The rest is mine, I guess, the beauty and the mess, to hide…
- "Beauty and the Mess," by Nickel Creek
Helen Parr came to the apartment complex alone. She rapidly reflected that this had probably been a bad idea almost as soon as she stepped out of her car. The entire building looked as though it were about to fall apart, and there were many shady-looking men standing around outside the doors, eyeing her and her vehicle speculatively. If she had not been a Super, Helen would have gotten in her car and driven away that very instant. However, she was confident her amazing superpowers would protect her, should any situation arise.
She approached one of the men standing outside with surprising courage - at least, surprising to the thugs. "I'm looking for Kauri Bexer," she said. "Apartment 13C?"
The man she'd spoken to jerked his thumb towards the building. "Door's open," he said, smiling unpleasantly. "Don't know how well Bex'll be, though. Sounded like she and her boyfriend went at it again."
Helen raised an eyebrow. "Eric?" she questioned.
"Yeah," the man said, tossing down a cigarette tucked behind his ear and grinding it into the ground with his heel. "He was pretty pissed at her about something. Couldn't say what. Sounded like he threw her against the wall or something. 'Course, that's not really an uncommon occurrence, if you know what I'm sayin'."
Helen looked horrified. "He threw her against the wall?" she repeated in disbelief.
The man shrugged slightly. "He does it all the time," he said. He grinned slightly. "You not used to the rough life, sweetheart?"
"I can handle thugs like you," Helen spat, and before the man could make any attempt to reply, she turned and walked up the stairs.
The door to the apartment was indeed open, and Helen entered without any hindrance. She rushed up the stairs, worried about what she would find when she reached Kauri's apartment. She'd never been here before, but she'd been worried about Kauri. Bob had told Helen that she'd been acting strange - sort of lost and confused, muttering something about how "he" saved her life. Helen needed to make sure that Kauri was all right, and that if she needed to talk to someone, she knew that Helen was there to listen.
She reached the third floor of the building in almost no time at all. It looked, somehow, more drab and rundown than the other floors. There was an aura of depression and angst about the place that the other floors somehow did not have. Maybe it was only Helen's imagination, or maybe it was that the tenants who lived here were worse off than any of the others. Helen was not sure she wanted to find out.
The door at the end of the hall was a chipped and peeling rust-red. Helen shuddered slightly as the thought of blood oozing its way through the wood came to her. She shook off her fear and glanced at the number of the door. "Of course," she muttered. "The one with the door that looks like it has blood all over it has to be 13C. I swear, this is going to turn into some sort of horror flick in a few seconds." Sighing deeply, she approached the ominous-looking doorway and raised her fist to knock. "Hello?" she called. "Kauri? Anybody home?"
The door swung open slowly and didn't make a sound. Eric was standing behind it, blood drying on his mouth and running from his nose, his face swollen in various parts, and limping. "Helen," he groaned, "He's… he's taken her… I tried to fight him… I really tried to fight him… but he was too powerful! He had some chick with him… they took her away… I couldn't stop them… Helen, you've gotta help me find her…"
"Wait a minute," Helen said, shaking her head in confusion. She entered the apartment and helped support Eric to the couch. There was also blood drying on it. "What's this from?" she demanded.
"Bex," Eric moaned, leaning back against the couch cushions. "Her nemesis… what's his name?"
Helen's heart stopped dead. "Syndrome?" she whispered.
"Yeah, him," Eric said, waving a hand. "Son of a bitch with bushy red hair. He came in and said he wanted to see her. I told him she wasn't home, cuz she was sleeping, see… long day of hero work, you know… but he didn't believe me, and he chucked me through the damn wall. I thought I heard Bex screaming later, but I was hurt too bad to do anything… Helen, we've gotta go find her!"
"Yes," Helen said, staring blankly at the wall ahead of her. "My God, yes, we do. We've got to go to Nomanisan… he must have reestablished himself there… we've got to rescue her… come on, we're going to my house. That way we can get Bob to come with us. He'll want another shot at Syndrome anyway… here, let me help you walk…"
Eric threw his arm around Helen's neck and silently thanked whatever entity happened to be watching him at that moment. He silently prayed that whatever else happened, Helen and Bob didn't start asking any uncomfortable questions, and that Bex didn't blab all over that he was the one who'd beaten her, that Syndrome had saved the little whore, that Eric had threatened to kill her. But Bex had her pride. She wouldn't tell. Oh, no, she wouldn't tell a soul.
And the lie would live on.