The clouds above their neighborhood hid the moon. Josh got out of his house, grabbing his car keys. Heading towards the car, he saw Robert and said, "You should tell them soon." Josh sighed, "When did you find out?" Robert leaned on his car, saying, "Send the first text message,"Josh walked towards him, "I don't have time for this Robert." Robert adjusted his body, straightening and shaking his head. Josh groaned, walking towards him. "Move." Robert's hands glowed slightly; they looked at each other as the cool summer wind brushed them. Fire built up in Josh's hand before he turned back to smoke as he looked at Robert, begging, "Please I need to do this Robert, you know this." Robert looked at him, sighing, and moved away from the car, walking back to his house. "End this tonight my friend."
Josh nodded as he unlocked the door. Starting the car, he received another text with the location he needed to go to. He grabbed the wheel as eyes glowed, teleporting the car and himself through the portal. He looked around, continuing to drive, and saw a dense, overgrown landscape and an old road leading up to something that was shrouded in darkness. He drove through the woods, looking up, seeing the cloudy sky blotting out the moon's beauty. He looked back down, seeing the end, and he drove the rest of the way through grass, thinking to himself, "Whoever this is, I'm going to rip them apart for making me go through all of this." He stopped the car as he reached an old warehouse, getting out of the car. He remembered this warehouse long ago, when he was younger, with his friends. Robert used to use this as an old lab before they moved deeper into the city and built a better one. Leaving it in the past to disappear alone. He walked through the barely hanging door, seeing that everything was rusted and overgrown. He stopped looking around, and he heard something move. He made a flaming sword, throwing it to the left side of the warehouse. The stalker moved themself inches away from the flames, swords, holding their cheek slightly in pain as the wound burned so hot it resealed. He thought of hundreds of ways to kill them or capture them. He knew he should do something rash. Josh sighed then smirked, "Aww man I was going for your head I guess I missed." He pulled the sword back to him and grinned, "I won't try to miss this time." He charged at the stalker, they disappeared into a puff of black smoke, and they laughed, "You needed to practice your aim." Josh threw the sword behind him, and the stalker disappeared into another puff of black and purple smoke. They kept laughing, "It is not your day, my king."Josh's answer was snarledas he clenched his teeth. "Our family must be disappointed with your decisions." He flew faster than the stalker could see, grabbing them in his hand. Before smashing them into the ground. They whizzed out a breath, "You got better at this." Josh didn't say anything, just squeezing his hands tighter around their neck. They looked at Josh, saw panicked eyes, and started to close. "Did you forget you need to turn me in alive?"Josh said in an ice-cold tone, "Who said I needed you alive?" The stalker's face shifted, looking off for someone. "Wait," she said. Josh looked at her, and she shot out a beam of light from her eyes. Josh let go of her, blinking a lot, looking back at her as she was gone in a puff of black smoke. He looked around, upset, then pulled out his phone, "Coward."He teleported back to the car, then teleported the car and himself back home. He unlocked his house door while walking inside. Taking a shower, changing out of his clothes into his nightwear, then walking into his room, and going to sleep.
The stalker looked into his window, smirking to herself. Someone came up behind her, "Why didn't you help me with the fight, Fin?" She turned back to see a large tank of a man wearing all black, "Because I want to see what you will do next. If you lose the fight," he stopped as if he was enjoying himself, "Which you did badly lose Bella." She groaned, "Did you get the videos?" He pulled out a large pad and grabbed it out of his hands, scrolling through the video, "This should be more than enough," she said.
Josh woke up rolling over in bed to his wife, who was gone. He got up off the bed, looking at his clock. It was 8:35. I never sleep in this much. He walked through the house, opening the kids' door, and their room was left empty. He went downstairs seeing a note on the fridge door, which was Mary's handwriting.
"Hello, Josh, if you see this note that means we have already left the house for work and school. When we saw you were sleeping and didn't want to wake up. I am going to stay late for work today for a project. So a reminder to pick up the kids from school today at 4:05 they should all be out by then. Love you, Mary XOXOXOXOXOOXOXO."
He looked at the note, folding it in his pocket, turning to the window on the opposite side of the house, looking past the neighborhood into the city in the far distance. Looking through the car driving past, he kept looking until he found their schools. Everyone was in class with their friends he scanned through to make sure they were paying attention. He zoomed out, seeing his wife at work, and he heard someone trying to talk to him. He zoomed back, blinking a lot ahead. He looked around his blurry vision, soon going back to normal. He thought to himself, "I need to stop doing that so fast." Then, seeing Nimuel looking at him, "Were you watching your kids again?" He shrugged his shoulders, "I was making sure they were okay," Ade sneakered as he walked into the house with Carlos coming right behind him. Ade sat down at the table with the rest of the group, and they looked at him, Josh thought to himself. "Should I tell them the full truth? Foolish ideas. I already know how they are going to react," Carlos looked at him, "What did you learn about the stalker?"Josh let out a heavy sigh. "I learned they are female, most likely in their mid 20s by their voice."Ade glared at him, "How did you learn this information?" Josh went quiet before saying, "We may have had a small fight I won tho before they disappear." They all sat around the table thinking to themselves, then Robert came bursting into the house, and they all jumped out of their seats, looking at him. "What's wrong?"Josh said, looking at him, Robert picked up the remote and turned on the TV. The new anchor said, "Yes, what you are seeing is the truth here folks." They saw a picture of Josh attacking the stalker, and photos of him decades ago, in nearby crimes from his darker past. "Folks, more information has just come in about the warehouse incident. What you are about to hear may be hard to hear, yet I am going to play it now." It was the stalker's voice from the night before. "Did you forget you need to turn me in alive?" Then he heard his own voice, "Who said I needed you alive?" Josh sat there frozen, thinking to himself of anger building up inside of him. The new anchor spoke so much more about things Josh no longer paid attention to before hearing a familiar voice. He looked up to see the Stalker on TV, cloaked in darkness. "If Joshua and his followers don't sort themselves by the end of this month the United States government will have to take action." The video cut out before the new anchors looked at the screen in shock, saying, "How much longer can we trust these so-called 'gods' before they turn against us next?" Carlos turned off the TV, and everyone looked at Josh. Nimuel said, "Is this all true my friend?" Josh didn't say anything, just stood there, starting to shake his nails, sharpening, falling to the ground. The muscle was swelling, under his skin, starting to rip apart as he yelled out in pain, his eyes turned snake-like. Then he heard his wife's voice, "Joshua are you okay?" He looked up, seeing Carlos holding the phone before him. He grabbed the phone, speaking slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine, just got a little angry." His eyes turned back to normal as he got up from the ground. "Oh okay because I thought I heard... never mind."Josh sighed as bones and muscles popped back into place. "How is it at your job?" Mary went quiet for a sec before saying, "It's fine for right now but people are angry about the news. People want to answer Josh," He looked at her, then the rest of the group. "We don't have any answer yet, but will you be okay at work by yourself, did you need me to-" He was cut off by Mary saying, "I'll be fine, I'm a billion-year-old warrior I don't need protection." He smiled, his nails turning back to normal. "I know my love, but I still worry about you."Mary laughed, "I know but we'll get through this."Josh looked towards his face, their mix of emotions, "I'll call you later to love you."Josh replied, "I love you more." His friend looked at him, and they all sighed.
Josh sighed, snapping his finger, leaving before his friends could talk him out of what he was going to do. He teleported into a completely pitch-black universe. He lay down, closing his eyes. He opened them once again to a bright star soaking in the sun rays. Then, looking at Mary smiling, she was wearing a sky blue cocktail dress that she didn't pay for. They were under the Arbutus andrachne tree in Jerusalem nearly 200 years ago. He heard Mary sitting, humming, and a nurse rhyming Italian songs in Arabic."What wrong love?" He looked towards the city. It was somehow still standing, a little bitterness still buried in his heart. Yet at that moment, he didn't care. He looked back, saying five words that reshaped his beliefs on love: "Mary, will you marry me?" She looked at him and shook, getting what was yelling in French, then Spanish, then Arabic, followed by Italian, then Tagalog, and lastly back to English. Josh knew exactly what she said except Tagalog. She kissed him, "Yes of course, only on one condition." Josh tried to read her emotion, and she also kept it well hidden. He asked, "What?" She smiled and seemed like she was waiting for this moment. He cupped his hands, making a golden ring with an expensive jewel embedded around it. He placed it on her finger. She didn't change her face, but she definitely had a reaction on the inside. She said, "Our friends have to leave next to us, and I want my marriage to be nice." Josh asked, "Why do you want to leave with our friends?" She floated him up into the sky. "They keep you grounded in reality." Josh spun her around as they let go as the sun was almost gone past the horizon. Josh looked at her in bed, sighing to himself. The moon was now above them; the bed was almost bigger than a king bed. He got a wrapping sheet around him. "I will promise you my queen, I will burn down the world for you and rebuild it if I must or us for our family." He said in a whisper Josh, opened his eyes, snapping his fingers.
It was around 2 am when he floated above the Washington Capitol Building. The President was still in her office working on a bill. Secret Service agents turned and pointed towards him. Josh's face was deadpan. He said to the window, "Don't hurt my family, and you get to live." He flew so fast that it caused the window to break and everyone inside to fly back home. He floated gently back to the ground, sighing as he opened the window to his bedroom and kissed his wife. She woke up looking at him, saying, "Do you want to hear what happened today with the kids?" "Yes, please." Mary shook the sleep off, saying, "Wendy was talking to a group of girls. I think she has a girlfriend but she will not tell me." Josh changed into his sleeping clothes, saying, "Typical, what about Oriris?" She recalled, "He was also talking to a group of girls and one guy didn't know his name but he seemed reasonable." Josh had no response to that. Mary went on, "Uh the twins. Talla almost got in a fight and was stopped by one of the teachers, Mrs Everlong." Josh knew that name too well; she was one of the teachers planted by the government to help superpower 'humans.' They never told the government what they were. Well, Josh didn't really know what he was; he could be called a god by most people. Mrs Everlong was also different from others. She tries to understand them and bring them down to a human level; plus, she wasn't scared of Tala or Luca. She moved on to the last one on the list, "Luca was quiet today, we were closed off from talking." She made a face curiously. "He's hiding something isn't he?" He finished her thought, "I definitely believe so, yet we need more evidence but we will talk to him." That was their plan for most of their parenthood: wait until the kid said something or they said something; by that point, the kid would crack and tell them the truth. Mary snapped her finger, turning off the light once more. She got out of bed, "I'm getting a glass of water. Do you want me to get to something?" He responded, "No thank goodnight my queen." She got flustered, saying, "Goodnight my king." She opened the door, closing it behind her. Looking at his ring, slowly closing his eyes, drifting to sleep.
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