The Gods Among Us

Chapter 31: A Triple Threat

A:

"No sign of Lafayette," I tell myself as I soar high above the city of San Francisco. Despite all the stunning lights coming from the glowing skyscrapers, I ignore them and narrow my eyes. I zoom in on the streets below, scanning for anyone that even remotely looks like Lafayette. However, because it's nighttime, there are fewer people walking around.

"I should try again in the morning. I may have better luck."

With no real other option, I sigh as I focus my power. The familiar black mist appears all around me. It consumes me before vanishing but not before leaving me in front of my old, rusty, gas station home.

"Home sweet home," I say as I approach the empty store bedroom.

The moon is high in the night air as I walk through the empty, abandoned parking lot. The air is cold. Everything is quiet. Everything is very quiet. So quiet, in fact, I cannot hear a single thing. I stop walking and look around. I do not see anything. I do not see any bugs or insects. I do not hear anything moving in the dry bushes. Even the wind is quiet. I sense something is off.

Holding my hand behind me, I focus my power and form a telekinesis blast. I give my surroundings one last look before walking toward my store bedroom. While walking, I start to whisper. I whisper an out-of-tune song but I still whisper. Reaching the forgotten store that is now my bedroom, I reach for the boarded-up door. I grab the door handle and pretend to pull.

The second I pull, I see a cactus shakes. I stop whispering and turn toward the cactus. Like a baseball player, I wind my arm before throwing the telekinesis blast. My blast goes through the chain-linked fence and hits the cactus.

It erupts and flies up from the ground. I watch the cactus as it falls but someone behind it keeps going up. The shadowy figure flies into the sky for a few minutes before flying back down. The figure dives toward the sand before taking a sharp turn toward me.

I see the figure flies toward me at an incredible, almost impossible speed. Holding out my hand, preparing a second telekinesis blast, I stop when I hear a sound coming from behind me. Turning around, I see a strange animal crawling around the store. Tall and black, it had a long head, two arms, two legs, and a sharp tail. Upon seeing the strange animal, it leaps from the store and onto me.

Screaming as the animal grabs onto me, it opens its mouth in front of me. I feel my eyes go wide as I see a second mouth on the animal's tongue. The second mouth roars as it opens itself. It shoots out and almost bites me but I pull my head back in time.

Trying to break free of the strange animal, I turn my head when I hear the wind. It's the shadowy figure. Still flying toward me, he runs right into me and pushes me through two abandoned gas pumps and a pillar. Almost flying through the chain-linked fence, I scream as I watch the roof above the gas pumps fall in on itself.

"My home," I yell, watching as a whole entire part of my home is destroyed, the only thing left behind are scrap metals and dust. As I watch it all fall down, I immediately feel something inside of me burst. It feels like my very blood is burning up, and energy is flowing throughout me.

With one scream into the cold night sky, I heat things up. The animal roars and snarls as I feel myself burning. The animal is forced to let go and shields itself with its thin arms. The second I see this, I grab its chest and pull it off of me. I then throw it at the shadowy figure as he comes flying toward me.

The animals and the shadowy figure hit each other and then fall onto the ground.

"You destroyed my home," I shout as I stomp toward the shadowy figure. "Enough is enough! What do you want! Who are you! I do not care if I have to rip--"

Before I could finish, someone grabs me from behind. I feel an arm go around my neck and a hand on my arm. I look behind me and see another figure.

"A second shadowy figure! What the hell!"

The second shadowy figure is stronger than the first. I cannot seem to be able to break this person's grip.

"Who are you people," I shout, struggling to get out. The second person manages to keep his grip but he makes one mistake. He only had one of my arms.

Power flows into my hand as I aim at the ground. Shooting a telekinesis blast, the blast knocks both me and the person behind me into the air. While in mid-air, I break free of the man's grip and shove him to the ground. Flipping and landing on my feet, I look at the second person as he pushes himself up.

He, along with the strange animal, and the first shadowy person all gather together. Side-by-side now, they bring up their fists and ready themselves for a fight. I bring up my own fist.

"All of you," I say, waving my fingers. "Bring it on! Either way, I will get one of you to talk."

Matt:

"Seriously man," I shout as I look at all the empty boxes of McDonland burgers. "You must have eaten a whole ocean's worth of fish!"

Throwing all the empty boxes onto the already-formed mountain sitting in our trashcan, I use my foot and start to stomp on it. I try to push it down as much as I can but 'Trash Mountain' is putting up one heck of a fight.

"Okay," I say after using some nearby paper towels to clean the lettuce and mayonnaise from my shoes. "That's it."

I stomp my way back into the apartment and right into the kitchen.

"You sir," I say, pointing a finger at Alfred. "Owe me a new pair of running shoes."

Alfred, who is sitting at the kitchen counter drinking a Mcflurry completely ignores me. Instead, he nudges his head to the side.

"What," I ask, turning slightly to the side. As I turn, I see Alieen sitting with Alfred. "Ohhhh. Alieen. You're right. In the kitchen."

"Yesss," Alieen says, nodding her head. "I'm here in the kitchen, talking with Alfred. What happened to your shoes?"

I look down and see my mayonnaise-covered shoes.

"Alfred ordered McDonald," I answer. "Anyway, Alieen, what are you doing here?"

"I came down here hoping to talk with A," Alieen answers.

"Sorry to tell you this," Alfred says, taking a break from his Mcflurry, "But A left about 20 minutes ago."

"Oh," Alieen says, adjusting her hair. "Well, it's probably for the best."

"For the best," Alfred and I repeat. "What do you mean?"

"I think it would be for the best for us all if A stopped coming here."