Hello all, I'm back and writing again on this story now! The reason for the long time between updates is a little something called "writer's block," at least as far as this story is concerned. Hopefully now, it's lifted.
Read, review, but most of all- enjoy!!!
A wind blew across the almost-empty street, picking up leaves and trash as it went along its path. It lent a chill to the air, one almost at odds with the August heat that surrounded it.
A car pulled up in front of a restaurant, and the man got out of the driver's side seat to let his date out of the car. At that same restaurant, a middle-aged man and his obviously younger girlfriend were about to exit the eatery. Surreptitiously, the man who had just gotten out of the car flicked his wrist away from him, using his Mover powers to open the door up for the couple.
The pair was a bit surprised at the door opening for them, but after a moment, they assumed that the wind had caught it, and went on their way, the lady laughing at a joke that the man had just told.
None of these people realized, as they went on their ways, that they were being watched.
Across the street, an abandoned building sat, unused for many months. It lent a blemish to the otherwise "normal" area, but it was generally ignored by the populace that frequented this particular stretch. It was a hang-out for all sorts of people- homeless men and women, kids skipping school, cheaters coming for a quick romp before going back to their regular lives.
Now, however, only two people sat out on the entrance ramp- a man and a young girl.
The girl flipped a lock of pink hair out of her eyes and sighed aloud. "Where the hell was he, Pinky?"
Pinky shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. He's usually the kind of person to call if he's running late."
Cassie shivered, the wind finally catching up to her.
"I'm really worried," she said.
Pinky agreed. "I am, too, but I wouldn't freak out about it-"
"Of course, you wouldn't," Cassie growled. "You're not the one who had her boyfriend stand up, on the most important night of her life-"
Pinky looked a bit shocked. "I wasn't aware that you two were actually going out."
Cassie caught herself. "Well, we're not really going out officially yet."
"Do you want to?"
Cassie had to think for a moment. "It would be nice, yeah, but…"
"But what?"
"He is twice my age, you know…"
Pinky smiled wryly. "I thought you didn't care about that."
"Not me," Cassie replied, "everyone else. It would look really bad if someone like Nick were seen having PDA with such a young girl like me-"
"Whoa," Pinky said, holding up his hands. "Having what?"
Cassie shook her head; she was surprised he didn't know what that was. "PDA. It stands for Public Displays of Affection. You know- holding hands, kissing, that kind of stuff."
The light came on in Pinky's head. "Oh, so what you're saying, is that you just don't want Nick's reputation to be ruined."
"Exactly!" Cassie said, glad that he'd finally caught on.
"So, you really do care about him?"
As if that wasn't obvious before…
"Yes," Cassie said, "I do. Which is why I'm so damn worried about him right now."
Pinky got out his cell phone and dialed in Nick's number. After a few seconds, though, he flipped his phone shut.
"No answer, again?"
Pinky shook his head. "Went straight to voicemail again."
Cassie looked down at the ground, a tear sliding down her face. She ran her fingers through her hair in stress, pulling them out a bit harder than she should have. Tiny pinpricks of pain presented themselves to her scalp, and when she let her hands down to eye level, she saw that she had pulled out some of her hair in the process.
She merely let them fall to the ground, though. At this point, she had much more important things on her mind than a few stray hairs. They were bound to fall out someday, anyways…
Finally, Cassie looked up again at Pinky. "This is all my fault, you know."
This was news to him. "How do you think that?"
Cassie couldn't meet Pinky's eyes any longer, and she stared once again at the pavement below her. "It was all because of my stupid vision. When we were sitting at the kitchen table, I had a vision of Kira being attacked, and told him to go early to head it off, if he could. Now, look what happened to him."
"It can't be your fault," Pinky said, after a moment of silent reflection. "He was going to see Kira, anyways, thus he would have been there regardless."
Cassie knew that Pinky had a point, but she was too self-absorbed at the moment to really give him the benefit of the doubt.
"What are we going to do?" Cassie asked. As much as she hated it, her voice cracked as she said this; she could tell that she was on the verge of tears, and she tried to conceal it as well as she could.
Pinky didn't answer for a moment, as he was deep in thought. When he finally did answer, all he said was, "I'm not sure."
Cassie looked up at him sharply. "What the hell do you mean, you don't know?!"
The fire in her voice was evident, and Pinky couldn't help but cringe back a bit.
"I'm not sure yet, what we're going to do is what I mean." To try to mollify her a little, he added, "Do you have any ideas?"
Cassie angrily brushed a tear from her eyes, then looked at Pinky suddenly as the light came on in her head.
"I think I might," she said, standing up suddenly. "Come on!" She grabbed Pinky's hand and took off down the street as fast as she could, not caring that she was running in high heels and a dress.
This has to work…
An Unknown Room, 8:20 p.m.
The air was dank and musty, most likely caused by the rusty pipes and pumps that surrounded the room. Here and there, a leak had sprung, and water covered a few spots on the floor. Not surprisingly, mildew and mold covered a big portion of the walls and windows around the room.
It was here that two bodies were dumped, and left almost for dead.
As a haunting moonlight streamed through what little bit of clean space there was on the windows, one of the bodies stirred and let out a low moan.
"Shit…" Nick muttered as he tried to move his arms, to get blood flowing to them again. They did not move an inch, though, and when he glanced down at his side, he found out why.
Whoever had left him there, had taken the precaution of encasing his body in a large burlap sack, and had tied his arms tightly to his side- inside the bag, of course.
He wiggled his arms for a minute, finding that they had tied them very well, giving him not very much room at all, to move.
But it was enough for what he planned to do.
Slowly, he began to scan the room, just moving his eyes around, taking in his surroundings. In a few minutes' time, he found what he was looking for- a sole razor blade, rusted from lack of use and from months of steady water dripping on it.
He could tell it was still sharp, though, and it would do.
With his mind, he willed the blade to come over to him, and it Moved with unerring accuracy. Using his Mover powers further, he worked the blade back and forth across the ropes that held him in place. It took him awhile, using only his mind (not having the benefit of the use of his hands as directional guides), but eventually, the ropes were cut completely through, and he was unbound.
Quickly, he freed himself from the sack and, once he ascertained that he was relatively unharmed (physically, at least), he went to work freeing Kira.
A minute or two later, she was free, though still unconscious.
Satisfied that he had done all that he could at the time, Nick stood up and began to carefully observe his surroundings. His head was slightly aching, from the mental stress of Moving the razor blade with just his mind, but he blocked out the pain and concentrated on his task at hand.
Trying not to get too dirty, he walked over to the window nearest to him; he rubbed vigorously against the glass, trying to clean it, but the dirt and grime were too caked on the window, and after almost five minutes of scrubbing, he hadn't made much progress at all.
Sighing, he resigned himself to not being able to work with that window, and went on to each other one in succession. He had the same amount of success with each other one, though (i.e. none), and was about to look for a door, when he heard a low moan from behind him.
He turned around to see Kira slowly waking, and struggling against her bindings. Immediately, Nick went to her.
It was only when Kira looked up at Nick, that he spoke to her: "Are you alright?"
The noise was louder than it should have been to Kira, and she cringed when Nick spoke.
"I don't know…" she murmured. "Where the hell are we?"
Nick sat up, and gazed at the window he had first tried to clean. "I know about as much as you do."
Kira tried to sit up, but her bindings prevented her from doing so. Realizing what she was trying to do, Nick grabbed the razor blade and began to work at the ropes; in a moment, she was freed, as well.
Kira rubbed her wrists and forearms vigorously, trying to get blood flowing back to them. Looking her over quickly, Nick didn't see any apparent physical damage to her, and his mind was eased somewhat.
After she was finished, Kira said, "Listen." Both of them fell silent, but all they could hear were cars rushing around them. Then, Nick identified what it was that Kira had referred to: a street vendor, hawking his wares to passers-by.
Nick recognized the voice.
"That's good," he said.
"How?"
"Because now, I have a general idea about where we are. That guy, I know him, I used to owe money to him. And he always sells his stuff on this one particular street- Chun-Aga Street, as it happens to be."
"Chun-Aga Street?" Kira asked. "So are we not even in Hong Kong anymore?"
"A few miles outside of it," replied Nick. Something in his brain clicked, and he checked his cell phone; he saw that Pinky had tried to call him quite a few times, and he swore aloud.
"What?"
Nick told her what he had discovered.
"So can't you just call him back?" Kira replied.
"Wish I could," Nick said, "but I don't have reception worth shit down here. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out."
"So… there's nothing we can do?"
Nick was about to answer, when something caught his eye; he looked above him, to see a staircase, leading up to a heavy wooden door. He ran over to it and shook it violently, but it didn't budge an inch. He looked for a lock of some sort, but didn't see anything.
"What is it?" Kira asked.
"Damn door is locked from the outside…" Getting an idea, he looked around for any piping that might have fallen loose over time. He saw a piece laying on the ground beside Kira, and smiled.
He went back down the stairs, standing at the bottom of the flight; using his Mover abilities, he lifted the pipe off the ground and began to spin it rapidly. When it had achieved the velocity he wanted, he flung it at the door as hard as he could.
The pipe raced towards the door, and when it hit, it buried itself into the wood; from the way it was positioned, Nick assumed that the pipe was about halfway out the door.
His plan hadn't worked, though; the door hadn't broken somewhat when the pipe hit it. The only thing that had happened was that the outside of the door now had a new decoration.
Sighing in resignation, Nick went over to where Kira was, and sat down to formulate a new plan. As soon as he was seated, Kira lay her head on Nick's shoulder, and Nick reached up to gently stroke her hair.
"Don't worry," he said, "we're going to find a way out of this."
"But what if we don't?" asked Kira.
"We will," Nick said. "I'm sure of it."
So there they sat, saying nothing to each other, just trying to console each other, until they couldn't stay awake any longer, and they faded away into the world of dreams, a world where life was better for them than it was in reality.
How slowly reality fades…
Well, I know that you all were really looking forward to a great chapter, and I hope I delivered. Maybe next time, it won't take me three months to update it.
(Also, thanks to Elliesmeow, for correcting me on my incorrect usage of the term "PDA;" it is, as she pointed out in her review, "Public Display of Affection," not "Personal Display of Affection," as I originally had it written. It has been changed accordingly.)
See you next time!!!