28 Somebody

Destia Jayden: February 21st,20XX

“Mom!”

The weak hinges on the door shook as I pounded on the door. My torso twisted awkwardly as I both tried to push against my mother’s weight on the other side and bang on the door as loudly as I could.

“Mom! Open the door! I have to leave soon!”

Her voice came through gritted teeth as she flung her heavy-set body against the thin door to my room. The exhaustion in her tone made it clear how much effort she’s spent in keeping me trapped in the room, but I wasn’t in any place to sympathize.

“Stop fighting me, Destia! We said we’d talk about it! How could you avoid me for that long and tell me a day to that you’re moving away!”

I figured I could speed toward the door and blow it off its hinges, but that would hurt my mother and I wasn’t at that level of desperation…yet.

“No, we have talked about this! I’ve been saying I wasn’t going with you for the past month! I’m eighteen, I can’t trail you around the world like a child anymore! And especially not at the cost of my future!”

“I thought you were joking! When did you even get accepted to that program! I didn’t even know you’d applied!”

Her voice grew shrill as she accused me of tricking her, and the weight on the other side of the door lightened enough for me to give one more push. I heard a thud as she lost her support on the door and fell to the ground.

I shook off the budding sense of guilt as I saw her figure on the ground and helped her up, but only after I’d cleared out of the doorway. This wasn’t the first time she’d tried to lock me in my room, but at least she hadn’t used a lock this time.

Back then I had been both annoyed and relieved by her removing the lock to my room’s door, but now I felt nothing but gratitude to my younger self who had learned how to pick and jam locks.

“Mom. Listen to me! I’ll visit as often as I can, and I can call you at least once a week… But I’m not going with you! I’ve already signed the contract and sent most of my stuff over to the dorms.”

She took each word I said like a physical blow to her soul and visibly wilted as I confirmed that I was leaving. As talented as she was in her fields of literature and research, she had never lost her gift of making one feel awful for going against her.

It was better now that I was older and knew what she was doing, but it still hurt to see her look so devastated.

“Also, Aunt Deena is going with you! Mom, don’t you want what’s best for me?”

Her eyes beaded with tears as I flung the words she often said to me back at her, and her face crumpled into an expression of embarrassed anger.

“I’m not taking you along because I’ll be lonely! I just don’t think you can handle living on your own! You’re barely eighteen and you’re going to live in a mixed-gender dorm with a bunch of strangers and nary an authority figure in sight!”

“Because I’m eighteen. I don’t need an authority figure to watch over me.”

“Yeah, right! You that can barely remember to do your own laundry-"

“I’ve been doing my laundry, Aunt Deena’s and yours for the past three years mom.”

“Well then, what about food! You can barely make a bowl of oatmeal-“

“I’ve also been attending cooking classes in my free time mom, and the dorms have a cafeteria we can use our allowance to eat at.”

She scowled as I dared point out the flaws in her words, and she immediately switched objectives. Her eyes beaded up with tears again and her lips trembled as she held them back. If I wasn’t so familiar with the expression, I would have felt like absolute garbage by now.

“Won’t you miss me, Destia? I still remember when you convinced me to send you off to the dorms at your school! You called me at four in the morning in tears to come to pick you up.”

“I was twelve, mom; the dormitory teachers wouldn’t let me read past midnight and the food sucked. Of course, I missed you, and I’ll miss you more while I’m in the program! But can’t you let me make something of my life? I can’t follow you around for the rest of my life.”

It wasn’t like I was lying to her, and I meant it when I said I’d miss her, but right now I wanted nothing more than to leave the house and block her number on my phone. I wasn’t nearly as experienced in emotional manipulation as she was, and my poor attempt to use her affection for me against her fell flat.

“Of course you wouldn’t follow me around for the rest of my life! But Eighteen Destia! I left my parents’ house when I was twenty and I regretted it every day after! You’re not cut out to live on your own and you know it!”

“I won’t be living on my own! That’s the point! It’ll be just like sending me off to university! Better even; since most of my expenses will be taken care of! I get to focus on my craft and even have a shot at making connections for a future job! It’s not like I won’t fly out to visit you on vacation! And it’s not like you won’t ever see me again…why can’t you just be happy for me?”

I recognized the look in her eyes as she prepared a response and walked away. I wasn’t in the headspace to listen to another one of her circular arguments. She was always like this when something, namely me, didn’t go as she wanted.

She’d been like this when I’d wanted to visit my grandparents over a summer break instead of staying at home with her. She’d also gotten in the way when I’d wanted to get a job to learn independence and even when I’d gotten chosen to go on a month-long field trip to learn on the set of a popular play.

I’d already known that there was no way she would quietly let me go, but if I didn’t take this opportunity now, I’d never escaped her claws.

She loved me, and everything she did was out of love. But that didn’t make any of it right.

I grabbed my bag and a hoodie as I headed out, but that wasn’t enough to fend off the unyielding weather outdoors.

The cold winter air nipped at my nose and the thick sweater wasn’t enough to keep it at bay... I leaned into a jog and tried my best to generate body heat, but it wasn’t enough to get me warm.

Ever since I’d gotten these powers, my stamina had increased like crazy, and it became a lot more difficult to get hot or sweaty. It was good, but it came at the cost of increased food bills.

I didn’t have a particular destination, but I kept jogging around the city. I avoided the shadier spots as much as I could, but would go invisible if it was too annoying. It was in one of these alleyways I stumbled across a bunch of guys, probably a few years older than me, surrounding a smaller kid.

“What’s wrong, Raf? I already called all my friends around since you said you’d pay for lunch. What am I supposed to say now? Were you trying to make a fool out of me?”

Although the larger people that surrounded him were much larger than he was, the kid didn’t cower in fear or break into tears. He instead tightened his bag around his chest and blustered out a response.

“I never said that! You’re the one that randomly called me out here. I always get home at the same time, you know? If I’m even a minute late, my dad will come looking for me!”

The primary bully that trapped the younger kid in between his two arms tilted his head up into an obnoxious laugh and slammed the wall beside his ears.

“Well then, we should make things quick then. Give me a hundred and I’ll let you go home to your daddy. If he loves you that much, then he’s definitely given you some … monetary proof.”

The kid scowled at the older boy’s words and tried to duck out of the threatening position and make a run for it, but before he could take more than two steps. I crouched down to tie my laces up and find a weapon.

This was perfect, I’d been in such a foul mood and these idiots were all but volunteering themselves as punching bags. I’d try not to hurt them too badly, but I wouldn’t concern myself with being careful either.

I jumped up and down a few times to check the sturdiness of my shoes and tried to remember how fast I could go before the treads completely wore down. It had taken some experimenting, but I’d eventually settled into a comfortable speed where I could make good enough time but wouldn’t run through shoes like tissues. These were already my fourth pair this month.

“HELP! HELP! SOMEONE!”

As I waited for an opportunity to strike, the kid suddenly started yelling at the top of his voice and flailing in the arms of his capturers. The bag I’d thought he was holding turned out to be slung over both his shoulders and flapped over his waist, creating a pathetic spectacle.

Still, this wasn’t the first time this had happened, and he reacted appropriately, but he also constantly glanced down at his makeshift armour and his voice trembled as he screamed.

“Well! Since you asked!”

I pulled up my hoodie and slung my mask in the air. It was a relic from my past job as a hospital volunteer.

The group of thugs looked startled at my sudden appearance and their eyes narrowed in on the wooden plank I held in my hand, but as soon as they took in the rest of me they relaxed.

“Who the hell are you?”

His voice was aggressive, and he took a few steps toward me. His hands flexed in and out and showed a pair of ill-fitting brass knuckles. Ordinarily, this would have been enough to intimidate me and make me back off.

Hell, ordinarily there was no way I would have involved myself in this situation.

But today wasn’t an ordinary day.

I secured the mask onto my face and tightened the straps of my hood as I replied.

“Me? You can just call me ‘somebody’ but I’m not picky. It’s not like you’ll ever see me again.”