About the Author: A member of SVC’s Shires Press Publishing Program for publishing his first book, Jose Ferreras (Creative Writing, Class of 2017) started writing this five-part series of “character teasers” to give sneak peeks into the main, supernatural personality of his novel, titled Decoded. Jose feels happiest when immersing himself in fantasy and supernatural writing. He hopes that this teaser series will encourage readers to pick up a copy of his book at Northshire Bookstore when it is officially released in May of 2017.

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Navire des Dieux, Part Four

by Jose Ferreras

It was him.

Alexandria could hear the words “spanish slut” escape his lips, despite the fact that he wasn’t talking. He too seemed to have recognized Alexandria as he let go of the woman he had pinned down against the car. The woman ran from them, probably searching for assistance, without bothering to thank Alexandria for stopping him. The man was frozen in shock — he probably never expected to run into the woman whose life he had changed all those years ago.

It was him.

Alexandria snarled as she could practically feel her father’s blood splatter across her face all over again, accompanied by the taunting laughs from that group of drunk men. Just like that night, her eyes glowed white as anger took over — this is why her powers were suddenly advancing. Everything was clear to her as she realized that every single thing she had done since that night brought her back to this. She was never able to move on from that night. It haunted her in her sleep and in the eyes of the people she helped. She knew now that there was only one way for her to get past this.

It was him… and he had to die.

Alexandria threw her hands up in front of her, releasing her photokinetic blasts from her palms towards the man, who jumped out of the way and dove for the ground. She let her hands fall to her sides as the man looked up at her, fear in his eyes, before jumping up and fleeing down the dark alley he had chased the woman down. Alexandria smirked as she used her newfound speed to cut her father’s killer off before he could turn out of the alleyway.

The man came to a stop, fear in his eyes before turning around. Alexandria tackled him to the ground and pinned him down, just as a young couple turned into the alleyway. He let out a scream for help and Alexandria covered his mouth with her hands. The couple came to a stop. Alexandria felt the need to hide away from them, so that they wouldn’t see.

The couple ran over to the screams, stopping directly in front of Alexandria and the man and staring straight at them. Alexandria hesitated as she tried to figure out what to do, before the couple just pulled away from them and walked away. Surprised, Alexandria glanced down at the man and noticed that she couldn’t see him or her hands anymore. They were invisible.

Once the couple had turned out of the alleyway, still searching for the source of the screams, Alexandria took a deep breath and focused on being visible once more, and the invisibility dropped. She looked down into the eyes of her father’s killer and growled out, “Scream, and I’ll snap your neck,” before removing her hand from his mouth.

The man was overcome by fear, but took what she said to heart and stood quiet. After a moment, he opened his mouth to shakily whisper to her, “W-What are you?”

Alexandria jumped up and lifted him into her arms forcefully, bringing him close to her face. “Why don’t you ask yourself that?” she snapped in response. She kicked her feet off the ground, intending to use her speed to bring them to her father’s burial site, but instead felt as she was lifted off the ground and into the air.

Five feet, ten feet, twenty feet into the air and counting, until the oxygen around her thinned too much for her to go any higher. She looked into his eyes just as she loosened her grip around him and let him fall down to his death.

It was then, at that moment, for the first time in a long time, she heard her father’s voice once more. “Mi hija,” he called to her, “please, think about what you are doing…”

But, it was him and she was watching him fall to his death.

“This isn’t you. You are not a killer. Alexandria, no se puede hacer esto,” Julio begged.

It was him and he was right.

Alexandria dived after her father’s killer, combining everything she had learned since that night to reach him before he hit the ground. She barely grabbed ahold of him by his shirt, stopping his fall, before slowly bringing them down safely onto the ground. She let go of his shirt and pushed him away from her, taking in a deep breath as he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. There was a large wet patch at the crotch of his pants.

He spoke first.

“You didn’t let me die,” he muttered.

“I thought about it,” she said simply.

“Thank y–”

“Don’t you dare thank me,” she interrupted. “I didn’t do this for you.”

He quieted down once more and shakily stood from the ground. He could barely stand. It was then that the woman he had attacked ran back into the alleyway with two policemen behind her. She pointed straight at the man who killed Alexandria’s father and the policemen rushed over to him and slammed him down to the ground to cuff him. One of them was the police officer who had interviewed her that night.

“Alex?” he asked quietly. “Did this man hurt you?”

Alexandria looked into the officer’s eyes and shook her head gently, before whispering, “He did his worst the day he killed my father…”

The officer hesitated — they had spent months looking for him — before forcing the man up onto his feet once more, starting to read him his rights. Alexandria watched as the officers pushed him down the alleyway, only stopping to let her know that they will be reaching out to her soon. The woman he had attacked ran over to Alexandria and pulled her into a hug, thanking her for her help, before rushing off after the police.

Alexandria watched them disappear as they turned the corner and took another deep breath as she thought about the uncooked food she had waiting for her upstairs. She was hungry.

She was ready to move on.

Want to read more Alexandria Eskil? Check out Jose’s full novel, Decoded, when it is available for pre-order at Northshire Bookstore in April, 2017.

Copyright © Jose Ferreras (2016) All Rights Reserved.