Everyone Wants to Feel Safe in the Dark

Bill

"Where are they?" I questioned myself, hands trembling as I tore through my duffel bag. I distinctly remembered packing them in my bag that night I'd been taken back to my house to get my belongings, so where were they? A tuft of curdled air hung in my throat as I slung a handful of shirts onto the bed beside the bag and finally my fingers curled around the orange plastic container.
The pills inside the bottle rattled lightly when I lifted the container from it's current horizontal position, the medicine a tiny blessing.

I popped the lid off and took one of the tiny capsules out, placing it onto my tongue and filling my mouth with cold water that I'd brought with me from the cafeteria. Swallowing, a sigh passed soon after. Relief would soon envelop my nerves.
"You said those were for anxiety, right?" Another voice rang from the door behind me, I spinning around to see Gabe leaning in the doorway, crouched down so he would fit. I momentarily let myself think of how humiliating a thought it was that he'd just seen me in such a desperate state for medicine, then remembered how he'd asked me about the pills at my home.
"Um..Y-yeah." He nodded, stepping further into the room and straightening his shoulders. "What are you having like, an anxiety attack over right now?" He queried as his eyes took in the small bottle in my hand.

"Uh, hello? Danny! He's b-been getting into so much tr-ouble lately. It's...you know...s-scary. He's going to get himself k-killed."
Again with the stutters attaching to the words just before they vaulted from my tongue. He didn't act like he'd heard them though, taking my words in for a few waning moments before a certain expression shot through his dark eyes.
"Well..Why don't you come somewhere with me?" The request caught me off guard, something I didn't expect from him.

He always acted like he wasn't exactly comfortable around me, or anyone else to be exact, so this was more than slightly odd to me. I tried to imagine, in a brief second, where he could possibly be talking about going. I thought maybe the most he was meaning was the lake. "Um..W-where?" I inquired cautiously though I knew I would be going wherever he had planned seeing as he was already stepping back toward the door. "A place I go sometimes that's really relaxing. It calms the nerves pretty good for me, so maybe it can help you too."
Without prying my eyes from him, I placed the prescription bottle of drugs back into my bag and followed him unsurely; I was sure he didn't intend any harm, especially considering there was actually a hint of a smile pricking at the corners of his mouth, but I was never very quick to run off alone with someone that I didn't know very well. I guess that was from being raised by a police as a father.
"N-now?" I breathed out stupidly, but it was the only thing I could think of to say other than nothing at all and I felt like I needed to keep talking to keep calm.
"Yes now. When else would we go?" He stepped out onto the deck and motioned for me to do as well, I ducking out after him timidly. I felt like a skittish animal having to be coaxed out of their den at the zoo by their trainer, wondering if I should tell him that I wasn't up to it or not. I didn't have a chance though before he grabbed me and slung me onto his back, kneeling down close to the deck just long enough for me to think 'Shit, the flying thing.'

Then, in the next instant, we were soaring over treetops like it were as natural as breathing. I didn't know whether I was holding my breath for fear of screaming, or my airways were locked down and refusing to work from the shock. My arms were constricting around his neck like a snake, I unwilling to alleviate any pressure because my mind was playing out several horrific scenes in my head that involved me dying brutally and that wasn't comforting me any more. I was beginning to wonder if the pain in my chest was from my lack of breathing or if I'd caused myself a heart attack when I felt gravity pulling us closer to the ground again. I refused to watch, burying my face against the nape of his neck and trying my hardest to remain calm.
His feet hit the ground with an ethereal thud, not hard enough to disturb anything like I'd seen Super landings do previously and I was slid to shaking legs.

"You know you're perfectly safe when we jump like that. You're probably more safe there than you are on the ground." He assured, but it went as an empty assurance in my mind. Heights were heights and I hated them. He gave me time to settle my nerves, patiently so, and I gradually glanced around to take in our surroundings. "Where are we?" I gaped in slight fascination at the area. It was gorgeous, a perfect ring of towering trees circling us, branches reaching out to touch each other as if to lock us in.
"Just some place I found while patrolling one day. I thought it was really cool how there's just like, this perfect circle of trees and look." He pointed above us toward the top of the trees, adding "They're not grown out really bad, so there's a perfect view of the sky, which looks really cool at night."
My eyes stayed there, watching a wisp of clouds passing over the sun and across the sky in a languid dance, moving with a light breeze. The loud crunch of crackling leaves met my ears, I turning to see Gabe laying on the forest floor spread eagle, looking extremely tall stretched out like that. "Next step to calming down. Where do you wanna lay?"

I couldn't help but curl my lip up just a bit. The ground was crawling with germs, but I didn't want to say this and decline. I'd already suffered through the trip out here and didn't die, so I could risk a few germs. I stretched out in the composing foliage that made the soft earthy floor for the forest, to Gabe's right and he seemed content with that. "Now?" I waited for the next step, but he only pointed a finger toward the sky.
I directed my gaze in said direction, eyes following the path of the clouds but it didn't keep my mind at bay. Danny had managed to get himself mauled earlier in the day because he was chasing after the leader again. He was lucky he was even alive. The damn thing had bit into his head and he was still okay. If there was one thing he obviously had, it was luck. Why did he always have to look for trouble though? He was always getting into something. Then there was Sisky. I worried about him and how he was adjusting to it here, away from his family because he was always so close to them. How was he handling it? I didn't get a chance to talk to him alone anymore to ask him, so I hadn't a clue.

"The key here is to stop thinking about everything, not take it as an opportunity to make a list of things stressing you out." He instructed suddenly, I immediately starting to tell myself "oh yeah, he can hear your thoughts," then remembering that was The Butcher. How'd he know that then? "My mind is emp-pty." I tried to fib, but was caught easily, he turning his head to peer toward me through his glasses. "I can smell the stress pouring from you." He stated matter-of-factly and I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have such acute senses. He could hear and smell everything then, couldn't he?
"Supers can smell that?" I was genuinely curious to know more about the subject, and hey, maybe it would get my mind off the stress for a bit.
He nodded, then shrugged, crossing his arms under his head. "I can. The others say they can't but I don't think they realize how lucky they are."
Now I was getting even more interested. I didn't care so much to watch the clouds like he did. I rolled over onto my stomach and propped myself up on my elbows, waiting for an explanation for why the others were supposed to be lucky for not having this ability.

"Okay, imagine walking by a room when two people are having sex. The smell of sexual excitement." He elaborated, not needing to explain more than that. "It's enough to gag you." "What does stress smell like?" I mused aloud, trying to imagine what emotion would smell like what but it was hard to even come up with any. "I guess it reminds me of burning Oak or something like that."
Strange. I was guessing something more along the lines of rain or something with water, but burning Oak was definitely interesting. "So I smell like smoke. That just m-makes me want to shower." I responded at the thought of smelling dirty, though I was fairly certain bathing wouldn't scrub the smell off.

"Yeah. Believe me, you could smell worse." He began to let a chuckle loose at these words, but stopped himself for an unknown reason. "Are you feeling less stressed yet?" He took the opportunity to change the subject then, reminding me why we were even here. I craned my head to look behind me, toward the sky. The sun was just starting to be overpowered by dusk, the sky changing to a display of oranges and pinks. "Um..Y-yeah." I answered quite truthfully and the response seemed to confirm some bet he may have made with himself that I would say this. "Good. I knew it would." He nodded his head, a barely discernible gesture with how he was resting. "And, about your friend, don't worry about him getting on Travis' bad side. Travis looks mean to a lot of people and threatens a lot of stuff, but he wouldn't really seriously hurt your friend in a way that is irreparable. "

I turned back from the sky again, searching his face for any hint of doubt in his own words about this before pressing "R-really? He seems s-serious to me." He shook his head to dismiss my outlook on the ginger, a view that was obviously wrong. "He acts like that to keep people at a distance so it's easier to watch over them, really. If he wanted your friend dead, he wouldn't be so mad at himself for what happened today." I pushed myself to sit up upon having this thrown at me, confused because the story I'd been told was that Danny had been attacked by an Other-Sider, and that was it. Why would Travis be mad at himself?
Gabe decided to be generous and answer this for me without me having to ask, the confusion having to be blatant on me.

"Danny got hurt right in front of him, right after he turned his back to walk away from him and by that time, he was already pretty hurt. He'd tried to get the Other-Sider off of your friend before we'd gotten there, but it was difficult because it was a Code Blue. He feels like it was his fault that it happened, basically."
He felt guilty? I found that hard to believe seeing how he acted, but then again, I didn't personally know him.

"Do you smell that?" He inquired suddenly, sitting up with a deep inhale as the wind picked up. I breathed in as well, trying to find traces of odd scent in the air, but smelled nothing. "Smell what?" He stood immediately, motioning for me to do the same. I did, and as soon as I was by his side, his hand clamped onto my forearm, guiding me away from the little cove of trees we were in. What was he smelling that I couldn't? I could only imagine, tried to ask even, but he hushed me back to silence. He led me away from the tree ring and toward a steep ravine that wouldn't have even been spotted by me, had he not motioned for me to be careful when we approached. He jumped the gap in the earth, squishing me to his side as he did so that I wouldn't fall. He continued leading us once on the other side, concentrating.

"It's getting faint." He whispered, pausing where we were to take several more deep breaths before finally shrugging. "It smelled almost like an Other Sider but..Oh well. I'll keep a watch out." With that, he motioned for the tree tops, mentioning "Maybe we should go back now."