The Lone Avenger Chapter Six

Everything went back to normal. For about five seconds. Ok, so it was for about twenty four hours. But when I was able to go back to work (Clarie’s Cafe had some fire damage after the… situation) people kept recognizing me. During my lunch break my phone buzzed, a text from Mrs. Cabrera.

*You were on the news last night! What happened? Are you ok? Also, what is an Avenger, and why are they calling you that?*

I stared at my phone. They’re calling me-? And she doesn't-? Why was I even on the news? I didn’t do anything, it was Drew who saved Timothy and I. But they didn’t know that. They weren’t there. Oh…

The bell on the door jingled. I looked up and saw Drew and Timothy come through the doors, looking for someone. Their eyes lit up when they saw me, and they headed towards my booth by the window.  “Maya!”

“Uh… guys? Hey.” I fumbled around with my phone, finally deciding to set it down. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Drew grinned.

“Are you sure?” Timothy asked and he nervously scanned the crowd.

“So then-?” I shrugged. “What’s the issue?”

“Again, it’s fine.” Drew smiled. “I just was wondering if you are ok? Scarlett hasn’t come after you?”

“No.” I felt myself just shiver thinking of Scarlett hunting me down. “Have you seen her?”

Drew glanced around before lowering his voice and staring at me intently. “Maya… did you see the dog outside the building?”

I gulped. The wolf that had been staring at me. “Yeah…”

“I keep seeing it. Everywhere I go…” Drew’s eyes grew huge. “So… what should I do?”

“Ask your parents?” I half suggested.

“I already told them.” Drew sighed.

Timothy shook his head in my direction. “They didn’t believe us.”

I felt a weird feeling in my chest, wondering why *I* hadn’t seen the wolf again. To make things worse after my lunch break Mrs. Cabrera expects me to get home in time to get grocheries. Was it going to follow me?

“Thanks for letting me know…” I wasn’t sure what to say. “I’ll tell you if I see it ok? Tell me if it gets worse.”

“Do… do-… do you think it’s Scarlett haunting us?” Timothy trembled.

“No.” I tried to sound confident. “Of course not. Don’t worry about it.”

The boys left a few minutes later, and even though I had too, I wasn’t too keen on leaving. And I had been right. Maybe it had followed me and I hadn’t noticed. But it was certainly following me. As I walked along the streets, I kept seeing it’s shadow. I shivered.

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Getting grocheries had been sucessful. I walked along the street carrying bags of spagetti, tomato sauce, bread, and all kinds of other stuff Cabrera had left on the grochery list. But the shadow was still following me.

When I reached the more suberban part of town, it started getting larger, like the wolf was getting closer. Scarlett? I’ll be straight with you, I was on my last nerve at that point.

When I finally saw it, a larger than life wolf with snarling while teeth, smiling at me, with a creepy “I found dinner” smile.

I dropped everything and ran for the nearest alleyway. Bad idea. It began following me, and I fell into a puddle of grime, and who knows what else. I scrambled up, my heart racing. It was gaining on me, it’s blue eyes gleaming. No, no, no!

Suddenly, an arm grabbed me by the shoulder, and dragged me up a back staircase into the nearby home, the wolf slammed into the storm door.

A young man slammed the black main door shut, and then looked down at me. “Are you alright?” He had muddy blond hair, intellegent dark eyes, and a trustworthy face. But I didn’t buy it. “I’m fine.” I grumbled, getting a glance around at the room.

Lots of pictures were tossed onto the kitchen table, a wedding of some sort. A girl in a flowing white dress with bouncy red curls grinned as a tall blondie kissed her cheek, but then I noticed something weird. A knife was holstered onto her left leg, also revealing dark blue jeans underneath the dress. The young man smiled. “Knife? Yeah, well that’s Alex for you.” He laughed. “She’s a strange one. But he loves her, that’s all that matters.”

“Who… can- Who are you?” I asked.

“Kaleb Puckett,” He offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet. “And you must be the famous Lone Avenger.”