After I was left high and dry at the car park near my block by one very irritating hero that shall not be named for I'm still pissed at him, I was able to go home peacefully.
I'm beat but I still need to go up the sixth floor by the stairs. There is an elevator in the building but it is not working. Landlord promised it will be repaired soon but I'm not sure what his definition of soon because elevator was broken for nearly two years.
"Hua..hua…Why can't we live on the ground floor. I'm not made for this kinda everyday exercising…hua..hua."
Last steps I had to crawl up because my legs gave out on me. But all this pain was worth it to be almost home. Now I need to only open the door, crawl to my room and free fall on the bed. It will be glorious.
After surviving this rollercoaster of a day I could feel once again safe. Oh, how naive I was, and wholly unprepared for danger awaiting for me in the house. I only managed to unlock the door and then an attack came.
"Alex is that you!"
My mom almost tackled me to the ground with a bear hug. For such small women she has a shocking amount of strength.
"Where have you been!? I was just going to call the police. You scared me so much!"
"Mom! I'm alright. I promise but if you continue to hug me so tight I might die from asphyxiation!"
She finally let me go but left her hands on my arms. I see it's her trusted tactic to corner me and make me talk.
"Look at you! You all battered and bruised. Is Jackson bullying you again? Should I call the school and make them punish him?"
'He didn't ever stop. Just get wiser about how to beat me without leaving visible marks most of the time.'
"Mom, chill out. I decided to spend the last day of school with my club and when we were going to an internet cafe some bozo ran me over with a bike."
She observed my face for any signs of lying like a hawk but she didn't see any of it. Figures, with my experience of pretending I'm alright after day of bulling I could be a poker player.
"Well, that's good you want to go out with your friends but you should call me first. I was losing my mind with worry, you know?"
I hang my head and give her my best kicked puppy look and saied.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to worry you mom."
She ate my performance up and even patted me on the head.
"It's alright. Now that I think about it I'm happy you're doing some crazy teenager things. You are always so well behaved. Sometimes it makes me worried."
I only smile at that.
'If you know the whole truth you wouldn't be so happy but I won't tell you any of this. It would just make you needlessly worry. Why would I put you through that?'
"If you want I made some pierogies for dinner. You can microwave them or pan-fry them."
She kissed my cheek and started running around the house.She is like a small tornado when she gets ready to go out.
"Now I must hurry. I promised Karen I will take her night shift today. Be good and keep the house safe for me. Bye, sweetheart."
"Bye, mom." But my farewell bounced back from already closed doors. "Be safe too."
I am always a little troubled when she is going out on her night shifts. Neighbourhood is not the safest in the best of times and at night for alone women it's incredibly unsafe.
Not like I can do something about it. She won't let me escort her to the car because then I'll have to go back to the house by myself and then something might happend to me. It's a moot point.
I feel bad but me standing here and looking at the closed door won't change the dammit thing. Better to do something productive and fill my empty stomach. When I was confined I was too freaked out to think about food but now I feel just how hungry I am.
I take out pierogies from the fridge and pop them one minute in the microwave. With quickly heated up food I park y as on the couch. When I'm alone I prefer to eat dinner while watching some mindless TV.
Usually I would pick stations with reality shows but when I was clicking through the channels the news anchor caught my attention.
"Thanks to known vigilante Shadow police was able to capture gang members of The Goblins."
"I hope Shadow didn't say anything about me to the police. Explaining to mom the police officer asking for my testimony would be hard."
Turns out I didn't have to worry.
"Captured gang members are suspected of today's bank robbery on Third Avenue of Cedar Street. During the robbery eight people were killed. Two more were taken as hostages. Police at the time were not able to apprehend the suspects. Thankfully, the name Shadow was able to locate them and hand them over to the police station…"
They go on about bank robbery but for the whole bank robbery case but during the entire news broadcast case of mine kidnaping was newer brood up. Was it too small of a news to even give it a quick mention for a big news station?
"Well maybe for you it is a small fish but for me it was the worst thing that happened in my entire life." Sadly they don't hear my complaints through the tv screen.
"Maybe on the internet some news about me came up." Possibly It's a bit vain of me to care about things like that but it's just human nature. I wanna read about myself in the news, sue me.
I type in search bar phrases like "Kidnapping of schoolboy", "Shadow rescue boy from gang" or "The Goblins kidnaped the boy" but nothing came up at least not news from today.
"What? Kidnappings are too common to write about them!?"
Feed up, I check specialised hero forums. There are mentions of car crash Champion help to prevent today but nothing about kidnapping. This is weird. Surely Shadow must told authorities about gang members knocked out in the psychiatric hospital.
"This whole situation stinks of conspiracy."
My interest was successfully picked. So I try to research Noble Gardens Psychiatric Institution.
"Huh they specialised in children cases of schizophrenia and deep psychosis. Why did they have to close down?"
It's probably nothing that quick boogle search won't uncover.
"Oh they had government funding but when they lost them. Oh it was due to staff shortages? Who wouldn't want cushy government funded jobs? Weird."
This lead turnout to be fruitless but maybe the logo from syringe will offer me more information.
I checked the photo. On the syringe under the logo depicting a snake loping around the wine gauntlet was the name of the company.
It's Medico Mart Corporation. Never heard about it.
But the more I read, the more I see how they are intertwined with the government undertakings. They dip their finger in everything medical in the country.
They are the prime provider of medical supply for every hospital in the country. They produce a lot of drugs widely available in local pharmacies and drugs that are only prescribed by doctors. Most news interests garner them medical research in stopping cancer. Well, good on them?
Thinking about it, it wouldn't be weird to find a syringe produced by them in a previously government funded Psychiatric Institution.
But still uneasy is scratching inside my brain like a furious cat so i check their official page.
There I see a promotional photo from some conference face of the man and feel the weirdest feeling of knowing someone and simultaneously landing my eyes for the first time on their face.
It's so weird and makes my head hurt.
Everything on my phone screen blurs. What the…? Am I having hallucinations?
Then on the screen a chat bubble pops up and I know I'm not hallucinating. Someone hacked my phone.