Unknown Number
"Passion Princess has again made headlines, but this time for a reason more controversial," the plump, black-haired news anchor explained as she gave a report of the previous night's events. "While battling category 4 villain, Evergreen, the famous hero ended up killing her opponent, seemingly on purpose. Amateur video captured by a pedestrian shows that there was certainly more to this story than what reports initially stated."
Grainy, shaky footage of fire and smoke bellowing out from several destroyed vehicles gave way to a bumpy view of Passion Princess hovering above the chaos. Motorists were abandoning their vehicles amongst the rows of stopped cars, while a huge, plant-like woman faced off against the heroine. Throwing an ambulance towards Passion Princess, Evergreen watched in shock as the floating, caped woman's eyes glowed blue before shooting a frost beam at her.
"W-whoa hey, calm down! I surrender, okay?" Evergreen stammered as her huge body became encased in ice.
"Fuck, she's freezing her up," the unseen cameraman could be heard muttering.
"DON'T.TOUCH.MY.BOYFRIEND!!" Passion Princess yelled, where the remaining spectators shrieked in panic as the iced villain exploded into a shower of tiny pieces from the hero's sonic scream.
"Jesus," Asher muttered to himself as he watched the news report from his smart phone, again reclined in the front seat of his own ambulance.
"The authorities are already vouching for Passion Princess, however, where the Graveport Police Department has made an initial statement declaring that the hero's actions were justified," the anchor continued. "A press conference will be held later today regarding the incident. Now what really has people talking, however, is the fact that Passion Princess seems to have indicated that she has a boyfriend. Has the super-powered bachelorette finally found a match?"
"Unbelievable, she literally ices someone and they're focusing on her love life?" Asher asked out loud with a chuckle.
"She's killed villains in the past, especially ones that are about to kill a bunch of innocent people," Asher's partner and coworker, Jayce, commented as he sipped his soda from Basic Burger. "I think that if you decide to be a villain, you forfeit your life if a hero shows up to beat your ass. Why do you sound so bitter, buddy? Are you jealous of Miss Passion Princess's boyfriend?"
"HAH, you have no idea," Asher snorted as he crossed his arms. "Frankly, I'd be happy if she got a boyfriend. I wonder who the—
It then suddenly occurred to the young paramedic that the heroine appeared to go into her murderous rage against the villain when she threw the ambulance at her.
"—fuck, she was talking about me," Asher shuddered.
"Talking about you? Why, because she saw an ambulance blow up?" Jayce laughed. "That's a little conceited, don't you think?"
"Forget it," the young man sighed as he sat back, not wanting to explain his unbelievable story of being stalked by the gorgeous hero herself. "Oh shit, it's 12:30. I need to call Priya."
"She makes you call her around the clock? Dang bro, your chick is kind of clingy," the other paramedic commented as he began to read pirated manga on his own phone. "That's your second needy gf. Your other being Passion Princess, right?"
"Shut up, she's just worried about me," Asher smirked as he got out of the ambulance.
The reality was, however, that he and Priya would call each other 3 times throughout the work day to make sure that everything was okay, and that a certain caped-heroine wasn't anywhere nearby. They had 3 more days until Passion Princess's deadline that she'd given Priya to breakup with him, and the couple still weren't sure what they were going to do, or how seriously they should take the threat. One thing was for sure, however, and it was that after his encounter with Passion Princess at the park, the young man was always on edge.
Pulling up Priya's name on his speed dial, Asher froze when he suddenly got a text from an unknown number.
"Are you watching the news report about me? I didn't want to kill Evergreen…but I got so upset when I saw that burning ambulance. I thought that she hurt you," the message read.
Asher wanted to show the phone to Jayce, because it was obvious as to who the text was from, but he knew that nobody would believe it. She was likely using a burner phone, leaving no way to connect the messenger to Passion Princess.
"PP? How did you get my number?" Asher texted back.
"PP? My friends call me that. You are to call me "My only love", "My everything," or "my love goddess"," the phone buzzed in response back mere seconds later.
"This bitch is crazy," the paramedic scoffed to himself, only to be startled by another text.
"Bitch? I should discipline you, make you learn the taste of my boot right there in front of your coworker," it read, followed by many, many heart emojis.
Trembling now, Asher frantically looked all around the hospital parking lot that he'd parked his ambulance in, trying to catch a glimpse of his overpowered stalker. Wherever she was, it was close enough to hear and see what he was doing using her super senses.
"I'm sorry. Please don't do anything. What do you want?" he asked.
"You. I want you," the texter replied. "Right now. I want you every second of the day. I WANT YOU I WANT YOU I WANT YOU I WANT YOU."
"Fuck," Asher stammered as he set his phone down, before gasping as it vibrated yet again.
"I'm sorry for coming on so strong. As my hero name implies, I'm very passionate. I just wanted to know a few things about you," the text read. "What is your favorite color? Your favorite food? Things that you like to do for fun?"
"My favorite color is blue, favorite food is clam chowder, and I like drawing, baseball, and playing videogames," Asher texted back in reply, hoping that playing along would appease her.
"Thank you. I'm really sorry for the other day, by the way. I don't know what came over me," the reply that came back seconds later read. "I hope I didn't frighten you."
Asher wanted to go off on her about sexually assaulting him yet again, where it was seemingly only thanks to the quick intervention of Detective Rand that he was saved from being taken advantage of by the horny heroine. Of course, not wanting to escalate the situation, he merely replied back as dismissively as he could.
"Its okay, just please be respectful lol" he texted back. "Anyway, I've got to go back to work now. Goodbye."
With that, he silenced his phone and texted Priya that he was fine, but busy at work. Returning to the ambulance, he sat back with Jayce and waited for their next assignment. It turned out to be a slow day in Graveport, where the two paramedics opted to head back to the EMS center after they finished their lunch break. Resuming watching the news, he zoned out upon hearing of a rather feel-good story about a puppy that that befriended a duckling, where the reporter gawked at the adorable footage of the fluffy canine giving a piggyback to the yellow chick.
Eventually looking down at his messenger app, Asher felt ice in his veins upon seeing that he had 120+ new messages and counting. Opening them, he could see that every single one was from the same unknown number.
"Keep texting me, I like this," the first one read innocently.
"Hey, I don't like being ignored. Open these. NOW," the 10th one read rather sternly.
"OPEN YOUR PHONE. WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? ARE YOU TALKING TO THAT WHORE GIRLFRIEND OF YOURS?" the 29th one exclaimed.
"REPLY TO ME NOW, ASHER!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING THAT'S SO IMPORTANT!?" the 41st message said. "YOU'RE MAKING ME WORRY! DON'T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE!!"
"FUCK YOU!! I'LL LOCK YOU UP IF I HAVE TO. YEAH, I'LL KEEP YOU CHAINED UP LIKE MY PUPPY AND JUST LOVE YOU AND TAKE CARE OF YOU AND WE CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER!! YOU WANT THAT!? MESSAGE ME BACK NOOWWWWW OR I'LL COME FUCK YOU UP!! The 46th-85th said over and over again.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the 108th message said, followed by a bunch of crying emojis.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Asher muttered, feeling as if he was going to vomit as he scrolled through the many texts.
"The hell is wrong with you, dude?" Jayce asked, before his eyes widened in shock. "No fucking way…"
Looking out the windshield, Asher felt as if he was going to defecate himself upon seeing none other than Passion Princess herself standing outside the ambulance, her hands on her wide hips and her red cape blowing in the breeze.
"Good day, gentlemen!" the blonde heroine exclaimed with a sweet smile.
"Oh my god, Passion Princess!" Jayce shouted. "This is amazing! Wow, is it really you? I—
"I just wanted to make sure that you were both in this vehicle alright, but now that I see that you're safe, I'm off!" she yelled, cutting him off with a wide grin, before winking at Asher and mouthing "text me" to him.
With that, she took off into the sky, leaving Jayce muttering like a fanboy.
"Wow! A big pro like her making sure that working folk like us are okay? She really is the best, I mean what a small world," the paramedic chuckled. "Why did she come to our ambulance specifically? Seems kind of random, but maybe she thought no one was in here. Oh well, that was so totally cool! And damn, is she smoking hot. I bet you wish you were dating her for real, eh, Ash—huh ? You okay, bro?"
Asher was sitting there trembling, his face as white as a ghost.