A/N: Sorry for such a long wait my friends! I have been beyond busy this year and I really want to do this fic justice. With the release of Heroes: Reborn I felt a need to get to work on this fic again so here it is, it is a long chapter, which is part of the reason for the long update time. As I have started to do in my other fics, I have switched the point of view of the fic to first person instead of third person as I find it much easier to write in. At the beginning of the chapter I may have missed a few third person pronouns or something because I already had some of it written and had to go back and change it to fit the rest of the chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it :)
Chapter Two: Reunion
The name is ominous; it sends shivers through me even though it has no reason to. I have never heard the name before, and I tell Mohinder so. He seems glad to hear I have not heard the name, but I can see the weight of the information he just gave me burdening his shoulders. This Sylar must be a force to be reckoned with since none of the people we know he visited were able to stop him despite their varying powers. I count myself lucky to not have crossed his destructive path yet. Now if I were to have the misfortune to encounter him I would at least know somethingabout him, unlike most of his victims. Knowledge is power, and I am sure I would know how to use that knowledge to my advantage.
"How can I help?" I ask suddenly, seeming to throw Mohinder off guard.
"Help?" Mohinder questions, placing his tea on the coffee table.
"People like me, people with abilities, you say they are getting murdered. How can I help?"
"What, you mean like taking Sylar on in power-to-power combat? I don't think so. You are far more 'helpful' to me alive."
"But what can we do? These people are innocent and he's slaughtering them, there has to be a way to stop him," I say getting up and staring furiously at the map.
"Stop him, maybe not, but we might be able to slow him down, take away some of his targets. I can't reach out to some of these people because I have not experienced what they are going through myself; you can. Adrianna, you know what they feel like, you can reach out to them where I can't. Together we might be able to warn more people, get them away from Sylar."
I had hope in Mohinder's idea and I agreed to help him. My powers were given to me to protect people and now I would be able to.
I leave Mohinder's house late that night, making my way back to my own apartment in Queens. The darkness glares at me as I walk to the street and hail a cab, I am being haunted by the knowledge I now possess. The dark alleyways off of the street hide a thousand vague, faceless images of Sylar. I jump into the cab, nervously barking my address to the cab driver. I now realize why Mohinder did not want to tell me about Sylar. I make it to my apartment safely, locking my door and all of my windows even though I am on the third floor. Locking everything will definitely not stop Sylar if he is as powerful as Mohinder believes, but it makes me feel better. After getting washed up and making a small meal, I move to my bedroom and sit on my bed. I stare at the doorway to my room, letting my mind wander. Upstairs, I could hear the man in the apartment directly above mine cheating on his wife, again. I could hear the girl down the hall thinking about having to put her mother in a nursing home. In the back of my mind I could feel a sort of buzzing, the buzzing of millions of minds throughout the whole of New York City. I could reach out and listen to any one of them, but I find the buzzing feeling soothing, distracting. As much as I want to stay in the shelter of my apartment until I meet Mohinder at the beginning of next week, I can't. My high school class reunion is tomorrow night and I feel obligated to go. Besides, I don't want to stay locked up in my apartment all weekend in fear of Sylar. I am not going to let a man who I have never even seen, nor ever wish to see, control my life.
Later that night, without even realizing it, I nod off to sleep. I find no refuge from my paranoia in sleep, however, because my dreams are troubled with my fears. I am in a long, dark hallway and I feel I am using my power, trying to read the mind of someone I know is in another room. The white-washed walls surrounding me are sporadically illuminated by a flickering light bulb above my head. I hear a scream, pain and confusion attack my mind through the mind I am trying to read. I feel like my head is being ripped open, I let out a scream myself and press my hands against my head in an attempt to stop the pain. After fighting for my mind back, I turn and run down the hallway, away from danger. I see a woman in front of me and stop, trying to warn her, but I cannot speak. I see fear spread across her face as she looks past me, not even seeing me. I turn around and see a tall, shadowed figure of a person coming down the hallway toward us. The person reaches out and the woman next to me is thrown to the floor, struggling to get up, but she is pinned down by an invisible force. The person comes up to us, not seeming to have seen me at all, and points a finger at the woman on the ground. The person moves their finger horizontally above the woman's head. I watch in horror as a cut starts at one side of her forehead and, as if she were being cut by an invisible, razor-sharp knife, a jagged line is cut across her forehead. Blood spills from the wound and streams down her face, over her eyes and around her nose, and the whole time she is screaming horribly.
I wake with a start, a cold sweat covering my whole body. What I just dreamed about seemed so real, but I know it was only a dream; it had to be. It is now morning, the sunlight is streaming through the slits in my blinds. I swing my legs over the side of my bed, however, when I try to stand I find I am lightheaded. I sit on the edge of my bed as the whole room starts to spin, and wipe my face with my sleeve. When I look down the fabric is stained red with blood. Confused, I rub my finger under my nose and find it is bloody. Sometime during the night I must have had a nosebleed, which concerns me at first, but I decide it isn't something to worry about too much, people get nosebleeds all the time.
The dream felt so real, it felt like I had actually been there with that woman as she was killed. Then the thought hits me: Sylar. Frantically, I look around for my phone. It is on the other side of the room, and, being impatient as I am, I use my telekinesis to bring the phone to my hand. I quickly dial the numbers, almost fumbling over a few of them in my apprehension. Every ring of the phone makes my worried thoughts amplify in my head until they are louder than the entire city's thoughts.
"Hello?" the voice finally answers.
"Mohinder! I'm really sorry to bother you this early, but it's important. It's about Sylar," I say quickly.
"It's fine, it isn't that early. What about Sylar?" Mohinder replies, and I hear the tone of his voice change to absolute seriousness.
"When he kills his victims...does he- does he...cut their heads?" I say, hesitant, in case I am wrong.
I do not hear anything from Mohinder's side for a few long seconds, which only makes me worry more.
"Mohinder?"
"How did you know that? I never told you that."
I can now hear fear in Mohinder's voice.
"Was there a murder last night?" I ask, ignoring Mohinder's first question for now.
"Let me see."
On Mohinder's end I hear computer keys being pushed quickly.
"Alright, Adrianna, I am not joking, how do you know these things? Laurie Dublin and a coworker were killed in their office building last night, Laurie's head was cut open. She is also on my father's list."
Chills race through my body and I can feel tears about to come to my eyes, but I hold them back for now. Mohinder is patient on the other end, and I know he wants answers from me.
"Mohinder, I think I saw her being murdered last night...by Sylar. I don't know how, but I did. I heard a woman scream and then I saw another woman standing near me. She was thrown to the floor, I think by telekinesis. Then I saw this tall, shadowed person stand over her and, without laying a hand on her, cut her forehead open. At first I thought it was just a nightmare, but obviously it wasn't. How did I see that? I was asleep in my bed!"
"I-I don't know. The only explanation I can think of is you used your ability in your sleep. You were reading that woman's mind from afar and through reading her mind you saw what she was seeing. This means your abilities are far more powerful than I first thought. It also means Sylar is close, so, please, be extremely careful wherever you go."
"Trust me, I will be."
I decide to stay home for the day, all the preparation I have to do before the reunion tonight can be done without leaving my apartment. Even though I mostly feel safe in my apartment, every breeze through my window makes me jump, every sound terrifies me. The ambiguity of Sylar is what I fear most, I think, he is in the shadows of my mind, but maybe if I had a face to match the ominous name to I would not be so scared. However, even Mohinder does not know what he looks like, so I put the thought aside. Besides, knowing what Sylar looks like might imply that I would have to get close to him, something I will never do. The woman's death hangs over me like a cloud of guilt. I go back and forth between blaming myself for not doing something and telling myself there was nothing I could have done. I spend most of the day pacing around my apartment, letting guilt and worry eat me alive. Before I realize it, there are only two hours left before I have to be at my old high school. I hurriedly take a shower, throw on my navy blue dress, and do my makeup in an hour and a half. I am left with thirty minutes to hail a cab, luckily that is easy where I live, and ride to the school. I grab my apartment key from the bowl near the door and leave, making sure to lock the door securely behind me. In five minutes I am sitting in the back of a cab, on my way to see old friends.
It has been years since I last saw my old high school, years that have seemed to fly by. High school was easy for me academically, despite my rigorous course load, it was the social aspect that had been hard. At least for the first two years, I had been afraid that I would accidentally do something that would make people scared of me or hate me, but once I became friends with one of the smartest girls in the school, life had gotten easier. Maria was the best friend I ever had in high school, and we still talk today. She helped me actually enjoy high school, dragging me to events such as prom and homecoming, where I found I could enjoy social events. Through Maria, I became a relatively popular face at our school. Together Maria and I dominated science projects, tests, and school clubs for two years. Unfortunately for me, Maria will not be a the reunion tonight, but, fortunately for her, it is because she is vice president at a huge scientific research firm. Still, thanks to her, I have a number of friends who will be here tonight, and they are the only reason I decided to come.
The cab pulls up to the school only a few minutes later than I wanted to be. Cars are still streaming into and out of the parking lot, headlights glaring in the darkness. I pay the cab driver and get out. Standing on the front steps of the building, even after all these years, feels familiar. There is a slight chill in the air tonight, so I pull my small sweater closer around my dress and continue up the steps to the main doors. Inside I see bright lights dancing around in the school colors, crowds of people mingle together in their old school groups. The former jocks fist-bump as a greeting, the cheerleaders greet each other in high-pitched tones, and the other groups greet each other casually. All around there are exclamations of long-lost friendships, congratulations on recent accomplishments, and overall a fake sense of intrigue at one another's lives since high school. Of course some relations are genuine, a few of my former acquaintances come up to me and ask how I am doing. I flash a smile and tell them everything is just fine, but I too am fake. I do not tell them I just saw a woman get murdered last night, or that I have been meeting with a scientist to investigate my strange, unnatural powers. I converse with friends I have not seen since high school, and for a while I enjoy their company, forgetting my previous concerns for a few moments.
The night stretches on and I have talked to so many people I lost contact with, some of their names seem to blur together. The reunion is starting to die down, some people have already left, when things begin to go awry. I sense something is not right, I don't know if it is because of my powers or just a hunch, but I feel there is something terribly wrong. I am talking with a few guys I once knew when I hear a scream that seems to come from one of the hallways. My old friend Jennifer had walked that way a few minutes earlier to find a bathroom, so I am immediately far more worried. Everyone else freezes at the scream, but I start to run toward the hallway. I get to the double doors, only to find they are firmly locked. I am just about to turn away, thinking no one could be down there, when I hear the scream again; it is definitely coming from that hallway. I put my weight into the doors, but they do not budge a centimeter. Finally I decide someone's life is more important than someone seeing my powers, so I force the doors open with my mind. As I am using my telekinesis I feel a type of resistance against the opening of the doors, however, I am able to push past it with more focus. I have never felt that resistance when using my powers before, so I am puzzled. In seconds, the doors swing open and crash against the walls beside them with a loud bang. Though I am ignorant of it at the moment, my decision to run into the fray is the decision that changes the entire course of my life.
The hallway is dark, all of the lights seem to have gone out at once, only the emergency lights remain, casting a faint orange glow on the walls. Under one of the emergency lights near the end of the hall I see two people; one of them is pinned up against the wall, suspended in the above the floor, the other is standing on the floor, facing the suspended person. As I slowly get closer I see the person pinned up against the wall is my friend Jennifer, and the person standing across from her is definitely a man and he is pointing a finger at her forehead. It only takes me an instant to put those observations together, and the idea sends chills through me. Jennifer starts to scream and I make up my mind to act quickly, without fear of my powers.
"No!" I scream, knowing what will happen to my friend.
I throw my hands out in front of me, fully intending to send the other person flying across the room. I do, but again I feel the slight resistance to my telekinesis as the man crashes into the hard floor.
"Run!" I yell at Jennifer, who has gotten to her feet after falling to the floor.
She looks at me for a moment, then takes off running the way I came in. I cannot let the fight that is about to ensue get out into the crowd of people who are most likely panicking now. When I feel Jenifer cross the threshold of the double doors I do something Mohinder would absolutely not approve of: I close and lock them with my telekinesis. I know it is Sylar who I am about to face and I know my powers are not nearly capable of overpowering him, but there are more lives than mine to worry about here.
I prepare myself for complete ruin as Sylar gets to his feet. He towers almost half a foot taller than me at the least, dressed in a dark coat and a hat that block any physical features one could recognize. I take steps back as he walks toward me, but ultimately I know I cannot escape. I try to throw him again with my telekinesis, but I am met with total resistance this time and I cannot move him at all. Fear grips me tightly and I am at a complete loss as to what to do next. I try to read his thoughts to no avail, I cannot focus enough, and before I can try again I myself am thrown by a telekinetic force against the cold wall. I try to break free from it, kicking and thrashing, but it is no use, I cannot move. My feet are about a foot from the floor and my head is pinned back against the wall, my arms out the the sides. I am still trying to fight back with my own telekinesis, without any effect, his powers are far stronger than mine. I watch from the bottom of my field of vision as he lifts his hand up, index finger outstretched, lining his finger up with the top of my forehead. Tears start to fall from the corners of my eyes, as I am certain to face death. Then it starts, the horrible, excruciating pain like someone has taken a knife to my head and slowly drawing it across my skin. I scream out as blood starts to stream down my face, getting into my eyes and curling under my chin. Despite the unbearable pain I am in, the entirety of my body and mind go numb when I finally see my attacker's face.
"Gabriel!?" I gasp in shock, my voice barely above a whisper.
The pain stops, but I am still held against the wall.
"Adrianna?" I hear the deep voice reply, the tone equally shocked.
Suddenly I drop the the floor, luckily landing on my feet. I stand up straight, nausea overcoming me, blood still trailing down my face, only to see him once more before he takes off down the hallway toward the emergency exit. My mind is blurry, not from the pain so much as the shock I just took on. I shut down, unable to process what just happened, and I sit on the floor amid drops of my own blood. I know emergency responders will be coming and they will ask questions, but I don't care. I start to cry from the shock, my tears mixing with the blood that is starting to dry on my face.
I sit in the darkness until I feel the presence of someone else in the hallway, I look up and see an EMT walking toward me. He gets down on my level and asks if I am okay, asks what happened, shines a light in my face. Without thinking I tell him I simply slipped and hit my head, nothing more. I know he does not believe me, so I use my power to make him believe me. I warp his thoughts without really knowing how I am doing it, making him believe my story. He helps me up and leads me to the ambulance outside the school where a small bandage is placed over the cut on my forehead. I feel as though I am in a trance, manipulated helplessly by my surroundings. I can feel the many stares of my former classmates, I can hear the many questions mulling around in all their heads, but I do not care. Soon I find I am in the back of a cab, on my way to my apartment. I look out the window at the rain that has just started to fall late in the night and my mind continues to spin, always coming back to the same thought. How did the meek, dark haired boy of my childhood, my only friend through the worst part of my life, become a brazen serial killer?
A/N: Hope you liked it! I know the turn at the end may have been a twist for some of you but I'm sure a some of you also probably saw it coming. Well, more to come soon I hope, and as always, thanks for reading!