Chapter One: What Happened After the Battle of Washington Park

Chapter One:

What Happened After the Battle of Washington Park

“Help me with him”

I was disoriented and foggy headed.  There were a lot of flowers right around my head.  I was lifted unevenly off the ground.  Two people, probably.  There was a statue on a mound of rocks.  Was that Moses?  Water running.  A fountain.

“Careful with him.” A woman’s voice, husky.

“We should call 911.” Another woman.

“We can’t call 911.  Do you see what he’s wearing?”

“That’s why we should call 911.”

I was moved a few feet, carried by two women.  I couldn’t move on my own.  I was barely conscious.

“He just saved our lives, Jackie.  Just help me with him.  It’s just across the street.”

“Are you crazy, he’s a fucking supervillain.”

“Maybe. All that I know is that if it weren’t for him, we’d be dead right now.  So…”

The smell of chrysanthemums hit me.  I noticed Moses was oxidized copper-green and standing atop a pile of rocks that was the fountain.  Other statues were arranged around the rocks and appeared to be drinking water from the fountain.  Must have been from some Biblical story I never heard.  Probably from when Moses led his people into the desert to escape Pharaoh’s wrath.  They got thirsty and Moses magicked up some water, I’m guessing.  Something like that.

I was being dragged through a formal garden.  Things were in disarray, trees uprooted, and park benches overturned.  Leaves and branches everywhere.  Not that far away a giant, old tree was down.  A streetlight poked through its branches and foliage.  The tree must have been about two, three hundred years old.  There was a charge in the air, like after a lightning storm.  It was cool out.  The flowers in the garden plots where I was lifted from looked tired, like they had been doing their flower blooming thing since spring, and they didn’t have much left in the tank.  I knew how they felt.  My muscles wouldn’t respond to my commands.  All I could do was limply comply with the people dragging me along.  I didn’t know where I was, why I was there, or where I was going.  If I thought about it, and I didn’t, I didn’t know who I was either.  We’ll get to that soon.

I fell unconscious again.

When I finally woke, I was on a small couch in strange apartment.  Still couldn’t move.

“He’s awake.  He better not try to kill us.”

“Why would you think I would kill you?”  I asked.  I could talk now apparently, but the rest of my muscles refused to move.

A surprised voice answered, “Because, you’re you know…a supervillain.”

A supervillain?  Is that what I was?  As I heard this, I realized I had no idea who or what I was.  I knew nothing about myself.

“I’m pretty sure, I’m not a supervillain,” I replied, honestly.

“Then why are you dressed like the Dark Runner, Dr. Velocity, or whatever?  Why were you fighting the Golden Speedster?”

“I don’t know.”

(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt