Welcome to chapter 2! I'm so excited to post this, we're going to get into the fun stuff now!
I won't waste time chatting! Here we go!
"Four minutes, twenty-three seconds," Wally whispered to himself as he checked his watch. The redhead was hunched over, leaning heavily on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
The crisp morning air was biting at his skin, warring with the beads of sweat that had soaked his clothes.
"Four minutes, twenty-three seconds," He spoke again in disbelief, "That shouldn't even be possible," He heaved, resisting the urge to fall on his back into the wood chips of the trail. He lifted his head and ran a hand through his wild red hair, looking about the forest as though perhaps someone else had witnessed his feat.
The fastest mile run time ever recorded was just over three and a half minutes.
Wally West had just run it almost a minute short of that.
"This is impossible," The redhead mumbled to himself as he jogged back towards the trail entrance where his car was parked, "I quit training months ago,"
And it was true. The young man had been the high school track star, best in the entire state, and possibly more had he accepted the trip to the national race. Wally had quit running competitively when he started at college, choosing instead to focus on his academics. It had been almost a year since the August when he stopped training. A whole year of only running a few times a week.
But he was still getting faster.
Wally ran his hand across his forehead to collect the sweat threatening to fall into his eyes, his leisurely jogging pace exerting more than his body appreciated.
He stopped when a sudden crack of a tree branch caught his ear.
"I don't know if we can afford this Mary," His father's hushed voice traveled down the hall.
"But it's science camp!" His mother retorted.
"I want him to go too," There was a sigh.
"What about the bathroom renovation?" Mary's tone grew hopeful, "We can put that off another year, can't we?"
"It's falling apart," He weakly defended, and Wally could tell that his wishes were regaining their footing.
"I can live with it another year, Rudy," Mary spoke softly.
"Well I-" Wally's father was cut off by a knock on the door.
The redhead stumbled to his side when his mind focused on the present, his breath short from the vivid memories. Just as vivid as they usually were in his nightmares. He suddenly remembered why he'd been pulled into the past.
The sense of fear.
The sound of something in the woods was not uncommon. Wally frowned as he attempted to spot anything unusual past the thickets and the lush branches lining the trail. He was reacting on gut instinct alone, but something felt wrong.
"It looks like a homeless woman?" Mary mumbled. Wally stayed hidden in his bedroom doorway, his hands clutching the edge of the doorway as he strained to hear.
"Maybe she needs some food? We've got some to spare," Rudy spoke up.
"Yeah, go check the cupboard," Wally's mother suggested, and he heard the click of the lock before the door opened.
Another crack in the woods. A sharp snap of wood. It was much closer.
Wally ran.
The wheezing was the interesting thing. Only eight years old, Wally would remember it well for years to come.
"You poor thing! Come in, come in! Would you like some tea?" Mary offered, her motherly voice growing strong, Wally figured that she must have hustled her to the couch to sit.
She kept wheezing. Wally didn't know what she looked like but she kept wheezing. A harsh, raw noise that sounded like there was nothing but sandpaper coating her lungs. He heard his father's quick steps move from the kitchen, their sounds soon muffled by the plush carpet of the front room.
"Here you go," He spoke kindly, the clang of the mug on a coaster ringing familiar. And it the last thing Wally heard.
The wheezing had stopped, and his parent's warm chatter disappeared. And the little red haired, green eyed boy was still in his bedroom door, huddled against the cream trim Mary had painstakingly painted one spring.
And he was all alone.
When Wally skid to a stop against the bed of his truck, his lungs were on fire. He gripped the edge of the rail until his knuckles turned white, trying to understand why he was so riled up.
It was probably just a deer.
Just a deer.
"So you can't find anything either?" Artemis grumbled as she flipped through one of the various crumbling books she loved to carry around. The dark skinned man on her laptop screen shook his head.
"I'm afraid not, perhaps if I called around-" His calm voice was cut off by the blonde's indignant snort.
"Kaldur that's sweet of you and all, but you run one of the biggest collections of supernatural literacy in the country. If you don't have anything on this, no one will," Artemis rose an eyebrow at her companion, daring him to refuse her. She smiled to herself when his posture straightened, and although his dark skin showed little change, she knew he was flushed with embarrassment.
"My bookstore surely is not one of the largest to hold such knowledge," He retorted, the digital tang from the video call doing little to hide the small stammer in his speech.
"Maybe not," Artemis mused, pulling her colorful-socked feet off of the table to grab at the yellowed paper of the original case files "But you are one of the few that actually knows that this crap is real,"
A faint ringing through the speakers told the blonde that Kaldur had a customer, "Don't worry about doing anymore research for now," She spoke quickly, knowing that her friend needed to leave, "I'll text you if I get any new leads,"
Kaldur nodded, "I understand, please be careful,"
"You know I am, Kal," Artemis laughed, pressing the end key with a flick of her hand.
The faint hum of the street was the only noise as she worked, her thin fingers flipping through the pages with practiced ease.
"There were five victims total the last time this happened," She mused to herself, taking notes on a weathered notebook, "But only one so far now,"
Artemis frowned as she caught one of the most common aspects of a case that she found.
"There was one witness, an eight year old Wally West. His statement has been disregarded due to childlike inaccuracies," She threw her head back with a moan, "Of courseit has,"
Artemis tossed the papers to the back of the desk and pulled her laptop closer, "Let's hope the therapists haven't totally destroyed my evidence," She grumbled, "Wally West..."
Wally scuffed his running shoes along the curb as he made his way to the restaurant. He was not excited to talk to another cop, to have them say that he must have been hallucinating, or dreaming.
Although finding the culprit on his own hadn't been working out either. He supposed there must have been a reason that the police hadn't found them after twelve years.
The cop that called him, some Doreen Wilbur, had been persistent over the phone. She really wanted to talk to him. She had even offered to buy him a meal if he'd talk to her.
And well, Wally never turned down free food.
He walked into the brunch establishment with a wary attitude, his green eyes scoping out the crowd for some stiff in a suit and an unpleasant demeanor. Although he couldn't resist making a double take on some hot blonde lounging in a booth to herself.
"Can I help you?" A chipper girl in an apron asked, and Wally realized that he was standing in front of the hostesses podium.
"Oh, uh," He stammered, frowning when there wasn't anyone fitting his internal description of the cop in the restaurant, "I'm here to meet a Doreen Wilbur?" Wally bit his lip, wondering if maybe he'd gotten stood up by a cop.
"Yes, she mentioned you would be coming," The hostess smiled, grabbing a menu and gesturing cheerily for the redhead to follow her.
"Uh, Okay," His eyebrows raised and he stuffed his hands into his khaki pockets, watching carefully and trying to gauge where he might be ending up.
"Here you are," The hostess smiled some more, setting the menu at the table, "Your waitress will be with you soon,"
"What?" Wally blurted out before he could stop himself, not even registering when the hostess skipped away.
"Hello to you too Wally," The lithe blonde smirked, extending her hand. The woman had on a green tank top and a dark leather jacket sitting next to her on the seat. A badge was resting on top of the coat, and it easily drew his eyes to her long legs. The dark wash jeans hugged her nicely and he would hate to admit it, but the heavy duty boots she had on were really attractive.
And her hair. Wally was certain that he'd never seen anyone with hair that long, and it didn't make sense one bit, because her skin was of a dark orient complexion and it didn't look dyed. Wally was at a loss. This woman was young, beautiful, and certainly not old enough to have become such an important policewoman already in her lifetime.
The redhead shook her hand as he took his seat, his eyebrows furrowed, "You're not a cop,"
"Actually I'm a Special Agent," Artemis corrected him, "Doreen Wilbur, nice to meet you,"
Wally was even more certain now that something was off. She couldn't have been more than twenty five and there was no waythat she'd worked her way up the ladder so fast. He chose to give her the benefit of the doubt for the moment; she had the badge after all.
"You're not going to believe what I have to say," Wally told her, his head tilted back and his eyes narrowed.
"I hear that a lot," Artemis's smile fell, her stature growing serious, "But as long as you aren't lying, I'll believe you,"
"Then you'll think I'm lying," Wally countered, hoping to irritate her.
The blonde pursed her lips and pulled a stray blonde hair out of her eyes, giving Wally a long stare before grabbing her green notebook out of her purse, a pen tucked securely in the wire spine. "How about you just tell me, and we'll go from there,"
Wally sat quietly for a moment, wondering what the best plan of action might be, but the look on the blonde's face told him she was serious. She really did think that she would believe him. And there wasn't much he could do to help besides giving her his memories.
"Alright," He spoke softly, settling into the booth seat and resting his upper body on his elbows, "I was eight when it happened..."
Artemis chewed on the end of her pen briefly as Wally finished up his account of his parent's disappearance. The odd collection of notes adding up to what she considered useless. Her page was filled with even more questions than answers; however her list of possible creature culprits had narrowed slightly.
But none of them fit the ticket just right. There were aspects missing.
"So what do you think?" Wally spoke up again, leaning slightly to catch a view of her notes.
Artemis covered them with her arm, her gaze snatching up his own. Wally was smart. Too smart.
Too smart people never believed her. Too smart people thought she was off her rocker, because obviously they knew more than she did.
It was too bad, he was rather handsome.
The redhead was only slightly taller than herself, she reckoned, and he was built with quite a bit of lean muscle. Something the blonde had always reluctantly found herself attracted to. His hair was odd though, vibrant, wild red hair that stood out like nothing else, except maybe his apple green eyes.
And he had an adorable spray of freckles across his cheeks.
Damn him.
"I believe you," She told him honestly.
His response was not what she was expecting.
"That nice, but I don't believe you," He stated bluntly.
Artemis frowned and set her pen down, channeling her talents at comfort. Which were, for a lack of a better word, nonexistent. "Wally what happened may have been strange, but I-"
"Not that," He cut her off with a wave of his hand, "I don't believe you're who you say you are," Wally glared, folding his arms for emphasis.
"And why is that?" The blonde played along, her heart beating a little faster from worry. She didn't need some punk ruining her cover when she hadn't even finished the job in this city.
"You're too young to have gained such a high title," He started up confidently, "You believed my story when no one else would, and you have the weirdestnotes ever,"
Artemis was struck silent. Her badge meant nothing to him. He saw right through her. She bit her lip, trying to think of the most efficient way of diffusing the situation without physical threats.
Wally slapped his palms on the table and leaned forward to eye her closer, "Who areyou?"
"I'm a friend," She hissed back, "I'm trying to catch this thing, because as you can tell," Artemis waved her arm to gesture out the window, "The police have no idea what they're dealing with,"
"And you do?" He whispered harshly, his eyebrows drawing together.
"Not yet," Artemis resigned, "There isn't enough to work with, not enough clues," She slumped back into the booth seat and ground her teeth, "It's certainly nothing I've come across before," She mumbled.
"Yeah because it's probably not a werewolf," Wally snorted, pushing his napkin around on the table.
"I could write you a whole essay on why it's not a werewolf," Artemis scolded him as she opened her notebook once more.
Wally suddenly looked disgusted and leaped from the booth, "So, I've told you what I know. I'm gonna go now," He announced. Artemis looked up at him with a smirk.
"Here," She chuckled, scribbling a number on a corner of her green notebook paper and tearing it free, "Call me if you remember anything else, or if something weirdhappens,"
"Sure, okay," Wally nodded absently, stuffing the paper into his pocket, "Uh, bye," He waved half heartedly before nearly scampering away to the exit.
"By the way Wally!" She called out loudly, disturbing the other patrons and catching his confused look as he paused at the door, "Boner's don't count as weird!" She shouted with a large grin.
Wally's face morphed quickly into a dirty glare and he was out of the door merely seconds later, his whole face turning as red as his hair.
Artemis sent the various open-mouthed restaurant patrons an innocent smile and reached for her soda, she couldn't resist.
For one reason or another, she figured he would call.
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Love, Veg