Chapter 4

-Brian-

After talking to Lisa, I spent a few hours at the gym.

Aisha's in danger.

Lisa was worried about herself.

Aisha's still in danger.

The boss does tend to know more than he should. Maybe she was right to be worried.

She thinks she's so smart, and not entirely without reason. She could've come up with something. She should have come up with something!

These were the thoughts that went in circles in my head as I gave one of the punching bags the beating of its existence. It didn't help much.

"Damn it," I whispered as I shook my head, though it was even less helpful in helping me calm down. The punching bag was spared its fate by my phone ringing. Mom. I picked it up.

"Brian! Ohmygodplease- I need help. Please come here, I-" she sobbed out, breath hitching, not waiting for me to say hello. She wasn't nearly a good enough actress for it to be anything but genuine terror.

"Calm down, I'll get there as soon as I can. What's going on, can you tell me?" If it's another new guy, I swear...

"I, I woke up, and there were these - these things all over the apartment, crawling over everything, and—" she whimpered, "— I barely managed to get to my phone past them, but the door's blocked, and- Please come here!"

I took a calming breath. This sounded like a bad trip, she'd had those before. Still, leaving her alone in this condition... I had a lot of issues with the woman, but family's family.

"Mom, it's just your drugs—"

Mom screeched at the word. "No! No drugs, not today, I swear!"

"If you say so, Mom," I said with resignation in my voice. "I'll get to you as soon as I can, but I need to hang up to drive, okay? Try to stay calm."

"O-okay..."

I hung up, ran out of the gym, got in my car and started driving, resisting the urge to go faster. I did not need to get pulled over for speeding now of all times.

I rushed up the stairs to Mom's apartment, wrench hidden under my jacket. I doubted that whatever Mom was seeing was anything more than a bad trip, but I didn't feel like taking risks after recent events. The lock took some work to open, but I got in without trouble. A quick look around didn't reveal anything visibly out of place, and I relaxed the grip on the wrench a little. Just a trip, then.

"Brian, is that you?" I heard a call from the living room.

"Yes, it's me!" I answered, locked the door behind me and went to the living room.

Mom was curled up in a corner, her eyes frantically flitting across the room.

"They... they didn't do anything to you? How... but..."

"You're just imagining things, Mom. There's nothing here."

"But-but- look!" she shouted, pointing back at forth around the room. It took me a bit to realize she was pointing at the drugs of various kinds scattered across the floor.

"It's just your drugs, Mom," —I paused a bit when she shuddered again, also at the realization that I actually just said that— "look, if they bother you that much, I'll take them away, then we'll talk, alright?"

She just nodded wordlessly, and I got to work cleaning out the room, tossing the drugs into a trash bag I got from the kitchen. Once I was done, I crouched down near her and spoke again.

"It's alright. Are you sure you didn't take anything? At all?"

"Nnno, not- not today," Mom stuttered out. "Last night, way past midnight, I was- I was smoking a joint, and this - this girl just popped up in front of me, right outside the window, said something, and the joint turned into a scorpion."

My blood froze at that. No way. No way. Even the "popping up outside the window" alone would've been as close to a dead giveaway of a cape as it gets. Now that I'd been considering the possibility of a cape going after my family since last night...

"I- I ran, passed out, woke up in bed, and everything was- I, I told you that already I called right away." She was shaking like a leaf. I worried it would make it worse, but I had to ask.

"This girl, what did she look like?"

I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible despite myself, but she still flinched.

"Tall. Pale. Dark hair... I didn't see her clothes clearly, please-"

"Was it a nurse's outfit?" I asked, wincing as it sounded snappier than intended.

"With - with blood on it, I think. I- wait. Do you know her?"

"I'll get you some water, okay? Maybe it'll help. But I have to check up on Aisha, okay?"

I left her with a promise to call her back once I was with Aisha, and dialed my sister's number on the way downstairs. There was no answer, and I ran faster.

I unlocked the well-maintained lock on Dad's apartment's door without causing much noise — the man was far better at taking care of things than kids — and ran inside, calling out Aisha's name. I stopped in my tracks when I saw the scene through the living room door.

Cassandra was kneeling shirtless on the floor, turned sideways to the door with a pile of bloody metal shards on some paper towers next to her. Aisha was crouched behind her, working a pair of pliers with both hands as she struggled to pull another metal spike out of her back. The two girls turned to look at me, Cassandra with mild curiosity, Aisha with the exact same expression she wore when she "forgot" to put the lid on the blender and decided to make tomato soup in it right when I was getting ready for my first date with Wendy Atkins. Despite only being a few years ago, between becoming Grue and forming the Undersiders and all that entailed... ninth grade suddenly felt like such a long time ago.

"Uh, she followed me home." Aisha said innocently. And yet in other ways, it feels like almost nothing has changed. "Can I keep her?"