REND

“Are you being serious, right now?” Ramello huffed as he carried his bike by his right side and my bike by his left. He did his best not to bump other people as we made our way through the station. “I’m not sure if that car was actually following us. But it did look like it.”

“I’m serious,” I said, drizzling frustration and worry in my voice. “I wondered if I was imagining things, but I noticed some people following me yesterday. Following both me and Deen…Amber Deen. You know her, right?”

“Everyone knows Amber. I didn’t know her second name is Deen.”

“Anyway, I think this has something to do with Kelsey.”

“Kelsey? I overheard people talking about it yesterday. Something about jumping out the cafeteria window? And she's missing? I wasn’t sure if it was true or not. She’s my classmate in a couple of subjects. Haven’t seen her in class for a few days.”

“It’s true,” I said. “Deen and I were there when it happened. We saw Kelsey break through the window and fall to the ocean.” We came upon the train turnstiles. “Oh, wait a bit.” I passed my new tote bag over the reader. It recognized the Metrorail card I kept at the bottom and opened the waist-high gates. “Pass me my bike,” I said to Ramello. I took it so he'd have an easier time going through.

Who could be following me?

Dario's group, duh.

I already knew their faces. I looked around to see if there was something amiss, but the crowd was so thick that anyone following us would have an easy time hiding. Dario did say they had one more member who wasn't present yesterday...if he was telling the truth.

“You were saying?” Ramello said.

I motioned for him to come closer, and he leaned down. “We think Kelsey was seeded by an Adumbrae,” I whispered. Ramello raised his brow in disbelief. I explained, “Before Kelsey ran to the window, she was saying she wanted to die a human. And after our International Law class, Deen and I were tested at Melchor. I think there might be something going on here.”

We entered the train and stood in the aisle, grabbing the handrails. The train wasn’t full and there were empty seats here and there. But Ramello reasoned it was better to stand so we could clearly see the other cars if there were suspicious persons around. It was fine for me because I hated sitting beside people on public transportation.

“Who are these following you?” Ramello said.

“I have no idea!” I said in an intentionally loud, shrill voice, then I covered my mouth. “Sorry, I'm just super stressed right now.” He hesitantly patted my shoulder, unsure of the boundaries between us. I said, “The only reason I can think of why someone would have an interest in me is that I witnessed Kelsey’s death. If this is the BID monitoring me, then they really don’t need to lurk around. They can just nab me and perform tests on me.”

“Correct, they have too much power under the Panderton Act.”

“So, if not the government then…they’re most probably on the other side of the law. I don’t know why anyone would want me though.”

“The criminal underworld connected to the trade of illegal Adumbrae materials is vast,” Ramello said. “We should go to the police and report this.”

“Huh? I’m not going to do that.”

“Why not? If you’re apprehensive about approaching the police, I can ask help from my uncle,” he said. “He’s not my actual uncle, but I consider him to be one. He’s with La Esperanza PD and one of the people who helped me set up my foundation.”

“But can we trust him?” I moved closer to him, looking up, meeting his eyes, and doing my best helpless-damsel impression. “I…I don’t kno—"

“Yeah, we can trust him, Lieutenant Jeremiah Hall. I’ll introduce you to him”

“Okay, I’m going to get really honest here, and I hope you won’t judge me, but I'm scared of getting in touch with the police or the authorities, especially the BID. Like what if something bad, as in an Adumbrae bad way, happened to Kelsey? And I'm going to be caught up in that? No way!”

Ramello nodded. “I understand. It's so easy to be suspected of being connected to a person inflicted by the Adumbrae. Even if eventually cleared, the stigma of being associated with an Adumbrae remains. That’s why I set up my foundation in the first place. ” He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. “Let me think for a bit.”

We fell silent, swaying back and forth a little as the train made its way to the next station. It was one of the older train lines in the city. I peeked at Ramello’s face, he frowned in serious thought. He kept on glancing at the train cars in our front and back.

“I don’t think you should go home,” he finally said.

“No,” I replied. “I have to go home and check on Mom. What if something bad happened to her?”

“What? I didn’t know. Call her. Tell her to get out of the house. The two of us should continue to my house.” He noticed my glare. “No! Not that, don’t think of me that way. I don’t have any bad intentions. What I meant is if bad people are following you, then most likely they know about your address too.”

“But my mom...”

“Or, even if they don’t know where you live, you might lead them to her. Call her now.”

I took out my phone and dialed my mother’s US cellphone number. Obviously, the call didn’t get through as she was abroad. If I called her through the internet, then it would, but Ramello didn’t need to know that. Just like he didn’t need to know I wasn’t living with Mom.

I increased the volume of my phone, the cold, metallic, computer-generated voice telling me my call couldn’t connect brought fake horror to my face.

At that point, Ramello seemed to realize the seriousness of my fabricated situation. He took out his phone and began to dial what I assumed to be the police's number. I grabbed his hand.

“No, please don’t,” I said. “Let’s check on my Mom first.”

“Erind, we have to call the police now. Something might've happened to her.”

“Please,” I said, with tears forming on my eyes, my specialty. “Help me get home safely first. If Mom isn't there, I promise to call the police.”

His fist tightened on his phone but he relented.

Yes! I had my bait.

I intended to meet whoever was following me. My money was on Myra; she probably changed her mind about killing me. Or perhaps she wanted to confront me about what I knew regarding the mysterious woman who attacked her. If I were in her shoes, I'd assumed that woman was connected with the disappearance of Kelsey.

If it was Myra, then jackpot. This must be the opportunity I was waiting for to kill her for trying to kill me. I just wanted Ramello along for added security, perhaps buy time while I transformed or to distract Myra so I could surprise her with a fatal attack.

And I wouldn't waste my chance this time.

If it wasn't Myra, then I could extract information from them or something. Or just leave them alone because I didn't care about them. Oh well.

Please let the person following me be Myra. Please be Myra. Pretty please...

I was starting to get giddy from the excitement of biting someone. I couldn't forget about the strength of my jaws, how satisfying it was to chomp on flesh...on bone...

Ramello suggested we plan our route to my condo. He searched a map of my neighborhood on his phone and picked a path different from my usual. He also checked the traffic from Riano station to the station near my condo to see if it was possible for the car following us to have beaten us there.

It could.

All in all, Ramello was a pretty dependable guy. Good looking too. If this was a romance movie, we would end up together after getting away from the people following us. Maybe I should go out with him if we survived this encounter.

Clarification. If he survived.

I was sure he'd fight for me, a big chivalrous man protecting weak, poor me. He wouldn't last against Myra, no doubt. But I was banking on the fact that Dario's group didn't seem to be evil. Myra would probably hesitate to hit an innocent person.

About a dozen people got off the train with us at the station. Ramello wasn’t even hiding that he was trying to find our followers, staring right at people's faces until they felt uncomfortable and backed away from him.

“There seems to be no one,” I said, unfolding my bike. “Maybe they stopped after seeing someone was…uh…protecting me.”

Ramello noticeably puffed his chest at my choice of words. “We can’t be too complacent. Let’s go to your house.” He suddenly snapped attention to his left and squinted his eyes. “That’s them, I think…maybe” At the far end of the street was the hood of a car poking out. It was the same color and probably the same model...or not. I wasn't too familiar with cars.

“Let’s follow your planned route,” I said. "I want to get home as soon as possible."

Follow us! Come on, Myra, if you're there.

Even if their car couldn’t pass through narrow alleyways, they could easily catch us by going to my condo building—which was my intention. Home base advantage in case there was a fight. It was also easy to notice if someone followed me into a building.

We entered a small alley beside the local QualityMart, threading through trash cans, exiting at Madison Street. Then instead of following the sidewalk like I usually did, we cut through the parking area of a furniture store and jumped over the squat fence, taking a shortcut to San Pedro Bike Bridge where no car could follow us. We continued to Lowen Park and followed the winding footpath to the back of the West Limmons Apartments.

That was a nice change of view. I haven’t been this way before and it was a pleasant path, relaxing even. I was in high spirits. It was always a good feeling to resolve a Rule #4 case. I didn't expect to be done this fast with Myra's case.

Ramello carefully peered out of the alley. My apartment building was right across the street. “All clear,” he said. “No people around.”

A thought occurred to me. What if there was actually no one following us and this guy was just manipulating me? What if he just wanted to rape me or something, and made up this story so he could get in my room or invite me to his house? Sometimes when I get caught up thinking I was manipulating people, I couldn't notice if the tables have been turned.

I should improve on that. I internally shrugged, maybe this was nothing after all.

I could still test my powers on him. A normal human would be pretty easy to bite compared to Myra.

What a weird day.

We walked out of the alley, both of us pushing our bicycles.

There were no people on the street.

Two black SUVs rounded the corner of the block and barreled towards us, boxing us in. Their heavily tinted windows lowered and one hand from each window appeared, carrying a gun. I was too surprised to react. Ramello stretched out his hands and threw himself in front of me. Fhwip, fhwip. Not bullets. Darts. Their tips stuck out of Ramello’s body at several points.

I raised my hand, ready to summon my mask and transform. No! Not in broad daylight. And they didn't seem to want to kill us.

“The fuck do you want!” Ramello shouted.

The car doors opened and large men piled out. One of them pulled out a long, thick, black stick and jabbed Ramello’s side. He jerked and convulsed as the hulking man hit him. A stun gun baton. They only wanted to capture us.

Reacting on instinct, I turned around to run away, but another car blocked me. I jumped over its hood and dashed down the street. The ground beneath me felt mushy. I looked down to see my feet sinking into the supposedly solid pavement like it turned into fucking quicksand. I lost my balance and toppled over. Then the ground hardened again, locking me in place.

The fuck? Powers?! I looked back and saw a tall man with a purple mohawk and numerous piercings all over his face kneeling with his hands on the road.

“Can't move,” I said, tugging at my legs buried ankle-deep in the concrete. I felt a sting at my back. These fuckers shot me with darts as well.

“Stay still, little girl. You’ll go to sleep soon,” the purple mohawk man said as he stood up.

“What do you want from me?” I said. Then I screamed, “Help! Help! Anyone, help us!” But like yesterday, no one came to help. They loaded Ramello into the backseat of their car and came for me. Rough hands grabbed my arms as drowsiness started to gnaw at my consciousness.

The concrete loosened around my feet and they pulled me up.

Powers...Criminal-looking ugly fuckers. Were these guys the enemies of Dario's group?

Would you look at that? They were actually telling the truth.

The fuck did they want from me though? Did these assholes assume I was part of Dario's group? Fuck this shit.

Fortunately, it seemed they had no intention of killing me outright, so I decided not to transform and let them take me. It was my trump card and I should wait for the best time to use it. Since this purple parrot idiot had powers, then there could be others with superpowers too. Even the normal humans had guns. I'd lose if I fought now.

My eyelids felt heavy, not unlike my feeling at Professor Bansa's boring class.

When I wake up, I better get answers to what's happening.