We last read Chapter 51, in which Raven Tristan searches the locked closet in Beth Harper’s apartment, using the code Tristan extracted from Sapphire Angel during her interrogation of the superheroine. As she does so, she begins to worry about the ramifications of her involvement. What if Sapphire Angel figures out who captured and interrogated her, and comes after Tristan? With those thoughts gnawing at her, Tristan enters the closet and finds several copies of Sapphire Angel’s costume hidden in the rear. She takes one costume to use as evidence of the heroine’s identity, for her upcoming meeting with Xavier Wheldon.
This is the second story, so if you want to start from the very beginning, you can jump over to book 1, and begin with the Prologue of Sapphire Angel, Superheroine. Or to start at the beginning of book 2 (this story), click over to the Prologue of Power Play.
Thanks for reading!
Beth's first memory after leaving the garage had been of Ethan standing over her, lines of worry across his face. He otherwise had been a blur, as her vision swirled and the room spun. She had tried to sit up, and nausea had washed over her. That feeling had remained for the next 30 hours, as she drifted in and out of a fitful sleep.
On multiple occasions, Ethan had rushed to her side when she had cried out, assailed by nightmares. Her dreams had been fleeting, but one vision lingered in her thoughts, haunting her like a demon. A cruel twist on actual events, she had dreamt of being chained to the hood of Sapphire Angel's car, in full costume, surrounded by members of the Red Scorpions. Behind them, one gang member stood out. A woman, wearing a black ski mask, watching with crossed arms.
In a repeating variation of the same nightmare, she was chained naked and the gang members laughed at her, passing around her costume like a prize. The Red Scorpions reveled in Sapphire Angel's defeat and moved in to have their way with her. On several occasions, she had awoken with a start, just as their malicious hands touched her.
It was now Thursday afternoon, more than 36 hours after her rescue from her horrific night, and Beth sat on a sofa in a guest room in the Devors' home, wearing a pair of Ethan's sweatpants and a sweatshirt a few sizes too large for her petite frame. After several hours awake in bed, talking to Ethan, she had finally moved to the sofa. She wrapped a blanket around her body, and winced as she tried to pull her knees up to her chest. Soreness still enveloped every muscle, and Mrs. Devor's medicine had done little for her throbbing headache. At least the nausea had passed.
Beth hurt physically, but the emotional scars were worse. When she had first awoken, she had remembered nothing, and Ethan had held water to her lips and told her she was sick. As her periods of wakefulness had grown longer, though, scattered pieces of her experience had come back to her. When the memory of being ensnared as Sapphire Angel and chained to the hood of her car returned, she had buried her face in the pillow and wept. Ethan, who hadn't left the sofa the whole time, rubbed her back and tried to console her.
When she couldn't remember more, she had pressed Ethan to relate what he knew. He resisted, telling her it might be better if she didn't remember. She persisted, nagging him until he told her about the text message he had received, and how he had found her chained to the car. When he pointed to the marks on her arms, more pieces of memories flittered into her thoughts, but just as quickly danced away. She remembered pain and confusion, and wanting to make it all go away.
The drugs were the line of demarcation in her memories. She remembered the woman injecting her with a needle, and pumping a gas through a mask. Beth remembered pieces of the interrogation before the drugs, and almost none of it after. The interrogation before the drugs was bad enough. She could almost feel the searing agony, even now. Beth had never experienced anything like it. As Sapphire Angel, she could count on one hand the number of times an opponent had even laid a hand on her, and on those occasions the effects had passed quickly. Not this time.
Beth was torn between wanting to remember more and being thankful she couldn't. If she were this shaken by the part she could remember, what would happen to her if she remembered it all? Still, she stewed and fretted over the unknown. What had she told the woman? The women knew her identity, but had Beth broken and revealed it on camera? Had she revealed the secret of her necklace? She had to assume she had succumbed. The woman wouldn't have contacted Ethan without learning what she wanted.
Beth didn't remember her rescue. Ethan had told her of taking her from the garage and rushing toward town. Stanley had instructed him to drive Beth to the hospital, but had arranged a meeting point along the way. Stanley brought Mrs. Devor, a retired nurse, with him. She had checked Beth in the car, and, when she had determined Beth's condition was temporary and not life-threatening, they brought her back to the Devors' home instead of to the hospital.
Beth recalled none of it, but she could see her interrogator in her mind's eye. A woman wearing a mask, and with the mark of the Red Scorpion gang on the small of her back. The woman had moved with a purpose and had shown no mercy. It was a bitter pill to swallow, knowing how the woman had taken her down.
Her face flushed red as shame washed over her, and she choked back a sob and sniffled as she wiped away more tears. She could only imagine the glee the Red Scorpions were feeling now. This same glee would be shared by Sapphire Angel's many other adversaries, if they somehow learned of this defeat. The thought of enemies made her think of Olivia Lockheed. It was good Olivia didn't know of last night's events, or that Beth was Sapphire Angel. The bitchy woman would have taken a perverse pleasure in seeing Beth broken.
And then there was Ethan. Two days earlier he had been in awe of Sapphire Angel, and all of her accomplishments. And then a few hours after he had learned Beth was Sapphire Angel, he had found her helpless, chained to her car, and with her blue eyeshadow running down her face, because of her tears. If he viewed her with an aura of invincibility, it had been shattered. Warmth flushed her cheeks as embarrassment set in.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Ethan asked, holding out a cup of tea. She and Ethan had been going round and round for hours. She was shaken to the core, her confidence in her superheroine life teetering in the balance. Just hours early, as depression crushed in on her, she had sworn off not only her life as Sapphire Angel, but her job with Radiance Online, and her life in Harrisburg. She would just go back to live with her mother.
But as the hours crept by, her old resilience bubbled up, if only a trickle. She thought of being raped by a prior boyfriend, and how that event had shaped her personality. She hadn't let that define her. Not a victim. Not her. Just the opposite. She helped when she saw someone else being victimized.
Was this worse than her rape? In many ways, yes. And it might mean the end of Sapphire Angel. But, as she had learned in the healing process after her rape, she still had the rest of her life to live.
"I'll be fine," Beth said, forcing a smile. She wasn't about to tell Ethan the extent to which her body still throbbed with pain. He worried enough already, and he'd be a ball of stress if he knew just how badly the woman had hurt her.
"Are you sure?" he asked, tilting his head. "You wince every time you move."
"Really, I am. I'm feeling better today. I just need to put things in order, so Beth Harper can drop off the radar for a while. And so Sapphire Angel can drop off the radar for good. If that's what I decide."
"I can get word to the OCO to cancel that meeting you have with Xavier Wheldon tomorrow," he said.
Beth looked up. She had forgotten about the meeting. Did it even matter? There were only two days left before the Saturday deadline, and she had no evidence to affect the purchase of the nuclear plant.
"I don't know..." she said, her voice trailing off. "Maybe I should do it. You know how during a breakup, some people dive headlong into their work to take their mind off things? Kind of like that."
"Beth, this is different than a breakup."
"Maybe I just need something to give me some sense of normalcy. Well, as normal as my life can ever be now."
"Just going out could be dangerous. You have Stanley's state-of-the-art security here, but not out there."
"I just need to steer clear of the Red Scorpions."
"You're joking, right?" he asked, sinking back into the sofa and leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling. He came forward with a start. "Beth, if that gang knows you're Sapphire Angel, you're in danger every minute. I'm glad you're talking about hanging up the tights for good, but it might be time to leave town for a while. Maybe forever. Just steering clear of them isn't enough."
His words — the mention of quitting — stirred her defiance. Her self pity transformed into a flash of anger. As much as her capture troubled and humiliated her, she would not be a victim. Never.
"I don't think the danger changes whether or not I run away, Ethan. I can't live my life in hiding."
"Beth, this is huge. They targeted you. What if they're not done?"
"I think they are done. Quitting is what they want me to do. Otherwise..."
"Otherwise what?"
"Otherwise she would have killed me. Or taken my necklace, if I told her about it. Or revealed my secret to the world. Instead, she let me go, and called you to come find me. It's got to be a message to me to back off. The gang is telling me to stand down."
"Why would they do that? They had you."
"I don't know. They're not exactly white-collar criminals who don't want to get their hands dirty, but they've never been one of the more violent gangs in town. Killing me would cross a line."
"Please stop talking about killing, okay?" Ethan said. "I can't think of... " His voice cracked, and he looked away.
Beth titled her head to the side, studying him with a tender, appraising look. She reached out her hand, placing it on his leg, but said nothing. She needed to remember how this was affecting him, too. He had lost John, and now he had nearly lost her. What sort of demons was he facing? She needed to be strong for him.
"Ethan, I'm so sorry. I'll be okay. Really. I never wanted you to worry about me. That's why I didn't tell you my secret. I really am fine. Things are going to get back to normal, minus the superheroine part of my life. Starting with my meeting tomorrow. You don't have anything to worry about, see?"
"The danger is still there, Beth. The gang is out there."
"I'm more worried about you and the Devors. What if I told the woman about you? Because I was careless, you could be in danger. This gang isn't as bad as others, but bad enough that I'm concerned. If they let me go, they did the worse they're going to do to me," Beth said, not believing her own words. "But what if the gang wants even more leverage against me, and comes after you?"
"Don't worry about us." Ethan murmured, looking down.
"Maybe I deserve what she did to me while I was chained to that car." Beth closed her eyes tight and leaned back as she spoke.
"Just stop, Beth. Now you're being ridiculous."
"Ethan, I think you and the Devors are the ones who should leave town for a while. Just to be safe."
Ethan shook his head. "No way. And the Devors feel the same way. We'll be careful, but if you're not leaving, we're not leaving you. Your risk is greater than ours."
He was right, but she didn't want to admit it. His loyalty brought tears to her eyes, and guilt filled her when she thought of the pain she had caused him. All because of her crusade to rid Harrisburg of its gang problem. How deeply had she hurt him? The best way she could help him heal was by healing herself. Or at least pretending to. She would be strong.
"Anyway," she said, "I appreciate the support. It's time for me to rejoin the world of the living."
He met her eyes, and a slow grin formed on his face.
"Starting with Conner," Ethan said. "The poor guy probably thinks you're blowing him off."
Beth winced. Ethan was right. She had missed their breakfast, where Conner supposedly was going to share news with her. Somehow, she had almost forgotten about him while she recovered from her ordeal. Or perhaps she had intentionally pushed him from her mind. Her dinner with him had been Tuesday evening, and it was now Thursday afternoon. She could try to explain things away, but Conner deserved more than a call every few days, based on how dinner had gone.
Beth rose again, grimacing as her muscles protested. She moved unsteadily back to the bed and dug around for her iPhone in her bag. She had five voicemail messages, spread over the last two days. Three were from Conner, and one each from her parents. Conner sounded increasingly worried in each message. After gathering herself, she dialed his number, but got his voicemail.
"Hi Conner, it's Beth," she said. "Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, and sorry about breakfast. That bug I had Tuesday night turned into something bigger. I've been in bed the last couple of days. But I'm okay now, so call me when you get a chance."
She sighed. More lies. She shook her head and returned to the sofa. She hoped Conner understood.
Beth sank down next to Ethan, leaning up against him. He stroked her hair, and within a few minutes she was asleep again.
This is the second story, so if you want to start from the very beginning, you can jump over to book 1, and begin with the Prologue of Sapphire Angel, Superheroine. Or to start at the beginning of book 2 (this story), click over to the Prologue of Power Play.
Thanks for reading!
I appreciate any comments or email.
No. No. No!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—
Seriously, she can’t quit! She was just getting started! Then again…..I suppose I do somewhat see the consequences of her continuing; Raven probed her pretty well. If only there was some way to clear her and Ethan’s suspicion of the Red Scorpions…..does she go back to being Sapphire Angel THIS novel, or is she going to go back to normal for a VERY long time? ‘Cause I don’t think my heart could take it if her “retirement” is a multi-narrative thing.