Chapter 3:
The following day, Linnette was watching TV and found herself inspired. She knew today was chore day which meant that Victor and Cedric would be running errands. This was the prefect opportunity. She jumped off the couch and ran into the kitchen where Cedric was making a list of things to do in the city.
"Cedric! I want to go shopping with you!"
"Why?" he asked. "What for?"
She pointed into the TV room with the remote still clutched in her hand. "I want to make that!" The screen showed a cooking show featuring a succulent looking dish with chopped carrots, potatoes and rice. In the center of the plate was something that looked like tiny sleeping bags stuffed with vegetables.
"That?"
Victor stepped beside his brother and looked at the TV screen. "I know that dish. It's a roulade."
"I want to make it!" Linnette said loudly, trying to convince them. "Please? It looks good!"
Victor grinned, though looking a bit on the nervous side. "Sweetie, don't you think you should start out with a simpler dish? It's involved and I think-"
"Please? Let me try it! I want to try it! Please?"
How could he turn her down? "Well... I suppose I could..."
"I want to go shopping for the stuff and cook it today." Linnette turned off the television and set the remote aside. "Can I come with you to go shopping?"
"I suppose we could do that." Victor looked at his watch. "I say we split up. I have some things to do as well. How about I leave Linnette and the food shopping to you and I'll bring the car around later? It'll make carrying the food home a lot easier."
"Ok!" Linnette answered for Cedric.
Cedric nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Are you sure?"
"I can handle those chores just fine. You'd better get going."
Getting into the city with them was the fun part. Linnette loved being carried through the air by her loving guardians, beating all the traffic and looking down on the city below. It was a thrilling and exhilarating ride which only took a few minutes. Cedric sometimes carried Linnette on his back and other times in his arms. Today, he carried her in his arms and Linnette was pressed into his strong muscular chest as he took off into the air. Leaping from building to building, rising and falling, made her feel like she was on a carnival ride. The wind in her face and the leaps Cedric took made her stomach and chest rise and drop as if she were on a carousel moving much too fast. She loved it.
Cedric found a safe place to land unnoticed and set her down. This ability her two guardians possessed was a secret. Not even her closest friends in the city knew about it. The only people who knew were the people in the Soul Society and Ichigo Kurosaki. They knew about Victor and Cedric's powers all too well. To them, she could speak freely, but to all others, they had to remain hidden. Who knew what would happen if they were discovered? Linnette was human, but her ageless, powerful, non-bleeding protectors; that was another story.
Cedric walked Linnette into the closest grocery store and pushed a cart behind her, allowing her to take the lead. Most grocery stores along this strip were small little delis or corner markets. This one was much bigger and carried a lot more goods.
Linnette didn't know the recipe so she did everything from memory. She watched the cooking show just a few minutes ago and remembered the ingredients fairly well. She went to the produce section and and picked out the vegetables she had seen the chef use. At least the ones she remembered or liked. She grabbed some tomatoes. These ones were big and red. There were many other kinds nearby like cherry tomatoes, but these were the ones she saw on the program.
"Linnette."
She was just about to put them into the cart went Cedric spoke to her.
"Do you remember how to check them for ripeness?"
"Oh, yeah." Ever since she first expressed a desire to cook on her own, Victor and Cedric had both been giving her tips for preparing food and making sure what she picked out at the store was good. Since Victor did most of the cooking, most of the advice came from him. However, Cedric knew a thing or two about cooking as well.
Linnette held the tomatoes in her hand and gave each of them a small gentle squeeze. This one was hard like a baseball. She put it back. This one was really mushy. It was too ripe. The remaining ones she held yielded to her gentle pressure. These were good. She put two in the plastic bag nearby and put them into the cart.
They moved on to other foods as well. Linnette picked out some onions and carrots and some corn cobs and strawberries. Then she grabbed an avocado and Cedric spoke up again. "Um, does the recipe call for avocado?"
"I don't think so. But I like avocado."
Cedric gave her a small smile. He wasn't going to argue. If that's what she wanted, then that's what it is. She was going to be the one eating it, anyway.
They moved on and bought several other items. The chicken for the roulade she wanted to make, and some snacks for whenever she pleased. She put cookies and chips into the cart and tried to grab a pack of cupcakes, which made Cedric cough with disapproval. "What? I'm not eating it all at once."
"If you get those things, you can't get any other snack foods or sweets, got it?"
She agreed.
When they got to the register, Cedric unloaded the cart and reached for his wallet. Linnette tried to sneak in a few candy bars from the display rack but Cedric caught her and returned them to the shelves, reminding her of what they had just talked about. Once everything was paid for, Cedric and Linnette carried the bags outside where Victor was already waiting for them with the car.
"Did you get everything you needed?" he asked them.
"Yup!" Linnette started to put the bags in the back seat. "I got cupcakes, too!"
"Did you, now?"
Linnette looked at Cedric. "Are you doing more chores now?"
"It shouldn't take long. A few things I need to do are on this block and the next."
"Will you try my food when I finish cooking it?"
"Of course I will."
"See you at home, Cedric," said Victor. "I can take Linnette from here."
Cedric nodded and joined the crowd of people walking by, hoping to disappear so no one would see just how fast he could move. Victor returned to the car and buckled up. Linnette sat in the back seat so she could keep an eye on her cupcakes, and maybe steal a bite or two without Victor noticing.
"Let's go home, Linnette."
"Ok."
"And no cupcakes until we get home."
"Aw..! How'd you know?"
The car pulled away from the curb and joined the rest of the city traffic. It was slow going this time of day. Sometimes they moved quickly through the streets and other times it was a constant stop and start with cars pulling in and out of lanes and people walking out in front of the cars trying to get to the other side.
Personally, Linnette was in no hurry to drive; this being one of the reasons. Most teenagers couldn't wait. Then again, Linnette wasn't like most teenage girls. The way she lived her life, the people she knew and her abilities weren't the only things different about her. Her personality was another. Most teenage girls she saw seemed so catty to her and were constantly on their phones. That wasn't how she wanted to be. Those girls reminded her so much of the mean girls who picked on her back at the orphanage. She never wanted to be like them. Another reason was because Victor and Cedric didn't raise her to be that way. Linnette was a bit on the childish side and that was just fine with them. Honestly, they wanted to keep her as innocent as possible. Maybe she was also the way she was because she was home-schooled and wasn't exposed to a lot of what other children had to face.
Linnette was just fine being seen as childish. She didn't have a very pleasant childhood so in a way she was trying to make up for lost time. Mostly, she just wanted to enjoy herself and not grow up too fast. Sure, she had shown some maturity in recent months and was becoming more independent, but that didn't stop her from using the luggage racks on the trains and buses as monkey-bars. There was a time and place for everything.
The car came to a sudden stop. Traffic was at a standstill up ahead. The traffic-light suspended over the street had been knocked down and the thick black wires were in the middle of the road. Several police officers were there to direct traffic and help resolve the problem. Cars were slowly moving around the damage but one at a time and very slowly.
When Linnette looked forward, she noticed that there was a gap between Victor and the next row of cars. Why wasn't he moving up? Victor wasn't looking at the road. His eyes were looking at something higher up. His body leaned forward over the steering wheel, peering at something large through the windshield.
"Uh-oh."
Linnette unbuckled her seat-belt and moved closer to the front to see what he was seeing.
"Put your seat-belt back on," he warned. "Hold on." Victor threw the car into reverse and backed up, people honking their horns at him as he did.
Clinging to the headrest of the passenger seat, Linnette was finally able to see what Victor had been looking at. A large mole-like Hollow was standing in the middle of the street, looking at all the people passing by on the sidewalk. "A Hollow? Here?" Hollows rarely appeared in New York.
The car stopped suddenly again and Linnette was thrown into the headrest. She wasn't hurt. Since she was already clinging to it, she hadn't been thrown that far. She sat back in her seat and looked out the windows on all sides. Victor couldn't back up any further. Traffic was blocked on the left side of the car, there were parked cars on the right and honking cars backed up for the next two block right behind him. He would have plowed into the yellow one right behind him if he hadn't stopped when he did.
Horns were blaring so loudly, Linnette's ears were starting to ache. An officer waved Victor forward but he wouldn't obey. He was trying to get away from the Hollow, not over to it, which was exactly what would happen if he did as the officer told him to do. The officer came over and that sparked more people to leave their cars to yell at the man in the suit.
Victor stepped out of the car and tried to come up with a reason for going against several traffic laws.
"Is there a problem?" the officer asked in an impatient tone.
Victor's voice was barely audible over the honks from the line of cars stuck behind him. Some were cursing at him and demanded he move his car at once. Others called him an idiot and asked if he was too stupid to know the difference between forward and backward.
"Well?" the officer pressed.
"Very sorry," Victor tried to be polite so he wouldn't escalate the problem.
"I was waving you forward. Why didn't you do it?"
"There was something in the road."
"There's nothing there. You need to get your eyes checked." The officer called to the men working further ahead. They yelled something back and the officer turned back to speak with Victor. "Don't hold up any more traffic. Get back in your car and pull forward."
Victor wasn't quick to respond. He still had his eye on the Hollow lumbering around the street. No one else could see it. If Victor spoke the truth, no one would believe him. Even if they could see it, he couldn't just attack it without revealing what he was. He had to pretend to be a normal human and normal humans couldn't do what he was thinking of doing.
A man got out of his car and started cursing at Victor. "Move your damn car, you moron! You're blocking everyone!"
"I'll handle it," the officer told him. "You get back in your car."
"Just arrest this pretty-boy and get him off the road!"
"Don't tell me how to do my job!"
"Please," Victor tried to keep the peace. "Let's not fight in front of my little girl."
The man looked in the back seat of Victor's car. "What girl?"
Victor bent down and peered inside the car. The bags of groceries were there, but not Linnette. Just an empty seat. Victor back out of the car, put his hand on the roof and scanned the sidewalk for Linnette. In the crowds of onlookers, she was nowhere to be found. "Linnette?!" She was gone.
Weaving through the crowd of people, Linnette ran between the large buildings and around the corner.
She saw it with her own eyes. A Hollow. Here in New York. It was so rare to find one all the way out here. She couldn't let it run loose like that. She had to do something. Victor couldn't attack it without people noticing his power. Linnette had to find another way to handle the situation.
Scraping the rubber soles of her shoes, Linnette ran to the next of the block and around the corner of a building. She saw the same crowd of people as before. At the corner, she made a right and crossed the street to the next block. Then she made a left to the next one. This was where the men were working. She could see the traffic light and everything. Including the Hollow. She had just went in a circle and crossed the street to the block behind the Hollow. This was what she wanted. She knew Victor would never let her out of the car and if she darted across the street, the officers who were there would have stopped her. She had to take the back way in order to get behind the Hollow.
Now she could carry out here plan. If Victor couldn't attack the Hollow with all these people watching, then she would lure the Hollow away and have Victor kill it then. All she had to do was get it away from the street.
She started to vocalize. The Hollow's head started to turn in her direction. Then its whole body turned to face her. She stopped singing and started to coax the Hollow away from the street with her hand. "That's it. Come on. A little closer."
The Hollow moved away from the street, keeping its body low to fit under the cable wires and street lights.
"Come on. Come on."
Victor noticed the Hollow was walking away. That's when he spotted Linnette. While he knew the Hollow wouldn't hurt her while it was under her influence, he was still concerned about her safety. He had to get over there and help her.
She was leading the Hollow away.
"Clever girl..." Victor praised her quietly. He had to get over there to help get rid of it once and for all.
Linnette walked backwards, calling the Hollow to her. "Come on. That's it. Come here. Good. Good. Come on. A little further." She kept backing away slowly, having the Hollow follow her one step at a time. It was working. The Hollow was listening to her. Just a little further and they would be across the street and onto the next block where there were fewer people.
HONK! HONK!
Without realizing it, Linnette had walked backwards into the middle of the street, right when the light had changed. Linnette turned to her left and saw a semi truck heading right for her. She had just stepped out from behind a taco food truck so this semi couldn't see her until it was too late. Linnette stopped walking and froze where she was. She couldn't even scream, only gasp. The front bumper was so close, she could reached out and touch it with her fingers.
The next thing she heard was the sound of scraping metal and shattering glass. There was a loud crash and steam started to hiss, making her face feel hot. Linnette felt something tight across her waist, but she wasn't in any pain.
She saw Cedric. He was holding her off the ground in one arm. The other arm had a hold of the front bumper of the truck which had been caved in along with the rest of the engine. Cedric had stopped the truck with his bare hand, nearly putting a hole through it. To make sure it wasn't getting any closer to her, he was holding it up so the front wheels were no longer touching the asphalt. The truck was wrecked.
"Are you hurt?" he asked her.
"No, I'm fine." Linnette was staring at the truck. It looked like it had just hit a pole dead center. Linnette turned away to see what had become of the Hollow. To save Linnette and stop the Hollow, Cedric and punched a hole right through the Hollow's head, jumped out the exit wound and to Linnette's rescue before she could get hit by the truck.
The man started to open his truck door to get out and see what had happened.
"We have to go," Linnette warned.
Cedric wasn't going to argue. In order to save her life, Cedric had just exposed his power for all to see. Taking his hand off the truck, Cedric wrapped his other arm around Linnette and flashed away.
A crowd started to from from the other side of the road now. People were taking pictures with their phones and the officers converged on the scene. The truck driver was in shock, seeing the front of his truck destroyed.
Victor watched from outside his car with wide eyes. He had just witnessed his brother stop a truck with his bare hand in broad daylight in the middle of a New York city street where there was already a crowd of people gathered in the area. "We may have to move."
Linnette no longer had a desire to try cooking the dish she was so interested in earlier that day. The food they bought at the store were put away for next time. As far as dinner was concerned for that evening, she was fine with going to bed hungry. After what had happened in the city, Linnette was very worried that they would have to move away in order to remain hidden. She made some local friends here. She didn't want to move away. She liked the house they were in. She liked the location. She didn't want to leave. Cedric apologized to her over and over, saying that he only did that because her life was in danger. Linnette said that she understood and that there was nothing to forgive. Even though she meant it, it did nothing to quell her worry.
She sat on the couch in the TV room, hugging a stuffed animal to her chest, waiting for someone to come knocking on their door. She had visions of someone breaking down the door and asking them to come to a secret location. She was frightened.
In an attempt to ease her worry, Victor turned on the news. They found a news channel with a report of the incident from that day. Linnette saw video images of the traffic scene and held Victor's hand. Cedric sat beside her on the couch, gripping her other hand. They watched and listened, barely breathing.
The news covered the fallen traffic light and the traffic jam, saying how it took hours for everything to get cleaned up and traffic to flow normally again. Then they showed a picture of the man's dented truck.
There were no pictures of Linnette walking into the street, no images of Cedric smashing the front of the truck to stop it. Just the end result.
According to the news woman, the cause of the accident was unknown but was suspected to be from a falling streetlight or someone losing control of the construction equipment. No one had seen what caused the accident because everyone was focused on the traffic jam and only turned around when they heard a crash, but it took them a while to find the source. Even the truck driver didn't know what caused it. All he knew was that there was a child that was crossing the street just before the crash but assumed they ran off. Since there was no blood found at the scene and no one was reported injured and there being no child there after the crash, it was assumed by all that whoever it was managed to get out of the street in time.
"I could have sworn the wheels were off the ground of a second but when I got out of my truck, they were on the ground."
"So it is possible that you did hit the light pole and your truck simply rolled backwards to the point at which it was found?"
"I guess so. I must have swerved to miss the kid. I was on my phone at the time so... Damn, don't tell the cops I said that."
"There you have it, folks. The cause of the accident was an over-correction of the vehicle which then swerved into a pole which caused the damage. Thank God no one was hurt during this incident."
"No one got hurt? Did you see the front of my truck? Do you know what it's going to cost me?"
This was the only news channel that covered the truck. Every other piece of news was either about the fallen traffic light or the increase in gas prices around the corner.
Linnette was so relieved. No one saw them after all.
"There. You see, sweetie? They ruled it a normal traffic accident." Victor was relieved as well. "I suppose it was a good thing I got out of my car when I did. All attention was on my location so no one bothered to look in your direction. We're safe."
Linnette rested her head on Victor's shoulder. "Yeah." She squeezed Cedric's hand.
"I was only worried about your safety," Cedric assured her for the tenth time that evening.
"I know. Thanks."
Victor looked over Linnette's head at his brother. "Cedric, may I see you in the kitchen a moment?"
Linnette watched the two men leave the TV room. She pretended to watch the rest of the news but she was actually listening to their conversation.
"You know we have to be careful about using our abilities, Cedric. What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking about protecting Linnette. While you were watching from the other side of the street."
"I'm grateful for that. She's important to me, too, you know."
"I'm aware."
"But we still have to be careful, Cedric. You want to expose us?"
"I wasn't caught on camera, no one saw us. I was under the truck so the diver didn't see me."
"So that makes it right?"
"Don't lecture me, Victor. You've done irrational things as well. What would you have done if I wasn't there to save her?"
"I would have jumped to her side in an instant."
"See? You would have done the same thing as I did."
"Wouldn't it have been a better choice to simply pick her up and run? Why did you have to wreck the truck? You should have just carried her to a safe place and let the truck go on its way."
"I wasn't thinking of that at the time. I just wanted to save her from the danger."
"But the way I just pointed out-"
"I know. You're right. I should have done that. But it's still a lot better than you just standing there doing nothing."
"I would gladly do anything to protect Linnette. You know that."
"Even doing what I did today?"
Victor sighed. "You're right. You're right." Victor walked to the other side of the kitchen. "In a moment like that, I wouldn't have thought. Just acted. Our primary job is to protect Linnette. If anything were to happen to her..."
"Remember, the love we have for her is shared. Whatever you feel for her, I feel as well. There is no need to explain, Victor. I understand." Cedric walked closer to Victor. "She's safe. That's what matters. But if it means that much to you, I can keep a low profile for a while. I will not leave the house."
"There's no need for that, Cedric. It's fine." Victor was quiet for a moment. "Still, it makes me wonder what would happen... No. It's not important. We just need to be more careful. That's all. We can't risk getting exposed."
"Change of topic, Victor. Was that a Hollow I saw just before I stopped the truck? What's one doing all the way out here? I've never seen one roaming around the streets of New York before."
"True, it is a rare thing to witness."
"Why do you think it's here? Or was here?"
"I don't know, Cedric. I really don't."
Linnette shared in their worry. It was strange seeing a Hollow in New York. She hoped they wouldn't find more of them. The last thing they needed now was more attention. If there were going to be more Hollows, then that meant they would have to take action. If they did that...
Linnette hugged her knees. She wondered how Ichigo was doing. It had been a while since she had seen him. She hoped he was well. She wanted to see him again. She wanted to show him how much stronger she had gotten. Maybe even show him the new trick she had learned. She had returned home after their last encounter promising to do better so that the next time they saw each other, she would be stronger. Stronger and able to help.
She turned off the TV so she could hear her guardians better now that they were on the other side of the room. Then something caught her eye. A slit started to form in the middle of the TV room. A door started to open.
"Victor! Cedric!"
Called, the two raced into the room. They, too, saw the door and watched it open. Someone was moving on the other side. They were coming into their home.
What now?
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