Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Nick wanted nothing more than to talk to Erica.

After the memory Blackwell had shown him, he needed to say something. He could no longer avoid her.

But how could he begin? He couldn’t say he saw the memory. That would reveal Blackwell had been speaking with him, which was completely out of the question. If they knew that, there would be no chance they would ever trust him again. To be honest, he had no idea what he wanted to say to her.

The thing that kept replaying in his mind was ever instance where someone told him he was like Blackwell. He had always thought it was kind of nice to be compared to the most powerful Enhanced in the world, but now, he felt otherwise. If Blackwell intended to win him over with that memory, he had done a pretty poor job.

Now he knew why Erica was always apprehensive around him. He needed to convince Erica he wasn’t Blackwell, fast.

Nick ran through the building towards the living room, where he was sure Erica was heading. Unfortunately, he met Minus beforehand.

“Nick,” Minus said in surprise, having just emerged from a side room. “I heard about the mission. What happened?”

Nick didn’t answer, but attempted to move past, only to find Minus was blocking his way. “Nick, I don’t hold any ill will to how you are feeling, but I need to know what happened.”

“I need to get by,” Nick said, but Minus wasn’t relenting.

“Nick,” Minus said, the trace of a smiling beginning to move across his face. “Where are you heading off to in such a hurry? I admire your ambition, but…”

“Out of my way!” Nick snarled, cutting across Minus and causing him to jump. Nick didn’t care what Minus was saying. All he could see was the cold face which had told Blackwell off. He knew what he was really like behind the happy exterior.

Minus stepped aside, the shocked look still on display. Nick sped by, not bothering to look back.

He reached the room a minute later. He entered and saw the living area was vacant. Nick approached Erica’s door and knocked lightly. There was no answer. He knocked again with the same result. He was about to give up and look for Erica somewhere else when the door cracked open an inch, exposing Erica’s emerald eye in the crack.

“Erica,” Nick said. “Can we talk?”

Erica looked at him for a moment, then opened the door wide enough for him to enter. Nick looked around, absorbing Erica’s room. What struck him was how bland it was. If he didn’t know it was Erica’s room, he would have sworn he walked into his own, which he had not had time yet to personalize.

“Well?” Erica asked with a scowl. “After days of ignoring me, you finally want to talk.”

Nick opened his mouth, but no words came out, his silver tough failing him. He knew he wanted to talk to her, but he hadn’t thought about what he’d do once he got this far. “Erica, I wanted to talk to you about…”

Erica’s hand flew up, stopping him mid-sentence. “No!” she cried suddenly, abandoning her calm exterior. “I’ve been trying to ask you questions all week and all I’ve gotten is the cold shoulder. And now you prance in here expecting me to just talk my heart out? If you want to ask me anything, you are answering mine first!”

Nick froze. This wasn’t part of the plan. He wanted to talk to Erica, but not at the expense of divulging his greatest secret. He slowly edged towards the door, but Erica jumped in front of him, blocking his escape. “You aren’t escaping that easily!”

“Erica please,” Nick said, verging on begging. “I don’t want to…I can’t…” his voice failed him.

Erica wore an intense look of determination on her face. Nick knew, no matter what he said, there was no way he would be allowed to leave if not by her consent.

“Nick,” she said, her voice losing its edge slightly. “You can trust me. I want to help.”

Nick collapsed onto her bed and laid down, staring at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “What do you want to know,” he said in a voice just above a whisper.

“What happened to you? Why are you suppressing your powers?”

It was the sentence Nick expected, but he still wasn’t prepared for it. He had tried his best to block the memory from his mind, but even with his best efforts, it constantly haunted him. Even today, he couldn’t think about it hard without the threat of tears. His hand rifled through his pocket for his glasses, not wanting Erica to see the tears beginning to form in his eyes. His search was stayed, however, by Erica, who reached out to prevent him.

“Nick,” she said, sitting down on the bed beside him. “I’ve seen you. When you aren’t thinking, you can use your powers with no problem, but as soon as you focus on it, you’re useless. Something happened that is causing you to suppress them. What was it?”

Nick looked up into her eyes. He was surprised to find a genuine level of caring in them. Even with her look baring down on him, he still was hesitant. “I can’t Erica,” he muttered. “You would hate me…”

“No,” Erica said, laying a hand on his thigh. “I promise you, whatever happened, I won’t hate you for it. You can trust me Nick.”

Nick looked into her eyes once more and caved. The memory he had always tried so desperately to repress bubbled to the forefront of his thoughts, causing his eyes to begin to grow damp.

“It happened when I was nineteen,” he said quietly. “The day I ran away from home.”

Erica gave his leg a reassuring squeeze and smiled, urging him to continue. “Wait,” Nick said, on the verge of breaking. He wouldn’t be able to tell the story to completion, but maybe he could show it. “Let me try something.”

Nick closed his eyes, opening his mind, envisioning the feeling he had when Blackwell showed him his own memory. But unlike in the past where he had gone crazy with power, this was different. The sadness and pain were fueling him, but something was focusing them, preventing them from losing control.

It was Erica’s comforting presence that had done it. Pain was the fuel, but compassion was the throttle.

He didn’t think about what he was doing, but his power began to flow, knowing what had to be done. Erica had been right. The minute he thought about it, he was useless, but if he refused to think, using his power came naturally.

Nick focused on the memory in his mind and on Erica’s reassuring smile and allowed his power to envelope him. Darkness slowly began to seep in through the edges of his vision.

 

Erica opened her eyes, and with a jolt, realized she was no longer in her room, but standing in a deserted city street. She turned to see Nick was standing next to her, looking as shocked as she was.  

“Nick,” she said. “What’s going on?”

“Look,” he said, ignoring her and pointing behind her. She turned and saw a pair of boys running up behind her, one of which was much older than the other. She stared as they approached.

“Who are they?” she asked Nick, but suddenly froze, recognizing the older of the two. Though he was much younger, the face was undoubtedly the one of Nick Bennet.

“Are we in a memory?” she asked, to which Nick nodded. “How is this possible?”

“I had some help from a friend,” Nick replied. Erica frowned, partly due to the ambiguity of the response, but also because she had a suspicion she knew who the friend was.

“Come on Joe!” the younger Nick said, gesturing for the younger boy to keep up. “We’re going to miss the game!”

“Wait up Nick!” the young boy replied with a laugh.

“Your brother?” Erica asked. Nick didn’t respond, which was all the confirmation she needed. Nick was staring at Joe, his eyes glossed over.

The younger Nick laughed at Joe, who was falling behind. “If you don’t keep up, we won’t have time to buy any popcorn before first pitch!”

This was all the incentive Joe needed. He sped up and was quickly keeping pace with his older companion, huffing and puffing as they went.

“Okay,” the young Nick finally said with a laugh. “I’ll let you catch your breath.”

Joe stopped and collapsed on the ground. “Thank you,” he gasped in between heavy breaths.

Nick flicked his hand upward and Joe flew to his feet. “Don’t lay down,” he said. “Walk around a bit. It helps you cool down.”

“Come on Nick,” Joe said, falling to the ground once again. “I’m tired and not you or your powers can stop me from lying on this ground.”

Young Nick chuckled, but was suddenly cut short. A group of three men was walking down the street and had stopped in front of the pair.

“Hey boy,” the one in front said with a cruel smile. “Where are you heading?”

Nick frowned and didn’t respond, but Joe didn’t get the message. “The baseball game!” he responded, jumping to his feet, smiling from ear to ear. “By big brother’s taking me. It’s my first one!”

“Really?” The man said with a laugh. “I hope you have fun, but now…” he removed a large gun from his jacket pocket. “Give me your wallet.”

Erica gasped. She looked over at older Nick, who was looking at the events unfolding before him with a blank expression. She couldn’t begin to think how he felt. He was watching the terrible events unfold before him, but it was just a memory. He could do nothing but watch.

Young Nick scanned the street and saw it was still deserted save for the five of them. He held a protective hand out in front of Joe, shielding him. “Hold on,” he said coolly. “We don’t want any trouble.”

“Neither do I,” the man growled back. “Which is why you are going to give me your wallet. You wouldn’t want your brother’s special day to be ruined, now would you?”

“Please,” Young Nick said. “Don’t do this.”

The man chuckled and motioned with his hand. Suddenly, his partners lashed out, both drawing equally large guns from their jackets. One pointed the gun at Nick and the other grabbed Joe and pulled him close to him, aiming the gun right at his head.

“Stop!” Young Nick cried out, about to rush forward, but the gun aimed at his head froze him in his tracks.

The man in front began to laugh. “Now don’t you have a hot head?” he chuckled. “It could get you in trouble one day.”

Joe whimpered, shooting a terrified look at Nick. Nick returned the gaze with as much care as he could, trying desperately to comfort his brother. He riffled through his pockets and drew out his wallet, which he threw at the head man with spite. The man shuffled through it quickly.

“Ten dollars,” he scoffed. “That’s it?!”

Young Nick scowled at him. “I gave you my wallet. Now let us go.”

The man stood in silence for a moment. Suddenly, his face broke into another wide smile. “This doesn’t buy your safety. But I wonder how much someone will pay to get back your brother here?” He motioned towards Joe, causing Nick’s eyes to enflame with rage and the man to smile. “I can see you would.”

Young Nick began to breathe heavily as rage bubbled within him. The air took on a new characteristic as power began to buzz through it. Erica knew what was coming, since she had been victim of it once before. She stole a glance at Older Nick, whose face was so hard it could have been etched in stone. He looked at Erica. “Please don’t watch this,” he pleaded, but Erica hadn’t come this far to turn back now. Hesitantly, she ignored Nick and turned back to the action.

Young Nick’s eyes glossed over as his body grew rigid. Air began to swirl around him and he began to rise from the ground. The three men were now properly terrified. The front man’s partners dropped their weapons and ran. Only the man in front remained. He grabbed Joe and held him close, his gun pressed to his head. Both looked equally terrified.

“Stop it!” he yelled. “Stop it now!”

Young Nick didn’t listen. Power continued to flow through him, causing dust and debris from the city street to rise and join the cyclone, making it appear like a tornado had suddenly appeared in the street. Buildings began to crumble as the man grew steadily more frightened.

“I’ll shoot!” The man said, jamming the barrel into Joe’s head, causing him to cry out in pain.

Young Nick’s head whipped downwards, aimed at the man before him. The gun was ripped from his hands and joined the cyclone. Erica watched it go and saw it crumble to dust as Nick’s power seized it.

This wasn’t anything she had seen before. Not even Blackwell had this kind of power.

The man before him suddenly was raised from the ground and brought eye level with Nick. Young Nick looked into his eyes and saw nothing but fear: perfect.

“Please!” The man said, fear coming out through his words. The words didn’t register with young Nick. This man threatened his brother. He must now pay the price.

Nick urged the dust from the torrent to converge, forming a deadly cloud. He thrust his hands forwards and the cloud shot forwards, straight towards the man.

The dust cloud tore around him, pelting him with a million tiny bullets. The dust traveled with so much momentum, the man never stood a chance. It tore through his body, leaving tiny punctures in its wake, but the wounds were additive. Millions of dust particles completed their journey by slamming through the man’s flesh.

Nick screamed in rage and the dust cloud stopped. The man was held up in the air, but not for long. Nick thrust his hand forward and he flew through the air and crashed to the ground, sliding several feet before coming to a shop. The man stirred on the ground, then remained still, having slipped into unconsciousness. Nick didn’t want him dead. Death was more than he deserved.

The torrent slowly ground to a halt and the debris was brought to the ground. Nick lowered and touched down with the ground.

Suddenly, a look of concern came over Nick’s face. “Joe?” he called, looking around. “Where are you buddy?”

Suddenly, he froze for a moment. Erica was confused by what he saw and followed his gaze, only to freeze as well. She saw a small body lying down among the rubble.

“NO!” Nick screamed and ran forward, rushing towards his brother’s side. Erica followed in a daze, trying to see what was happening.

Joe was lying on the ground, a puddle of blood forming around him. A large piece of rebar had come loose from a crumbling building and had finished its journey through Joe’s chest.

“No!” Nick cried again, bending down over his brother’s body, picking him up in his arms. “Don’t worry, Joe! I can fix this!”

But no reply came. His brother’s eyes were glossed over, staring off at the sky. There was no life behind them. His brother was gone.

A sound escaped Nick unlike any she had ever heard or will hear before. It was a sound of pure, unfiltered agony. The rubble, which had just been returned to the ground seconds before, rose again and began to form a torrent around Nick, who was still crouched over his brother’s broken body.

Nick screamed again and the rubble flew off in all directions, slamming through buildings, reducing the already crumbling structures to dust.

Erica turned as dust settled down over Nick and his brother. She looked to find her own Nick, and saw him standing a short distance away, his back turned. She walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

Tears were spilling down Nick’s face, rolling down his shirt, leaving it stained dark. He buried his face in his hands when Erica approached. Slowly, the street began to vanish as darkness seized them both.

The last thing Erica remembered was the agonizing wails of the younger Nick as his broken brother lay in his arms.