A minus 12 Days
Esperanza City; Four Days after the Hastur Incident in New Lennston
Birds sang, bees buzzed (when they weren’t being eaten by something), cars drove up and down the streets. There was a class of elementary school children passing by the graveyard, loud enough to be heard even over the wall that circled it, and someone somewhere was playing music so loudly that I could hear the words clearly even over here. Slow, slow me down…
The sun shone brightly down on the casket that contained Linda’s body. Or what was left of it. Her blood, on my bones…
I was wearing my funeral dress, the one my parents had bought for me a year ago for Grandpa’s funeral. I’d hated it back then, and I hated it more now. It didn’t help that it was way too tight around my chest for comfort.
Linda was wearing her own version of it inside that damned casket. Luckily for her, it was not too tight around her bust, mostly because her breasts were among the things that had been missing from her body. Shotgun blast from the side, they said. Point-blank range.
I felt the corners of my mouth twitch with the beginnings of a smile, before I ordered the summary execution of all facial muscles involved in that. Let go, lay to rest.
And this is what’s called being in denial. Was I in denial?
Mostly, I just felt angry. No. I was totally angry. My hands were shaking where I’d clenched them into fists. Fortunately, I’d grown out of the phase where I always kept my fingernails long, so I didn’t tear into my own flesh…
I bit my lip, trying to calm down. Or at least keep up the appearance of being calm. Grieving.
Truth was, I wasn’t sad. I mean, I knew I should. And I felt like being sad, but I wasn’t.
Just angry. Furious.
Bitch. You’re such a bitch, I thought, looking at the casket as the fat priest from our church droned on and on about heavenly grace and God’s plan and forgiveness and shit.
Why forgive her? That was a question that kept pounding my mind. She’d lied to me. She lied to me.
We fall, we fall, we fall to the ground.
My parents were standing to my left, with my brother in between them and holding their hands. I sneaked a glance at them, even though I knew what I’d see: Shame, sadness, disappointment, confusion. Freddy looked lost, his young mind not really able to grasp the situation yet. At least I hoped so.
They looked so small, standing there. The other guests didn’t help – they were watching us, their stares heavy and judgemental. They were all from my parents’ usual circles, and really only attending to express their disapproval, as well as, probably, keep an eye on me.
I hadn’t invited any of my friends, but they’d still come, since their parents were here, too. None of Linda’s friends were here, obviously. At least none of her real friends, as we’d so recently found out. She’d cut ties with her old crowd right around the time when she distanced herself from our family, from me.
No one around here was going to invite her new ‘friends’. And the fact that we didn’t know who they were was only a small part of that. Mostly, it was because they’d gotten her killed.
The priest finished his stupid rant, and they began lowering the casket. Mom broke down, falling onto her knees, sobbing, as dad knelt down to hug her and Freddy.
I just stood there, watching as my twin sister, the supervillain, was lowered into the earth.
And I couldn’t follow her.
Sleep, sleep all night.
Tieshaunn 
NIcely done. Good start.
‘A minus 12 Days’
Not ominous. Not foreboding at all.
And yet another change of perspective.
Oh that was good, but, but, but i want more…
pleas sir, can i have more?
the correct quote would be “Please Sir, I want some more.”
Soon as I can finish it
Good, but I spent the whole time wondering who the POV was.
no one you’ve seen before^^
I thought as much.
It ain’t easy being evil.
So stop me if you’ve explained this allready but is this gonnah turn out to be a story of her joining some kind of hate group or will she get powers then maybe join brennus and his team or something?
there’s no way I could answer that kind of question without spoilers.
Just wait and read
mind you, she’s in esperanza city – which is where los angeles used to stand. New Lennston, where Brennus and his team are, is on the east coast
that’s quite a ways away from her place
Well, I’m certainly intrigued. A good start, now I just need to eagerly await the next part!
I been meaning to ask/request, can you or will you have a chapter on the ways heroes and villains work in other parts of the world. You have talked a little about other country but not gone into to much detail ( I guess time limits and other problems) which is a shame as I love your writing and I love how you mix real world things into the story, even the story about the queen getting a power Ha ha. Stuff like the different ways heroes work in different country and how some problems between that and culture and stuff. You are better at this then I am 🙂
And I wouldn’t mind seeing the world thought the eyes of a normal human. Maybe you can mix the two have a random non related people give a school report about heroes and villains or some other way to put it into the story.
Last thing love the work, cant wait till more. and if i am asking things you have done or are planing to just ignore me :).
P.S: You should add a Character list ( you got a large number of em now) where you can list a little into and powers, I forget a lot 😦
P.S 2. Want to tell me the powers of the S+ threat Devil’s bride and Queen Madeleine??? I keep it between just us….. and every one else. 🙂
1. you write PS, then PPS, then PPPS, etc (the P is for ‘post’ as in ‘after’, so you can stack it
2. in the brennus files and some comments, there are some tidbits about other countries. there’ll be more comprehensive explanations, but here’s a short list:
North America: independent teams and United Heroes
South America: United Heroes, Government-sponsored “heroes” (more like anti-villains at best)
Europe: as North America, but more independent teams
Sovjet Union: Government teams, “Heroes of Workers”; if you want to throw in ideology, there are several underground metahuman groups that work against the government
Africa: everything north of the sahara is either depopulated or policed by the UH, everything south of that except for the southern tip is under Sovereign’s control
Australia: Madeleine rules supreme. Her ‘nobles’ are all metahumans, and they provide ‘knights’ which are organized into several Orders, each of which has different duties (police mundane crime, police metahumans, defend borders, etc)
Japan: refuses a permanent UH team, instead each prefecture and each larger city has its own Sentai Team (power rangers). The Super Sentais have no individual codenames, but are named after their team motif and their colour. For example, Tokyo has two Super Sentai teams, Alien and Dino. The Red Ranger of each is called Alien Red and Dino Red, and so on.
Many smaller states have independent teams. Won’t list them all here
3. Will get to work on the character list… in time. Sorry, but right now, I barely have time for the story proper T_T
4. No spoilers. You’ll have to wait and read 😉
5. Thank you very much, and I hope you’ll keep enjoying my work!
PS: Terry is not a metahuman
Yet
I’m not sure what it is, but out of every web-serial that I have read in the past and those I currently keep up with (about 20 total), I have never encountered a story that gives me quite the sense of desperation in waiting for the next chapter as you story does. It isn’t the most well written story I have ever read or even the most creative, but by golly if it isn’t the most addictive.
Glad to know you like it 😉
Is A for awakening? Of a sleeper, perhaps?