Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) (4 page)

Chapter 4:

History
Repeating

Max sighed deeply as she watched the video of the news broadcast.
There, in crystal clarity, was a sketch of her. They said she'd been
wanted in connection with a crime. The only crime she could think of
was the killing. However, as the story segued into the next she found
out that the gas station she had worked for was a shell company for a
terrorist organization. Then as the segue continued she also found
out that the guy who had shot at her and killed her manager was
wanted for killing several hundred people.

Max
smashed her forehead into her desk. Whatever had been happening
without her knowledge when she worked there, the police clearly
thought she was in on it. Her running away from them hadn't helped
matters any. She picked her head up but failed to notice the small
dent she had left in the wooden desk.

She'd
run because she knew she had faked her application to the store,
which was illegal because she'd used a fake ID to get the job in the
first place. She also didn't want her life outside the school to be
known by the school. The school had a history of only allowing rich
and privileged students in its doors. Max had, for the most part,
played her part perfectly. But if the school had found out that she
was working 3 jobs and using bank loans to pay her way through
school, they would expel her. And then they would make an example of
her to the rest of the state. The board had already been fined 3
separate times before for publicly outing the personal information of
students they found to be 'less than acceptable', though the fines
amounted to less than 1% of their income, so they didn't care to heed
the warnings.

She
couldn't afford the attention if she was going to stay away from her
father. He still lived in the same state and would easily notice the
commotion they would cause. Then she would be back to being forced to
live with him. After all he'd done, Max would rather die than live
with him again.

She
sighed once again and stood up. She'd lucked out in finding a weekend
job. Incredibly so. The school had a weekend opening for a part time
worker. The pay was more than five fold what she had received at the
gas station and was only 4 hours each day Saturday and Sunday. It was
a simple job that the school had created to help its students prepare
for their role in their families businesses, for those that had them.
While it wasn't necessary to pay them, the school felt that the
lesson in a private income would be beneficial to the students. But
Max suspected part of that was posturing after it became public
knowledge that the school board was unhappy with the school for not
teaching enough business classes.

Max
smiled a little without any trace of happiness. It had been
incredibly lucky she even got the job. It was only by virtue of her
grades in her required classes being absolutely perfect, despite her
electoral class grades being just barely above failing, that she'd
managed to snag it. Realistically she wouldn't have normally snagged
the job, but lately she'd managed to pull her failing grades up just
enough to pass. As long as she held the job, which had an expiration
date, until the end, she would have enough money to get through the
last of her semesters at school. Then she could graduate and find a
good college somewhere.

To
that end she had pressed the send button on an email she'd prepared
months ago. It went out to an acquaintence of hers who was skilled in
creating fake identities. She had the name and fake information she
needed already, but universities, especially more prestigous ones,
checked the backgrounds of incoming students far more thoroughly than
the boarding school she was currently in had.

Max
didn't know how exactly the man worked out the details, but she knew
he'd been in the process for 20 years without any of his identities
ever being flagged. That was an incredible feat on its own but the
fact that he guaranteed his work or the customer would receive their
money seemed even more incredible. He was literally daring people to
test him, a bold move for someone working on a less than legal
business.

Max
left her dorm hall dressed in her best school uniform. She scoffed at
that slightly. This single school uniform had literally cost over 600
dollars in total, including dry cleaning for 4 years. Her total
clothing cost for school had been several times that. But it was
necessary. And it seemed to finally be paying off too. That was if
she could keep the rest of her jobs long enough to graduate. She only
had the rest of this year and one more after that before she would
get her diploma. She hoped that the impossible would happen and that
she'd be able to make it that long.

Max
finally arrived at the office building she would be working in after
walking literally all the way across the campus. This job was
literally the simplest job she could imagine. All she had to do was
be a student secretary to the student governments president. And she
would get paid about twice minimum wage for it too, which was a hell
of a bonus in her eyes.

##########

Max's father walked out of the grocery store in Brittlewall. The same
grocery store where Max worked every evening. He hadn't found out
much of anything though. They had no idea where Max lived or anything
about her personal life. Still, he had found out for sure that she
was here. And with that information he set about tracking her down.

His first clue was her early life. He knew she had wanted to go to
school and become a recognized actor. For that she'd wanted to attend
an acting school. His first place to check then would be the nearby
boarding school. They would be the most likely school to get her into
a good acting school.

He stalked quietly along the forest near the school, which was,
conveniently enough, right behind the grocery store as well. He
planned to camp out for a week to see if he could spot her. If not
he'd move on to other locations. It was currently Sunday night and he
had enough money on him to last a full week in the town. After that
he'd have to head back home. He was thankful that he often made
'business trips' outside of town that lasted for weeks on end because
no one would be suspicious if he suddenly disappeared.

After a few moments of searching he found an excellent hiding spot.
Using the camping thermal blanket he had bought on his way to the
town he covered himself up underneath some brush where he wouldn't be
spotted. He then pulled out some binoculars and adjusted them. After
a moment he found the focus he needed.

He saw a very large and grand looking campus laid out before him.
After a moments searching he found what was obviously the door room
plot based on the building design. There were two 3 story high T
shaped halls. The bottom of each T met at a one and half story high
lobby with a floor to ceiling glass window.

He wasn't sure which side was the mens and which was the womens, but
given that the only entrance he could see on this side of the
building was the lobby he assumed it didn't matter. The other side
was a complete mystery and might have more entrances, but he didn't
want to risk going to check it out to be sure.

##########

Max's father woke up from a nap underneath his thermal camo blanket.
He rubbed his eyes and grabbed the binoculars. It was now midnight on
a Saturday night. He'd been watching the place for a whole week and
hadn't spotted anything. He was already preparing plans for where
he'd search next for the girl, but first he'd have to head back home
and spend a few weeks there.

He pulled the binoculars out and began taking one last glance at the
dorm hall that he'd determined to be belonging to the womens wing. He
sighed as she saw nothing and was about to put the binoculars away
when he noticed a lone figure quietly stalking across the grounds
towards the womens side from the forest across from it. He focused in
but couldn't see the persons face. After a few minutes of tense and
slow movement the person became visible underneath a light. Max's
father grinned evilly at the sight.

"Found ya." he said softly.

##########

Max walked into her dorm room and flopped down onto her bed. Ever
since the job had started she was getting tired of her boss. The man
was an insufferable asshole of a human being. He was the sort of man
who was against women holding jobs. He also made comments about how
women shouldn't be allowed to divorce or get abortions. Every break
she took he had some new condescending tone to take about womens
rights, even taking care to tell Max that she was worthless and
should just find a good man to settle down with instead of attending
college.

Sadly Max had to endure it all. She needed the money badly and would
not let his attitude towards women or towards her personally ruin her
income for her. Even though at times she thought about pulling out a
blade and knifing his genitals as brutally as she could.

Max sat upright on her bed and leaned back against the wall. She had
already finished the next 2 web design projects she had been
contracted for. One had payed poorly, only half of what he promised.
The other hadn't payed at all. But at least Max's new income would
mostly make up for it.

Before long she fell asleep. She would hopefully get a full nights
sleep for once. She didn't need to work tomorrow because her boss
would be away on a business trip in the next town over, which was why
she was only now getting back to her dorm room. She'd worked for 8
straight hours with no break to insure she'd still get a full
weekends pay.

##########

Max awoke at the end of a terrible nightmare. One she had never had
before. She'd dreamed that her father had found her at her new school
and broke into her room to drag her back with him. She sat up in bed
and wiped her face with her hands. She swung her legs over to the
side of her bed and hit something. After letting out a quick swear
she looked up...

Right into the face of her father.

Max jumped back on her bed instantly and tried to scream. But before
she could her father had his hand around her throat. He choked her,
preventing her from breathing or making much noise.

"Now now, daddy's here to take you home." he whispered
cruelly. "You'd like that wouldn't you?"

Max tried to shake her head side to side to indicate her displeasure
at the idea, but the mans grip was too tight and she was unable to do
so.

"Now now, don't struggle. I promise you'll be happier at home
sweetheart."

He grabbed max and started walking towards the open window, which was
obviously how he'd gotten in originally. Though Max was on the second
floor, so how he'd gotten up there was up to debate. Max started
struggling again. She brought up her hand to grab the mans large
wrist and she instinctively yanked down. Suddenly she heard a crack
and she fell to the ground as his hand fell limp and was unable to
hold her.

Max's father cursed as he grabbed his arm. His wrist was certainly
broken, he was sure of that. He rounded on Max and stared her in the
eye with as much anger and hatred as he could muster through the
pained look on his face.

"I'm gonna kill you for that you little bitch." He
whispered, his previous demeanor was completely forgotten. He pulled
a small knife on her and swung at her. Only he never reached her.

Before the knife had closed half the distance to Max she
reached out with her foot and kicked the man in the groin. He stopped
dead in his tracks as the pain caught up to him almost instantly. He
doubled over for a moment but quickly pushed aside the pain. He'd
have to deal with that later. Forgetting everything but killing the
girl in front of him, he roared loudly, waking up the entire dorm
floor.

Max reached her feet up to stop him and landed the soles
on his shoulders. He instantly stopped moving but pulled his knife
back to his side. Max reach up to try and grab the knife but with her
eyes now closed she managed to grab his head instead. Suddenly the
man stabbed Max in the side of her stomach. Max tightened her grip
and jerked her entire upper body away, trying to escape the pain.

There was a sickening popping sound and suddenly the
commotion died down. After a few moments Max opened her eyes and
instantly regretted it. She puked at the sight before her. In her lap
lay her fathers head, completely disconnected from his body. It was
oozing blood all over Max's lap. The body lay limp, being held up by
her feet as she continued, involuntarily, to hold the shoulders up.

Max passed out shortly afterward as the school security
guard entered the room.

Chapter 5:

Darkness

Max opened her eyes at the end of a long sigh. She looked around the
room she'd been assigned at the hospital. It had been only 12 hours
since the incident with her father. She had woken up a mere 2 hours
later after having the worst nightmare she could imagine.

The
school had gone on full lockdown since then. Police officers from
every level, including the FBI, had come to aid in the following
commotion before the situation got out of control and more people
ended up dead. In the mad rush to run away upon hearing of a
potential rapist or murderer on campus 13 girls and 2 boys had ended
up in the hospital with various trampling-related injuries.

Max
sighed again. Since then the dorm halls had been closed and the
entire school was being searched thoroughly. The next 2 days classes
had been cancelled while the school had ordered various new security
measures, measures they had once deemed a 'black hole for money', to
be installed. Among them were alarm systems and security cameras and
a wireless perimeter 'fence' that would alert the guards when someone
crossed the school boundaries. These were all measures the school
didn't have before due to the greedy, money-hungry staff.