Nighthawk: Frozen Hearts-Part 2

The next day, I sat in the cafeteria of Bay City High School, picking at the rubbery spaghetti and meatballs on my lunch tray and ignoring the slight twinges of pain from having my wings folded in so tightly to my back. Across from me sat my best friends, Zack Hawthorne and Danielle “Dani” Bennett. We’d been friends since elementary school, and they were the only people aside from my father that I trusted with my secret.

“So how was last night, DJ?” Zack asked excitedly. “Anything big happen?” Although not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, Zack made up for it with impressive athletic ability and, to be perfectly honest, a decent amount of charisma and good looks. All he had to do was smile at a girl, with his big hazel eyes, tanned skin, and brown crew-cut hair, and she’d faint. Ironically, he wasn’t too interested in girls; he was more concerned with keeping his grades up.

I nodded. “Somebody’s been going around freezing Raymond Lockwood’s property solid. They hit another warehouse last night. The cops think it’s a revenge thing.”

Dani pushed her glasses back up onto her face. She was the exact opposite of Zack: thin, soft-spoken, calm, and the textbook definition of geeky; I sometimes relied on her hacking skills when I needed to access encrypted files. Her hair, which she kept tied back in a ponytail, was a deep reddish-brown, the color of rosewood, and her eyes were a rich caramel color. “So it’s a mutant, huh?” she asked, wiping spaghetti sauce from the front of her “Keep Calm and Kill Zombies” T-shirt. “Why would a mutant have a vendetta against Lockwood?”

I shrugged. From what I knew, Raymond Lockwood was a legitimate businessman; he supposedly had his fingers in a lot of rackets, but there was no concrete evidence against him.

“Excuse me,” a voice piped up, pulling me from my thoughts. A cute girl in a collared shirt and checkered blue skirt stood next to our table, a tray in her hands. “Mind if I sit here?”

I shook my head, and she sat down beside me. After a moment, I looked over at her and asked, “Do I know you?”

She smiled. “I’m Sabrina Winters,” she replied cheerfully. “Who are you guys?”

“Dante LaMonica, and these two are Zack Hawthorne and Dani Bennett.” I gestured to them. “Are you new here?”

“Yeah.” She brushed her blond hair out of her pale blue eyes; as she did so, I noticed that she wore a necklace with a silver charm in the shape of a snowflake. “I moved to Bay City a couple of weeks ago.”

“Where from?” queried Zack.

She waved a hand dismissively. “It was a pretty small town. You wouldn’t know it.”

“Well, what was it that brought you here?” Dani asked.

“I was homeschooled for a long time,” Sabrina answered. “I was adamant about going to an actual school, so when I got to the city, I decided to enroll here.”

They kept talking for a few minutes, but I didn't hear a word they said; there was something about Sabrina that grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go. I was soon pulled back to reality when Dani looked at me and said jokingly, “Hello? Earth to Dante. Anyone there?”

I looked over at her. “Hmm? Sorry, I guess I, uh, spaced out for a minute there.”

“I’ll say,” Zack interjected.

Just then, the bell rang, marking the end of lunch. “I’ve gotta run,” Sabrina said, walking away and waving. “I’ll see you guys later!”

As I left for my next class, I couldn’t help thinking that I wanted to see Sabrina again, so I could get to know her better. I wasn’t about to say so out loud, but I was pretty sure I had a crush on her.

*          *          *

Two nights later, I got a call from Detective Ripken. “We’re getting reports of a break-in at Genexus Pharmaceuticals. Sounds like our friend’s going for another one.”

“I’m on it,” I replied. Genexus was another of Lockwood’s subsidiaries, supplying drugs for the local medical facilities. When I arrived, I saw that the lobby of the building was covered in snow and ice.

“No, please!” a voice cried out. I ran towards the source and found a short man in a lab coat backed against the wall of one of the laboratories. A figure in a hooded white jacket, grey athletic shorts, and black boots was advancing towards him, holding out a black-gloved hand.

“I swear, I didn’t realize what would happen!” the scientist pleaded in desperation. “I thought that the cryo-acceleration would—"

“Shut up,” the figure snarled brusquely, cutting him off.

I quickly swooped in between them, ready for a fight. “Back off, Jack.”

The figure regarded me with annoyance. “Back off yourself, hero,” it said coldly. “This is personal.” It blasted a wave of cold at me, but I quickly dove aside.

“Sheesh—cold shoulder much?” I quipped.

It growled in annoyance and began hurling shards of ice. I leaned back to dodge them Matrix-style, but I stood back up too quickly, and one of the shards caught me in my right shoulder, narrowly missing my wing. I winced sharply in pain, pulling it out and pressing my left hand against the wound. I cursed under my breath; it wasn’t too deep, but it stung like all get out.

“Stay out of this,” the figure warned, “or the next one goes through your heart.” It returned its attention to the scientist, who was cowering against the wall. It removed the glove from its right hand, revealing that its skin had a pale blue tint. It pressed its hand against the scientist’s chest, and ice began to spread across his body. Within seconds, his wails of fear were silenced—he was frozen solid.

My jaw dropped in disbelief. “What the hell did you do to him?”

The figure blasted a hole in the wall of the lab before looking back over its shoulder at me. “The same thing he did to me,” it answered, its tone icy. It walked calmly out of the building and vanished into the night.