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“I have standards.” I poured the drink into a martini glass. “Andyoudo not make the cut. I’d rather quit than work for a wannabe like you. You can’t buy my dignity.”
I set the glass on the counter. For him, I neglected to wipe it down, and he’d be damned if I was including an orange wedge. In fact, I didn’t want his money now.
“It’s on the house. Asshole’s delight.”
Eclipse pulled back his mask, lifting the cowl high enough to expose his mouth and mustache. He devoured the drink, throwing it back like a professional. I hope he choked.
“Without this job,” he whispered, “you’ll be nothing.”
I reached out, flipping my middle finger in his direction. Before I could revel in the shock on his face, he grabbed my hand. I tried to pull away, but what he lacked in manners, he made up in strength.
“Worthless,” he said.
I imagined reaching into the cooler, grabbing a beer, and smashing the bottle on the counter. I couldn’t match his strength, but I could find out if he could bleed. For a moment, it was as if the world turned dark. The lights in Midnight Alley vanished like they had shut the power off. Eclipse’s suit, however, maintained its vibrant white, almost glowing. But he let go of my hand and stepped backward, allowing the shadows to swallow him.
“What the hell?”
In the distance, I could see an image push through the darkness. It was Theo, and… me? We were sitting at the table from earlier in the evening. As he got up, I watched as I picked up his phone. It was like watching my life through a television screen. Worst yet, of all the shows I could watch, why this one?
“Oh? My fling? Don’t worry, he won’t get in the way.”
Theo’s voice echoed in the void. I had never heard him say that before, but it was certainly how it felt when I saw the message. The insecurity buried in the back of my head had been exhumed and laid out in the open.
“He’s a temporary distraction at best.”
“No,” I whispered. “No. No. No.” I shook my head, trying to change the channel. It was horrible to think these thoughts, but to have them confirmed? There was no point in hiding the tears.
It was replaced with a crumbling building. I recognized it, the same one I had run into for the kids. I couldn’t fathom what Eclipse had done to make these images surface. Maybe he was a telepath, and he was poking around in my head for details about my life?
“I wish a real hero would save us.” The girl’s voice taunted me.
“We’ll have to make do,” said the boy.
“Alejandro, you’re wasting my time.” Even Bernard’s voice cut through the darkness. “There are people who deserve to be saved.”
Before I could process the voices, a solitary man stood in the vast emptiness. It appeared as if a streetlamp shone downward, making the outer edges of his hoodie glow a soft orange. The width of the figure combined with the white skull on his t-shirt and bright red sneakers… I gasped.
“Dan?”
He stepped further into the light, letting the red in his beard shine. It had been years since I had seen him, but he hadn’t aged a minute. Despite the distance between us, he was never far from my thoughts. Bernard claimed I let him live rent-free in my head. Truth be told, he had free rein in the asylum most days. I thought it had changed with Theo, but I was only one bad day from thinking about the man who crushed my heart.
“Dan, is that you?”
“You know the answer to that. How could you forget the best thing that ever happened to you?”
When I beat myself up or my self-confidence plummeted, it was the worry I focused on. Dan had been wonderful—at first. But somewhere along the line, he made every argument my fault. It reached a point where he managed to gaslight me at every turn, making me doubt my sanity. I thought those days were behind me.
“You changed. You’re not the man I fell in love with,” I said.
“If that’s what you have to tell yourself. But let’s be honest with ourselves. You sabotaged our relationship. I would have given you the world, but you forced me out. I didn’t want to leave. You made me.”
Was he right? Had I ruined everything?
“Are you okay? Alejandro, you vanished for a moment.”
The music came rushing in as Eclipse let go of my hand. My eyes adjusted to the overhead lights as he pushed his mask into place. I shook my head, trying to shake the cold sensation clinging to my skin. The tears reached my cheeks before I wiped them away.
“Don’t get lost in thought while on the job. I wouldn’t want to fire the Alley’s best bartender.”
