This is probably why everyone says you shouldn't meet your heroes. Although I can't say he is all that bad. After all, he went to beat up the bad guys and save me in the process. Problem is…he just isn't like I imagined. What a bummer.
Maybe other heroes are more for a lack of better world herolike. For example Champion is always on the news saving people from falling planes, natural disasters and things like that. He must be also in real life vaillant and kind like a superhero ought to be. Shadow is probably an exception . No one can convince me otherwise.
I was content sitting there on a chair having a sulk about Shadow, but for all my complaints... I was also so relieved that someone showed up to help me.
When I was immersed in my thoughts, the sun already managed to make its course through the hemisphere. Slowly dimming daylight only confirmed impending night.
Judging by this quite a lot of time must pass since Shadow went out there, and he still didn't come back. What if something happened to him? What if he's been killed? Or even worse! What if he forgot about me and abandoned me here?! Really it would not be too shocking. He was more like a rogue than a hero.
Just as I thought, you can't count on anyone else. Is always better to take matters in your own hands and don't depend on no one. Standing up from my chair I inspect the room I was left in. It's similarly empty to the one I was left in before but with one difference.
Instead of a bed, empty space was filled by a medicine cabinet made from metal and painted with already peeling white paint.
May as well check what is inside. Maybe I find something useful.
Coming closer I step on something. There are chains laying on the floor. Someone must rope them around the cabinet and lock it with a padlock instead of simply locking the lock in cabinet doors. Obviously this person didn't think it through because chains were saw through without much resistance.
Inside was empty apart from cobwebs and one used syringe. Logo on it is somehow familiar but I can't remember where I saw it. This will annoy me to no end like a song name I don't remember playing on a loop in my mind. It would be best if I take a photo of a logo and research it later. Just so I don't go insane about it.
Wait!
Goddamit! How am I so dense!? I didn't even check if I still have my cellphone with me. Ughh… I can't believe it . What are you Alex? A dog obeying every command from an owner?
I feel so stupid right now.
Cringing, I take a swift stock of my pockets. To my big surprise I found a cell phone in my front pocket!
Perfect! I can call the police. I don't need to wait for an unlikely rescue of a Shadow. Also I won't be going against the gang by myself either.
I tried to call the police and as quick as the plan came to be,as fast it fell apart like a house of cards. There is no phone service here.
Where did they take me? To some abandoned gang lair in the mountains in the middle of nowhere for fuck sake?!
Through the window I see only miles and miles of woods. No human civilization is in sight for as far as human eyes can see.
Right, how could it be so simple. Silly me.
I'm tempted to just sit on a chair again and ignore the whole situation until it solves itself or until I die from exposure. Anything sounds better than facing what is behind these doors. Earlier I had adrenaline to bust me up through it, now I'm just resigned to whatever will happen to me…
I smack myself in the face.
"Alex, stop being pathetic! Get it together!" Slap was powerful enough to leave a sting. Good. "If you accepted dying here wouldn't it be the same thing dying out there. At least you try to get out of this situation? And maybe Shadow really is in danger right now and only you can help him but you won't do it because you're a scaredy cat trembling at the sight of your own shadow!"
I get out of my momentary slump with double conviction. I pick up a pipe I discarded before and with two powerful strides go to the door.
Then as soon as I get there I quickly turn around and go back to the cabinet.
"I almost forgot to take a photo of the logo on the siringe." At least the phone had some use.
Now I can go.
My face is dripping in sweat. Knuckle white in a grip on the pipe. My whole being is clearly shouting 'I am ready to attack.'
I open the door. At first glance the place is empty. I look left and right but the corridor looks deserted.
"Okay Alex, breathe. You are safe now. There is no one there. This is good. It's a good sign."
I repeat it like a chant to reassure my stretched thin nerves.
Corridor is bare and the walls are white similarly to other walls I saw in here. This further corroborates my earlier guess about this place being an abandoned hospital or medical facility of some kind.
"I hope they don't do any experiments on humans in this place."
I don't know why but this thought just shows up in my mind filling me with dread, pushing me to leave this place as soon as possible.
I spy a map in the left corner of the corridor.
First, and for most it reveals this place was in fact a mental asylum. Noble Gardens Psychiatric Institution was its name. Again I felt a peculiar feeling of dejavu.
Right. Where could I have heard it before?
Well, conundrum for future Alex to take care of, now I have enough on my plate. Right now my full concentration should be on where I am in this building exactly and where I can find the exit.
"Looks like I'm on the third floor and If I want to get out of here I could go to the right, go downstairs straight to the hall and there to the main entrance. Probability on meeting a gangster on this path is rather high. "I stroke my chin in deep thought. "If I go to the left I can go through the kitchen where should be the back entrance for supply stocking. Probability of meeting someone on my way is lower but I don't know if the doors there are not boarded up."
After thinking about pros and cons, option number two seems safer. If turn out that kitchen exit doors are boarded up I can always go back.
Without further floundering on this decision I go to the left. There is a narrow staircase previously used only by people working here.
With every step I take I breathe quicker and louder.
Still I don't hear anyone apart from myself. How is it possible?
Soon I reached the door leading out of the staircase to the ground floor.
Silence greets me again. Somehow it's more unsettling than the shouting and comotion I was expecting.
I was gonna go straight to the big kitchen door but then with the corner of my eye I noticed something. Or rather someone lying on the floor.
"Fuck! Is this a dead body!?" I can stop panicked shouting from coming out. It's the first time I see something like this and my blood runs cold.
"I told you to wait in the room. What don't you understand about this simple instruction?" Ask the voice behind me.
"Ahhh! Don't kill me! I'm too young to die today. My mom will cry herself to death if I die before here! Please spare me! Please! Please…"
In complete terror I curled up into small ball on the ground and pleaded for my life.
"Why did you take a pipe for a weapon if at first sight of danger you decide to lie on the ground in a fetal position?" Asked an exasperated voice above me. Then a warm hand landed on my chin, raising my face up. "Hey pipsqueak it's me. Nothing will happen to you."
When I see a familiar masked face my whole body goes limp and simultaneously my eyes start their water works. Why does he alway have to see me in such lame moments? Despite my slight embarrassment of my own state I feel overwhelming relief.
"Thank God sob…sniff… I thought you abandoned me or died!"
I made a move to hug him in sheer relief but luckily remember myself and abort the move.
He gave me another unimpressed look under the cowl.
"Good to know you think so highly of me." He gave me his hand and helped with getting up. "Get up pipsqueak, we are taking you home. Your mom must be worried sick."
I was gonna agree but then my sight landed on a prone human form on the floor.
"Wait, did you kill them?" I point to the person on the floor to show what I mean.
For a moment I seem to see shadow going through his face but then he denies it.
"Relax kid, I only knock them out. I'll later give coordinates of this place to the police so they can collect their criminals. Easy as that."
"Realy?" I ask with a small dose of disbelief.
"Yeah, really pipsqueak." He gave me a small reassuring smile and lifted two fingers like people do swear the oath. "I swear on my mother life it's true."
Something still feels a little bit shady but I decide to believe him. After all heroes are known for their self imposed rule of not killing under any circumstances.
"Okay. Please take me from here." I morph my face in grimace I hope is conveying gratitude.
"Absolutely! This way my lord?" Shadow used a really bad British butler voice. Yeah, better not to think about it too hard before I feel even more disappointed with my first meeting of a hero.