have yours."
Celine stood up and managed not to fall over this time.
"Not your problem? You shot me in the chest," Celine snapped. Her patience with this man and his six separate pants pockets.
"Celine, careful," Rosalinda warned as she sat by Dani's side, "You're still hurt."
Follin raised his gun again, but before he could aim, let alone fire, Celine had activated Sunglasses At Night's ability. Follin shot blindly.
Celine, who had the luxury of sight in her Stand's ability, watched as the bullet thankfully missed them all. Follin had a good aim but bad spatial memory, apparently. Celine took further advantage of her ability and climbed up the creaky metal stairs.
Follin turned and pointed the gun at Celine, but she stepped broadly to the side. The shot missed and hit the warehouse's thin metal wall instead.
Celine took another opportunity and stepped behind Follin. She wrenched the gun away from him, with surprisingly little resistance, and nudged it away. It could have come in handy, but she was already plain tired of gunshots right now. She instead pushed him toward a door at the end of the small platform.
Follin pushed back, the heels of his shoes squeaked against the metal platform as he tried to stay in place, but he was pushed onto the fire escape anyway.
Once Celine was outside, she deactivated Sunglasses At Night. Follin still tried to push against her, but she shoved back with much more force. Soon the two were up on the roof. Follin was sliding back considerably now, and his foot caught the end of the roof.
Celine grabbed Follin by the collar of his 70s-era vest and hoisted him up.
"Go ahead and drop me. See what I care," Follin remarked. From up close, she could vividly smell the man's cheap cologne.
Celine held him there. There was a few seconds of silence between them.
She took this brief pause to reflect on what had just happened. If it weren't for her natural over-healing, she'd surely be dead by now. Even then, the wound was still bleeding and would take a long while to heal. Dani was still paralyzed. And it was all this man's fault.
One of her hands slipped, supposedly, and Follin almost fell. He gulped and looked away.
"On second thought, maybe I do care," Follin spluttered. "So I shot you, yeah. Forget that, and we can just go off to where we need to be."
"Not until you fix my friend."
"Sure, I can do that. Piece of pie. Now help a man out, would you?"
Celine pulled the man back onto the roof, and Follin squirmed up until he was standing again. Just to be sure that Follin wouldn't try something dangerous, foolish, or both, Celine held onto his arm. She led him back down the fire escape, down the metal platform, and over to Dani.
Dani was splayed out on the floor, he didn't move much except for a tilt of the head.
Pantera leapt out from behind Follin and bit him on the leg. Follin howled in pain.
"Celine! Don't worry, I got 'em," Rosalinda said, as Pantera continued to teethe on Follin's ankle.
"Wait. Let him go," Celine said, she hoped that Follin wouldn't go back on his offer now that he had panther-sized teeth marks all over his ankle.
Pantera let go, and backed away behind Rosalinda.
Follin staggered over to Dani and leaned over him. He pulled a small remote with a speaker out of one of his many pants pockets and pushed a big blue button.
Akrillic stood up suddenly and rigidly.
"Okay, Akrillic, sting," Follin commanded as he eyed Pantera warily.
Pantera (and Celine) eyed him back suspiciously as Akrillic poked Dani for the second time that day.
Dani inhaled sharply and sat up.
"Wait, I sat up!" He said, surprised. "I'm moving."
He stood up shakily.
"Oh and um," he added meekly. "Here."
Hozde lobbed a blob of green goo at Akrillic, which rendered the Stand immobile.
Follin slowly put his remote away back into his pocket. He opened another pocket, pulled out a small knife, and tried to stab Rosalinda. Emphasis on tried, since Celine grabbed his arm in a vice grip and twisted it to the side. Again, Follin cried out.
"Damn it! How do I go to my class looking like this? You're crazy, woman!" Follin said with a pained frown. He pulled out yet another knife and waved it around wildly with his other, non-broken arm.
"Get back," the man said warningly. "Or I'll stab you. You thought I was scared back there? I was just bluffing."
To demonstrate, he jabbed the knife around in the air. He scooched back slowly. Decisively outnumbered, Follin turned and made a run for the back door of the warehouse. He scrambled to the door, flung it open, and didn't stop running.
Celine stood still. Dani gave her an odd look but was too exhausted to question it.
"I will give him until the count of ten," Celine explained anyway.
Ten seconds passed, more or less.
"Alright then."
Celine set off, and she wasted no time with the door since it was still open.
Follin was still scrambling away, almost down to the recreational docks.
Celine was hot on his tail, however it wasn't very impressive of a feat considering Follin was at an irregular paced limp right now.
Follin took a quick moment to look back at Celine, and he stumbled.
Celine took this opportunity to tackle Follin to the ground. Before she could go through with it, Follin kicked her leg and Celine fell. Celine grabbed his leg in retaliation and then he fell too. Follin continued to kick at her for a few more seconds, eventually abandoned that venture, and stabbed Celine in the shoulder instead.
They squabbled like this for a while, until the paramedics showed up and pried the two apart. It was at this point that Celine blacked out.
~~~
Celine woke up in a hospital bed. Dani and Rosalinda stood next to her.
"Hey. You're up," Dani noted.
"Where am I?" Celine asked groggily.
"The Cicierega Municipal Hospital," Dani replied. "Wow, Celine, you were bleeding a lot. Like a blood fountain."
"What?" Celine replied. She wasn't currently in the mood for Dani's energetic oddity, but was willing to tolerate it for his sake.
"Yup. While you were fighting with Follin, I went and called an ambulance," Rosalinda explained in a soft tone.
"They took that Follin guy, too. You should have seen his arm, Celine. It was all bent up and scratched everywhere."
Celine tried to stand up but was stopped by Rosalinda.
"I know you're good at healing fast and all, but you need to hold up," Rosalinda said. "You're not allowed to leave for two days."
"I will not stay here for two days," Celine protested. "My schedule has already been set back too far already. If I have to stay here two whole days, I might as well throw out my whole monthly planner and start scheduling everything all over again."
"Woah. You have a whole month planned?" Dani asked in a mix of confusion and awe.
"Of course I do. What do you think I am, crazy?"
"Well-"
"That was rhetorical. Anyway, I should be healed by now, so," Celine said as she reached out to tear out the IV tube.
"Don't," Rosalinda warned in a concerned tone. "Listen, I know you wanna leave but you're here for your own health."
"We even got them to close the curtains in order to keep out the sunlight," Dani chimed in.
Before any more words could be exchanged, the door opened. In walked an older asian man about 60 in age and roughly Dani's height. His chin length chestnut hair was partly unruly and parts of it- especially the ends- stuck out as if it had been combed in a halfhearted rush. Over his white shirt was a kneelength lab coat stuffed with pens and other unseen things. His maroon slacks and brown flats were surprisingly dusty at the bottom. He took out a pair of reading glasses, put them on, and scanned his official-looking clipboard.
"You must be Miss Grayley! I'm your doctor, but you can just call me Len."
"Nice to meet you, Len," Celine replied.
The man grinned back at her and plucked out what was likely only one of many pens in his pockets.
"It's nice to meet you too. Well then, I might as well get started-"
Before he could finish his sentence, a nurse walked in.
"Mister, who are you?" She asked, puzzled.
"He's her doctor," Dani said helpfully.
"He doesn't work here," the nurse replied.
"Would you look at the time! Hehe," the mysterious false doctor said as he pulled back his oversized sleeve and pointed to his watch. "I see you're 'stuck' to your schedule, so I'll leave you be and make my way out."
Schwoo! Thud.
The nurse tried to catch the man, but her pant leg was stuck to the wall. A small icicle was pierced through the fabric and into the wall.
"Goodbye, Celine. I'll be looking forward to seeing you again."
Then the man threw another icy projectile at the window, and the glass shattered. He hopped out, and Dani almost screamed before he realized that the stranger had used another icicle to shatter the window below and climb in.
Rosalinda went to free the nurse, but the icicle quickly melted into a puddle.
"Do you know who that was?" Celine and the nurse asked at the same time.
"No," Celine replied.
"I don't either," Dani said. "What was his deal?"
"excuse me, Miss Grayley," The nurse said as she pressed a gray button on the sterile eggshell-colored wall.
"Attention please, there's a rogue old man posing as a doctor loose on floor four. I repeat, rogue old man loose on floor four. And no, Larkin, this is not a joke."
The call was in vain, however, because even Celine could spot the old man as he scuttled away through the parking lot. The nurse had left, whatever they had planned was less important than this fake doctor.
"So… I will leave now?" Celine asked.
"Still nah," Rosalinda replied. "Patience is key."
"I have places to be. How long was I out?" Celine asked as she fetched Sunglasses At Night from the bedside table.
"A few hours," Dani answered vaguely and closed the window's curtains.
"How many?"
"Four… teen."
"Fourteen hours… oh no," Celine sighed. "My whole schedule, gone, just like that. No, i can handle this. I will just rearrange everything to account for the lost fourteen hours."
"And two days," Rosalinda added.
"No. I am not staying here another minute. I am getting out of this place," Celine said.
She poked the bandages wrapped over her wounds. They were fairly new, though there were still some bloody splotches around her chest wound. Her battered coat hung over the arm of Dani's chair. The wallet, phone, and broken watch were all on the side table.
Celine sat up again and promptly tore out the IV tube- much to Rosalinda's warnings against it. IV fluid leaked out onto the floor as Celine removed the other tubes.
"Now, Celine," Rosalinda began.
"I will not hear you lecture me. I am going home."
"Won't you stay at least a little longer?" Dani asked.
Celine said nothing and gathered up her things.
"They're not gonna let you leave," Rosalinda said, but Celine was still being particularly stubborn.
"Dani, do you have a piece of paper and pen?" Celine asked.
"No, but the old guy left his clipboard. And his pen."
"Alright, where is your address? I will return your bike. It is the least I can do, after what happened today."
"Well in that case," Dani replied, he quickly scrawled an address on the paper and handed it to Celine. "Here you go! My bike should still be at the park. I have it chained to the bike rack."
Then he dug into his pocket and handed Celine a small key.
"Use this to unlock it. Bye!"
Rosalinda sighed, neither of them were going to back down it seemed.
"Okay. I won't stop you," she said. "But how're you leaving?"
"I have an idea, and it involves Pantera and Hozde."
"An escape plan? I'm in," Dani said eagerly.
"Alright. First, Pantera needs to get over to the potted plant next to me. Try to grow it out of the window. Next, Hozde floats down and attaches the end of the plant to the outside wall. I will climb down to safety. If anyone comes here and finds out I escaped, tell them the old man came back and carried me out the window."
"That's an awful cover story," Dani noted. "But okay. I can work with it."
Celine took a short break to step into the bathroom and change back into her regular clothes. She had tied the dirty, torn jacket around her waist skirt-style. Her black polyester t-shirt fluttered slightly in the window's breeze.
"Alright. Plant time."
Pantera then touched her nose to the dirt pot, and the plant grew.
"I'll see what I can do," Rosalinda said, and the plant began to trail out of the window. Celine watched it as she waited for the plant to grow to the right length.After reached halfway to the third-floor, the plant stopped and Rosalinda flopped into a hospital chair.
"No more," she said. "If I do any more, I'm gonna pass out."
"Alright. Dani, come over here," Celine said as she looked out the window.
"I'm a little nervous. I've never done an escape heist before."
"Neither have I. Will you be able to reach down there with Hozde?"
"Right on it!"
Dani summoned Hozde, and the Stand floated down to the plant's leafy ends.
"I'm pretty good at sticking stuff to other stuff. One time I was playing floor-is-lava-ball with my sister, which is like regular 'keep the ball off the floor' except you-"
"Dani. Pay attention, please," Celine interrupted.
"Right. Actually, I already did the goo thing."
Celine stuck her head out the window, and sure enough, the vine was stuck to the wall at the bottom.
"Well, here I go," Celine said.
She grabbed onto the vine, and thankfully Hozde had stuck it to the wall in multiple places for extra support.
'Rats. A three-story fall is too much for me right now,' Celine thought as she looked down. Then she looked up.
"Dani!" She called. Dani quickly peeked out, so quickly in fact that his crocheted-yarn boa nearly fell off.
"Yeah? Are you okay?" He replied as he fixed his boa.
"How far can Hozde throw the goo?"
"Huh?"
"This is an urgent matter, Dani!"
"Uh, I never tested it but we can try throwing it really hard!"
'Just my luck. I guess this is my only chance, then.'
"Good, just throw it below me onto that bush!"
Dani aimed, but his aim was off since Hozde accidentally lobbed a blob of goo right onto Celine's face.
"Sorry!"
Then, the vine snapped. Hozde quickly slapped a glop of goo onto Celine's boot. She hung upside down precariously, one hand grasped onto the wall and the other clutched Sunglasses At Night:
"Celine?" Rosalinda asked as she also stuck her head out the window. "Hold on, I'll get help!"
"We've got this," Dani said. "I think."
"You think? That is just about the least assuring thing I could hear right now," Celine replied.
Hozde scooped the goo off of Celine's cheek, and put it on her hands. It then removed the goo from her boot.
Celine slid down and just barely suppressed a frightened gasp. Thankfully, she didn't fall. The goo on her hands stuck and she steadied her breaths.
Dani continued this process until Celine was on the ground. He waved and Celine nodded back as she walked away.
Celine held up the piece of paper, which she had safely stored in her pocket, and read the address.
First stop was the park. The electric purple bike was still there, and Celine unlocked the padlock with the tiny key. Now she just had to walk it back to Dani's house.
She glanced down at the paper again and realized that the address was all the way across the city.
Off she went, then. No hospital staff had chased her yet, which was probably a good sign.
She activated Sunglasses At Night when she needed to, but without her watch, she was almost burned at least once.
'Of course, my phone,' she suddenly thought as she pushed the bike down a narrow walkway. 'I can use that in place of my watch! I should have thought of that earlier.'
She took out her phone and noticed that she had an unchecked voicemail from her mom.
She leaned against a bench as the message played.
"Hi honey! Well, I'm just calling to remind you that my board needs that monthly financial report by the end of tomorrow. I tried, oh I tried, to get them to postpone it- but they said it's needed tomorrow. For the monthly meeting, you know. Oh! That reminds me, I've got to make the presentation for the meeting too. Goodness me, we both have a lot of work on our hands! But I believe in you. You've got this! Well, I've got to go! My assistant, Frid, needs me for something. The coffee machine's probably broken again. Call me back whenever! ByeCelineloveyou!" Click.
'More work to do later. But, if I have a full work day tomorrow, I should have enough time to finish the statement and finish putting in my new mailbox.'
Next stop, Dani's house. It was an old house in the suburbs. It was hard to miss, considering it was the only one in the subdivision that was painted mint green.
Celine knocked on the door. A young girl with a long brown ponytail answered.
"Are you the mail-lady?"
"No."
"Are you selling popcorn?"
"No."
"Are you selling cookies?"
"No. I have a bike here, from a young man named Dani."
"You stole his bike?"
"No-"
"Mom! Some lady stole Dani's bike!"
Soon an older woman was at the door. She was crocheting a scarf.
"Does Dani live here?" Celine asked.
"You have his bike?" The older woman asked.
"Yes. He left it at the park and asked me to return it."
"Just put it by the garage, please."
Celine did as asked.
"So, who might you be? Are you one of Dani's professors?"
"No, no. He just follows me around sometimes."
"A friend of Dani's? Oh, come in!"
"Ms.-"
"California. Come in, please. A friend of Dani's is a friend of mine."
The woman ushered Celine inside.
"This is Jani," she explained as she pointed to the girl from earlier.
"Ms. California-" Celine began, antsy to get home.
"I know. They're nicknames. Dani's name is Daniel, and Jani's name is Janice."
There were photos of landscapes on the walls, mostly water.
"Daniel loves to take pictures," Dani's mother explained. "He told me that he wants to take pictures of every place he goes, so that our family will have many pictures to pass down."
"I see," Celine said. "That is nice and all, but I really have to go."
"Goodbye! If you ever need a scarf or hat, just come by!" the woman said as Celine left.
Celine set off again. It was an uneventful walk. Her house was on the other other side of the city, so even more time passed.
It was about noon when Celine got home. She still hadn't called her mother back yet. She pulled out the house key and walked inside. The curtains were all closed as usual.
First task on the agenda: sew up her coat again.
Then wash it.
Then check to see if her wounds had healed.
Then finish the financial report.
And, of course, call her mother back.
As Celine searched for her spool of dark blue thread, she heard footsteps that weren't her own. That was odd. Especially since she lived alone.
Celine followed the sound to the basement, and pulled on the lightbulb chain. Nothing happened.
'Dang it. I forgot to replace that bulb.'
She stepped around. It was silent now.
A chill ran up her spine.
She heard a dull thump from behind.
Celine spun around. It was silent again. She approached the source of the noise and realized she'd only bumped into a box of laundry detergent.
Another chill shot down her back.
More footsteps.
The small light from the slot in the door upstairs casted an eerie shadow in front of her. A shadow that towered over her.
One that had a mane of wild hair.
The figure placed a hand on her shoulder. A large, firm hand. The figure spoke, it was a low yet bold sound.
"Hello, my daughter."