Death Makes Me Stronger, page 12
“Of course he is,” Briar said and then flashed a fanged smile at me. “I’m Briar. It’s so nice to meet you. Raven has told me so much about you. And so has Paul. That video of your rebirth was truly a work of art.”
“Thanks?” I said and shook her offered hand.
Briar’s long black nails had been filed to sharp points that dragged along the inside of my palm like claws as her hand fell away. Even the fangs that I’d seen when the goth smiled looked natural, which made me think they had been filed as well. A black corset with dark red thorns was tucked into the top of a black lace skirt that flowed all the way to the floor, and the blond had twisted her hair up with what looked like actual knives in decorated sheaths.
“She meant it as a compliment,” Paul nodded and then led his wife inside. “It was pretty amazing to see. A little gruesome, but our ladies don’t mind that too much. Which is exactly why both of them want to see this death.”
“I’m here for scientific research,” Raven said as she set up a camera near my bed. “There hasn’t been a super with regenerative powers like John’s.”
“And because you like his eyes,” Briar pointed out as she looked around my apartment. “And you’re right. They’re very kind. Nothing like the men at The Underground. Do you remember Chaz? Ugh. He actually thought that he was a vampire.”
“I remember that guy,” Paul said and pulled a giant blue tarp out of his bag. “He did not want to take no for an answer. He snuck into the morgue once and then called me a braindead neanderthal when I called security.”
Raven looked up from the camera angled at my bed and stared at the beefy CSI. Confusion crossed her face, and I was sure that she hadn’t heard that story before, though Paul did seem like the type to just take care of something and then not tell anyone about it. My girlfriend shook her head and then double-checked the battery as if she wasn’t interested in the conversation.
“If he does it again, then you can call me,” I said. “I’ll need to practice that kind of thing if I’m going to be a superhero. But first, I’m about to become immune to electricity.”
“Hopefully,” Briar said and then flipped her long wavy blonde hair. “Paul said that your gene isn’t the same one that we track.”
“We?” I asked. “You know… no one has told me what you do for a living.”
“I’m a specter of the night,” she grinned and showed off her long canine teeth.
“Don’t let my wife scare you,” Paul said and then stole a quick kiss. “She works for the city museum. It’s her job to log all of the supers into the computer.”
“And log all of their powers,” Briar said. “I work with museums all over the world to keep track of any new superpowers that have been revealed. The government gives us a grant, but that also means that I work for them. And before you ask… yes, yes, I have logged in all of your information as John Doe 1539. There are a lot of supers that are revealed through blood tests, but we don’t have a database for every single person in the world, so the feds just have us label them John or Jane Doe. At least, until they become a hero or a villain.”
“So, the museum tracks all of the supers?” I asked as I tried to get my mind around everything. “Is it for that exhibit they have on the history of superpowers? I feel like that’s a little extensive.”
“It is,” the blonde nodded. “And that’s only the cover. Granted, we’re all very interested in the anthropological side of the study because there are some regions where superpowers are more common than others, but mostly it’s used as a government watchdog all over the world. My museum is the biggest, but there are others. It gives us enough information to have the exhibits, and the feds can hide behind our research. No one suspects the museum of secretly tracking everyone.”
“I didn’t,” I shook my head. “But it makes sense. This way the government gets all of the information that they want about supers without anyone realizing that they’re basically overlords.”
“Exactly,” Briar said and clapped her hands together. “The government is always watching, but I do try to help people as much as I can. My colleagues and I are genuinely interested in how superpowers manifest, but the feds will always want to track them for their own benefit. Like if they needed to recruit more heroes.”
“I put in an application to join the Hero Society,” I said and retrieved the hair dryer. “It’ll probably be a few days before they actually review it, so hopefully I’ll have a cool new invulnerability to show them.”
Raven strolled into the bathroom and started to run water into the bathtub. The sound of running water floated through the apartment, and my pulse spiked with anticipation of the upcoming pain. The goth woman must’ve had the heat on full blast, because steam started to waft out after only a few seconds.
“Hey, Rave,” I said and forced a smile. “We’re not trying to boil me alive. I don’t even know if that would work after Inferno.”
“Hot water conducts electricity better,” the assistant medical examiner called. “It’s going to make it easier for the energy to pass through your body and stop your heart. Speaking of which… Paul, do you have the salt?”
“Got it,” the big man said with a grin that almost made him look crazy.
He pulled out a bag of salt that had to be at least twenty pounds worth from the huge duffle bag that he’d brought in with him. It was like there was no bottom to his magic bag, and I wondered what else he’d brought along for today’s test. It sort of reminded me of a movie I’d seen with this nanny that had an endless bag, Madeline Powers, but in a dark, twisted way, though it was hard to believe that the forensics expert would also be toting around a teapot and scones inside the dark canvas. Paul chuckled, clapped me on the back, and then strolled to the bathroom as if he was on a mission.
“Don’t worry,” Briar said. “You’ve already been burned to death. I’m sure that electrocution won’t be that bad.”
“Do you know what the salt is for?” I asked.
“Salt water helps to conduct electricity,” the blonde shrugged. “I asked Paul the same thing when we stopped at the bulk store. Not sure if the rock salt he bought will be any different than table salt when it comes to the electrocution, but Raven and Paul seem pretty confident, and they’re some of the smartest people that I’ve ever met. Also, Raven would never disrespect the gods of death by sending someone to them who’d had to endure great pain for long.”
I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly as my nerves started to get the better of me. The door wasn’t too far away, and I could probably be halfway down the stairs before Paul caught up to me, but they were doing this for me, so that was out of the question. I’d faced down one of the craziest supervillains in the entire city, so a hair dryer and some hot salt water was nothing, and it only had to be done once.
“The water is ready,” Raven said as she appeared in the bathroom door. “You can get in with your clothes, that way you don’t have to wake up naked again. I’ll be turning your air conditioner down overnight so that your body won’t sustain any more damage and so that the smell won’t alert your neighbors.”
“Oh! And I brought a ball gag,” Briar said and started to dig through the duffle bag.
“A ball gag,” I repeated and then held up my hands when she turned to explain. “I get it. I don’t want to bite off my tongue, or break my teeth, though I think that I’m just going to go with a leather belt.”
I walked over to the rack that I used as a makeshift closet and pulled down a worn brown leather belt. It was the one that my mom had bought me for my first real job interview after college, and it had served me well over the last few years. I folded it over and then snapped it a few times for good measure before I put it in my mouth to show that it would work just as well as a ball gag.
“But… but I bought this just for the occasion,” the blonde goth pouted and looked down at the giant rubber ball.
“You can’t blame him for not wanting to die with that in his mouth, Bry,” Paul laughed and walked over to hug his wife.
“I guess,” she sighed and tossed it into the duffle. “Alright, I guess I’m going to go down to the basement so that I can reset the breakers if they actually trip, but I’ll expect a full report when I get back.”
“Thanks,” I said and grinned. “And if Junior or Mrs. Krux sees you, then just tell them that I’m doing something in the apartment, and that they can bill me for any damages.”
“Got it,” Briar gave me a thumbs up and then flounced out of the apartment.
“And I thought that Raven was a happy goth,” I shook my head.
“They’re considered preppy goths,” Paul shrugged. “It apparently causes some tension in the goth circles. You’d be amazed at how insane some of them can get. Especially the people that align with the werewolves, and of course, the ones that align with the vampires. It’s a whole thing. Come back to life again, and I’ll tell you all about it sometime.”
“Sure thing,” I laughed and then took the hair dryer oven into the bathroom.
“I’ve set up another camera in here,” Raven said and pointed to a tripod on my closed toilet lid. “It’ll record the exact moment of your demise. My hope is that I can catch a glimpse of the god of death that comes to take your soul.”
“I’m not sure that you’ll get anything,” I said and plugged in the hair dryer.
The cord was going to be just long enough to drop the hair dryer into the steaming bath water, and it was the first time that I was grateful for the small bathroom.
I set it down carefully on the sink so that it wouldn’t fall in before we were ready, took a deep breath, and then climbed into the tub while Paul and Raven stood off to the side. The big man still had the now empty salt bag in one hand, and my girlfriend squatted down to double-check the angle of the camera so that she’d be able to record everything. I didn’t feel the heat of the water, and my skin didn’t turn red, but it was warm enough to remind me of the coffee mug, so it had to be scalding.
“How is it?” Raven asked and dipped her fingers into the water.
The goth woman yanked her hand back almost as soon as her fingertips hit the bathwater, and I brought it closer and kissed the red marks. They had already started to fade, but she let me inspect them for a few seconds before she pulled away and blushed a deep scarlet.
“Interesting,” Paul smirked and then winked at us. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rave blush--”
“Shut it,” she snapped and shot a warning look at the human golden retriever.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and pressed his lips together, pretended to zip them, and then threw away the imaginary key.
“You’ll be back in roughly twenty-four hours,” Raven said as she moved over to grab the hair dryer. “And then you’ll be immune to this type of death. And the building is old enough that this minor power surge shouldn’t harm the main circuitry. The hot saline water will aid in circulating the current to your heart.”
“Rave,” I said with a reassuring smile. “It’s going to be okay. If you can’t do it, then hand it to me.”
I scooted forward in the bathtub and held out my hands for the dryer, but the goth woman turned away so that it was just out of reach. There was a stubborn set to her jaw that reminded me of my sisters when they decided on something, and Raven seemed to be just as stubborn as them. I’d convince Inferno to be my best friend before I got the dryer from her, so I just scooted back and waited.
“You can’t do it yourself,” she said with a firm nod. “Every other time that you’ve died has been outside of your control. If you commit suicide, then it may convince the gods of death not to release you back onto the mortal plane.”
“Right,” I said and glanced at Paul. “But are you sure that you can do this?”
“You’ll come right back,” she said and then met my eyes. “Or I’ll go into the afterlife to bring you back myself.”
“She’ll do it,” Paul warned.
“I believe her,” I laughed and then squared my shoulders, put the leather belt between my teeth, and finally gripped the sides of the bathtub.
The world seemed to slow down.
It seemed like forever before Raven closed her eyes and tossed the dryer into the bath with me. The goth woman turned into Paul as the big man spun between us so that the splashing water would hit him instead of my girlfriend. She squeezed her eyelids so tight that only one black tear managed to escape down her pale cheek, and I wondered just how much faith she had that I’d come back, but then the electricity coursing through my body took a front seat in my mind.
I swear that my hairs stood on end even though they were soaked with water, and the taste of leather was seared onto my tongue. It felt like the time in college that I thought it would be a good idea to down three energy drinks in the course of the day and refused to sleep. Every atom of my body sizzled as a mind-numbing pain raced along my nerves, and soon after that, my brain started to shut down like it had been overloaded. I’m pretty sure that I screamed at some point, but the belt helped to muffle it, and then the next thing that I registered was the darkness that had started to slide back over my vision.
The last thing that I remembered was my head hitting the back of the tub, and then everything went black. It seemed like just the blink of an eye before I woke back up, but it was my bed beneath me instead of the unforgiving ceramic bathtub, and a blanket had been draped over me.
I sat up with a groan and then looked over toward the red blinking light of the camera that had recorded my resurrection. Everything else in the apartment was completely black as if it was the middle of the night, and I managed to twist around to see that it was almost six in the morning. If it was right, then I’d come back in just a little over fourteen hours instead of twenty-four, or I’d managed to sleep through an entire day plus some.
A note winked at me from the bedside table, and I reached over to pick it up. Raven had gone to work and invited me to come visit her at my earliest convenience. The message sounded like she’d expected me to wake up in time to eat dinner with her, but it had taken a little longer than usual, so we’d have breakfast instead.
There was a stopwatch right next to the note, and I stopped it at close to thirty-eight hours. Theories sprang to life in my mind as I slowly climbed from the bed and padded toward the bathroom. My other resurrections hadn’t taken that long, but then again, there had been at least a full day between waking up and being killed again, so that might be a factor, or maybe my newfound ability was almost at its end.
The bathroom was completely cleaned as if nothing had happened, and when I went in for a cup of coffee. Raven had already made some cold brew and left it in the fridge for me, so I poured a cup and then downed it, followed quickly by two glasses of water.
The metallic taste of blood coated my tongue even after the three drinks, and I couldn’t get rid of the feeling of the leather belt against my teeth. Flashes of my latest death raced across my memory like a movie, and I vaguely remembered the lights going out right before I hit my head, and the shocked look on Raven’s face as if she was terrified of what she’d just done.
“You need to go make sure your girlfriend is okay, John,” I told myself as I went to get dressed. “The last thing that she needs is to think that she killed you for real. And there’s bound to be some kind of electrical experiment waiting for you.”
I just hoped it didn’t involve a cattle prod.
Chapter 9
I texted Raven to let her know that I was on the way, grabbed my gear, and then headed out. The hallways were lit with dark yellow lights and bright white fluorescent lights like Junior had started to replace the old bulbs, but only as they went out. I grinned as my neighbor got off of the now working elevator and then hopped in.
The old girl groaned as the doors shut, and some of the buttons were so worn that the numbers were gone, but it was just part of the building’s charm. Mrs. Krux and Junior had done an amazing job of keeping the renovated factory together over the years, and I wondered if one of them might be a super. The red brick apartment building was one of the only ones still standing since the others in the area had been knocked down and built into modular structures with shipping container-like blocks. Apparently, that made it easier to repair any damage a super might inflict.
I leaned against the back wall and tried to remember anything from my resurrection, but it was still just unending blackness. If there were gods of death on the other side, then they had decided not to meet with me. I’d read a blog about a guy who’d been revived after a suicide attempt during my research, and I tried to remember what he’d described about his own death.
The man had been officially dead for nearly fifteen minutes before his buddies restarted his heart with CPR, but while he’d been dead, he claimed that he’d met the Great Wolf. He’d described the same unending blackness, but then a light had appeared, which had eventually become the god of death. Apparently, the god wasn’t ready to chat with me just yet, but I wasn’t quite sure if that was an insult or not.
“John,” Mrs. Krux’s thick accent greeted as soon as the elevator doors opened. “Still alive? Or should I say… alive again?”
The old woman had her steel hair pulled back into a tight bun, and a deep frown tugged the corners of her thin lips. The lobby was completely empty except for the landlady, who stood before me in slippers and an oversized bathrobe. She crossed her arms and lifted one drawn-on eyebrow in challenge.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” I hedged and started toward the front door.
“I know that you and your friends were behind the flickering lights,” she persisted and then grabbed the door handle before me. “You play with dangerous things, John. The life of a hero is not glamorous.”
I turned to look at the old woman for a second and saw tears that threatened to spill over her wrinkled cheeks. She and her son never talked about the life they had before they took over the building, but I’d always wondered what happened to her husband. I studied the tough woman for a second as she cleared her throat and then took a step back.
