October 21st, 2011
There was something in the air that night, possibly the coming of Hallows eve, or the heavy crispness that accompanies fall. We had been roaming the streets for no less than an hour and had still found no sign of the villain. The city was deserted, littered with the remains of garbage and cigarettes. The only sound produced by our feet was the gentle crackle of fallen leaves, and still I feared this was enough to make our presence known.
The mask around my face was tight and my cheeks perspired lightly in the cold air. Henry appeared at home in the chill, his thick woolen hair providing protection. Even beneath his black cloak, the luminescent white hair glowed in the moonlight.
Furthering ourselves from home base, we dove into the night in pursuit. To much had been sacrificed to let this case run cold and failure was not an option.
Just then, as if by our desire, a gust of wind rushed past us, screeching a ghostly howl. But this was not the wind, we knew enough now to blame this attack on the villain we intended to defeat.
In panic, I lowered onto all fours and grasped the concrete below me. My partner tightened his cloak around him, struggling to lower himself within the heavy wind. The villain could not be seen, but only heard.
“He is running around us, trying to create a twister,” I screamed over the screeching wind.
“His power gives him the strength to gain unimaginable speed,” screamed Henry in response. “The more momentum he gains, the less chance we will have of stopping him.” he added, “and I don’t know how much longer I can hold on. I am to light.”
The wind increased, our masked villain running faster and faster around us. Henry’s feet began to lift in the air, his tail whipping around behind him.
“HOLD ON,” I urged, “I think I have a plan.”
“AND WHAT MIGHT THAT BE,” Henry demanded, his voice barely reaching me.
“The faster you run…” I whispered, “The harder you fall.
With my silent utterance, I launched my body into the twister and directly into the villains path. Faster than I could fathom, his force hit me, harder than any collision I had ever felt. Our bodies collided with the sound of a thousand gunshots and we were both thrown.
“BANDIT,” I heard Henry scream in reaction to the crippling noise. He lifted himself from the ground, the wind now dying down.
I could scarcely see after my body was flung into a building, shattering particles of brick from the walls. Blinded, I jumped to my feet and listened. I could hear the heavy breath and struggling of the villain, thrown off to the left of me. Blindly, I scampered down the alleyway, and upon reaching him, tossed my body atop of his and wrapped my bloodied fingers around his neck.
“There’s no need,” cried Henry from behind me. “I think you’ve knocked him out.”
“Don’t be so sure,” I gasped, still uneasy from the fall.
Just then, the man uttered some unintelligible word from his paper thin lips. The broken voice sounded strangely familiar to my ringing ears.
“Speak up,” I spat, “I’ve been on your trail to long to hear you babble like a goddamn baby.”
Regaining my sight, I saw that the man was wearing a mask, one remarkably similar to mine. With ferocity, I tore the mask from him, revealing the face of our villain.
“YOU PIG,” I screamed, tears rolling from my eyes. “It was you, all along. I should have known, I should have guessed!”
As I raised my hand to hit him, Henry reached out his own to stop my blow.
“Don’t lower yourself to that of a rodent,” muttered Henry, staring down awestruck. “The law will deal with him.”
“How can you be so calm,” I moaned, “how can you even look at him.”
I stared down at the face of the man one last time. Hours of research had been dedicated to revealing his identity, and for months he had alluded us. We never could have anticipated that the answer we worked so hard to obtain was right before our eyes. In fact, the man we intended to destroy was closer to us than Henry and I had ever imagined.
I continued to stare down at the man, now maskless.
“Father,” I breathed, to low for Henry to hear, “There can only be one masked bandit.”
And I raised my hand to strike him with all my might.
[This is the first installment of a fictional diary kept by an undercover super hero, named Rebecca (a fictional version of myself), and her sidekick, Henry (also a fictional representation) my dog. Imagine a mix of reality and the surreal, in which the the characters exist in a realistic world but participate in fictitious and often unrealistic events. For example, Henry is an ordinary dog by day. But, when chosen, he has the ability to adopt human characteristics in order to fight crime, and obviously, the ability to communicate with me in battle to defeat super villains. This collection will focus on the entries recollected by Rebecca, detailing specific events in their lives that parallel the rawness of her reality with the power of imagination . YES, this is the nerdiest thing I have ever done.] [This is for you, Jeremy Visser]
