2 Hero

Maria usually has a difficult time falling asleep, although she finds it more difficult to get up from bed in the morning. That morning was not as troublesome, despite having only slept two to three hours, she immediately gets up from bed and walks to Adam's bedroom door, knocking twice, inquiring if it's alright to come in.

"Door's open." Says Adam from inside.

Maria peers through and looks at Adam hesitantly.

"Hey, baby. Um- I think I had a weird dream." She begins.

"Did it involve me being given some type of power?" He says as he floats in a seated position in the air, legs crossed.

"Stop that!" She demands.

Hurt in his eyes, he does as he is told. Maria becomes aware of the tone she used.

"I'm sorry, baby. This is just really weird. The talk we had yesterday kept me up all night, and seeing you do weird things just puts everything over the top."

Her words hit him hard. Adam begins to doubt if revealing his feelings for his mom yesterday was worth the effort.

Maria leaves her son to deal with the aftermath of her words by himself. She readies herself for work, getting out of the house as fast as possible.

In the idleness of traffic, Maria goes through the previous afternoon's events over and over. She thinks a lot about her son's words, the confession he made to her.

"You mean so much to me, and not just because you're my mom, I would look up to you and respect you as a person regardless of anything. I also have these feelings for you that you may not like me having, but you not wanting me to feel this way for you is not going to change the fact that I love you so much more than just as a son. I want-"

Maria had interrupted him by slapping him across the face. He didn't respond or react, just stood there, looking down, listening to the waves. By then the sun was setting, Adam took it upon himself to confess something he had been hiding for years. He had gotten the confidence to tell her how he felt about her, and her reaction was to slap him on the face. The altercation they had this morning at home must not be helping the situation much, because Maria feels miserable having to deal with her regret on her own. She wishes she could have been as honest about her feelings as her son was yesterday, she wishes she weren't so impulsive and strikes her son like that. Most of all, she wishes she could spend the rest of her life in her son's arms, as they fly over the beach until the end of time. Maria remembers how her son looked naked, ashamed for the feelings she attempts to repress.

The car behind her lets loose on the horn. Maria realizes she had drifted off and didn't notice the light turn green.

Maria arrives at work, checks in and heads to the third floor where the social work department can be found at Saint Michael Hospital. Exiting the elevator, she walks towards the reception desk to speak to her friend Sheryl.

"Hi, Sher."

"Hey, mamma." She replies.

Maria puts her things on the desk, getting the weight off her.

"You have a fun evening yesterday?" Ask Sheryl.

"Yeah, I did, actually." Replies Maria.

"Me too, my husband says to me that he wants to go for-" Sheryl goes on about movie night with her husband, going into detail about the movie they saw. As Sheryl goes on, Maria's mind takes her back to yesterday at the beach with Adam. Her baby boy looked so handsome, a glint in his eye Maria failed to recognize then, something about him changed. Maria sighs.

Sheryl's story and Maria's daydream are interrupted by a man asking for directions. "Hi, I'm looking for Laurie Ramsey's room."

Sheryl, displeased to have been interrupted, begrudgingly looks in the database. "What's your relation?" She asks.

"Husband. Nick Stevens."

"Oh, yeah, I see you listed as here, room 317, but her mom's in there, and we have a one visitor policy on the third floor, but-"

The man interrupts Sheryl again. "317. It's alright, I can come back. Let her mom stay."

Sheryl grinds her teeth as the rude man walks back to the elevator, stepping out of the way of Dr. Olivia, a psychologist. Maria grabs her stuff from the desk, tells Sheryl they'll catch up later and follows Dr. Olivia.

"Olivia!"

"Good morning, Maria. How are you?" Replies Olivia over her shoulder.

Maria keeps up with the pace of Olivia's long legs as she strides her way to her office.

"There's a lot on my mind. You got any free time today, think we could talk?"

Dr. Olivia stops, as does Maria.

"I actually have my first two hours free. I was going to eat breakfast and catch up on some paperwork. We could talk right now, if you have the time, and you don't mind my chewing."

Maria laughs. "Thanks, Olivia."

Maria takes a seat on the swivel recliner in front of Dr. Olivia's desk. Dr. Olivia takes out a Tupperware with the day's breakfast.

"First off, what do you think about Freud?" Asks Maria.

"Nothing that hasn't been said already. Sure he had his heavy speculations, but he helped lay down the foundation for psychoanalysis."

"What's the whole deal about the Oedipus complex that he's so famous for? I know about it superficially, but I think you could put it into perspective better than I could."

Dr. Olivia keeps her mouth closed as she chews her breakfast, finally answering, "Well it's not to be taken literally for starters, and you have to take into account that most of this stuff supposedly happens in the subconscious, it sort of makes reference to a psychological shift most if not all men go through early in their lives."

"Is it normal for young men to have sexual feelings for their mothers?" Ask Maria.

"Like I said, most of the process happens in the subconscious, it outwardly manifests itself in different ways."

Maria thinks about how to phrase her next question. "What about young men having conscious sexual desires for their mothers?"

"Well, that's just incest." Replies Dr. Olivia. Now, Dr. Olivia takes her time to think of how to phrase her next question. "Do you think your son desires you sexually?"

"He said he has these feelings for me he thinks I wouldn't approve of, that he wants to be more than a son to me."

"How did you respond?"

"I slapped him and told him to shut up." Maria battles the tears welling in her eyes.

"How do you wish you could have responded?"

"I don't know, by letting him talk about it. Open up to him myself so he doesn't feel so alone. I don't know, just not the way I did."

"Have you talked about it since?"

Maria looks down. "No, I just made a big deal out of something out of his control."

"To avoid the main issue at hand."

Maria releases a heavy sigh. "Yeah, exactly. Thanks, Olivia, talking to you always helps."

Maria gets up from the comfortable chair, thanking Dr. Olivia again, and leaving the good doctor to finish her breakfast.

Making her way to the other end of the hall, where her office is located, Maria decides to go down to the cafeteria for an early breakfast.

"Hey, Sher. I'm going downstairs for breakfast, want to join?" She says, stopping in front of the reception desk.

"I'm good, baby. You go on ahead." Sheryl looks away from the screen to look at Maria. "Get a load of this, another guy came by saying he was the husband of the lady in 317. I was like 'hang on, that other guy said the same thing.' so I asked to see his ID and lo and behold, it was legit. He's in there right now, actually. Patient's mom left."

"So who was that other guy?" Asks Maria.

"No clue, but if you see him again make sure to call security on him." Replies Sheryl, returning her attention back to the screen.

Maria dismisses the information, having too much on her mind already. She leaves Sheryl to do her work and walks into the woman's bathroom next to the elevator. She doesn't walk into any of the stalls, rather, after confirming she's in there alone, looks at herself in the mirror.

Her mind still stuck on the previous day's events, she pictures Adam's naked body again, his confession ringing in her ears.

She poses in front of the mirror, she raises her right arm, running her hand through her hair, puffing it up, giving it volume as she sticks her left hip out to the side. The charcoal grey pants suit she wears highlights the curves of her body. She stares at her face in the mirror, raising her chin, stretching her neck, clenching her jaw, slightly opening her mouth, looking at herself up and down, perplexed that such a vibrant young man like Adam would take interest in an older woman such as herself. Being told she looks younger for her age is a compliment she loves to hear, but never genuinely believes.

The bathroom door opens as a nurse walks in, kindly greeting Maria before walking into one of the stalls. Maria takes one more look at herself in the mirror then exits the bathroom and takes the elevator down to the first floor.

Maria grabs something to eat at the cafeteria, as she makes her way to an open seat, she feels the table with the three tech guys from anesthesia follow her with their gaze. Maria takes note of the attention then sits by the window overlooking the main entrance and parking lot. She wonders how Adam sees her through his eyes. Once again she is taken back to yesterday, when she was held in her son's arms as he flew them both over the shoreline at the beach. Maria remembers having looked over at him, a warm smile on his gentle face, his penis throbbing, full of blood near her waist.

Maria licks her spoon clean with intent when something turns her attention towards the parking lot. The edgy man she had seen when she arrived at her floor makes his way towards the main entrance, his steps far too heavy, something about him doesn't seem right. Maria notices that over his beige jacket is a black strap that hangs across his chest. The man makes an immediate stop as a car suddenly hits hard on reverse, the assault rifle he was attempting to hide now visible that he lost his bearings.

Maria gets up, "There's a man with a gun!" she yells.

As more and more of the people in the cafeteria turn to see what she's referring to, their curiosity is replaced by panic as they all start making their way towards emergency exits.

The commotion made in the cafeteria is enough to have alerted the security guards as the rifled man outside now halts, grabs and aims his weapon towards the main entrance where he is confronted by security guards holding hand guns, preventing him from getting closer.

Bullets fly and Maria knows she has to get up to room 317 as soon as possible. On her way to the hall she pulls on the fire alarm, turning off the elevators. The people still inside the elevators force the door open, jumping and crawling out, Maria doesn't pay them too much mind, running now towards the stairs. Outside, the gun fight concludes with the two security guards lying on the floor, as the rifled man now makes his way into the hospital.

Maria throws her heels off, pushing her way past the people running down the stairs.

"He's armed and coming through the main entrance, be careful!" She informs as she pushes her way past some nurses.

"Maria, where the hell are you going?" Sheryl stops her in the middle of the second floor's flight of stairs.

"It's the guy from before. The one that asked about room 317."

Sheryl has to hear no more and they both now make their way to the third floor.

The door is jammed shut by staff on the other side.

"Guys it's us!" Yells Sheryl. "Open this damn door!"

An Asian man in scrubs peers through the door window, confirming it's his colleagues, he opens the door for them.

As Maria takes her first step into the third floor's main hall, rapid gunshots are heard echoing through the stairs, followed by the screams of the staff, patients and visitors as they turn around back up the stairs.

Maria addresses the Asian man in scrubs that opened the door for them. "Henry, let as many people in as you can."

As people rush through the door into the third floor, Maria and Sheryl go to an empty room, grab the heavy hospital bed, and between the two of them, push it towards the door to the stairs.

An older doctor makes his way into the third floor when his torso is pierced by bullets that fly right through him, impacting the wall in front.

Henry closes the metal door again, turning the key he left in the hole. Just in time, Maria and Sheryl push the heavy hospital bed in front of the door.

Henry locks the bed's wheel, grabs on the fallen doctor's legs, and drags him out of the rifled man's range as the assailant shoots through the stairwell door window.

Sheryl, Maria, Henry and the injured doctor make their way through the empty hallway. Everyone must have taken refuge in a room.

They run past room 317 as Maria opens the door to her office to let Henry take care of the doctor inside.

The rifled man can still be heard pushing against the metal door keeping him out the third floor. Maria edges her way to room 317, no patient room has a lock on the door, but as Maria tries to push open the door, finds that she can't.

"It's me Maria, I work here, please let me in."

Maria's theory is correct, someone, a young gentleman, was putting his weight against the door.

Maria enters the room, the gentleman that had opened the door for her pushes his weight against the door again, in the hospital bed, a woman with a newborn child in her arms.

"Listen, the guy doing this is coming here, he came by earlier asking for you, we thought it was this young man here." She says, pointing at the man leaning against the door.

"I am so sorry this is happening. I don't care what his deal is with you guys, all I know is I got to get you guys out of here."

"How?" Asks the mother.

"We can get to the fire escape through the roof. But we got to use the stairwell on the other end of the hall." Explains Maria.

The couple seem to agree on Maria's plan as the man walks to his woman to carry the baby for her.

"Was your birth vaginal or cesarean?" Asks Maria.

"Vaginal." She responds.

"Okay, got shoes?"

"No."

"Cool, me neither."

As the man carries the baby, the mother fights through the soreness and sedation to keep up with them as Maria leads them towards the other end of the hall.

When they reach the hall leading to the stairs barged with the hospital bed, they stop.

"On the count of three, we run. Don't let him see you." Says Maria.

The couple nods, and on the count of three, they dart forward, the mother's left arm around Maria's shoulders as they run.

Unable to pass undetected, the man sees them run by, shoots his rifle, misses, realizes they must be trying to escape, and runs down to the second floor to look for another exit.

Now the trio quicken their pace. They arrive at the stairwell entrance and start running up, approaching the door to the roof.

As they exit into the roof, the man carrying the baby stops.

"Wait, take the baby." He says, offering the child to Maria. "I'll hold him here. Run!"

The mother tries to protest but Maria grabs her by the arm with one hand as she holds on to the baby on her other arm. In the sky float helicopters, unfortunately no snipers from the local PD, just media. Thanks America.

"Come on." Says Maria as they strut towards the fire escape.

Bullets pierce through the metal door, injuring the man, dropping him to the floor. The rifled man kicks the door open, looks around, and fires the remaining rounds on the man on the floor.

The women quicken their pace but are slowed down by the mother's lack of balance due to the drugs they gave her a few hours ago and the weight of the child in Maria's sore arm. The man quickly catches up to them and pulls on Maria's hair, dropping her to the floor, a few feet away from the fire escape.

Maria makes sure to fall on her back to protect the baby, as the man strikes the mother on the face hard, dropping her as well to the floor.

"Fucking slut." He exclaims.

"Please, Ian, I know this isn't you." She pleads.

"Shut up!" He yells, kicking her in the stomach and making the mother yelp in pain.

Having tucked the baby safely behind a metal air duct tube, Maria charges at the distracted rifled man. She fails to even drop him to the floor and the man angrily punches her in the face, once again dropping Maria to the floor.

"I'll gladly kill you too bitch." He says as he begins to reload his rifle.

Maria can do nothing but look at the man as he busies himself with preparation of the instrument of her demise.

"Adam."

A bright flash of white light, followed by a crack like thunder, as Adam appears between the rifled man and Maria, naked like the day he was born, legs stretched, chest puffed and his head raised, looking at the sky, his olive skin glistening in the sunlight. He lowers his gaze, observing the rifled man, he turns his head over his shoulder towards his mother, noticing blood trickle from her mouth.

"Mom!" He runs towards her, kneeling down to make sure she's okay.

"What happened?" He asks, taking her hand and reading the stream of her thoughts. He gathers enough information then turns his attention towards the rifled man, now paralyzed by shock.

"You made a grave mistake coming here." Says Adam, approaching the man.

The rifled man makes no introduction, he aims his rifle at Adam and unloads an entire magazine on him. The bullets hit Adam like nerf gun darts.

Close enough to the terrified man, Adam puts his palm on the man's head and begins squeezing his grip, intent on crushing his skull. The man lets out a wailing shriek.

"Adam, stop!" Demands Maria.

Adam lets the man drop to the floor, convulsing. He runs back to his mom, helping her get up from the floor.

"Sorry, mom, I know he hurt you, and I wanted to hurt him more." He explains.

"I didn't raise a killer." She says demandingly.

Adam hates disappointing his mom, but those last words hit him deep. Realizing she's coming off as too aggressive, Maria relaxes, raising her arms to wrap them around Adam's neck. She kisses him on the cheek.

"Thanks, baby. You came just in time." She whispers into his ear.

Adam lets his mom press her soft breast against his bare chest as he hunches over.

"I came because you called." He says, caressing her swollen cheek, the air brushing her hair as he looks at her bright green eyes..

They are interrupted by the sudden realization that there are sirens heard from the ground floor. A group of people wearing heavy boots can be heard running up the stairs, probably the police, the media helicopters in the sky observing everything on the roof.

"You need to get out of here." Says Maria.

"I'll be close. Call like you did before if you need anything." He says as he disappears in another flash and crack.

Maria continues staring at the space her son just occupied as a SWAT team floods out of the stairwell door.

In a giant throne room, host to hordes of marble pillars that reach towards the sky, a pretend king sits on a hollow throne. He lazily opens an eye as the sound of footsteps approaches.

"Lord."

"Speak."

"The Eternal has been found."