Lucy pounded her fist against the front door of Neil’s old house with enough force that it threatened to bruise her knuckles, but she hardly noticed as she braced herself with her most serene thoughts of her best friend, in order to avoid outright assaulting the slimy trio of Alphas that lived inside as soon as she was within striking distance.
“What the hell is with the-” a disgruntled voice complained, swinging the door open. Neil’s father stood in the frame, his face flushing a distinctly ticked-off hue as the words caught in his throat, and the effect only compounded as he recognized the door’s assailant. “Oh. It’s you.”
“Who was kicking the door, Gene?” Neil’s mother Debra squawked as she came down the hallway and took a stand behind her spouse. Her countenance and voice took on a similarly revolted mask of disdain. “Ah. Of course. I should’ve guessed.”
“I’m here to pick up Neil’s things,” Lucy declared through gritted teeth, layering on as much civility as she was capable of, though this didn’t amount to a particularly large quantity. She knew Neil’s parents had never quite forgiven her for the years of kindness and encouragement she’d shown their son, as these acts had led to him occasionally demanding more equal treatment from them, among other humane things the old-school Alphas weren’t quite on board with.
“He doesn’t have his things here anymore. He left and took everything with him,” Debra responded curtly.
“That’s not what I heard,” Lucy said, cracking a smile. “I guess I’ve got my stories crossed.”
“I guess you do,” Gene grunted. “Is there anything else we can do for you? Maybe call someone to help you find your way home? I’d be happy to take care of that right now.”
“No, it’s all right. I know where I’m going now,” the girl answered, crossing her arms.
“Oh my God, is that his weird friend here again? So where’s the pipsqueak?” Neil’s younger sister Shirley asked with a snort as she suddenly appeared in the doorway, and for once Lucy was somewhat glad she couldn’t see, because she was fairly certain that if she had to look at the girl’s face in addition to hearing her words, she’d just end up bashing it in.
“I’m here on his behalf. So there wouldn’t be any funny business. I figured even you mouth-breathing pieces of shit wouldn’t sink low enough to hit a blind girl,” Lucy said casually, shrugging, then plastered on an even broader smile. “But if I’m wrong about that, I’d be glad to go a couple rounds, and we’ll see how many teeth I let you keep.”
“So who are you supposed to be, then? The muscle?” Neil’s unimpressed father drawled, dripping with sarcasm.
“No, actually, I think that’s supposed to be me,” a voice boomed from on high, startling everyone except Lucy and ensnaring their anxious attentions. Truck-sized footsteps echoed through the concrete valley. The birdbath next to the house rumbled as though an earthquake was rattling through the earth’s crust, splashing water out either rim of the basin.
From around the corner of the block, standing down in the Omega-path reservoir but still filling up an impossible amount of the horizon, came the Junior Enforcer Bridget Cade, her curly blonde locks fastened in back with pins to prevent anything from impeding the seething gaze of her steely emerald eyes as they zeroed like guided missiles on Neil’s family.
Lucy heard the family’s unanimous and mortified flinch at this building-sized new arrival behind her, and she wasn’t shy about displaying her satisfied smile.
Neil, meanwhile, watched all this from his gilded perch in Bridget’s hand far above, where he was seated in the palpable valley of one of the creases in her palm. He wasn’t a particularly prideful person, but even he couldn’t help but take some minute pleasure in, for once, being the one to look down on his cold kin. It was lucky that Bridget was already out on the road and within two minutes’ walking distance when she’d received his call, though he had a feeling she’d have been willing to show up even if she’d been a couple counties over.
Behind him on the heel of the Omega’s hand sat an Alpha he hadn’t met before, probably a couple years younger than himself, with kind eyes and long dark hair: a friend of Bridget’s, he’d presumed, who’d just happened to be with her when he sent the message. It sounded like they were on their way to see a movie at the time. The brunette had offered to hold Neil while this confrontation took place to give him some more comparatively smooth terrain to stand upon, considering the sheer scale of Bridget’s field-sized palm to the Beta, but he’d insisted on sitting closer to the edge so he could witness every last word.
“G-Gene…” Debra croaked to her husband, clutching his shoulder as she stared gape-mouthed up at the tower that was Bridget, whose stoic expression suggested she wasn’t greatly interested in dragging this out for very long.
Somehow composing himself despite the monstrous nineteen-year-old darkening his entire property in her shadow, Gene forced his gaze back down to Lucy, though his knees jittered just a little. He tried to overcompensate with a guttural growl: “Now see here. I don’t know if you think those ghost-eyes of yours earn you special treatment or what, but you’re… you’re not going to just show up to my home like this and bully us just for some sick sense of-”
“Yeah, using size to get what we want and try to make you feel powerless,” Lucy cut in with a nod, casting her silver gaze over the trio of Alphas with raw recognition of their sins that chilled them almost as much as the sight of the Omega standing sentinel above. “What can I say? We learned from the best.”
“We don’t have any of the LITTLE SHIT’S STUFF ANYMORE!” Shirley erupted, shifting her panicked attentions between Lucy and Bridget. “So why don’t all you FREAKS just get the HELL AWAY FROM OUR HOUSE!”
Neil, used to this kind of address by this point in his life and no longer the least bit affected by it, turned around in time to see both Bridget and her Alpha friend cringing bitterly at his sister’s diatribe.
“Boy, she’s got a mouth on her,” the Omega commented quietly, her eyes widening in some disbelief. “Was this always how it was for you here?”
“Uh… yeah, kinda,” the notoriously private Beta mumbled.
“Jesus, why didn’t you say something to me sooner?” Bridget sighed. She inhaled deeply to maintain her cool and shot her other handheld passenger a shared look of revulsion for the Alphas below, then switched back to Neil. “All right, all right. Is it okay if I get this moving a little faster now?”
“Be my guest,” Neil said humbly.
The Omega’s free hand ascended from where it hung at her side, fingers extending as they rapidly approached the family below. Both Debra and Shirley let out a terrified scream as the palm, large enough to easily wad the whole family into an inescapable fist, soared toward them. Even Gene, with all his loud bravado, had lost all the color in his face.
However, just before making contact, the girl’s probing appendage instead diverted in its course. Her palm flattened and rose upward, shooting toward the two-story brick wall. Fingers coming to rest on the tiny ledges of the windows, Bridget’s clawed hand braced against the house, prepared to rip an entire floor out if she so chose. The threat of such a spectacle had clearly crossed the minds of all three bug-eyed Alphas as they quivered on the threshold of their home.
“Here’s the thing. Somebody is going to give Neil his things back. Now, either one of you can go inside and get them…” Lucy said in a hush, though her sharp words caught the attention of the family all the same. “…or you can let this nice young lady here do it for you.”
Nodding appreciatively down to the group, Bridget’s fingers shifted up around the edge of the roof and started to peel away. In a spray of mortar and dust, the top of the house began to open up with the slightest of flicks in the wrist of its monumental intruder, her powerful fingers hardly putting in any effort. Shingles rained down toward the grass below, littering the group as the Omega continued tearing open the residence as though it was her childhood dollhouse.
“STOP! PLEASE STOP!” Debra screeched after a few seconds of this demonstration, throwing herself down the front steps and out to the sidewalk to beg on her knees for the preservation of her home. Her final words were lost in a humiliated choke: “We’ll… we’ll get the things. Please stop.”
Bridget stifled a giggle and relented, pulling her fingers delicately back out of the structure to ensure it wasn’t crumbled by any sudden movements, although a heavy, powdery cloud still descended as she lowered her hand back down to the sidewalk and drummed her fingers impatiently in front of Debra, who winced on each repetition as if she’d been violently struck by the soft digits herself.
“Well?” Lucy intoned calmly. “We’re waiting.”
“Mom!” Shirley shrieked with embarrassment.
“Shirley…”
“Mom, you can’t just-”
“SHIRLEY, PLEASE GET YOUR BROTHER’S GODDAMNED THINGS AND BRING THEM HERE,” the hysterical woman moaned at the top of her lungs, finally summoning the strength to fling herself back toward the house again, away from the slender tapping fingers that might tear her entire lawn up at any moment with a single pluck. Too scared now to disobey, her daughter scurried back inside, clearly already sobbing and hoping to hide it.
“That’s more like it,” Lucy said. “Aren’t we all going to be happier now?”
“I don’t want to see you or him anywhere near my home ever ag-” Gene threatened, vomiting up every word, but he was cut off by a voice with even more venom than his own.
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” Lucy reassured with delight. “Especially because if I happen to find out any of you came near him again for the rest of your lives, I might be tempted to give you the kind of makeover that would require you to see with your ears from then on.”
The dumbfounded couple shut their traps at this as Shirley shuffled her way around them, sheepishly carrying a bowl containing the sticky, garbage-flecked remains of Neil’s belongings that she’d trashed that morning.
“You especially,” Lucy breathed as she snatched the object from the trembling Alpha’s hands and reverently deposited its contents into her satchel. “If we even see you again…”
“S-See?” Shirley blurted, now reaching the fever pitch of her adrenaline high, and obviously too drunk on the fear of Bridget to access logic. In spite of herself, she managed a condescending hack of pitiful laughter. “How the fuck are you supposed to see me without your little seeing-eye d-”
Neil’s sister was interrupted with a shocked squeal as the bowl was hurled back into the bridge of her nose with tremendous force.
“Trust me. I have my ways,” Lucy simpered. She watched the girl crumple to the ground, weeping again and wiping at her bleeding nose, as Gene and Debra bravely shielded their Alpha offspring with their bodies, though the dread was still seething in their eyes.
“You can’t do anything to us. You wouldn’t get away with it,” Gene menaced meekly, fighting to keep his trembling lip from stuttering the words. His tone suggested he was having trouble believing it himself as his eyes darted furtively back up to the Omega who’d radically redesigned their roof with a few flicks of her fingers. Bridget winked at him, causing Gene to defensively divert his gaze back to his son’s best friend.
“You don’t have to worry. We’re done with you forever,” Lucy said honestly. “I just… I wanted you to know something before we go. To thank you, actually.”
“What?” Debra uttered, gape-mouthed.
“Yes,” the young woman sighed. “Because I’m pretty sure the only reason I believe in any kind of God is because somehow Neil ended up the way he did even though he grew up with you sorry excuses for life tearing him down every day.”
The silence that followed cut deeply: a small but indelible crack of shame chipped into the hard hearts of each of the three, and functioning eyes weren’t required to detect it.
“He’s a beautiful person,” Lucy murmured piteously. “I wish you could’ve seen him like I can.”
With this, the Alpha turned away from them all for the final time and regally made her way down the steps toward Bridget’s hand, which had since upturned, the titanic palm awaiting its last triumphant passenger.