The Super 4 : Dark Death (6 page)

Papa strode over to me and picked
me up. Now most people say I’m really tall at five foot whatever.
But papa was a giant at six foot, five inches. He lifted me in the
air by my ankles and promptly swung me upside down, with my face
inches from the floor. Hilde, Papa and I couldn’t contain our
giggles as papa marched to Hilde’s and my bedroom. Hilde followed
us her own brown eyes bright and alert. She brushed a strand of
light brown hair out of her face. For a fifteen year old, she’s
easily pleased.

“Go, onkel Andreas!” She
shouted.

Papa flopped me on my bed and
carefully tucked me in. “Natt, natt! Carly.”

“Natt, papa.” I said
yawning.

“Elsker du.” He said.

“Love you too.”

“Hilde, are you
crashing as well?”

“No, onkel Andreas. I’m gonna go watch
T.V.”

And without further ado she raced out of the
room. A few seconds later and the voice of Tyra Banks filled the
room.

I don’t even remember him leaving the room. My
urge to sleep was too great. I was overwhelmed by the journey into
dreamland.

Usually I hope for the same dream that I had
on the first day I got my powers. But since I was so tired the only
thing the unconscious part of my brain could think of was krumkake.
So I fell asleep to dreams of krumkake. I dreamt that I was a
princess and my castle was made of cake and whipped cream. And
everyday I would get a can of whipped cream and spray its’ entire
contents on to a roll of cake. To make a long story short my days
were good!

And then all of
a sudden my castle turned into a tree house. The exact tree house
owned by Harrison. And nailed on the wooden door was a sign. And on
that sign in big, fat red letters was:
No
one with less than three powers will be allowed entrance!
I sobbed and sobbed next to the sign and after a
while the faces of Jake, Harrison and Darryl filled the window.
Except in my dream the faces were turned into one of complete and
utter hatred. The Jake I knew was the kindest guy on earth. Er..and
the others too! Anyway when they saw me helpless I expected them to
open the door and tear the sign to shreds. And then give me a
welcoming hug into the metal fortress.

But of course that didn’t happen. Instead
Jake, my kind and loving Jake, pressed a big red button on top of a
silver remote. And in time with the button-pressing, the floor
opened up under me and I fell into a pitch black infinite
hole.

In the midst of all this, Jake’s words rang
out like a fire alarm. “Farewell Carly.”

Just as a bottom appeared I was jerked awake
by an unknown force.

“
Anne! Anne, wake up!” Hilde shook
me awake. Anne was my middle name. A Norwegian name to counter my
first one.

I looked around.

The room was pitch black, the only light
coming from a small torch in Hilde’s hands.

“
Hilde Anita Martinsen! Just what
do you think you’re doing?” I glanced at the digital clock beside
me. “It’s eleven o'clock in the night!”

“
You were crying!”

I felt my eyes. Sure enough they were
wet.

“
What were you
dreaming about,
fetter
Carly.”

I stole her
Norwegian ‘cousin’ in my next sentence, “Nothing! Now go to
bed
fetter
Hilde!”

I turned over and made an attempt at heavy
breathing. I wasn’t sure if Hilde bought it, but she climbed up the
ladder of the bunk bed and didn’t utter another sound except for a
few soft snores.

When I was certain she was asleep I let out a
sigh. And then started sobbing.

Again.

Darryl

VIII

“
Ah!”
I thought. I laid down my book, Moby Dick, for
the seventy-second time. I love that feeling of satisfaction you
get whenever you finish a book. It makes you feel so
accomplished!

I had had ten minutes of lunch left, and had
decided to spend it with my favorite book.

Now I walked to class with that sense of
accomplishment filling my head with happiness.

I was the king of the world.

And then someone stuck out their foot and
tripped me.

I fell.

Everyone started laughing. And all that sense
of accomplishment that had floated around my head suddenly left and
went to the bully who tripped me.

I decided to let it go. After all I could
pummel him with my new found powers. Plus all the exercises we did
made me feel great.

For the first time I looked over to my…
foot-sticker out? Tripper? I don’t know. Anyways I examined him.
Long, shaggy blond hair that fell to his broad shoulders, muscular
arms, and a tanned skin tone. Then I looked at his eyes. They were
green. And the only green I know that looks like that, belongs to a
superhero. A very fast superhero.

The day flashed by in a blur.

A blur that made me think of Jake. A blur that
made me feel angry and hurt on the inside.

In what seemed
like no time at all, I was sitting on the bus. Harrison sat on one
side of me and Carly took a seat to my right. When Jake saw the
three of us, he made a big show of turning around and heading to
the front of the bus. He took a seat next to Kevin and Karen. The
twins. And I mean
the
twins! Kevin is the center on the football team and Karen is
junior to only Carly on the cheerleading squad.

Jake went into an engaging
conversation that was so loud everyone on the bus heard it. But no
one, not even the bus driver would tell the coolest guy in school
to shut up. In fact almost everyone looked, enviously, at the
Twins. Karen flipped her auburn hair, while Kevin ran his fingers
through his own matching hair, though his was considerably shorter.
They listened quietly as Jake continued his loud conversation,
stopping only to check if each other hadn’t died of
boredom.

I probably would of died
immediately.

And then, for the first time Kevin
spoke. “Hey Jake! Good job with tripping up Kleinazoid earlier
today. Way to go man!”

“
Hey that freak was seriously
freaking me out!”

The Twins laughter rang out through the bus.
It was short, but to me it sounded like it lasted a million years.
Jake purposely looked over to us. When he ran his eyes over
Harrison and I, his face twisted in disgust. His ex-best friend
returned the ugly face. I did the same.

But when Jake looked over at Carly his
disgusted look fell into one of sadness, and perhaps hope. His
green eyes softened and his gaze lingered on her for a
while.

Carly noticed and returned his look with a
rude hand gesture.

I stifled a laugh.

Jake’s face molded into one of complete and
utter sadness. He turned and listened to the Twins voices. His face
held a lost look on it.

He started nodding unconsciously, he looked
like he was in another world.

I knew that look. It was one of defeat. I
often see it in my competitors’ faces. Except in P.E. But never was
there a face that held so much defeat.

I found myself feeling sorry for him. But then
I waved the kindness away with the memories of laughter.

I suddenly noticed Carly passing a note to
Harrison. I looked over at the note in his hands.

It read: ‘Tree house at 5’. We nodded. On the
paper I wrote: ‘What’s with the note?’ Carly’s eyes skimmed over
it. After a while, she wrote: ‘Jake has super hearing’.

My face fell when my eyes saw the words she
had written. “WHAT!”

Every face in the bus turned to look at me.
The Twins blue eyes sparkled when they saw me.

To make a long story short I spent the rest of
the ride home being bombarded with spitballs. To make a short story
shorter, it didn’t feel good!

At four forty-five I headed and took the walk
to the tree house.

It takes me fourteen minutes and 38 seconds to
walk from my house to the tree house.

As I walked I wondered what we were going to
do. We couldn’t do fights, so I don’t see what else there was to
do.

As I neared the tree house, I took out my
amulet and placed my hand on the hammer. I felt the engravings for
a while. Then I turned it around and examined the back of it, where
the microphone and tracing chips were placed.

Exhaling loudly, I pushed the “Find” button on
the amulet. A 3D map appeared. It showed Harrison in the sky doing
flips, it showed Carly underwater, looking around at all the
different species of fish and newt. There weren’t that many. It
showed Jake at the…the…Tree house!

My heart thumping quickly, for some weird
reason, I quickly pressed the ‘Call’ button of the amulet. Once
again a 3D map appeared, I picked the amulet numbers that appeared
in the sky and in the water. It answered immediately.

“
What’s the problem, Darryl?” I
heard Harrison ask.

“
Jake’s waiting for us at the tree
house!”

“
What!” They responded
simultaneously.

“
Mission abort
to...” At the last minute I remembered about Jake’s super hearing
and I whispered the last word, “
the
washington monument
.”

“
Roger that!” And with that the
call disconnected.

“
Well...um...Bye!” Carly said
before hanging up as well.

I turned around and once again opened the 3D
map. I saw Carly and Harrison heading in the same direction. In
fact Harrison was almost on top of Carly.

I shrugged and headed in the direction that
they were heading. After all I didn’t know which way to go. My
motorcycle had a GPS but I left it at the tree house.

I followed the direction they were going and
found it led deeper and deeper into the heart of the
forest.

For the first
time I looked at where Jake was. I saw a large tall spire
labeled:
The Washington Monument.
I wondered just how strong his super hearing was.
I silently cursed myself for not bothering to think of that. That
explains why Harrison and Carly were so close. And they weren’t
walking along side each other, because they’d be tempted to
talk.

I started running.

Harrison

IX

Something jumped on me from behind. A hand
found it’s way onto my mouth. I regretted walking. I had started
walking for no reason other than the reason that it just felt
right. I could see the city in the distance. Then I remembered the
person on top of me. I struggled to get the person of me. I made a
fire sword and wielded it at the person. It was Darryl.

“Darryl? What do you think you’re doing?” I
asked struggling to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“
Sorry, Harrison!” he apologized.
He looked around.

He picked up a small stone and threw it right
in front of me. Carly sprang forward brandishing an icy sword of
her own.

“
Jeesh guys! Easy with the
swords!” Darryl yelled, with his hands in the air.

“Ha...sorry ‘bout that.” Carly looked at the
ground in shame.

“It’s ok.” He touched the ‘Find’ button on his
amulet and a map appeared. Silently, he pointed to the 3D picture
of Jake standing at the Washington Monument. My jaw dropped open.
Darryl put a finger on his lips. The universal sign for ‘Shut Up!’.
Carly and I both nodded. He drew a house and wrote ‘white’ on top
of it. He pointed to me.

I nodded.

We entered my house and went straight to my
room. But something was wrong. My chair was swivelled in the
opposite direction. But I could see the few strands of blond hair
poking on top.

“Jake.” I said, my voice colder than Carly’s
icy sword.

“Hi Harrison.” he responded.

“How did you get here?

“
I found the tracking chip. I put
it on top of the Washington Monument.” He looked at Darryl as he
spoke.

Darryl checked his amulet. Sure enough it said
that Jake was at the Washington Monument. Darryl swore
silently.

“
What do you want?” I
asked.

“
I want to apologize to Darryl. It
was an accident tripping him. But I missed the feeling of being on
top.”

“
What do you mean?” Carly asked.
Her icy eyes softening a little.

“
I feel so out of place in this
group. I mean you and Harrison control fire and water. Darryl’s
smarter than anyone in the history of the universe! But me I’m just
the defense guy. What use am I?” He said sadly.

“
Um...Your force field can
withstand anything! You’re faster than light!!! You’re pretty
useful” Carly smiled her eyes losing all of their anger, “Also you
have crazy hearing and seeing powers! I want that!”