Fiction.

The old man’s room stunk like a nursing home. Arthur, the cat, had taken just about a million dumps in various corners of the room which added nicely to the smell. Amelia’s dad sat in an ancient orange recliner staring vacantly at a TV mounted to the wall above his head.

“Hey seriously! Leave my dad out of this he hasn’t done anything, literally.” Amelia was gesturing wildly and her voice was getting louder.

“Amelia. I don’t care. A fucking super villain bum told me to ask you about your dad. Since you’ve refused to tell me anything at all I’m going to ask him myself. Now you can shut up or I’ll have Lauren melt your lips together.”

The lights flickered.

“Hey old man I need to talk to you. What do you know about Jack Arrow?”

He glanced over my shoulder at Amelia, who was clenching her teeth and her fists. He looked like someone had just killed Arthur.

“Hey! Answer my question asshole.”

Ok, maybe calling a stinky old man an asshole was crossing the line; apparently Amelia thought so. She charged across the room and swung at me with a right hook that burned with light and caught me in the jaw.

“Whoa you crazy bitch!”

“DON’T YOU ASK HIM ANY QUESTIONS. DON’T YOU DARE!” She swung at me again, and I could see the veins in her forearms glow and pulse orange.

“JAMES! Get her away from me quick, she’s gone ass-crazy!”

James closed his eyes, and Amelia stopped trying to beat my face in with her glowing fists long enough for James and I to tackle her into the bathroom and quickly shut the door. Without anyone asking her to Lauren changed the doorknob on the door into a tiny bust of Bill Clinton.

“My friends are dead. I want to know why.” she said with a shrug.

I rubbed my jaw and turned back to the old dude. Amelia banged on the door and shouted some choice expletives at me.

“What do you know about Jack Arrow?”

He turned his eyes from the TV and looked at me square in the face: “I know that he is on his way here right now to kill you.”

No one could say anything. The sound of breaking glass came from the bathroom along with a muffled “FUCKERS!” and some more banging.

Lauren took a step forward. She had a crazy look on her face.

“Uh, Lauren … ”

“You are going to tell me everything you know about what is going on, and you are going to tell me right now.” She took off her shirt and began twisting it into a tight coil. James leaned over and whispered “I swear I didn’t make her do that. Plus I would have had her take that off that wife beater too. You know I would have dude!”

“Lauren what are you doing?”

“I’ll tell you what I’m doing Kaiser. I’m going to figure out why everyone we know is dead. Why a seemingly invincible vagrant named Jack Arrow is trying to kill us. This worthless old man knows something and I’m going to make him tell us.”

Loud, vaguely mammalian, screeches came from behind the bathroom door. With each concussion the door rattled on its hinges, and the little bust of Bill Clinton seemed to nod in approval.

The old man seemed in no hurry to go anywhere and didn’t move as Lauren whipped the coiled shirt at his chest. It unraveled and wove itself into a large hempen rope tying him to the chair. James said “Nice trick Tits! Why don’t you use your undershirt to make him some handcuffs?”

Then I punched the old guy, a helpless old guy tied to a chair, right in the nuts.

I spun around to face James. “Listen asshole that was uncalled for. Kindly remove yourself from my brain.”

“Hey man, just trying to get you in the spirit of things.”

The three of us — Lauren, James and myself — stood over the shriveled man, not knowing what where we should take things next. The man looked up and sighed a broken sigh.

“Fine. I am tired, very tired.” He paused and sighed again. “Haven’t you noticed what she does?”

The screaming and banging in the bathroom abruptly stopped. There were two small pings as the hinge pins fell out of the door and onto the tile floor. With a small thud the door landed on the ground. Amelia stood in the doorway lit from behind by crackling blue electricity leaping out of the light fixtures.

She pointed at her father. He put his head down and asked, “I guess it is my turn now?”

Amelia howled and the television mounted above his head creaked and fell from its mount. He looked up as the tube smashed into his face obliterating it. Electricity coursed through his body causing his muscles to spasm and spittle to fly from his mouth. Blood flowed down his chin as he bit through his tongue.

He hunched forward dead, the TV fell to the ground, and it was over.

Still totally wtf over what just happened we all spun around as we heard someone climbing up the stairs.

“Hola bitches — as someone once said.” sneered Jack Arrow as the lights cut off.