Chapter 43.

Confrontation.

Damien Reyes.

Time/Area: August 2nd, 2013. NYC

“Will you just do it already?” Jason groaned from the bottom of the steps.

We were at Henry’s house, and even though I was already up the steps of the duplex, I couldn’t find the courage to knock.

I coughed, a chain of cars rushing past the road behind us as I turned towards Jason apologetically, “Uhh, do you wanna do it?” I suggested.

Jason motioned wildly at the quickly darkening sky. The moon was already rising, “We don’t have all day here!”

I frowned, realizing he was right as I looked off down Jersey street.

To be honest, Staten Island didn’t seem as…active as the rest of New York, and that wasn’t even because of the apocalypse- it just felt natural. Staten Island, or at least this part of it, provided no view of the excessively tall buildings that resided within the inner city. Compared to where me and Jason lived, the place almost seemed rural.

Jersey street was a simplistic road with a sidewalk and buildings silhouetted against it:

Not as much graffiti, not as much people, and not even as much pollution [which was really saying something]. To be honest, the lack of noise made this particular endeavor a little more…awkward.

Instead of two idiots standing in front of a doorway surrounded by countless other idiots blaring car horns like they were routine, we were just...

Two idiots.

Somewhere behind us, a dog barked.

“Oh my gosh.” I felt Jason’s thoughts swim through my head.

I gulped, staring at the intimidating zip code with my fist now an inch from the door.

Ugh…what was wrong with me?

“What’s wrong with you?” Jason voiced his thoughts.

What’s wrong with you, Damien.

I glared at the floor, “Not helping,” I said loud enough for Jason to hear. Then, under my breath, I whispered, “Either of you…”

Jason rapidly shook his head, “I’m sorry, but don’t you have superpowers?”

“But like…I don’t know…he’s kind of tall.” I countered.

Jason was even more annoyed, “But you beat him up!” he reasoned, “Like…badly.”

I shrugged, knowing that my emotions…changed when I used my abilities, “W-well, I was in the moment…” I coughed.

He rolled his eyes, “Well,” he said, half sarcastic, “This is another ‘moment’, so figure it out!”

“Ugh,” I thought, turning back to the door, “Fine.”

I heard Jason sigh,

“Finally,” He thought.

Knock

Knock

Kno-

“Use the doorbell, you idiot!” Jason hissed from behind me.

I winced, “Right…”

As I was about to press the doorbell, the door suddenly swung open.

I yelped a little, returning my hands to my side.

I blinked at the doorway, bending my head downwards when I didn’t see anyone.

What I saw down there confused me.

The heck is that thing?

A...mini Henry?

There was a boy, no older than six and no taller than 3ft, standing in front of me.

He had messy blonde hair and was wearing a blue tank top with black shorts,

“Whoaa!” He said, his impossibly huge blue eyes staring up at me, “You’re tall.”

Jason walked up the small set of stairs, now by my side, “Uhh, what is this thing?”

I elbowed Jason, not needing echoes of Terry’s words in my head,

“Um, hi?” I greeted, somehow even more self conscious around small children, “Is uh…you’re.. brother home?”

Then the kid’s head began to shake violently, and it took me three seconds of debating whether or not to call an ambulance to decipher that he was just nodding.

“Yeah!” He exclaimed, “He told me not to open the door… but I didn’t listen!”

I blinked.

He had said this so proudly, it was hard to dissect the actual meaning behind his words.

“TRISTAN!!” Henry’s voice boomed from within the house, footsteps soon following,

“I SAID DON-The HECK?!”

I stepped two inches back, using all my willpower not to bring out the nuclear fists of doom by reflex.

Henry was wearing black shorts with no shirt, and had a bucket of sweat rolling down his excessively scary looking chest. His shoulders themselves took up an entire corner of the doorway.

“What are you guys doing here?” He asked, glaring into my soul.

He seemed even scarier than he was at the park.

Jason went back behind me.

‘Tristan’ laughed at this, “Where did gween eyes go?!”

I coughed, figuring I should probably reply, “We uh..wanted to uh..talk.”

Before Henry could respond, Tristan began clapping,

“Oh!” He said, grabbing my hand, “Henwy got me Fight4Life for getting a good gwade on my test!”

It seemed to take me some time to figure out what Henry’s little brother was saying. It seemed like he would pronounce all ‘r’ sounds like w’s.

When I did figure out what he said, it made no difference.

I mean…what was I supposed to say?

Good frickin job?!

“Talk about what?” Henry ignored Tristan, pushing him inside before stepping out with us.

He closed the door.

I coughed again, “About the..erm… monster sighting?”

Henry’s eyes widened, “How do you losers know about that!?” he paused, “I thought Ember was five stars or something.”

“Hey Henry!!”

“Hey dude!”

Two voices rang from the sidewalk behind us.

We spun around to see Timmy and John, my other two assailers from Inwood park, walking down the street,

“Wanna hang with Hiru lat-OH SNAP!”

They immediately bolted upon seeing me, producing a noise that sounded like a garbled version of “See you later dude good luck” before booking it down the next street.

“Uhh, whoops.” I sighed, turning back to Henry, “But um- we just had like… a few questions…for you.”

I didn’t really know what to say, but Jason was still hiding behind me, and that was what cops always said on TV.

Henry snorted, “You wouldn’t believe me anyway... Ember didn’t at least…and why would I want to talk to a couple of Freshmen?”

I blinked for the 100th time, “Um...we are, uh..-”

“Writing for the school newspaper!” Jason stepped in, poking his head out from behind my shoulder.

Henry’s glare deepened, “School’s out… morons.”

Jason slid off my shoulder, resigning himself back into silence.

I quickly thought of something, “The school newspaper’s website.” I added,

“That’s still operational!”

He laughed, mimicking my voice. “ ‘op-er-ational-” he increased the pitch in his voice, “You sound like a nerd.”

I squinted at him, unable to determine the relevance of his statement,

“Well uh..that’s not really..the point…” I took a deep breath, “ Can we talk to you or not!?”

Henry looked at me, and his mouth shifted as if he was about to refuse, but he never did.

Instead, he opened his door all the way, “Not like I have anything else to do..” he said, his voice almost a whisper.

I didn’t know what that was about, but I wasn’t about to question the invite.

-

Tristan was sitting on a carpet close to the door, playing with a Fight4Life action figure by a coat hanger beside a closet.

I didn’t know which was more sad; the fact that Henry’s little brother had waited for him, or the fact that Jason had the same exact toy.

Once we had walked inside, Henry closed the door again, the click of the lock setting in once again throwing me on edge.

It wasn’t even really because of Henry, I just hadn’t been to many other house’s besides my old apartment and Jason’s mansion.

“Perks of having literally one friend in elementary and middle school, I guess,” I thought, performing a brief scan of the duplex.

It was a good size for a duplex, and the wall shared between whoever else lived here was deep into the kitchen on the right. There was even a set of stairs across the entry hall that went to another level.

Against the wall beside the closet hung an almost too long line of medals, and I didn’t really need too much evidence to deduce they were all for athletics.

I stared at them anyway, noting some unframed, taped pictures next to the medals as well. Apparently, he won a marathon with Timmy and John, a boxing competition in eighth grade (wow), and…was that Hiru?

It was indeed.

Beside a strange looking medal I had never seen before was a picture of Henry and Hiru at some kind of shooting range. They were both holding rifles while posing dramatically.

“Tristan, go play upstairs.” Henry’s voice stopped my train of thought, and I turned away from his wall of accomplishments to get back in character,

“Mom and Dad will be back tomorrow.” he said to his brother.

Tristan picked up the toy, running down the hallway while yelling something along the lines of ‘EVIL BEWARE’ as he disappeared up the stairs.

Mom and Dad, huh?

I looked around once more; I didn’t see any pictures relating to parental figures.

“Erm,” Henry turned towards me and Jason, scratching his head, “Uh, follow me, I guess.”

Henry led us into the kitchen, not bothering to put on a shirt before sitting down on one of three bar stools beside a tall, granite counter.

Me and Jason shared a look before following Henry’s lead, sitting on the bar stools at either side of him while trying to act like we were 100 percent supposed to be there.

“So, what did you want to know?” Henry asked, leaning back against the granite slab.

I glanced at Jason, trying to [subtly] lean in front of the wall of muscle obscuring my sight to catch his attention,

“What do we want to know?” I thought.

He shrugged, squinting in slight annoyance, “Not like we planned this or anything.”

I went back to Henry, but before I could say anything, he spoke,

“How did you do that, by the way?” He asked, his head bent at a downward angle to meet my eyes.

I blinked, “Do what?”

He looked at me like I was an idiot,

“Oh, I don’t know,” Henry snorted sarcastically, “Throw me into a tree with one hand…?”

I cleared my throat, blurting the first thing that came to mind, “Um...adrenaline?”

“Hey, why did you lie to Hiru?” Jason butted in.

We were getting seriously off topic.

Henry shrugged, “I didn’t need ‘Mr.Perfect’ giving me a lecture.”

“Jason.” I mentally shot

He rolled his eyes across from me, “Fine.”

“S-so what did you see?” I dodged his question.

Henry stood up, walking over to a nearby chair.

He picked up a shirt that was slung on its arm, tugging it on before coming back to his stool,

“A monster.” He replied, falling back into the counter.

Wow.

So helpful,

“Did it hurt you at all?” Jason asked.

Henry suddenly froze, his blue eyes scanning us suspiciously,

“L-look, I’m not saying anything I haven’t told Ember already,” he admitted, “especially not for some school newspaper.”

“W-well,” Jason tried again, clearly intrigued, “What if this could be off the record?”

“Wasn’t my ‘private’ complaint to Ember also supposed to be off record?” Henry laughed, “now there’s two freshmen in my house.”

To be honest, all of the statements Henry was saying made total sense, and Melissa had technically stolen the files on Henry’s witness interview.

But if he hadn’t shared the whole story with them, maybe there was a way to get him to do it now…

“Henry, look,” I took a deep breath, staring up at him with as much courage as possible,

“You, uh…know what me and Jason have recently been through, right?”

Jason flashed me a look, “What are you doing…”

Henry went silent; almost completely still, “Erm, yeah,” he said, “I think everyone does.”

All things considered, that response wasn’t nearly as bad as I had assumed it would be.

“W-well,” I started again, newfound confidence in my voice, “With everything that's been going on, and with both our families split up, we kind of just want some answers…”

Jason frowned, probably still wondering why I was going so deep with this.

The reason wasn’t that I trusted Henry (not at all), but it was because I…I guess it was just true.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this trip aside from a short getaway, but if there was just a small chance I could find something actually beneficial…something stable…I didn’t care who I had to talk to.

Henry looked at me for a couple of seconds, realizing I was serious.

…

He sighed, “I-It killed…two people…that night on the docks,” Henry’s voice went down in a volume, “ and it would’ve gotten me too, but I fell into the water.”

I didn’t say anything, partly because I was still processing his words, and partly because I was shocked he had even decided to share them.

Henry paused, massaging his temples, “Th-that’s a part I left out of the investigation or whatever.”

Jason sat up,

“W-wait,” he began a question, “did it stab two people or actually kill them?”

Henry’s expression was a mix of shock and confusion,

“Um…you took that a lot better than I thought you would...” He said, “And uh...I don’t see the difference between the two options.”

I coughed, picking up with Jason’s idea, “Well…did the two turn into a monster or did they just die?”

More confusion, and Henry now looked genuinely concerned for me and Jason, “Th-they were ripped apart...it was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen...”

“O-okay…” I said, unable to keep thoughts of what could’ve happened the day the monster attacked our yard from surfacing.

Ripped apart.

I continued, “D-did you see the monster leave?”

Henry began to sweat, like his mind was in a different place, and It was then that I noticed something strange about this entire conversation.

Henry had seemed out of it since the moment he invited us into the house. I knew we only knew him as a school bully, but his attitude…was almost too weird.

He kept his head slightly angled at the tile whenever he talked about the monsters, and his voice was kind of shaky.

Maybe he wanted to talk about what happened as much as we did…if not more.

Henry didn’t have to invite us in; he wanted to.

“Y-yea..” Henry replied, “It jumped in the water..and I thought it was coming for me, but it just swam away. It was terrifying to look at…”

Swimming?

“W-where did it swim to?” Jason echoed my thoughts.

He cleared his throat, “It doesn’t make any sense...but I thought it swam towards lady liberty…”

My eyes widened, remembering the feeling I had before.

Was it connected?

What did this mean?

Did a monster live on Liberty Island?

Where…had I felt that feeling before?

My head started to ache, my mind trying to grasp at what felt like non-existent straws.

If this was some kind of monster, how did no one notice?

Would it even be just one monster living there?

The pounding in my brain was growing worse.

“O-okay,” I said, getting up while glancing at Jason.

He slowly nodded, frowning at me before following my actions.

“Can we have your..uh, phone number, dude?” I asked Henry, trying not to clutch the sides of my head.

Something felt…so wrong.

Henry frowned, “W-why?” he nearly stuttered, “Y-you two believe me?”

“Yeah.” I stated, trying my best to provide some kind of assurance to him, “We do…”

He stared at us for a minute, hesitantly walking behind the counter for a pen,

“C-can you believe it?” He asked, finding one while chuckling softly, “Monsters...doesn’t make any sense.”

While he was writing, Jason walked up to me, noticing my expression,

“Dude, what is it?”

I looked around, “Something isn’t right at Liberty.”

Jason tilted his head, “You really think the monsters he saw actually went th-”

“Just…” I stopped him, the subject feeling like knives for my mind, “we’ll have to see what happens.”

Henry walked over to us, awkwardly looking around as he pushed a slip of paper into my chest.

“Thanks..” I said, sliding the number into my jacket pocket.

He just nodded.

“Well...see you, uh...later.” Jason coughed, both of us turning to leave.

Halfway to the door, we heard Henry sigh,

“Wait.” he said.

We both stopped, swinging back around to face him.

He rolled his eyes before speaking, taking a large breath of air, “I’m…sorry… for all the stupid stuff I’ve done this year,” he said, glancing back at the floor, “And erm, thanks for listening I guess…even if it was just for some dumb paper.”

He paused to clear his throat, clearly not used to saying these kinds of things, “Hiru must be rubbing off on me.”

For the third time today, my eyes met Jason’s, and both of us had the same shocked realization coursing through our faces:

This guy is actually for real…

Jason blinked, deciding to test his luck, “Wait, what about third grade?”

Henry groaned, “Get out of my house, Jason…”

Jason chuckled nervously, inching towards the door.

Just then, loud footsteps came crashing down the flights of stairs down the hall,

“WAIIIIIT!”

Tristan boomed, skipping in front of us, “Where ya going?”

I glanced between him and Henry, the resemblance both cute and utterly terrifying at the same time, “Erm...we’re leaving now.”

Tristan frowned, “My birthday is August 8th, will you come to my party?”

Henry pushed Tristan aside, “No, Damien and Jason have to go now...plus, who said anything about a party?”

Tristan pointed at me, “Damwien?”

I nodded, absently stuffing my hands into my pockets, “That’s me.’

Then he moved his finger to Jason, “Jason...okay...bye then!!”

He ran away.

—--

“Well uh, cya.” Henry said, both me and Jason now outside, “Oh, and erm..sorry about your parents.”

He closed the door, the lock clicking soon after.

Jason looked at me after we had gone down the steps, both of us now walking down Jersey street, “Well that was..”

“Unexpected.” I finished, “And weirdly…nice…”

To be honest, I didn’t know Henry could even be that ‘kind’, let alone have an innocent little brother.

I always thought that if Henry Mores had family, they would be closely related to Satan.

Once we were at the bus stop, it was already eight, which meant we would be home by ten, not nine,

“We are so dead..” Jason groaned, the bus now in view as he checked the time.

I only slightly nodded, despite that statement being absolutely correct.

My attention was focused on the view of the harbor, the water now fully covered with moonlight and the number of boats out dwindling. I looked at that island, that mysterious sensation rushing through me like the notion of a coming storm as I traced the sculpture of the green figure with my eyes.

I didn’t know what was going on, but something was stirring in this city, and for once, just the threat of an ‘average’ monster apocalypse didn’t seem like my biggest issue…