Excerpt From: The Origin of Tekus

“This still isn’t enough,” I hear Dad whisper to himself as I come into the kitchen and living room. He’s counted out all the cash we got yesterday. He notices me and puts all the money in his pocket, “I’m going to get Mom some medicine today, I’ll have to empty our account at the bank but at least we’ll be able to buy the right medicine. I’ll be back later.” He kisses me on the forehead and leaves.

I go check on Mom, she’s sleeping soundly, her hair still faintly glowing. I go read on my beanbag for an hour before wanting to do something else. It's Saturday so more kids will be out, maybe I can find someone to play with, so I put on my dark blue hoodie and go out to the alley-way. I walk to the park, which is significantly farther away than the library but it's more likely kids will be there.

Right away I see a group of kids that look my age at the swings so I go over and say hi.

Noticing my birthmark, one of the boys on the swings says, “Woah, your parents let you get a tattoo?”

“No, this is actually just a birthmark.”

“Oh my gosh, that’s really cool!” A girl next to me says. “Do you want to play with us?”

“Sure, I’m Teckus.”

“I’m Sally, and this is Emma, James, Will, Sam, and Avery. You have a really cool name by the way.” The girl that talked first says.

“Thanks, its swedish or norweign, I don’t remember which.”

“We were going to go to James’ house to play some video games, if you wanna come.

“Okay, is that alright James?”

“Yeah! Do you need to tell your mom?” James gets off the swing.

“No, she knows I’ll be out for a while.”

“Okay follow me guys.”

“You can ride on my bike with me,” Emma says as everyone picks up their bikes. Emma ties her red hair in a bun so it doesn’t hit me in the face when we take off. I sit on the back of Emma’s bike where you would put saddlebags or something like that and we all ride off, James taking the lead.

“So, Teckus,” Will starts from his bike, “Are you new in town? I haven’t seen you at school.”

“No, actually I’m homeschooled.” I say as I try to keep my balance.

“That must be awesome, you get to learn what you want and take breaks whenever.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

It only takes a couple minutes to get to James’ house. Since all the video games he has are four players at most we take turns. After an hour or two his mom brings us snacks, celery with peanut butter. For once I feel like a regular kid. Then James’ older brother, Charlie, who’s four years older than us comes in and says there’s been a robbery at the Littleton Savings Bank. That’s where our bank account is, Dad went there today.

“This article says there were two casualties before the heroes were able to stop the Cardiff Gang, a Pat Jennings and Raul Karlsson.”

“Karlsson? Wasn’t that the last name of that lady who could control people?” Sally says.

“Raul Karlsson. . .” I suddenly can’t breathe, “that’s. . .”

“Teckus, is everything okay, do you know this Raul Karlsson.” James’s mom asks.

“Is he. . .” I start but can’t finish. The lights start flickering around us and the TV suddenly shuts off. “I have to go.”

“Teckus wait!” I hear a few of them call after me as I run out the door. A few blocks away, I stop half way down an alley-way, realizing I’ve never been to this part of town before, I don’t know how to get home. My heart is racing. “There were two casualties” Charlie’s voice keeps repeating in my head “and Raul Karlsson.” A breaker near me suddenly sparks, making me jump. I have to get home. I get up and something drops out of my pocket. I pick up mom’s phone, the screen cracked from the fall. I unlock it without touching a button and look up Littleton Bank Robbery. The first thing that comes up is a video. It opens and plays. It's filmed on someone’s phone. The robbers are all wearing masks and the same black jacket except for one who wears a green trench coat. In the corner of the screen there’s already someone laying down motionless but it's not Dad. One of the robbers throws a man down, the film is shaky but I can tell that's Dad.

“Please,” Dad’s voice comes out of mom’s phone, “I have a sick wife and a little boy, I can’t lose that money.”

“Shut up.” Says the guy that threw him down.”

“No, I need it, please!”

Bang Bang.

“Anyone else want to resist,” Shouts the man in the green trench coat as Dad falls to the floor. Suddenly there’s a burst of dust and the heroes Changer and Resilient are there fighting the gang. In the back you can see the man in the green trench coat quickly leave, escaping with the chaos as a distraction. The video ends with the crowd cheering on the heroes, who got there too late to save everyone.

I sit still, as the screen gets dark, and then goes black. Dad. is. . .really. . .He could have used his power and. . .I need to go tell Mom. I open her phone again and put our address into maps to get directions.

It takes me thirty minutes to get home.

The apartment is quiet. I walk to her room and open the door. “Mom.” my voice cracks as I try to fight the tears. The only light in the room is from the hall, pouring in. Mom is motionless in bed, her hair has gone dark blue. It’s never stopped faintly glowing. My feet slowly bring me to the edge of the bed. I reach out but don’t touch her. We knew she'd been sick for too long, but why today.?I fall back.

If only Dad had gone to the bank yesterday night. Why did it have to be today. I’m not. . .I’m not ready to say goodbye. Everything goes blurry and my face becomes wet with tears.

Cardiff Gang. Man in the green trench coat. The leader. Cayo Cardiff, a known killer. Always able to escape justice. Why isn’t he on the hero’s okay-to-kill list?

Cayo Cardiff, if the heroes are unable to do anything, I’ll kill you myself.