The Girl Who Bent Steel
Chapter 02 - The Girl Who Bent Steel
Maya ran until the school disappeared behind rows of winter trees.
Every sound struck too sharply. Cars moved like slow machines. Birds became visible between wingbeats.
When she reached the pedestrian bridge over Miller Creek, she gripped the railing and tried to breathe.
The metal bent beneath her fingers.
Five perfect dents remained in the steel.
Her phone vibrated.
Twenty-three messages.
Videos from the restroom had already spread through the school. Most showed the humiliation. None showed the fight clearly because every camera malfunctioned when her eyes changed.
One message came from an unknown number.
THEY SAW YOU.
Another followed.
DO NOT GO HOME.
A black SUV turned onto the road behind her.
Then another.
Men in dark tactical jackets stepped out before the cars fully stopped.
“Maya Reyes,” one called. “We’re here to protect you.”
A man raised a weapon.
A blue pulse struck the pavement beside her and shattered concrete.
Maya stopped.
The world slowed.
She saw the second pulse leaving the weapon and moved aside before it reached her.
Fear became anger.
Red light flooded her vision.
Maya lifted both hands.
The nearest SUV rose off the ground.
For one impossible moment, the vehicle hung in the air.
Then she threw it sideways into the second SUV.
A motorcycle roared from the far end of the bridge.
The rider wore a dark helmet and a battered leather jacket. He slid to a stop beside Maya.
“Get on.”
“Who are you?”
“Someone who knows why your eyes turn red.”
Another weapon charged.
The rider raised a metal shield from behind his back. The blue pulse struck it and scattered into sparks.
They escaped through the smoke.
The rider drove Maya to an old boxing gym beneath the train tracks. Inside waited an elderly woman with silver hair.
The rider removed his helmet.
“My name is Gabriel Cross.”
The woman placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Maya as a baby in the arms of a man wearing a black military uniform. Behind him stood six other children.
Each child had a number on the wrist.
Maya’s number was seven.
May you like
At the bottom of the photograph, someone had written:
PROJECT SERAPH.
