Steven

Before I saw the bodies left at the riverside, I thought of the Rea Estate boys as overgrown and childish miscreants who might just burn down their own house. But after that night, I started to see them as variations of Wesley with Cory in tow-violent and careless with a penchant for using people to their benefit.

In Center City, we occasionally handled cases of nasty beatings from loan sharks and once in a long while a body would wash up in the river-accredited to loan sharks. But this was a completely different scene. Five men lay murdered in a lake of blood. One of them cut nearly in half up the middle. Bloody boot tracks showed signs of a short-lived scuffle through the area, but it was obvious that no one had time to put up much of a fight. Two teenagers slaughtered five men too quickly for them to run more than five feet away. It looked like Cory had come a long ways from playground fights.

I realize that signing up to be a police officer in a city that tops the charts for violence, I should expect to see blood. But until that night, I had done a fairly good job at avoiding the dead and the violent. This happened to be my first experience of the sort and I was having a hard time keeping my stomach from rolling over.

The only thing that gave me solace was the story witnesses told us about the two "vigilantes" saving a girl in the midst of this, though nothing at the scene to proved the presence of the victim. The witnesses talked about the event with a positive spin on the grotesque scene. Their happiness and the hope of the good deed kept me thinking pleasant thoughts while I mopped up blood and put bodies in bags to be burned at the morgue.

Even after we had done everything we could to clean up the scene, the pavement was permanently stained red from the blood-a true shadow of violence, marking the path of Cory and her new found family. A family that I wanted nothing to do with.

When I confronted Mikkel at the bar, my aim was to back out of whatever business he was pulling me into. But that just didn't happen. I hate to say that I was afraid of an eighteen year old boy, but... those bodies gave me good reason to be afraid.

Nightmares plagued me that night. Nightmares of Wesley. Nightmares of what these kids would do to me. It wouldn't be the black eye that Cory gave me when she was nine. If that scene was any indication of what Mikkel did to people, then I was terrified to cross him.

I didn't tell Amanda about any of it. I hadn't even told her about Cory being alive or my time at Rea Estate, or really anything else that tormented me during my day. She was much more high strung than I. I couldn't imagine how she would react to any of this. So for her, my story always was, "My day was rather boring. I walked in circles and saw another raccoon in the garbage cans."

But news of the killing spread fast. And by eight o'clock the next morning, I decided I needed to visit Rea Estate and bring them a television (I was certain they didn't have one of their own).

I waited until Amanda had gone to work before I loaded our TV set into the police car. I stopped by the station house to check in and get some snippets of news. I ended up staying longer as some interesting events unfolded and I was asked to take a statement from a drunkard about what he may or may not have done the night before.

I slipped away after that to drive up to the Rea Estate. Leaving the television in the car, I knocked on the front door. No one answered. The house was too big and my knock was too small. So I tried again, louder. There was still no response. I walked around the side of the mansion to the back door. It was made of old, warped glass and located close to the kitchen where I knew everyone would be sitting around and having breakfast... if they were awake at all.

At the back door I heard talking inside, but still no one answered my knocks. There was movement of some dark figure behind the glass, but it was distant and moving away. I checked the windows of the kitchen and rapt on their glass at all angles. When nothing worked, I finally decided to brave the consequences and walked in the back door, which was unlocked, as expected. Any keys to this place must have been lost generations ago and these locks were as old as the house itself.

I followed the sound of voices to the kitchen where I found Cory sitting at the table eating oatmeal without a shirt on. "Oh God," I said and turned away. "I do apologize, I was knocking, but no one answered any door or window, so I... I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Cory said.

"She's covered," Miles said. He must have been sitting next to her. I hadn't even noticed.

I slowly turned back around to peek at the scene. Cory had on a black bra and jeans, but was otherwise bare. Beside her, Miles was cleaning a wound on her shoulder as she ate.

"Come have a seat," she said. "What are you doing here?"

After a moment of hesitation, I sat down at the end of the table and tried to find a safe place to look. "I, uh..." I tried to remember what I had come to say, but the situation was too distracting. "How does this pass as 'covered'?" I said.

"What do you mean?" Cory said. "What's showing?" She looked down at herself, but still didn't seem to grasp the problem.

"Cory, you're just wearing a bra!"

"And it covers me." She said.

Beside her Miles grinned. "I guess it just doesn't bother me because I see it all from a medical perspective."

"And because we're married," Cory added.

"And that too, I suppose."

"You two are married?"

They nodded in unison.

"How is that possible, Cory? You're only sixteen."

"We didn't say it was legal," Miles said. "Let's call it a common law marriage of sorts."

"And this is the most he's touched me in a long time," Cory said with a soft smile.

"I... I really didn't need to know that." I said.

"It's not what you think," Miles said. "But I am glad you're keeping yourself calm, Cory."

I had no idea how to respond to any of that, so instead, I fumbled my way back to the reason I had come in the first place. "I was hoping to talk to you and Mikkel about what happened last night. Actually, I was hoping to show you something. Do you happen to have a television? If not, I brought one with me." I started getting up to get the television and get away from the awkward situation. Well, awkward for me, at least. The two of them didn't seem to think anything of it.

"God, did they make the news?" Miles said, dropping his hands into his lap. "Did someone catch them on video? Or did the Jaggars send in a video threat?"

"No, no. Well, I would suggest you all take a look. I can go get the television from my car. Is Mikkel around?"

"He's asleep. You're welcome to wake him up," Cory said.

"Oh..."

"I'll go with you," She said, picking up on my insecurity. She started to stand.

"You're not moving until I bandage this up," Miles said, grabbing her arm to hold her down. "Why didn't you show me this last night? You went climbing all over the capital building with this gaping hole in your body?"

"And before that I was climbing all over Jaggar Town with this gaping hole bleeding. It's not that big of a deal, it doesn't even hurt anymore."

"Yes it does; you can't lie to me, Cory."

"What did that to you?" I asked.

"Some nightmare the SBS made."

Ingrid came in from the back door and looked over the three of us at the table before addressing Miles. "Miles," she said, "I think we need a doctor."

Miles and Cory looked up at the same time. "What for?" Miles said.

"That woman from last night," Ingrid said, shifting her eyes over to me for just a brief moment. "She needs a doctor."

"I can take a look at her," Miles said. "I'm pretty good about taking care of some things. But we don't have a phone here and Dr. Gore is in the process of moving, so if we need a doctor, it'll take a bit of tracking down."

"Why can't you go to the hospital?" I asked.

All three of them turned to me as if I had intruded on something.

"Not a good idea," Miles said.

Cory shook her head.

Miles finished patching Cory up quickly, picked up his medical supplies, and headed out the back door of the mansion toward the maids quarters.

Cory looked at me and smiled. "So do you want to go wake up Mikkel?" she said. "It's about time I get him back for waking me up the other day." She stood up, revealing a long, wicked scar running from her belly-button down to where it met with her jean waist. Across her stomach the letters SBS Were cut crudely into her flesh and below that, a series of digits. I tried not to stare, but the surprise of such brands was making it difficult.

To those of us, Townies, living in Center City, the SBS was an unknown entity used to scare people into staying out of certain areas. They were the boogyman with no solid proof of their existence. It was only in this moment that I realized their very real impact on people outside of Center City.

"I'll go get a shirt on," Cory said, noticing my stare. I felt instantly deplorable, but the tone in her voice never dropped from perky. "If you want to head up to Mikkel's room, turn right at the top of the stairs and it's the third door down."

We went up the stairs together, and parted ways at the top. I didn't go into Mikkel's room, though. I waited just outside his door until Cory came out of her room with a shirt on.

I made a motion to knock on Mikkel's door, but Cory shook her head and put her hand on the door knob. With as little sound as possible, she turned it and crept inside. I followed after her, regretting every step.

Bedsheets hung in front of the windows to keep out the light, but a murky glow still shone through, illuminating the shadowy form of Mikkel on a small bed. He lay on his back on top of the covers, still in his clothes from last night. A dead cigarette hung on his lips. His hand hung down over the side of the bed, hovering over an open bottle of Beton, amongst three empty bottles laying on their side. Next to them, a revolver, a semi-automatic hand gun and something that looked like a machete in a sheath were carelessly left on the floor.

"Well this looks like a dangerous set up." I couldn't stop myself from saying it at full volume. I didn't get any closer to the bed than a few steps in the doorway. To me, the whole event was only a little less dangerous than sneaking up on a bear in a cave. But from where I stood, I could the a dark mark of his bruised eye, which, honestly, was a little comforting. It reminded me that he was indeed human and vulnerable. "The Jaggars really hit him hard. I think that bruise is looking even worse than it did last night," I said.

"Nah, that was Miles. And don't say anything about it to Mikkel, he was acting strange after it happened. I think it really surprised him. Oh, there's my short blade!" Cory said. She picked up the sword and slung it over her shoulder. Then she clucked her tongue, picked up the bottle from the floor and looked around in the gloom for the top. "One day, this house is going to go up in flames," she said, finding the top and screwing it back on. "Well, I suppose we should check him for any more weapons before we wake him up. I have a feeling he doesn't react too well to people who interrupt his sleep."

"Maybe I'll just come back later," I said, taking a step backward.

She flashed me a toothy grin. "Don't be a pansy, Steven. Mikkel is one of the good guys. He just had a long night last night, and a rough day, too."

"You seem awfully chipper for a girl who got mauled by a nightmare yesterday."

She scoffed. "It was hardly a scratch. And a night with Miles always makes me feel better."

"I didn't need to know all that."

"Know what?"

"Never mind."

She looked down at Mikkel's sleeping form. "So how do you think we should do this?"

"I think I'll just come back later. What time do you think he'll be up?"

She shrugged. "Dinner? I don't want to wait that long. I want to see what you brought us." With that, she dropped the short blade back on the floor and jumped on top of Mikkel. "Mikkel! Wake up!"

Mikkel shot up in bed, knocking Cory off the other side. Sure enough, he had a switchblade in his pocket, which he whipped out and pointed at me.

"Don't!" I said. "It was Cory! Cory woke you up!"

The cigarette fell out of his mouth. He glanced over the side of the bed to see Cory on the floor, rubbing her head. Slowly, he closed the switchblade and put it back in his pocket. "What do you want, Peach Head?" he said to me. His voice cracked through the words.

"I, uh... I wanted to show you something on the television," I said, pointing at the door.

He narrowed his eyes at me, then laid back down and let out a breath. "What is it?"

"It's best if you see it for yourself," I said. "It's about the two of you, but it's not the kind of typical news story that usually comes on."

"We'll leave you to get... dressed," Cory said, picking herself off the floor. "There's oatmeal for breakfast and coffee on the stove." She grabbed her short blade and held out her hand to usher me toward the door. "Steven and I are going to bring in the television. We should probably plug it into the generator in the kitchen." She grabbed my arm and walked me out of the room, closing the door behind her. "Wow," she said.

"Did he scare you that much?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Huh? No, just... the vibe he was giving off when he woke up was... not something I'm used to feeling from him."

"Ah," I said. I didn't quite know what she meant by that. Mikkel had acted exactly as I feared he would.

"Let's go get the television," she said.

It took some maneuvering, but we managed to plug the television into the generator which sat behind the fridge. The monitor was placed on one of the table benches which we pulled in front of the fridge, blocking off half the kitchen.

Mikkel dragged himself downstairs, still dressed in the clothes he had been in, as we set it up and adjusted the bunny ears. He waved off the idea of breakfast, but grabbed a cup and a pitcher of water instead, before sitting down at the table.

We caught the news loop a short ways into their broadcast. Video footage showed the bloody stains left on the pavement near the bridge, shot at sunrise that morning. The news crew interviewed the same witnesses whom we had interviewed the night before and they said basically the same thing-that two vigilantes saved a girl from five Jaggars, killing all of them in a short amount of time. Though none of the witnesses could describe what the two vigilantes looked like, they did all mention that they drove a limo.

From there, the broadcast interviewed people across the city, giving their opinion on the event and the mysterious people involved.

"This has to be the first time in my life that the news station has something to report that isn't terrifying, depressing, or apocalyptic," I said. "People are actually interested in following this mystery story. We even got calls at the station this morning asking about it or trying to give us information on it."

"Really," Cory said, "Any juicy pieces of info?"

"Nah, they all claim the heroes were wearing masks or had some kind of super power, or something. Some of them claim they were escaped test subjects from the SBS that have come to save us all."

"Huh," Mikkel said, "They might not be too far off on some of those guesses."

"This morning we even had two people come in and confess to being the heroes!"

"Who were they?"

"A drunk and his little sister that looked to be about twelve."

"Wow! That's a dead on match," Miles said as he entered the kitchen, "Are you sure they weren't the real deal?"

"That's an awfully cruel thing to say." Mikkel rolled his head to face Miles.

"Did you hear all this?" Cory said to Miles. She smiled wide and pointed to the television.

"Some of it," Miles said. "We need to get a hold of Dr. Gore, though. Steven, do you happen to have a radio in your car?"

"What's wrong?" Mikkel asked.

"It's the woman you two vigilantes saved last night. She was beaten badly before you two showed up. I think she might have some internal bleeding. I believe Dr. Gore uses the 5th bandwidth, same as the hospital."

"I can go give it a try. Dr. Gore, you said?"

"Yes. Try not to give too much information. Nothing about the girl or anything. Just ask him to come to Rea Estate."

I was headed toward the front door of the mansion when I heard a scream.