“Who are you people?” Monique asked, more determined than ever. Alec, otherwise known as Brain Game, groaned inwardly and communicated telepathically with his friend next to him. "When I said that I wanted to tell her at some point, I didn't mean today." An explosion outside made him grimace and he looked pointedly at his associate, also known as Camo. "She should be in the bomb shelter beneath the city like all the other citizens." "Oh I'm sorry. Should we go kindly ask the villains to stop bombing our city? How was I supposed to know that they would attack today!" Monique gave Camo a weird look. "Did I say that out loud? "Yeah. I was kind of getting tired of your annoying voice inside of my head, so I severed the telepathy link." Brain Game smirked. "You think you're so smart Brain Boy? Taste fist." Alec gave a smug smile when Camo's fist stopped half an inch from his face. "Telekinesis. It's quite useful, also have you ever thought about seeing a therapist, dude. You have some serious anger issues." Camo's face was bright red, but then he relaxed his shoulders and smiled. "You might have a point, but..." He winked out of view and Brain Game was thrown to the ground. Camo appeared above him with his foot on his chest. "Don't ever call me out on it again." "Whatever." He muttered as he got up. "Come on Mon- miss. Let's get you to safety." "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I don't even know if I can trust you. I have no clue who is even under those masks." "Welp too bad. You're just gonna have to get over it." Camo said as he tried to move her. She sat down on the ground and crossed her legs. Brain Game let out an exasperated breath. "You know that I could easily move you, right?" "Perhaps, but I'd kick and scream to my heart's content and might 'accidentally' draw unwanted attention to you guys." She fluttered her eyelashes. Man he loved this woman. Brain Game glared at Camo, "Thanks for getting me into this mess." He shot at Camo. "You are most certainly welcome." His friend shot back. Camo could be quite annoying. Brain Game took a deep breath and pulled off his mask; he dared to look into Monique's eyes. "Alec?"
The smell of smoke burned my eyes and nose. I stared at my burning house as tears ran down my cheeks, though I hardly seemed to feel them. Almost everything I cared about had been turned to ashes; my dog, my books, and the house I had lived in for my whole life. My mother weakly squeezed my hand. She seemed just as stricken as me. My two year old brother sat in front of me throwing a horrendous tantrum. No one seemed to really notice, we were all lost in our grief. "What are we going to do, Mom?" I said, my voice faint. She didn't answer, her eyes seemed as if she was off in a world I couldn't even begin to dream about. I grabbed my still crying brother and inched closer to her. I heard my dad running towards us. "Thank God you're okay!" He shouted as he smothered me and mom in a fierce hug. He pulled away first. "My brother has room for us in his house, so we'll bunker down there for a few days until we can find an apartment. Capeesh?" I nodded dumbly. He kneeled down. "I know it's hard to move on, but we need to. A house is just a building, okay?" He gave me a bear hug, then shouted to our whole family. "Let's get a move on! My brother might come to his senses." I cracked a smile and hopped into our car which had miraculously survived the fire. We could do this.
A tense whisper echoed in the dimly lit alley, "We need to get out of here now!" The voice startled Zander and he accidentally kicked an empty bottle. He'd come here alone. He turned to face the voice and was annoyed to see his "friend". Zander's face contorted into a sneer. Judas had once been his closest friend, but then he had become involved with the wrong people. Monsters, the lot of them. "I'm not leaving here without evidence of that murder. The answers are here! I just know it." He practically shouted. He shuddered as he thought of the other night. The silenced screams of his wife. The blood splattered on the walls. Her final breath. He needed to know who had done it. The door slowly creaked open, bringing him back into the present and he started moving towards it, his gun drawn. "Zander, it was me." He snapped his neck towards his old friend. Judas looked borderline ashamed, although not enough. A furious scream was torn from Zander's throat. "How could you?" He unlatched the safety of his gun and aimed it at the traitor's head. "Explain and I might let you off with just a shot to the leg." His voice was cold. "I was hired to do it; I swear that I had no idea it was her. It was dark and I just wanted to be over and done with it." Zander's breaths came faster and faster. His hands trembled and he dropped his gun. He fell to the ground, picked up his gun and tried to breathe. Judas made his move and tried to run, but Zander was quicker. Judas fell to the floor, lifeless. Zander sat in that alley for a long time. Grieving and broken.
“Honey! Where are the diapers?” Andra shouted. “I was just about to ask you.” Dave has been the last one to change the baby, he should know where the diapers were. Her stomach rumbled, then she smelled something burning. The acrid scent irritated her nose. The eggs! She bolted to the kitchen and coughed from the horrendous smell. She turned down the raging burner. A ear-piercing wail came from the other room. The baby had just woken up. “Mom! Where are my shoes?” “They’re by the front door.” The shoes were by the front door every day. Why couldn’t her kids remember that? The baby cried out again, louder this time, and she raced to go tend to him. As she walked through the door she stepped on Lego piece. “Crap!” She muttered as she hopped gingerly on one foot. The smoke alarm went off and caused the baby’s wails to become even louder. Hadn’t she taken the eggs off of the stovetop? She absolutely hated school mornings.
My heart pounded furiously inside of my chest as I ran. “You know you can’t get away, Isla. Might as well just give up.” I ran faster. My lungs screamed for air, but I kept running. A shot rang out and my legs buckled. I grabbed my leg and my hand came away, sticky with blood. I felt sick to my stomach. I needed to get out of here. I needed to live. I somehow managed to get to my feet. I stumbled at first but managed to become faster. A second shot rang out. I fell to the ground and ran no more.
