Gristrift

All kinds of gross sweat gathered on Dad's face. He stayed silent and eventually John stopped asking him questions. The freeway whizzed past at a breakneck speed. Dad drove like Maude from Harold and Maude, a movie which everybody would agree was the entire reason the seventies existed. The sound of horns followed their path. John still wore the jacket and blanket combination from his teacher.

The whole situation pretty much sucked. At least John found his cell phone after rooting around under the seat. He must have suddenly grown popular because he saw twenty-three texts, five voice mails, and seven e-mails waiting for him. He looked at the texts first, which all came from a new number.

hey john i heard you been usin your power well come on home and ill tell you all about whats up in your life i know you from when you was a baby

i got a place set up where all kinds a people like you can hang out and practice and shit you should come

im your momma you know i mean you is a clone but i helped and trust me you would be betta off with me

theres a mothafucka comin afta you who wants to kill you so youd better come with me

im waitin outside your house man whateva smell is comin from your kitchen is )(-ELLA biznasty i mean wow you can COOK

there is all kinds a kids like you with sweet special abilities and you would have a lot of fun i know you dont got no friends

The rest of the texts were repetitions of the first few until he got to the bottom.

i KNOW you not in school no more and i KNOW you didnt come to me dont think you can escape the batterwitch ill fuckin find you

Another text came in as he looked.

youre gonna come with me whether you like it or not you cant hide i know where you is

"Um, dad?" said John, "there's this person who keeps texting me, saying she knows where we are and is going to get us and basically it is creeping me out."

Dad took one of his hands off the wheel and plucked John's phone out of his lap. Then he rolled down the window and threw it out into traffic. John stared, a stunned look on his face. "Dad, why did you do that?" Dad said nothing.

They pulled off the freeway and into the parking lot at Walmart. "Son, I need you to go to the toiletries aisle and get enough items to last us for a month. I will deal with food. Meet me by the front door as soon as you can."

John nodded. He felt a little bit scared now. He rushed through the aisles, bumping the cart into walls and knocking down display cases before gently putting them back up. When he met up with Dad, he saw that Dad had both his hands on different carts with a third cart tied to his belt loop. All three brimmed with food, especially cakes. John noticed a bag of fruit gushers and grinned. They were his favorite flavor, Radical Yellow Plaque Buildup. On another cart, a bag of key limes sat next to a bag of crab apples, a bag of mandarin oranges, and a bag of eureka lemons.

John took Dad's third cart as well as his own and they walked back to their car. Dad remotely unlocked the trunk and then stopped. From the other side of the car limped a grinning teenager with paint all over his face. Small black lines of makeup gave the impression that his mouth was sewn shut. He walked with a decided limp and his left arm never seem to move. He wore a skeleton onesie, purple boots, a purple speedo, and black gloves.

"Thou motherfucking went and tried to escape from my fucking main bitch, Condelle," said the strange teenager in a gravelly voice. "That shit's unholy. Thou must come with me to stave off getting eternally fucking rekt."

John backed away. This man was obviously on some sort of drugs, and everybody knew drugs were bad.

Dad lifted John in his arms and started running. Whoa, Dad was strong. Holding a middle schooler in his arms didn't even slow him down. John looked back and saw the skeleton man leaning against their minivan, grinning, and was reminded of the movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

After a while, Dad stopped running and set John down. John walked alongside him through bushes and grass.

"Where are we going now?" asked John.

"They want to take you away from me. We are going where they cannot find us." He marched steadily and gave no more explanation.

They hiked through the rest of the day. Sometimes they would cut across a road, a shopping plaza, or a group of houses. John got no response when he asked how Dad knew where to go. Every rustle of bushes made him jump, worried that the skeleton man had returned. He got the unsettling feeling somebody was watching him in the middle of a field, but when he looked around, he couldn't see anybody. When John's feet started to hurt from walking barefoot over grass and cement, Dad took off his shoes and gave them to him.

As the sun crept behind the horizon, the two came upon an abandoned factory, its windows broken, boarded, and yellowed. There they stopped. "I used to play in this place when I was but a boy myself," said Dad. His voice startled John, who had grown used to the silence.

John followed Dad into a small building next to the factory. Inside, two dusty, stained beds were set into the walls. A technical manual lay on the floor, two of its pages ripped out. In the corner sat a closed gallon milk jug. A stain with old, dried drips falling from it suggested that somebody had eaten something blue and thrown up on the wall. The carpet was hard and covered in dirt.

Dad closed the door and locked it, sending the room into total darkness. "We should be safe here. Nobody knows about this place."

"But what about food? And water and also I need to brush my teeth," said John.

"We will deal with that tomorrow. For now, you should get some sleep. I am so, so proud of you for making it this far."

John felt around for a bed and lay on it. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it felt good to not be walking anymore. Just as his eyes shut, a loud knock sounded on the door. John sat bolt upright and clutched the blanket.

"Come out now or we'll motherfucking make you come out," said the skeleton man's voice. How could he have followed them all this way?

"Why, Kurloz, I am astonished that they lodged so close to the institute! Is this not a happy coincidence?"

Great. A second creeper. John knew enough not to let them know he was in there.

"If you don't come out into the righteous night right motherfuckin' now, my ryda here will have to show you the fucking way himself."

John didn't like the sound of that. He huddled under the blanket like a toddler afraid of imps.

With no warning, pebbles pressed into his back where old fabric once was and a small amount of light made it through the blanket.

"Hello, John. Allow me to take that saddle blanket off of your withers. Welcome to your new home!" said the second creeper, the one with the excited, high pitched yet male voice. He felt the blanket moving from on top of him and soon saw the last rays of sunset.

"Aaaaaugh! Why are you being so mean and dumb?" said John, backing away. He looked around. The abandoned factory stood in front of him. To his side was the small building he had just tried to sleep in with Dad. Kurloz stood near a second man, who was dressed in brown leather with golden buttons. He wore goggles and a ponytail.

"My name is Horuss. How fortunate that you decided to choose this structure as a stall, because underneath that factory is the door to your neigh life."

The door to the small building opened and out stepped Dad. He started with a punch to Horuss's face. Horuss was knocked back a few feet but appeared unharmed. Calmly, he grabbed Dad's arms and dragged him back into the smaller building. "Fiddlesticks! I am sorry, John, pardon my inexcusable language. It would not behoove your sire to interfere. Come with us. Did you know you are a superhero? We are all superheros. I mean, our powers make us better at committing crimes than solving them, but we could still be superheroes if we wanted to. What is your power, John?"

John blushed, remembering all his clothes disappearing like a rabbit in a hat. He was not going to tell anybody about that power, let alone a couple of jerks who were mean to his dad. was his Dad okay? Where was he and why wasn't he fighting to get his son back?

John resolved to escape at the first possible chance. Not while Horuss was around, though. That man could probably punch straight through his face.

Kurloz stayed silent and Horuss chatted about horses as they made their way inside the factory. According to Horuss, everybody here had a crime-related power. How was taking his clothes off related to a crime? Was he going to be the flasher while everybody else got to set fires and break into houses?

Then he remembered standing outside the school, wishing he could get into the classroom, and suddenly being where he wanted. He had been too focused on the lack of clothes to pay much attention. So he did get to break into houses. His power wasn't as lame as he thought.

"I'm a superhero," whispered John in amazement.

"That you are. You are going to fit in here most appropriately," said Horuss.