Common People : Chapter 1

“THIS ISSUE! READ IN TERROR AS THE PSY-PEOPLE ATTACK! CAN OUR HEROES SURVIVE THIS MENTAL ONSLAUGHT OF TERROR OR WILL THEY FALL BEFORE THE MIGHT OF LORD HYPNOS? YOU HAVE TO READ IT TO BELIEVE IT, BUT NOW!”

The crusted yellow pages hit the glass counter in front of me, there was always something about those old comics that fascinated me. Maybe it was the weird ads they stuffed by the dozen on some of the pages, like a window into the queerest little lives I’d ever heard of.

Or maybe it was just fun to guess how many tabs of acid the author had to drop before they came up with the Psy-People, an ancient race of worm-human hybrids who controlled the world from the shadows, that guy must’ve had a blast of a CIA file to read through.

THUMP

My train of thought is flattened by a stack of books hitting the counter, there must have been a customer left in the aisles somewhere, my bad. I look up from my own reading material, taking a lazy drag of the last of my cigarette, and see a pre-pubescent kid with a stack of comics featuring “Ragavar the Fury. An anatomically impossible female pirate queen with an outfit that’d be considered scandalous even in the circles I frequent. The label in the bottom specifies it’s for mature audiences, one look at the kiddo’s pimple-ridden face tells me all I need to know.

“I wanna buy these…please.” He squeaks, pushing a crumpled up 50 dollar bill onto the counter. His eyes never leave the carpeted floors below as he speaks, and it’s almost enough to make me take pity on him…almost.

“Aren’t you a little…young…to be buying this kinda stuff? It says for mature audiences in the corner here, I’m not looking to get an angry talking to by your mom tomorrow kid. Sorry, no deal.”

“Oh c’mon don’t be a bitch!” He groans back right away, and I’m about to tell him to kick rocks until he notices the smoldering cigarette clutched between my fingers.

“You’re not supposed to smoke in here, it’s illegal or something isn’t it? Now we’re both in trouble.”

I let my eyes dart between his smug face and the rapidly fading spark of my cigarette, considering just how much I give a shit about this whole situation.

“Touché kiddo, you drive a hard bargain. Why don’t I let you buy these and we both pretend I started closing up shop five minutes ago like I was supposed to?” His eyes jump to life like a lighthouse in the fog and he eagerly scoops up his haul like he’s a dragon appraising it’s hoard.

“I still gotta pay for this stuff right?” I commend him for trying, but I’m not that charitable, that and I really need this job.

“Yeah, no shit. That’s life kid, no handouts.” I grin, putting the crumpled bill alongside it’s brethren in the register and waving the kid off. It’s only as I watch him leave that I notice how dark it’s gotten outside, I fish my phone out of my jacket and nearly drop it as I see the time.

“Oh fuck!? Screw five minutes ago I should’ve had this place closed FIFTY ago.”

I jump to my feet and scurry to the door, flipping the sign from open to closed. With the protective ward in place and preventing any more customers from breaching my sanctum of peace, I can finally close down shop. I should text Rafa and let him know I’ll be home a little later today.

A lot later

The last box finally hits the shelves and I allow myself to collapse into a mess on one of the chairs in the store, who knew agreeing to alphabetically organise all the Lieutenant Atom issues would cost me another hour and a half.

It’s firmly dark outside as I head into the employee changing rooms and finally get to take the stupid jacket off. I nearly cringe myself to death every time I have to look at the neon vomit of greens and yellow that make up the uniform. The only redeeming part of the thing is my name tag.

“Lucille” It read in nice black cursive. Rafa often jokes it’s a name better attached to some leatherclad vampire killer from one of our comics, not the girl who has to stock those comics. I can’t say I disagree, even if I’d like to bring up the fact that I was quite the leatherclad badass back in my day.

Not that I have much to show for it now besides an ache in my neck that’s been killing me ever since. Looking at myself in the changing room mirrors all I can see is that I nicked myself shaving again this morning, adding another small scar to my repertoire. At least my boobs look great, estrogen really is the nectar of the gods isn’t it? And with my hazel hair chiquely tied back like this I almost dare say I look positively cute, even if I’m the only one saying it. The thought hits me to stop by a bar on the way home from work, but I’ve made Rafa wait way too long already. Poor guy brought home the good nachos from work and I’m totally delaying shitty movie night again.

“Speaking of…no reply huh? You better be asleep Raf, because if you’re being grumpy again I frankly have no energy to deal with it.”

With a sigh I slip my phone back into my pocket and take one final look in the mirror.

I really did have some cute boobs, maybe life wasn’t too bad after all.

**************

CLANG!

I slam the metal shutters down on the store front and crouch down to lock everything up for the night. The quiet that follows is enough to get lost in as the first cold autumn evening bites at the patches of exposed skin around my neck and wrists. Still no response from Rafa, he’s probably busy but the feeling keeps nagging at me that something’s up. I send him another text playfully calling him an ass for ignoring me, which I’m sure will brighten his mood if he really IS mad at me.

“I’ll see you in the morning babe~” I playfully say, kissing my fingertip and placing it lovingly across the metal shutters that entomb “Trillby Comics”, my one true love.

God I was getting sad, part of getting older I supposed? It’d help if my one friend wasn’t being a jackass, or if I had literally anyone else in my life. If I knew where my folks were I could try and drink down my shame before sending them a quick “Hey mom, hey dad! I’m in my early late twenties and life is going nowhere” text. Yeah that’d really save the evening.

Before I abandon my watch for the evening I take a second to breathe in the old store that’s been my life for about three years now. Superheroes and brave knights, and me right besides them : stocking the shelves. Rafe joked that I could be a superhero myself, I shot back that my only superpower is scaring republicans by existing, he won the argument in the end by offering to be my sidekick. I’m still thinking about it, the movie will do for now though.

*********************************************************

It wasn’t too late in the evening by the time I caught the subway, but the shortening days made night feel so much sooner. Everyone around the city knew things tended to get weird on the subway at night, luckily they didn’t come much stranger than me. I hid myself away in a neat little corner by a window in the back, pressed play on my music and allowed myself to blissfully detach myself from the world for a few more minutes.

“You wanna live like common people,you wanna see whatever common people see~”

I let myself pretend Jarvis Cocker was directly judging me for a minute or two before staring at my feet and feigning like I didn’t exist got boring even for me. My eyes wandered over to the other passenger : boring, boring…dreadfully boring…oh.

A young woman was doing her makeup, her honeyed blond hair fell perfectly around her face like a classic painting and my heart skipped a beat. She seemed so innocent, like the suffering of the world had just let her slip it’s mind. She had a funny smile, like she knew something about the world everyone else was stupidly missing, me included.

I made the mistake of letting my eyes linger for another minute, drinking in the way her figure hugged her little red dress, not the other way somehow. The way she wore heels looked as if they’d been invented for her specifically. She was alone, she wouldn’t be for long, part of me wishes it was me she was getting ready for. I really needed to do something about that little lonely part of me.

My eyes finally peel themselves free from the woman, and in my hurry to escape her awe-inspiring beauty I make the mistake of catching my reflection in the mirror.

I’m nothing like her, how pitiful.

But I could be..

The thought hits me like a knife in the gut, immediately my nails dig into my palms hard enough to draw blood. Penance had to be paid, I can’t do things like that, not anymore. I hadn’t had a thought like that for months now, and suddenly the urge had found me on the simplest of night, cold and alone.

I jump to my feet and with shaky feet make my way to…anywhere else really. In the heat of it all I dash past the woman right as the subway makes a sharp twist and causes me to shove her. A streak of makeup slips like a knife across her cheek and she yells in frustration. “What’s your deal!?”

I could almost laugh, he voice was the worst thing I’d ever heard. All this hurt inside of me for nothing.

I get off at the next stop and retch, throwing up the calorie-devoid snacks I shoveled into my mouth somewhere around noon. I can’t stop shaking for another ten minutes or so, Pulp keeps looping.

“You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go.

Some nights are just a series of bad jokes, I decide to not waste another 5 bucks and walk the rest of the way home.

*********************************************************

It takes me another half an hour to walk home, cold and filled to the brim with self pity. By the time I’m taking the crappy elevator up to the thirteenth floor of our apartment building I’m ready to call it quits for the night and surrender to the blissful nothingness of sleep, I’d make it up to Rafa in the morning.

I shuffle down the brown carpeted hallways towards apartment ninety seven, using the last of my mental fortitude to ignore the buzzing lights and peeling wallpaper which seems to exist only to remind me of how much of a dump this place is.

I get to the door, finally, and with a simple push I’m inside. Rafa must have left the place unlocked before he went to bed, odd. I have a key myself, though I do have a bad habit of forgetting it. A  quick search of my pockets proves that tonight was not one of those nights.

“Raf?” I call softly into the apartment, I see a light on in the kitchen and get ready for a scolding. The air smelled stuffy, he hadn’t bothered to open a window when he got home it seemed, probably didn’t cook either. Did he go out to eat? That seemed unlikely, money’s tight enough for both of us.

“Raf?” I try again, again there’s no response. I make my way over to the kitchen while ridding myself of my excess weight : jacket, bag, headphones.

“Listen dude, I’m sorry. Tonight has been one nightmare scenario after the other and I’d rather just get it all behind me. I know I promised we’d watch something and I KNOW you were looking forward to it I just…I fucked up okay? Work sucked and I had to stay late and then transit especially sucked, I almost relapsed too…I-I didn’t though! Would you just talk to me? Are you even home?”

I try every last one of my tricks to prevent another argument. I was barely keeping it together as is and while he always meant well, he could be a real jerk when things got heated. I round the corner into the kitchen, expecting an earful from a fed up friend.

“Long time no see Loke, I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to some wine, it didn’t look like the expensive kind anyway.”

Instead I’m stabbed in the gut by the past, preheated knife and all.

Sitting in my cramped and messy kitchen is a behemoth of a woman, easily towering two feet or more over my average frame. Her shaggy black hair drifts across her tan skin like ocean waves or dunes of sand, down to the collar of her red flannel. She brings a comically cheap red solo cup filled with our best win to her soft lips, the way she gulps it down without really tasting it tells me she never did learn how to drink the stuff.

“Denise I uh…I wasn’t expecting anyone tonight, sorry. How’d you get in?”

I awkwardly shuffle closer, the titan only grins and plants her leather boot against a chair and pushes it from underneath the table.

“C’mon Loke, we’re all friends here aren’t we? Let’s stick to our real names, for old times’ sake?”

I swallow uncomfortably as I sit across from her, my eyes battling the gravitational pull of her soft chest hidden only by a dirty undershirt, no bra.

“Humor me? C’mon Loki you look like you’ve seen a ghost! Have a drink on me, or on you I guess, eh on your roommate maybe? The guy was kind enough to let me in after all~”

There’s this soft twang to her voice, like warm ambrosia, it always fooled me into thinking it’d all work out in the end. Somehow, she still has that effect on me, it makes the years that have gone by seem so short.

“Deni…Forge, I’m sorry but I may as well have. I mean…after we stopped writing one another I figured you wanted to let go of the old life entirely. The farm, Lyn, Tennessee, I thought it’d all worked out for you the way it never could for me.”

Forge is at the counter now, pouring the last contents of my favorite red into another one of our solo cups. I’m too tired to protest and I could really use a drink anyway.

“Oh Lyn’s great, so’s the ranch, I’m just in the area for business is all and I figured why not stop by? I missed ya Loke, is that so wrong?”

She slams the cup down with enough force to force my wandering eyes back to her’s. I stumble over my words trying to reassure her I wasn’t actually mad or anything. She shuts me down before I can get anything meaningful out though.

“I like what you did, with yourself I mean. I’m not surprised you make a pretty girl though, you always seemed a lot happier whenever you…y’know switched. Shit is that rude? I just mean you look good Loke.”

I’m entirely speechless now, desperately trying to hide behind the solo cup who’s exterior I now matched.

“W-Well I uh…hah…thanks! You’re hot too! I mean you’re looking good! Lyn’s a lucky lady I’m su-”

“So how about you? Anyone special in my trickster’s life or do I still hold the top spot~?” She doesn’t even let me finish before double tapping me in my heart, forcing it to skip a beat. I swallow once and giggle awkwardly.

“No it’s…nah…not the time I guess? Nothing ever really got moving I uh…n-no.”

It makes me feel so small, childish even, to admit it to her. Forge was always the big sister type, and the smirk on her lips tells me she’s somehow pleased with me. She used to joke that she didn’t want me seeing anyone so I could stay her cute little sibling forever in her eyes, I wonder if she still sees me like this.

“What, is everyone here as tasteless as the wine or somethin’? A cute lil’ pup like you and no one’s collared you yet? Disgraceful stuff Loke, disgraceful. Though…you could always try a little harder you know.”

I frown, what was that about? One second she’s pampering me with praise and then she sounds TOO much like the mom I didn’t have.

“What?” I simply snap back, maybe a little too quickly. I could feel the wine getting to me, my head was starting to hurt.

“I’m just sayin’, you can choose any shape you want and you decided on plain jane? You used to turn into exotic models and girls straight out of vogue on missions, fuck you could be so hot if you wanted.” She tilts her head back and chuckles, the low hum of her raspy voice almost makes me want to agree.

“I don’t do that Forge, not anymore, and especially not for me. What you see is who I really am, no shapeshifting shit involved. That all got left behind you know where.”

The mood drops like a cement block in the Hudson, Forge can tell she’s overstepped right away. She sits in silence for a couple of seconds before smirking, she points her index finger straight at me and mimics a pistol firing.

“Pew~” She whispers, and a flame lights up on her fingertip.

“I don’t feel ashamed about it, and neither should you. What because some freak decides we were gonna be their weapons we should carry that guilt for the rest of our lives? Nah, fuck that sis. The time for hiding hands is long gone, that ended when we got up and left that shithole.”

I only scoff in mild disagreement, this isn’t exactly how I imagined a reunion would go. “Cool, now explain to me how changing my entire face is comparable to a neat party trick.”

“Oh Loke, we both know we can do so much more than that.”

“Yeah but why would we?”

“Work.” She replies curtly, I raise a brow. The sort of work you needed these powers for has long been taken over by drone strikes and cyber-attacks.

“What, like the mysterious work that sent you to Queens all the way from fucking Tennessee.”

“Exactly.” She replies coldly.

When had she started looking at me like that, and why was I feeling so fucking weird. This headache just kept building and building and…was the room spinning?

“Listen Forge it was great to see you but…but…I think we should call it a night. I got some stuff to do tomorrow with Rafa and I…”

I try and get up from my chair but stumble, falling to the floor as my legs give out entirely. As I hit the ground I’m able to see into the bedroom for the first time tonight.

There’s someone laying down there, they’re not moving.

“R-Raf?” I call out to him as best as I can, my mouth feels dry and I can barely move my tongue. My speech slurs as the room continues gaining velocity as it spins and spins and spins.

“Oh him? Listen Loke you need some better friends, I mean I knocked like twelve times before I decided to blow the lock. And there inside I see some maniac pointing a gun at me, shit it was practically self defense.”

Tears begin to streak down my face as the nightmarish reality sets in, Forge wasn’t here to reminisce about the past, she was going to make me relive it. I try and move, to struggle and yell, to go down fighting and defiant like he did instead of this limp mess.

Forge just lets out an unimpressed chuckle as she pours the remainder of my wine down the drain. Moments later she scoops me up in her strong arms, the bridal carry would have been a dream come true in any other scenario.

“Let’s get you somewhere nicer huh princess? It’s been such a rough day hasn’t it~?

She cups my chin and forces me to nod in agreement, before kissing me on the head. Her lips burn like acid against my temple, and the sting is all I feel before my spinning visions fades to black.

“Shhhhhh kiddo, when you wake up it’ll be like everything was just a nasty nasty dream…”

“All fifteen hard years~”

*********************************************************


Kings County Police report XX/XX/20XX
Case number : ||REDACTED||

Local police received reports of an odd odor in apartment unit ||REDACTED|| by locals at around XX:XX, an officer was dispatched to the apartment at around XX:XX and arrived on the scene around XX:XX.

The officer found that the lock of the apartment had been burned through with a mix of Fe₂O₃ and aluminium powder which was then heated to ignition. Once inside the officer reported the aforementioned smell immediately. After a brief search of the apartment the officer would find Rafa Hadid deceased within his kitchen. Later toxicology reports show that the man had a lethal dose of cyanide within his system, which was decided as the cause of death.

Autopsy shows the body died on XX/XX/20XX dating the break-in incident to have taken place on XX/XX20XX , a few days prior to the first reports.

Mr. Hadid had been renting the apartment alongside a woman named Lucille Anderson, who has been identified as the main suspect of the investigation, though there were little signs of her to be found in the apartment.

The officer on scene did retrieve a pile of old newspaper clippings and unsent letters, though none shed light on possible motive.

The following items were retrieved from the residence of Lucille Anderson and Rafa Hadid on XX/XX/20XX :

Newspaper clipping dated XX/XX/19XX

A headline from a local iranian newspaper chronicling the birth of a supposed demon child, later reports seem to show the story never had much merit. The publication was burned down in an electrical fire weeks after publishing and all those involved with the story are now officially deceased.

Column from a russian magazine dated XX/XX19XX

The segment raves about a child born to farmers near Archangelsk, Russia. Apparently the child had the wondrous ability to communicate with the cows and chickens on the farm. The story was dismissed as nothing more than a story made to amuse the populace, though reports indicate the farm in question was reduced to ash by russian insurgents in 19XX.

Newspaper clipping dated XX/XX/19XX

An article in the Chicago Tribune detailing the tale of a child with the ability to ignite wood with her mere hands. The whole thing was dismissed as a wild tale of science fiction, everyone involved has since been terminated.

Unopened letter written by Lucille Anderson

Beneath the aforementioned newspaper clippings sat an envelope containing a letter written by Lucille Anderson. The letter had no address attached to it and was addressed to no one. Below you’ll find the letter attached in full.


“Dear Ms. and/or Mr. _____

My name is Lucille Anderson, a resident in the United States of America, more specifically Queens located in New York city.

If you are reading this, it means I am one hundred percent certain that I am your child. I am aware that you will find this impossible, you will have been convinced somehow that your child has long been dead. Or perhaps you will have wanted to believe so yourself, I do not blame you if so.

I do not intend to scare you with this letter, nor am I playing a prank. I only wish to know if the family I was born into is okay. There is no pressure for us to meet nor do I want you to feel forced to acknowledge me.

Much has happened since I was taken, and I only want to see the only family I have ever had. Please do respond if possible, even if you deny my requests. I would be understanding if so, though I do hope you agree to meet one day.”

I love you and keep you in my dreams;
Lucille Anderson;
Your daughter”

EDIT :

Rafa Hadid’s death has been ruled a suicide.

Lucille Anderson does not, and has not ever existed.

All investigations have been ceased and are forbidden from being continued.

This case has been closed, any attempts to reopen it will be met with swift and severe punishment.