Eagless 101

Their rent house was only a block away from campus. It was just a small two-bedroom place in an old neighborhood, but it was nice. Every now and then, she glanced back to make sure she wasn’t being followed. There hadn’t been anyone else out all night, and that hadn’t changed now. She leapt over the short gate to the backyard to avoid the squeak that would give away her position. Tiptoeing across the small yard, she made her way across to the bedroom window. Carefully, she raised it and slid in, closing the window behind her and locking it as quietly as possible to keep from waking up her roommate.

Her pale-blue eyes reflected eerily in her mirror, lit only by the moon. She took off the black mask she’d been wearing around her eyes and dropped it on the bed. Next, she took off her blue leather jacket and hung it back up in her closet. She switched out of her black jeans and back into a pair of grey sweatpants and laid down across her comforter.

She stared at the ceiling fan, making its slow rotations, following one blade and then the next as she sank into the bed. Then, with a sigh and a groan, she forced herself back up. She needed to shower off the sweat from patrolling the campus before letting herself get back into the clean sheets of her bed for the night.

“Stop any crimes tonight, Ashley?”

She froze at the sound of her name. Her roommate had the question ready as soon as she stepped out of her room.

“I was, uh, just studying,” Ashley responded. She hadn’t expected Nicole to still be awake when she got home.

“Did you wear your black mask while you studied? Is that a new focus tool?” Nicole answered without getting out of her chair or even looking up from her laptop. They lived in the house alone. Nicole Kirk had been her roommate in the dorms the previous year, and she was the first friend Ashley had made at Franklin.

Ashley crossed her arms and leaned against the door, not that Nicole could even see her masterful attempt at acting. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I was just about to go hop in the shower to get ready for bed.”

“So, you worked up a sweat walking around campus tonight?” Nicole still hadn’t looked up from her laptop. Ashley clenched and unclenched her fists, annoyed that Nicole wouldn’t stop being so certain that she was correct. Obviously, she was correct, but the fact that she didn’t even have the slightest doubt after all the work Ashley had put into being secretive was frankly just rude.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve had a long day, and my brain is fried from cramming for midterms. I’m going to shower and go to bed.” Ashley had turned to walk down the hall when she heard the laptop close behind her.

“Talk to me, Ashley. Why are you doing this?” Nicole asked. She was standing now and had walked towards the hall. At 5’6”, she was a few inches shorter than Ashley, but not so much that she seemed small standing next to her. “You’ve been acting weird for the last two weeks. I know you. You can’t hide this kinda thing from me. I hear you coming back home late at night, and you do it through the backyard, which just makes it more suspicious. Plus, we have security cameras back there that clearly show you wearing a black mask and a leather jacket, I’ve never seen you wear other than in the video footage.”

Ashley scrunched up her nose. She might have forgotten they had a security camera in the backyard.  She’d never set up notifications for it, but apparently Nicole had. Maybe she hadn’t quite covered all her bases like she’d thought. “Why do you think you have to be the campus’s new hero?” Nicole continued as Ashley shifted her weight to her other foot. “Why do you think that the campus even having one at all is a good thing?”

“Why do I think it’s a good thing?” Ashley was grateful for that last question since it let her shift from feeling chastised to frustrated. Frustration was, ironically, a less frustrating emotion than chastisement. “Because it’s an undeniable need for this campus. You know that just as well as I do. Assaults are up sixty percent from last semester. Sixty percent!” she exclaimed, and Nicole’s eyebrows went up as her volume rose. Ashley took a deep breath and continued with a slower and quieter inside voice.

“What the White Knight accomplished in lowering the crime was great, but he didn’t fix anything. He was a deterrent. And now that he’s gone, there’s nothing stopping people. Nothing structural changed. Someone has to do something about it. Why is it me? Because no one else is doing it. The White Knight is gone. There have been plenty of sightings in Duncan, but no one has seen him here since May. He’s moved on, and that’s left a void here. I would love for someone else to have done something, but I’m not going to wait any longer for that to happen. People are getting hurt now. Somebody has to do something about it, and I am somebody.”

“You’re somebody that can get killed out there. You have no training for this! There are people who are being paid to do what you’re trying to do. Just let them do their job!”

“They’re not doing their job, though! That’s the problem, Nicole! That’s a sixty percent increase! Six—” she had started to emphasize it again, but Nicole’s cocked head made her think better of it. “What I’m saying is if they were able to do it, then there wouldn’t have been a need for the White Knight, and there wouldn’t be a need for me. But they don’t, and so that need is still there. I don’t want to be a hero, but if no one else is going to do something, then I will. Doing nothing isn’t an option.”

“Of course, doing nothing is an option!” Nicole was smiling as she shook her head, but it wasn’t the good kind of smile. It was the bad kind of smile. The Ashley-is-incomprehensible-and-overexcitable-and-needs-to-come-back-down-to-earth kind of smile her mother had perfected, and that Nicole was doing a horrifyingly good job at on her first attempt. “Doing nothing is the most sensible option!”

“I’m not changing my mind. I’m doing this. Because someone has to.” Ashley wasn’t backing down on this one, no matter how much Nicole channeled her mom. The White Knight was a hero to the campus—was a hero to her—but he was gone, and someone had to step up to fill that role.

“Fine,” Nicole declared, throwing up her arms as she walked out of the hallway and across the living room to her room.

“Fine,” Ashley sighed as she opened the bathroom door to finally shower. She turned the knob in the old bathtub and pulled the stopper, then sat on the toilet with her head in her hands, frustrated with Nicole for the conversation, with herself for not doing better to keep her secret, and with both of them for not being able to fully brush off Nicole’s reaction. The room began to steam as the water heated. She grabbed her towel off the hook and draped it over the bar on the shower door.

Ashley showered longer than she had planned as she tried to figure out what to do about Nicole knowing. Surely she wouldn’t sell me out, she thought. But as close as the two of them were, that could be the reason her friend would turn her over. This idea of saving her from herself. I can’t believe she doesn’t see that this is what has to happen. Somebody has to do it, and no one else is volunteering. I’m doing the right thing. I mean, sure, I may not have any fighting experience, a weapon, or a real super suit, but I have moxie and enough athleticism to play collegiate sports. That’s gotta count for something, right? And the campus can’t afford to go back to how it was before The White Knight arrived. She’d only been there one semester without a hero, and that had been enough to force her to at least consider transferring. Who knows what would have happened to her and Nicole if the White Knight hadn’t shown up when those guys tried to get them into that alley? If the campus needed a hero, then she’d step up and be a hero. No one else was going to do it.

Ashley finished her shower and headed back to her room. All the lights in the house were off except for the one shining from Ashley’s room. Ashley turned it off as she walked in and lay on the bed as a restless sleep overtook her.

SOMEBODY ONCE TOL-

Groaning, Ashley rolled over to turn off her alarm. I hate that stupid song. She didn’t have soccer practice on Saturdays, but if she wasn’t consistent about waking up at the same time every day, she struggled to be as sharp competitively. She was a key reserve on last year’s team as a freshman, but a starting spot had opened up when last year’s conference player of the year graduated, and she wanted it.

After brushing her teeth and filling her water bottle, Ashley went for her morning run. Thirty minutes and four miles later, she returned to the house, panting. I have to find a way to get some sleep during the day. I can’t keep up this level of activity on the sleep I’m getting.

Nicole was at the table eating breakfast as she walked in.

“Uh, hey,” Ashley greeted as she set her water bottle down on the counter.

“Hey!” Nicole answered. “What’s your Saturday look like?”

“I’m, uh, going to study for a while and then probably take a nap before I go to the gym. What about you?”

“I’m meeting with a study group at one, but that’s all I have planned for the day.”

“Sounds good. I’m going to go shower off.”

“Okay! Talk to you later!”

Ashley shut the door to the bathroom and started the shower. That was strange. Did I dream the conversation? No, but it was a nice thought. She was too tired to try to figure out Nicole’s response. That was a problem for future Ashley to figure out . . . once she had taken a nap.

“How can I help?”

She’d just woken up and was half asleep, putting on her gym shoes, when Nicole asked the question.

“What are you talking about?” Ashley managed through a yawn.

Nicole was teetering on the edge of the chair beside the couch. “I want to help! I want to help you be a hero!” Her red hair was bouncing as she rocked back and forth, and her green eyes lit up. “I’ve been thinking since we talked last night. I still don’t think it’s smart, but I also know you’re going to do it regardless of how I feel about it. And I’m not going to let you do something important and cool on your own. So, I’m in. Whatever I can do to help.”

“Okay,” Ashley answered. She’d stared blankly at Nicole as she had talked. This was partially due to her only being somewhat awake, but mainly to do with her shock at Nicole’s complete one-eighty-degree turn on the subject.

“Okay?” Nicole echoed.

“Okay,” Ashley repeated. “I don’t know what that would look like yet, because, well, I don’t really know what I’m doing looks like yet, but yeah. Okay. Partners.”

“Partners,” Nicole responded with a smile.

Eagless continues with episode 102.

For more stories set in this world, buy my books, The White Knight and SAMSON – OUT NOW! Or read my short story series The Street Rat for free like Eagless!

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