Chapter 19: Modern Villain Part II: A Modern Hero Interlude

Smith sits up in his hospital bed, the pain in his face is less, but the fear he feels in his heart is what shot him out of bed. In front of him stand two local police officers, one is noticeably older than the other and both have notepads in front of them.

“Good Morning Mr. Smith I’m Lieutenant Dozier and this is Sargent Earls, we need to ask you some questions about the other night?” The older man spoke.

Smith tries to answer but his jaw has been wired shut and is only able to grunt.

“We realize it’s going to be difficult to communicate with us, so the Sargent is going to ask you a few Yes or No questions. Just nod or shake you head as need be.” The Lieutenant signaled for the younger man to proceed.

“First and foremost, did you get a good look at the man, or men who did this to you?”

Smith holds up his right hand and feels the broken ribs in his chest sing in pain. “Uh muh,” Smith makes a 1 with his index finger.

“Just one man?”

Smith nods.

“Do you remember what he looks like?”

Smith rested his arm and focused his mind as best he could. He remembered everything, his hair, the booze on his breath, the look in his eyes of a man who was already dead. Smith caught the gaze of the young officer, “Nuh” Smith shook his head.

Earls looked to his Lieutenant and then back to Smith, “You’re certain? Anything at all would be a great help, so we can stop this guy from hurting anyone else.”

Smith could feel the various parts of his body starting to clinch up at the thought of the cops getting the guy who did this to him, before he had a chance at revenge. He shakes his head again, “Nuh shur, shury.”

The Officers fold up their notes and then hand Smith a card, they tell him to call if he can remember anything at all, but he is already a million miles away trying to figure out how he can find the man who beat him within an inch of his life, before the cops do.

Smith opens his eyes again and is sitting at his office at the Triple-S building. His jaw is no longer wired, his cuts and bruises are healing, he is studying a piece of paper as a young woman sits in from of him. “So the final costs for my entire hospital stay is $1400?”

The young woman leans forward and points to the a figure in the bottom corner of the page, she pushes her chest forward and Smith leans back to gain a better view. His wry smile returns, “Yes sir, you can see her the insurance paid for most everything except for the final $1400.”

“Splendid.” He reaches into his wallet, he has a small stack of $100’s, “Here’s $1500, for the bill and an extra hundred for you to go get us some lunch, I think some sushi?”

“Yes Mr. Smith.” She checks her watch, “You’re 1145 is here early, he is waiting in the lobby.” She looks out beyond the door and then back at Smith, “But, sir, he looks a little,” she searches for the right words, “Out of place?”

Smith nods, “I would imagine so, but that young man is a wiz at online poker and is looking to invest a tidy sum, go ahead and send him in.”

Maybe now it’s back…

It’s been a few months since I did anything aside form my vlogs on YouTube. I finally finished another chapter of Modern Hero. This was a brand new chapter, not an updated chapter from the first draft. I will be writing a few more Parts to this “subchapter” of the story before moving forward with what will ultimately be the end of this story.

I am pretty excited by the fact that I am actually going to finish another book, but I am more excited by the fact that my months long writer’s block may finally be at an end. Of course I say this knowing full well, that it maybe months before I write anything else, my brain is funny like that.

Still, thanks for reading (those who are left anyway).

– Ric Susman

Chapter 18: Modern Villain Part I: A Modern Hero Interlude

The brightness of an overhead lamp blinds the surroundings. As the light adjusts a lavish apartment comes into view. The apartment is adored with a large TV in front of a black leather couch. The local news channel is changed and for a moment while the digital signal is being captured a man appears in the reflection of the television. This man is in his early 30’s, he has wrinkles around his mouth and eyes that reveal his “adultness.” The image turns 180 degrees and focus on the man in the image. There sitting in plain view is the man we have come to know as Jon K. Smith, only he isn’t wearing an eye patch, but a rather nice fitting suit, and he doesn’t appear to have a care in the world.

Smith checks his watch and frowns at it. He quickly turns off the large screen and gets off his couch. He picks up a briefcase from off his glass coffee table checks his watch, adjusts his tie, and heads for the door. He types in a code into a pin pad next to his door and quickly opens the door and locks it behind him. He stops a moment to look at his view. He is on the top floor of a 13 story building that over looks a small downtown cityscape. In the distance a fountain can be seen firing into the air, he takes a deep breath and wears a wry grin. “Time to make some donuts.”

He pops out of the elevator doors and into a shaded parking garage. He presses a button on his keys and a yellow BMW honks at him. He plops into the car, hits the engine button and is off. When next we see Mr. Smith he is parking his BMW in a spot that reads, “SSS Hedge-Fund Parking Only.” He bounds out of his car and makes for a nearby door.

An elevator door opens and Smith starts to strut through a building with the same SSS logo on the front doors. As he walks he greets and smiles at anything in a miniskirt. He comes to a door that has his name written on it and closes the door behind him. He kicks up his feet and looks out his window, “Let’s see how much money I can make today.”

The day speeds by at triple speed, Smith makes deals on his phone and computer and is greeted from time to time by people coming and going from his office. As the sun runs across his office window, a knowing smile never leaves his face. He checks his watch and nods at his wrist. He picks up his briefcase and heads out. He takes a few steps and is in his car, he drives for a minute and is back out of his car and at a bar. He is sitting at the bar and having a drink, he checks his watch again and walks back to a booth and sits there.

The door opens and a the light blinds everyone for a few moments. Another man in a slightly less perfect suit sees Smith and comes to sit by him.

“Carlos?” Smith says.

“I am Carlos, are you Leo?”

Smith smiles, “Correct. So, what have we got tonight?”

“The girls aren’t doing as well so far today boss, we’ve only made about 500.” Carlos slides some money to Smith who finishes his drink and counts the money.

“Where are they right now? I want to see what the problem is.” Smith pockets the money.

“Ramona is the ally waiting for me and looking for another client.”

Smith cracks his neck and makes his way to the bathroom, he ditches his high end suit and tie for his “work clothes.” A red track suit with silver trim. He combs his hair to a side and slides a knife into one his pockets. Smith takes one last look at himself in the smeared reflection of the sheet-metal-make-shift-mirror of the Mens’ room.

Smith steps into his office, the back ally next to the bar where he finds a young woman who is nervously pacing. “Ramona my dear?”

The young woman’s mascara is already running down her face when she looks up from her feet to see her “employers” eyes burning a whole in her head. “Good evening Daddy.” Her voice trembles and she presses herself against the cold brick wall directly behind her.

Smith sighs, “You know, most of my girls perform at a much higher rate than you.” He puts his right hand against her face softly, “I guess it’s time we try a different form of motivation right?”

“Please Daddy!” She tries to squirm away from Smith, but his grip just tightens and contorts her face. He quickly lets go of her face wraps his hand around her neck, and then slams her into the wall.

“Pleading is so unbecoming.” He spits on her with his words.

“HEY!” Someone is shouting something from the other end of the ally, Smith turns his head to see a very drunk man staggering towards him.

Smith takes his knife from his pocket and looks at Ramona, “Never a moment to just do my work?’ He shakes his head and turns towards the drunk, “You don’t want to be here right now man.” Smith points the knife at him hoping it will be enough to get the drunk to just leave.

 

It isn’t and the drunk gets closer, he steps under a light and we can see it is James who laughs, “Are you going to rape and mug her?” James rolls his neck, “You really are aren’t you?”

Smith punches Ramona hard in her liver, she hits the ground with a thud and spits up some blood and gasps for air. “No, now I am going to beat the shit out of you and then I am going to fuck this whore like I planned.” Smith likes the sound of that and takes some pride in his ad libbing.

Smith blood boils as James laughs and falls to his knees, “This is so awesome.”

Smith lunges at him awkwardly never actually having to had fight someone before, he isn’t very good at this part of his job. James shrugs him off, “This is like a dream!” and just enrages Smith even more.

Finally Smith decides to jump on James, who is still giggling to himself, and manages to slice part of James’ arm. For a moment in time Smith is able to see the damage he caused and has just enough time to crack a light smile for his “accomplishment.” After that moment is over Smith finds himself on his back and James in straddling his chest and pinning Smith’s arms under James’ knees. Smith has just enough time to think to himself, “This isn’t good…” before the first blow strikes his left side cheek bone. Smith doesn’t know it yet, but his orbital bone was just crushed. Of course, there isn’t a lot of time to asses the potential damage before the next dozen or so blow scrabble most of what was left of Smith face, miraculously, or perhaps because of some kind of evil karmatic twist, Smith remains conscious for the entire beating. Finally after what could have been hours James is pulled off of Smith, who struggles to not choke to death on his own blood and teeth.

As Smith focuses on staying alive he can’t hear or see the conversation happening in front of him. Smith is trying to call for help, but nothing is coming out of his mouth, save for more blood and teeth, it doesn’t matter anymore because now there is a gun being pointed at his face. Smith can’t piece it together now, but the gun is being pointed at the one eye that he has left.

“Do you hear that?” James, speaks loudly but the blood in Smith’s ears prevents him from hearing everything being said. Trapped in his broken body all Smith, can do is start to cry and realize that this is how it will end for him. He wonders why Carlos, hasn’t come to his aide. James pulls the hammer back and Smith tries to explain that he is worth millions and will give James all the money he has, if he just lets him live, but again nothing comes out but more bubbling blood. James riffles through Smith’s pockets and pulls out the $500 Carlos handed him earlier. “Wow! You made all this money tonight?” Smith tries to explain that this isn’t near what he can give James but again, “gurgle gurgle” is all he can manage

James stands up and puts the gun in his pants. Smith’s eye is wide, “I am going to live?” He thinks as James starts laughing, Smith can see James rear back and connect with a kick to his ribs, and that was finally it, the pain sends him into shock and into a bliss of unconsciousness.

Smith wakes up, shocked his can still do that he checks his surroundings, he’s in a hospital room and he has been cuffed to the bed.

“Perfect.” He thinks to himself as he slides back to unconsciousness.

m7 diet/ et al update

m7 diet/ et al update.

The Revolution…will be Televubed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R3G-ojk528

 

– if you haven’t heard Ive started a YouTube channel. Still coming up with random ideas for the vlogs, and yes I am still very much working on Modern Hero in all of it’s grammatical incorrectness…

Modern Hero Chapter 17: How did I get here?

Chapter 17: How did I get here?

James walks up again to the smell of bacon, coffee, and eggs. He looks around for his watch and notices that it’s almost 10am. His chest feels like a small elephant is sitting on it, just above his left nipple. That pain is quickly replaced by the explosion of pain when he tries to open his mouth. He gets out of bed, her bed, and walks toward a large mirror, her mirror, to properly survey this damage. The entire upper left side of his chest is a bruise, instinctively he touches the bruise and instinctively wonders why he was dumb enough to do that. He leans into the mirror and checks out the new gap in his mouth, “Pretty sure that was a molar.” He runs his tongue of the new hole in his face and tries to block out the pain as much as possible, with minimal success.

He walks into the kitchen, her kitchen, and she turns to greet him with a smile. “Good morning, Mr. Hero.”

He frowns, “Don’t call me that,” he forces a smile, “My name is James.” He notices a chair at her dining table has been pulled out and a fresh cup of coffee sits waiting for someone to drink it. He plops himself down and winces in pain. He thinks to himself that this all seems entirely too familiar but shakes his head and tries not to focus on that.

She puts some food down in front of him and sits across the table, “So how are you feeling?” She takes a sip of coffee, “You look like you got hit by a car last night.”

He tries to take a sip of coffee, but thinks better of it. “Yeah…about that.” He tries to pick up his fork but his left arm doesn’t have any interest in working so far today. “Turns out a bulletproof vest lives up to it’s name.” He drops the fork, “With some unexpected repercussions.”

She puts her coffee cup down, “I want to know one thing.”

“Just one thing?” He is able to use his right arm to get some eggs in his mouth which he swallows as quickly as possible.

“Ok fair enough,” She smiles, “I want to know everything.”

He places some more eggs in his mouth and then puts his fork down, “Why?”

“My life has been filled with emptiness for years. I was with the wrong man for years because I thought I was supposed to be. Because I never wanted to ask questions, I just wanted to be kept and to be kept I had to keep my mouth shut. I see what you do, I see you, and I just want to feel something again. I haven’t been living, I have been existing, and I think knowing you, completely is the closest thing I will ever be to being alive again.” She smiles desperate for his approval, “I’m sorry.”

James’ mouth drops open and he cant stop blinking. He puts his hand up to stop her from apologizing again. He looks down at his coffee and studies his reflection for a moment, “I have stared death in the face more than I ever want to admit.” He continues to talk to the reflection in is coffee, “But I can’t tell you how afraid I am to tell you anything more than you already know.” He looks at himself some more and thinks about all the lies he has fed her, he doesn’t know if he can keep up the story anymore, he doesn’t know if he even wants to. He looks up at her and looks her in those soft green eyes and sighs, “You might be the best thing to happen to me in years,” He clears his throat, “My everything, starts as so many other stories do, with a girl. Her name was Mandy Lee.”

The world spins on it’s axis and years fall off the calendar. James is sitting under a tree, his hair is short and cropped. His face looks young and full of life. He is sitting in the middle of a field in quiet contentedness. He is smiling and his jackboot sideburns are flanking his smile perfectly. He is waiting for someone or something to come his way, until then he is enjoying the quiet.

The young woman from his bedroom, the one who would go on to completely ruin his life, is walking towards him. She walks up to him and sits down by his side. “Jimmy have you been here all morning?”

He turns his head towards her and nods, “I finished my exams yesterday, so I decided to talk you.”

“Now you know you can’t stalk the willing,” she spins around and lands her head in his lap, “What are we going to do today darling?”

He shrugs and strokes her hair, “Well we could go back to your dorm and screw like rabbit for the rest of day.”

She springs up and halfheartedly slaps his shoulder, “You’re such a punk!”

The world spins again and he is still looking at Lisa’s eyes. “That was the day I asked her to move in with me. I had already been offered a job with a new local law firm as a high paying paralegal. I was going to be making enough money to support us both and buy us whatever we wanted.”

“How old was she?” Lisa asked with a knowing grin.

“Not old enough for want I wanted us to be.” James nods, “But I guess you already figured that out.” James leans back in his chair, “We were together for almost 5 years, and in that last year we may have spoken close to a dozen times.” James laughs, “Then she ruined my life.”

Lisa scrunches her face, “Her dumping you ruined your life?”

James laughs and shakes his head, “No,” he clears his throat, “It would have hurt though.” He forces down a large gulp of coffee, “No she ruined my life by getting into a 5 car accident. No one was killed but everyone was injured in some way.”

“But…” Lisa tried to speak up but James put his hand up.

“At this point I was making millions as a Personal Injury attorney. I had something of a reputation of being a complete bastard and going after everyone and everything I could. So when the suits started showing up I figured I could handle all the paper work myself.” James looks down for a moment, “That would prove to be a large mistake. You see she wasn’t totally honest with me, she had taken some Ecstasy the night before and that pretty much made her the at fault party no matter what I tried to do to argue the case.”

“So you lost? How did that ruin your life? Doesn’t insurance take care of these thing?” Lisa refilled his cup.

“They did. But the damage to my reputation was too much for my Firm to take. The older attorney’s didn’t much care for me to begin with and when they saw the blood in the water they finished me off.” James took another sip of coffee and the whole in his mouth hurt less. “Between the expenses for the case, rent, my car being totaled, and not being covered due to my girlfriend not being on my policy, plus everything else they could think off, I was in the whole 15 million dollars.” James looks up at Lisa, “I could never work in Law again they made sure of it. The best job I could get was selling green-routers for a tiny company that consists of 7 people, of which Im one of 3 VPs.” James took a deep breath and sighed, “I will never be able to get out of debt.”

“Why not file bankruptcy?”

James smiled, “Too much pride.” He shakes his head again, “And because I was planning on killing myself anyway.”

Lisa’s jaw falls open, “What? Why?”

“It wasn’t that they ruined me, they ruined me completely. Then weeks later, maybe because the guilt was too much for her or because she was already fucking someone else, my girlfriend left me.” James sighed again, “So I went out to a bar in the worst part of town and started drinking away my last 500 bucks. That night I stumbled out of the bar and across a pimp who was beating one of his whores I guess?” He shrugs, “I’m drunk off my ass and looking to get myself killed, and somehow I managed to beat the shit out of the guy and take all his money.” He finally looks up at her and smiles, “Suddenly I could make rent.”

“How did you not get caught?”

He laughs, “That’s the best part. Who is going to file a police report?” He takes another shot of coffee, “The people I end up helping out never ask for their money back.” He shrugs. “It’s a living.”

For a moment the two sit in silence. “You really are a hero.” Lisa places a hand on his.

“How do you figure?” He asks while hoping she never moves her hand off of his.

“You are willing to go out into the worst parts of the world and take it to the pieces of shit who live there. Okay, so your motives arent the purest, so what? How many lives have you saved? How many people think of you as a real modern-day Hero?”

He moves his hand from hers in his shame, “I wish they would pay me then. Im not a hero, Im not one of those monsters out there either. I am, just trying to make ends met” James rubs his face, “There are people out there who have to work 3 jobs to pay their rent, I work one job and break the jaws of dirt bags at night. And all because I refuse to accept that I fell in love with the wrong girl at the wrong time, and fucked with the wrong people at the same time.” James flings his hands around and starts losing his grip on his on his emotions. He shoots out of his car, “How am I any better than those scumbags that I take great joy in beating the half to death?”

She gets up from the table and wraps her hands around his face, “Because you are.”

 

Modern Hero Chapter 16: Everything on the table

He has been standing in this alley for at least 2 hours, waiting, wondering, looking. He needs to find a decent commission tonight and so far the night has been a bust. The only plus on the evening has been the cool air, it’s allowed him to wear his mask and his work clothes in some comfort. He pretends it’s the weather that is keeping his mask on, but in reality the mask is covering up his smile, he just can’t shake it. He knows he has to concentrate on the task at hand, just one slip and he is dead, and they would have won. His watch tells him it’s almost 3 AM, “It’s Saturday morning,” he thinks, “on Saturday anything is possible.”

A noise from behind him grabs his attention suddenly, he is sure he can feel someone trying to creep up behind him. He looks down at the puddle of water he put himself behind, he uses it as a makeshift mirror. He can see a shadow is behind him, he turns to met it but instead is greeted with a sudden massive pain in his chest and a gunshot deafening his ears. He notices that he is somehow on the ground and his chest seems to be on fire, also there is a noticeable amount of fresh blood in his mouth.

James squirms on the ground and tries to catch his breath but his lungs wont fill up with air fast enough. The Shadow walks into the light and reveals himself to be the very same gunman who James started his career with. The man draws nearer as James continues to squirm on the ground.

“Hello Mr. Hero.” The Gunman is sporting an eye-patch and missing a lot of teeth, James knows who it is, and realizes what is about to happen. He stands over James’ chest and points the gun down at James’ head. “Nothing to say to an old friend?”

James grits his teeth, “Sorry, no English.”

James’ left arm, that had been clutching his chest, reaches into the air to grab the gun. In the same motion James move his head away from the gun barrel and the gun rings out into the night again. James’ right arm had been palming a small knife and he is able to jam it into his attackers right-leg calf muscle. The man howls in pain, and James is able to take the gun. James pulls the knife back out of his friends calf and re-sheaths it.

As his friend is doubled over in pain, James uses this time to regain all of his facilities and pulls out some zip ties to bound the bleeding attacker. “Was it worth it?” He asks through his mask.

“Ask the bitch!” The bound man motions to the other-side of the alley James turns his head to see the same woman from his first night out.

“Oh come…” James stops himself and opens his mask at the mouth and spits out a tooth. “FUCK!” He turns his attention back to the man laying on the ground, “Do you know how much a cap is going to cost?” He spits out his blood in a drain and puts his tooth in his pocket. He then walks over to the woman who has pushed herself against a nearby trashcan and has been crying.

“Why are you still here? Why are you still with this piece of shit?” He asks while trying to pack his mouth with some gauze.

The woman looks up at James. Her dress is torn and tattered, her purse is just a bag with some rope attached.  Shes cleans her eyes for a moment and gathers some breath. She looks into his eyes and in a flat voice she says, “Do you like your job?”

James pulls his mask back down, “Get the fuck out of here.” She puts her head down and runs away. James turns his attention to the night itself and spends a minute listening for any sirens. Finally he walks back to his old friend who is still bleeding and struggling to get free. James decides to kick him in the ribs to roll the man onto his back.

His friend smiles at James, “You are him. I’m honored.” He laughs, “So maybe hanging out in the same places aint such a good thing for a superhero huh?”

James looks away.

“Whatcha think ya can just rob us forever? That no one’d notice?” He leans towards James, “SO WHAT NOW HERO?”

James walks back into the shadows for a minute trying to make sense of everything that was happening. He could still hear no sirens in the air, and by now that meant none were coming. He looked over his prey and started thinking about everything. He had been so good at this for so long, what happened in the last 3 weeks that changed everything? Why was his life coming apart? Was this just the inevitable finally catching up? He walks back to the man on the ground and takes the gun from the alleyway and tosses it into the same drainage pipe he was spitting blood into. He pulls out his own gun and points it at Eye Patch.

“Started with you, ends with you.” James puts takes the safety off of the gun  and searches the man’s pockets.

“Nuttin this time, you fucker.”

Sure enough James can’t find anything on the man except for a wallet containing an ID and 200 bucks in cash. Barely enough money to cover his cell phone and a tank of gas. James dropped his masked head, he read the drivers license, “You’re name is Jonathan K. Smith?” James laughed, “That’s pretty funny.” James tucks the gun back into his waist and starts to leave.

“Where ya goin HERO?” Smith screams, “My boys…”

James quick draws the gun and fires a shot into the air. “ARENT COMING. NO ONE IS COMING. THEY NEVER DO.” James puts the safety back on the gun and then back into it’s makeshift holster and again continues walking away.

“Ya think ya better than us?” Smith yells again, “I wouldda finished the job!” Smith laughs, “Oh you think since you aint kilt nobody your better dan us?”

James stops walking, he thinks to himself, “I don’t think I am better than you, I just think Im better at this job that you are.” James leaves the alley and removes his mask. He tosses all the clothes covered in blood into a dumpster and gets in his car. He drives back to his apartment, his face covered in his own dried blood. His pocket still holds Smith’s wallet. He walks to his door and before he turns the key he turns around and knocks on her door.

“Lisa, It’s me. It’s James.”

The door instantly opens. “Hello Mr. Hero.” She smiles, “Why don’t you come in.”

James smiles, “What gave it away?”

She presses up against him as he walks into her apartment and whispers in his ear, “You talk in your sleep.”

Modern Hero: Chapter 15 – Hope to fail. Fail to hope.

James rushes out of the door of the office. He makes a bee line for his car and turns over the engine. He speeds off to his Dojo and almost leaps out of his car. He nearly kicks the door of the hinges as he storms into the small gym. His instruction Master Wolfe catches James gaze instantly.

James walks right up to the shorter man and smiles, “Coach, I was wondering if you were in the mood to kick my ass with me?”

“You don’t appear to be wearing proper clothes, are you alright?” Master Wolfe spoke through his smile.

James looks over this button down and slacks combo, his nose was still a little red and raw to the touch as well. “I hate this shirt anyway,” He pops into a fighting stance and nods his head to his sensei.

The two men are alone in the decrepit building and are happily exchanging shots to the body and arms. Some shots land flush, others are pulled so as to not create as much force, sparring is designed to train, and James knows this. James’ able to block a palm strike and then flip his Sensei onto the ground. The young man quickly pops right back up and grins, “Someone has been practicing I see.” The sparring continues, until finally James is able to back-sweep his Sensei and gain a full ankle lock. With no way out Wolfe taps James’ arm signaling he has lost the fight to his student. 

James releases his grip and splatters down on the floor next to his Teacher. Both men are covered in sweat and small bruises. After a few moments to catch their breath, they begin stretching to “cool down.”

James reaches out for one of his feet, “Thank you for sparring with me Master Wolfe.”

Wolfe laughs and looks around his gym, “James there is no else here,” He shakes his head, “Ever. And you can call me Brian.”

James smiles and takes his shirt off to use wipe his mouth. He checks his ribs and doesn’t notice any blood dripping, “She does good work.”

“So you want to tell me what happened?” Brian wipes his face with part of gee.

James touches his stitches for notices that the pain really is gone. Without looking at Brian he says, “I walked into a nail sticking out of the wall in my apartment. That place is falling apart.”

Brian rolled his eyebrows, “Well whoever put you back together…”

“Did an amazing job,” James interrupts with a grin. “I need to head out.”

“Not a problem,” Brian walks James to the door, “You should know I am considering moving the Dojo,” Brian sighed, “Who am I kidding? This shithole is shutting down.”

James stands for a moment in the threshold of the doorway and frowns, he sticks out his hand to his Sensei, “Well Im sure I can track you down wherever you end up. All the same, thank you again for the knowledge.”

Brian grabs James’ hand, “James I know times are tough,” he laughs, “Trust me I know that, so if you ever want to come work with me, I think you would a fine Sensei.”

James smiles and bows one more time. He pops back into his car and starts his drive home. His phone buzzes and at the next red light James checks the message, “Cell phone overdue” and like that his phone changes to “no service.” He nods at the nod and tosses it into the passenger seat. He checks his gas, “Going to need to refuel soon.” He arrives at his apartment a short time later and parks next to his favorite orange hot rod. He has a spring in his step as he gets to his door, he unlocks the door and sees Lisa sleeping in his bed.

He stands there confused as the door slams itself shut, startling Lisa back to consciousness.

She blinks and smiles, “Hey.”

“Why are you sleeping in my bed? How did you get in here?” James tries to remember if everything that should be hidden, is.

Lisa grabs something from under the covers and hands it to him. “You took off so fast I wasn’t able to give you this extra key back. I just locked my apartment and came here to house sit for you.” She smiles.

James stands still and scrunches his face, “Why not just lock my door and wait for me to knock on your door?”

She removes some of the bed sheets and shows James that she is only wearing a smile, “Because.”

James still doesnt move, he just looks at her looking back at him. He thinks about everything he needs to do tonight. He knows he needs to find the money to pay his phone bill, he needs gas, he needs a shower. But the one thing he can’t deny she looks like the most beautiful woman in the world. He sighs, “Look I would love to not do what I am about to do right now but it’s getting late and I need a shower and to head to my second job.” He pauses for a second, “I don’t have a lot of sick time built up there and all.” The lies are becoming second nature to him.

“I could always wait here.”

He rolls his head, “I will be a while, likely until the morning, Night jobs and all.”

She stands up in front of him, “So did you want some company for your shower?”

He coughs and laughs, “OK. But then you have to go so I can get ready.”

Shes takes her time walking to the shower and turns on the water, “Are you going to be doing anything tomorrow? She looks behind herself at James who has followed her.

“Tomorrow is Saturday right?” He looks down and smiles, he cant look at her as much as he wants to, “I am always free on Saturdays.”

Time has passed and now he is sitting alone in his apartment. He has finally figured out how to best wear his bulletproof vest. He looks at the mirror and studies the face in it for a moment. He can’t believe it, but the face in the mirror is actually smiling back at him.”Well this just wont do.” He walks over to his closet and straps some knives to his belt then tucks a pair of brass knuckles into his pocket. Finally he takes out his gun and checks it to make sure the clip is completely empty. He then takes the weapon and points it at the smiling face in the mirror.

His reflection frowns. “Just remember that you are going out there with something you have never gone out there with. Hope. Don’t let that get us killed.”

He loads the gun properly and puts it between his belt and pants. He tosses a large shirt over his vest and takes one last look in the mirror. “perfect.”

Modern Hero Chapter 14: You Look Awful

James tries to allow his stomach to settle for a minute and not vomit on his feet after hearing what Mr. Hickman just asked of him, “I am, still a bit contagious, can I uh…come in Monday instead?” James shakes his head trying to get the cobwebs and need to vomit out of his voice.

James can hear some muffled discussion happening on the other end of the phone and then it becomes less muffled, “The officers said they can come to you if you are unable to come here.”

James takes a quick inventory of his apartment and realizes that would a far worse idea, “Well I would rather not bother my neighbors with random police cars showing up, ya know? So Ill just come to the office.” James hangs up the phone and rubs his face for a second, he then leans from side to side to test the stitches. He walks to the his bathroom and checks out his side in the mirror, “This doesn’t look that terrible,” James snorts, “No where near as terrible as the string of lies you’ve been feeding that woman.” James shakes his head at his reflection and starts delicately putting on some clothes.

He makes sure to dress in wrinkled clothes, both to hide the stitches and to keep up the allusion of his “sickness”. He blows his nose at every red light and yells a bit to scratch his voice. He laughs, “Watch Ill make myself sick anyway!” He looks to his review mirror for approval but can only see his own eyes and they are disapproving.

He pulls into a different parking space in his garage, as his is part of a police taped off area. He takes a moment to survey all the blood stains and wonders which, if any, is his. He takes a deep breath and puts on his best poker face and walks into Mr. Hickman’s office.

Mr. Hickman is sitting at his desk with the two police officers sitting in front of him, Mr. Hickman looks up, “James! Wow you look awful!”

James half smiles and walks into the tiny office.

Mr. Hickman points to the officers, “This is Lieutenant Dozier and Sargent Earls, they need to ask you some questions about the other night okay?”

“Which other night?” James elected to play dumb.

The older man, Lieutenant Dozier, stood up, “Perhaps we should move this to a larger office?” He looks to Mr. Hickman, “Do you have a large conference room we can all talk in?”

The CEO thought for a moment, “Yes!” He stands up and leads the group to a slightly larger office that can hold 5 seats and a table.

The younger officer holds a chair out for James as the other men get seated. James tries to pour himself into the chair without grimacing in pain. The 4 men sit in relative silence for a moment, until James decides to shatter the tension by blowing his non-runny nose.

The Lieutenant raises an eyebrow, “Mr. Riggsbee, the other night there was a bizarre robbery in the parking garage of this building. Evidently something went wrong during the robbery as the would be assailants became the victims. Two known criminals were shot and their associate was stabbed and nearly killed.”

James puts his hand in the air hoping to have a question, the Lieutenant stops talking and looks at James, “What do you mean known criminals? Also how do you know this wasn’t some kind of gang on gang thing?”

The younger officer laughs, “The Sanchez Crime Family is not known to have any local enemies since they removed most of their competition months ago. We always pick them up for some kind of crime, but amazingly no witness has ever come forward so we never have enough to keep them long.”

James nods his head, “So they picked a fight with the wrong person?”

“The wrong person for sure,” Lieutenant Dozier continued, “After they were attacked, they were in turn robbed of their valuables.” The Lieutenant made sure to look James in the eyes, “This actually fits the MO of someone else we have been looking for.”

James shakes his head and shrugs, “I don’t own a TV, is there some kind of serial robber out there or something?”

Officer Earls leans into James and focuses of James red nose, “You’re telling us you have no idea who The Modern Hero is?”

James cant stop his eyebrows from raising up, nor his throat from swallowing, so he forces himself to cough violently for a minute to try and regain his composure. “I thought that was just a joke on the internet.” James’ thinks to himself, “please buy that.”

Lieutenant Doizer looks over to Mr. Hickman, “Could you excuse us?”

Mr. Hickman’s face contorts, “Of course.” He points to James and raises his fist, “Fight the power James!” Then he walks out of the room.

“Uh?” James looks at the officers and shrugs.

The Lieutenant lean across the table and speaks quietly. “The vigilante is very real, and you very much fit his description, as much as we can gather.” He tosses a file onto the table that slides in front of James. “This is everything have been able to put together on one James Randall Riggsbee. From all the old speeding tickets to a very nasty car accident that he wasn’t even a par of. We have your address and we know how much money you owe.”

James reviews the information, “A lot of this was supposed to be sealed.”

“Wikipedia is a hell of thing.” Sargent Earls notes. “But who’s to say any of those leaked pages are reliable, double so when they were edited by a Hillary O’Sullivan, who I believe you may know correct?”

James nods. The name tosses him back to seeing his then girlfriend going out night after night with Hillary, he never liked Hillary and now his venom for her had been restored. “Yeah she’s a fucking gem.” He looks up from the file, “So what does this all mean?”

Well son, we know you can’t possibly make enough money working here to make all your ends meet. We noticed that your bank account never really raises up past 500 dollars. Couple that with the amount of scars on your hands…”

James shoots his hands under his armpits, “Get to your point, I feel like I might have to vomit again,” James wasn’t lying this time, he did feel like he was going to puke.

The Lieutenant points at James, “Frankly we have nothing on you, you just fit the profile of the guy who may or may not be a vigilante, So this you one and only warning.” The Lieutenant nods at the younger officer who collects the file from James and then leaves the two men. “Do no. I repeat, DO NOT, get yourself killed. I don’t want to write that report.” The older man slides back in his seat and grins at James, “One last thing, The Pink Triangle doesn’t have and TVs in it. My daughter is a manager there and she hates sports.” He gets up from the table and closes the door behind him.

James waits for a moment and then looks down at his reflection on the tabletop. His reflection is smiling back at him, “So what now genius?” James takes a deep breath, “I need to hit something.”

 

Modern Hero: Chapter 13 – I want this.

He wakes up and finds himself alone in her bed. The pain in his ribs has all but completely left him. Her stitches have done the job and his “found” antibiotics have worked, He now has a clean enough mind to think about what He has just done.”I am an idiot.”

As He walks around her bedroom He can’t help but feel like He is using Her. He watched over Her for months, at first He wanted to believe it was out of obligation. But at some point that obligation became habit, and the habit became second nature. Now He finds himself in a home that is not his, with a woman that was would be wearing another man’s ring. That is if He hadn’t pawned that ring to pay his rent a few months back.

He continues to walk around the bedroom, a bedroom that is almost as large as his entire apartment. “Maybe we are both using each other” He muses as he puts a pair of shorts She brought for him from his apartment. He touches his ribs again and maps out the pain, then He smells something, “Bacon?”

He follows his nose and finds himself in Lisa’s kitchen. She is standing in front of the oven wearing a new pair of pajama pants and a different t-shirt. He stands in the arch of the kitchen a bit bewildered.

She turns around and smiles at Him, “There’s juice and coffee,” she points to a small dining table in the middle of the kitchen, that hasn’t been pushed up against a wall. “I don’t know how you take your bean, so I left it black.” She looks back at her sizzling pan and flips some bacon.

He finds himself a seat and sniffs the coffee. He can’t remember the last time he drank coffee that was this strong, He has grown accustomed to the cheap stuff His office affords Him. “How is it…”

“How is it possible for me to afford all of this when you never see me leave my home?” She cuts him off.

“Actually I was going to ask how you’re able to cook so quietly, but that would have been my next question.” He takes another sip out of the cup and raises his eyebrows.

She plops some cooked bacon and eggs on a plate in front of Him and then sits across the table with Her own plate. “I have a secret, if you would like to hear it.”

He tries a piece of bacon, and for some reason it tastes better than anything He has eaten in years. “Please.” He speaks with a slight bacon-muffle.

“I was declared permanently disabled by our wonderful government about 9 years ago.” She eats some eggs, “It was right after my wedding actually.”

He coughs a little on his bacon, remember who Her husband is and where that man is currently living. “You seem to be perfectly ok to me. Some kind of sinister past I am unaware of?” He says with a grin.

She sighs a little, has some more eggs, then takes a sip of coffee. “Actually yes. You see before he was tossed in jail Ben found some business partners and together they convinced a group of mental health experts to declare all of us unfit for work.” Her head looks towards a kitchen window and then back to His eyes. “So I never have to work again, but I have to live my life like a hermit so I won’t get noticed.” She smiles, “I have to you I love this life. I sit around all day and do nothing, then once a month I get a check from the government and go back to doing nothing.”

“What’s not to love?” He looks down at his plate and realizes He has devoured his meal. “Oh, uh, thank you for breakfast, it was great…evidently.” He looks away for a moment a shakes His head.

“So you don’t think I’m an awful person do you?” Her look of concern was obvious.

“Because you found a way to not have to work anymore?” He laughs, “Hell no!” He wipes his mouth with a napkin and smiles, “You have no idea the things I have to do to get my bills paid.” He turns his head towards the living room, he can hear his phone buzzing. “I think that’s my phone.”

She stands up with a half cocked eyebrow, “Yes, it’s next to my now blood stained couch,” She smiles and kisses Him, “Go answer your phone.”

He pops up and heads to the living room, “You owe me a new couch,” She says loudly.

He snaps up his phone and before answering it actually thinks, “I wonder if I could steal a couch…” He looks down at the phone to see that He has missed another call from his office. He checks the phone for today’s date, “Shit. I need to call my office,” He turns His head towards to the kitchen and catches Her glance, “I am going to take this in my apartment ok?”

She nods and goes back to Her dishes.

He walks back to his apartment and locks the door behind himself. He recalls his number and after a couple of rings Mr. Hickman picks up the line. “Hello James, sorry to call you while you’re out sick.”

James sits on the end of his bed, “It’s fine Mr. Hickman, what can I help you with.” He remembers to speak with a rasping sound in his voice, because he is so ill of course.

The phone starts talking again, “Well the thing is James, there are a couple of police officers here who need to ask you some questions about something that happened in the parking garage the other night.”

The color drains from James’ face, “Perfect.”