A door.
What is a door, exactly?
A couple inches of wood, maybe? Some glass? A few hinges?
Not all that much, when you think about it. Just a door, after all.
Richard stood at the end of the hallway, looking directly ahead at a plain wooden door, same as any other. His right hand was resting limply on the knob.
She leaned forward from behind him, resting her large breasts on his shoulder blades, and whispered into his ear.
"Open the fucking door, Richard."
Richard flinched as if he had been slapped.
"Please," he said quietly.
"What did I tell you about begging, Richard?" she hissed into his ear.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Just open the fucking
door.
"
"I don't want to," he sniveled. "Please! I thought you were one of the good guys! I saw you on TV! You were a hero- the Power! Why are you
doing
this to me?"
Richard heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him. She bent down lower, and wrapped her hand around his own on the doorknob, crushing his hand onto it with her incredible strength. He let out a gasp of pain.
"That was a long time ago," she said evenly into his ear, still pressing herself against him. "I'm not that person any more.
He
took me to a bad place. Tortured me. Made me his
slave."
Richard whimpered as she squeezed his hand harder.
"Now I do what he tells me. That's all I
can
do. I hurt people when he tells me to hurt them. Just the other day, I took a woman I didn't know from anyone high into the sky, and I looked her dead in the eyes as I dropped her to her death. I listened to her scream on the way down, heard her body shatter on the street below."
"Oh my god..."
"Yes. I'll do worse to you, if he wants me to. That's all you need to know. The only thing to do is to obey him. If you do that, you might live, you might not get hurt. I don't really
want
to hurt you, Richard. But if he wants me to, I'll pull your heart right out of your chest."
She turned the knob open using his hand. The door pulled open.
Richard looked into the hallway of the apartment, his jaw slack, his eyes glazed in terror.
The Fist pushed him forward into the darkness. He stumbled, landing on his knees.
Maybe not just any door, after all.
******************************
John clicked mute on the television's remote control.
He heard her in the hotel bathroom, vomiting. He listened for a minute, heard her run the faucet. Finally, she came out.
Amanda looked pale, her face shiny with sweat, her blonde hair limp and dirty. She smiled weakly.
He patted the bed next to where he way laying, and she came over and curled up next to him. He drew the blanket over her, put his hand on her forehead.
Hot.
He turned the volume back on the television, although really neither of them were watching it. She closed her eyes.
She had been sleeping more or less constantly for what, a week? A couple of weeks?
"You OK," he asked her, nuzzling in to her ear, kissing her gently.
She murmured.
"We have to go somewhere else soon," he said quietly. "We have to leave the City. Get as far away as we can."
She said nothing.
"I tried calling Anna- the Spider- a few more times today. She doesn't answer. It goes to voice mail. She's not going to answer, I don't think."
He stroked her hair.
"She's not going to help us. Without her, I don't think we can fight them. We'll have to run."
"No," Amanda said almost imperceptibly.
"Sweetie," he chided gently. "We
have
to. We have to go where it's safe."
"Nowhere to run
to
," she said in a quiet little singsong.
She fell asleep.
John held her close, keeping her warm, until he was sure she was fast asleep again. He got out of bed, turned the TV off. He looked at his phone, searching for another hotel nearby. When she was feeling good enough to move, he would take her to the next hotel.
When she was all better, he would take her out of the City. Out of the nation, maybe. To a new continent.
If he had a whole new world to offer, he would take her there.
But he didn't.
He paced around nervously, watching her sleep. He went to the bathroom, rinsed out the sink, splashed cold water on his face.
He looked tired, and old. Beaten. He looked like a man who was now made for running.
John clicked off the bathroom light, and made his way to the window of the hotel room, which looked out over the parking lot. It was gray, and raining, like it had been seemingly for weeks.
He looked absentmindedly out over the parking lot, saw the sheets of rain falling past the streetlights. He watched a single black car pull into the parking lot of the hotel, stop, and turn the lights off.
No one got out.
Don't get paranoid, he told himself. They are probably just waiting for the rain to die down or something before checking in. No need to panic. You've got to get a grip on yourself, quit jumping at shadows.
He looked down absentmindedly at his phone again for a few minutes.
The thunder cracking startled him.
This is a big storm, he thought. Can't take her out in this.