Hero Be Damned Ch. 02

Chapter 2: No good deed goes unpunished...

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"Control well its slippin' right through my hand, these days turned out nothin' like I had planned..."

–PowderFinger, These Days.

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"You look lost boy."

My feet shifted in their spot. I didn't look up at the old voice speaking to me.

"You have to have a destination, or somewhere to be, to be lost. I haven't got either."

"Fair point son. But you don't look good. I've seen dogs diggin' in the trash that looked better'n you my boy."

I looked up slowly at the man, my eyes heavy, the sleep of the peaceful had eluded me for six months now, my eyes had shown the signs of it after two days, now, they looked as blackish purple as a plums skin.

I raised one corner of my mouth in a half smile, something I hadn't done in a long time either. Something about being compared to a trash foraging dog just did it for me. "I haven't been good in a long time, I really don't want to be either. When I'm good, it means I've stopped caring."

The man appraised me, taking in my sight, I was dishevelled, dirty, I hadn't washed in three days, why bother, I mean I was on the road right? My cargo pants had dirt up to the thighs, my jacket smelled to high heaven. I'd clean up when I'd stopped travelling. Plus, smelling like this at times meant people didn't sit next to me on busses and trains. God knows that lady on the Greyhound the other week irritated me, questions, showing me pictures of her body, coming onto me... I hadn't meant to be rude to her, but I just couldn't do it.

I couldn't handle it any more. When I saw the ring on her finger, the words from her lips surreptitiously inviting me to get off at the next stop with her, the look in her eye that said 'Sure Im taken, but I'm willing to forget that for one night...', I just couldn't handle it. I wonder what they'll do when they see I crushed the armrest in my hand... benefits and drawbacks of being me I suppose.

"Son, you know, whatevers up, whatevers wrong, I'm always open to help people. You got somewhere to go?" The main looked deep into my eyes, his brilliant blue eyes meeting mine. My brow furrowed. My lip trembled a little, a quiver. Probably the first time I responded to someone without a sneer, a snide remark. "No, no sir." My eyes watered a little.

"I run a boarding house near here son, I got three bedrooms spare at the moment, its not busy season. You come and stay there a little bit. Not free. I've got stuff that needs doin. Shingles on the house, pipes need replacing, cement slab out the back needs laying. Hope you're good with your hands. Oh and around forty pine trees that need cutting down so we can rip out the stumps."

Hard work never bothered me. I had no destination as per se, some time in the country doing some work, in the fresh air, might help clear my head I thought. Why not. "Sure. Thank you." I said, nodding in his direction. "Son, I aint offerin you a bed for the night so you can walk off in the mornin'. I live five kilometres from here along that road. Number 24 Dewbridge Road to be precise. You walk that distance, you come to my place, you cut some wood for the fireplace before bedtime, and you've got a place to stay."

A little bizarre I figured, but I'd covered a few hundred kilometres walking in the last week, well, running I suppose, sometimes I'd meander, wander slowly, other times Id burst into a stride. Well, stride is probably the wrong word to use. Shade, me, we don't 'run', we sort of glide. Our foot hits the ground every twenty or so meters, feels like Im taking a normal stride, the distance goes by so fast though... around a kilometre every thirty seconds I can cover.

As you can understand, I was at his house before he was. I sat near a grouping of trees in the black night, watching his house. I sat there a good hour. Just waiting, relaxing. I saw the old man wandering around, making something in the kitchen. Pottering around, cooking. I saw him look out the window, not at me, he went back to his cooking.

Over near the back door to the house, a rather grand Victorian era two story house, kinda like that one in Forrest Gump actually, around four giant logs were laying down next to a stump with an axe. This would be interesting...

Standing over one of the logs, legs on each side, I turned my hand on its side, like a karate chop, and brought it down on the top of the log, holding it in place with my calfs. The log vibrated, a lot. I looked, a split had formed in the top. I let go. The log opened up, not neatly, it'd split roughly down the middle with one hit.

A voice came from behind me.

"You know son. I asked you to cut the wood. Had I asked you to beat the wood, that'd sound just odd... you can pick up that axe now and do the job properly.

I spun around, shocked I had been so stupid as to let someone see me. "Relax son. Im seventy years old. Stuff stopped surprising me years ago. Plus, I saw you over near the trees when I first pulled in. It's my ears that are goin after all, not my eyes..."

I laughed a little, first time in a long time. It felt relaxing. Being able to be myself.

"Bad news and good news though boy. Good news is, pullin' out those stumps is obviously gonna be easier now. Bad news? You're still cutting those logs with an axe. Get to it, then come in. Cut around ten mid size blocks and ten small ones."

"Yessir." I nodded towards the man, "I'll be done soon. You mind if I have a shower first before dinner?"

"You know son, if you're gonna stay here, you better start calling me by my name. Sir makes me sound like an old man. I'm only seventy, got a lot of time left yet. And yeah, have a shower, Im sure if you turned up to dinner smellin' like you do, Diana would have a fit!"

"Your wifes here???" I panicked a little, had she seen too?

"Dianas dead, but Im damn certain if you come to the table smellin' and not sayin' grace, we say grace here, thank our good lord for everything we have regularly, I'm sure she'd come back just to bug the ever livin' shit out of me."

Looking into his smile, it warmed me, being able to be with someone with no evil in him, being around someone with nothing but good intentions, not having to worry about him finding out who I was, well, I'd blown that myself.

"Son, I'm figurin' you're Shade. And, I'm figurin' you disappeared from Castor for a reason. You're fast, you're stronger than anythin' I've ever seen. And as far as I know there's no other Superheroes out there? I figure you'll tell me when you want to, if you want to, why you're here and not there. I won't push. But just know, I'm not tellin' anyone who you are. Hell, I don't want no paparassholes around here!" he laughed to himself, clearly finding it funnier than I did, as he guffawed to himself, whilst slowly walking back inside.

I had to hand it to him. I liked this man. Some sort of weight lifted off of me, just a tiny bit, but I felt it lifting all the same, it felt good. I'd tell him soon, god knows I had to tell him about...

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I looked out my window at the cityscape, the lights glared in the dark, people going about their nightly business, thinking I was out there looking over them. Twelve years I'd been doing it, twelve years and now this... I'd just arrived home from the Morgue, the answering machine blinked, the memory full with messages from everyone who knew Veronica, from the limited amount of people who knew me.

"I just heard..."

"I'm so sorry!"

"Do you need anything?"

"....always here if you need us!"

"What are you going to do???"

Then his voice came on. The deep, over melodramatic tones of Kavork.

"Hellooooooooooooo 'Shade'... Guess what! I was at your house recently, decided to drop in for a coffee, but you weren't there! Your girl was though, and your son. You sinful sinful man, living in sin like that, god would not be pleased! Not married and having a bastard child, things like that can lead you to hell you know hahaha... so I fixed the situation. I gutted them. I cut your son, slit him from ear to fucking ear. Well no, I didn't do that, but I probably should have! Oh, and he squealed, it was hilarious, squealed like a pig as they say. I love clichés, don't you? They're so... cliché! I took my time too by the way, no slow death that's for sure. And your wife? Great tits on her. Great tits! They looked better on me though. You fucked with me one too many times 'Shade'. Aaaaand now that I think about it, you're wife fucked with me a few times too... not that she wanted to. But hey, I guess she'd do anything for her little boy! And she did! Oh boy did she... although she wasn't keen on the old back door, so I worked her up a little... but, I guess a hunting knifes not a very appreciated sex toy... Each to their own, whatever floats your boat as they say. Now down to business... I guess we've both got nothing to lose... you destroyed my business, you took it all from me 'Shade', so I took your family, everything you had. You know how fucking HARD it was to find out who you were? Check your helmet sometime, there's a little receiver in there, just under the back, its like a pin, its dug into the material lining, surprised you honestly didn't find it. Only transmits for like two hundred meters though, so I had to be in range before it'd start transmitting. Took me WEEKS to scour the city, and then what do you know, you're out one day dropping off a fucking DVD at the store and I hear it go off, I chased the signal, and voila!!! It leads to your car!!! You can guess the rest from there! I suppose you could call that my big moment of plot explanation, that I should've done that when we finally met up again, but hey, I'm a sucker for the dramatic. Besides, with all the condolences you're likely to get it'd be nice to hear a message that wasn't sappy eh?...

You know, we're both without anything now 'Shade'. Find me 'Shade'. Find me I fucking dare you. It won't be hard, it's not like you should say, start at Calebs house? But, I'll be ready 'Shade', or should I say John Rollins. I'll be ready for you. Two men enter! One man leaves! By god Thunderdome was terrible wasn't it John? I noticed it in your video collection... you really have terrible taste, thank god your boy won't inherit it... wait, he'll never inherit anything! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *click*"

I swiped the answering machine off the table, it flew across the room, embedding itself in the wall, plastic exploded everywhere, I screamed, my lungs burning, my breath running out as I sobbed, gasping for air. My vision blurred, my fists buried themselves in the walls, dozens upon dozens of holes lining the walls now, I brought them down on the kitchen counter, splintering it into oblivion.

I'm going to find him... I knew I would. I'm going to kill him. There's no doubt in those words.

"I'm coming Kavork. Im going to kill you you son of a bitch..."

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I looked at the logs as the axe was swinging down repeatedly on them, it felt good to be doing normal manual labor, not using my real strength. I looked at him through the window, the man I'd eventually come to call my saviour. I'd tell him. I'd tell him soon what I'd done. But not now. I had to know I could truly trust him. I'd been burned before by someone, and I just needed to know...