Heroes

Chapter 8: Safehouse 14

George POV.

What’s your address?” Dream asked, which made me freeze.
“What?” I asked, thinking that I had misheard him. Why would he want to know my address?
“I asked what your address was so I could drop you off there.” Dream explained, which worried me.

“I’m not going to tell you,” I stated, crossing my arms and turning to look out the window, however I could still see him from the reflection.
“I don’t want you dead, if that is what you are thinking. I think you could be useful, so I will keep you around for now… darling.” At those words I froze before Dream asked me the question again.

“What is your address?” He questioned, and I knew that I would have to answer so I sat in thought for a moment.
“Snowchester apartments on Kinoko street.” I stated, since it was the name of one of the safehouses where Techno had to hide out once or twice.

“Okay, thank you.” Dream said. There was a GPS in the car, however it seemed that he already knew where he was going since he began driving in the right direction. “What apartment do you live in?” he went on to ask, and I gave him a confused look.
“Why does that matter?” I questioned, and he chuckled but didn’t respond.

I could tell that he was sending me side glances as he drove and for some reason that made me compelled to answer. “I live on the sixth floor in apartment 14,” I informed him, and I could tell that he had a triumphant look on his face even if I couldn’t see it.

A few long minutes passed before the car stopped opposite the crummy old apartment that me and my friends occasionally used as a safe house. Dream slowly turned to look at me as I slowly reached for the door handle and opened the car door.

“You could be very useful darling,” he stated, although it wasn’t clear whether he was talking to me or just thinking out loud. When he shifted his gaze so he was meeting my eyes (because I could tell that was what was happening) he tilted his head playfully. “I’ll be having my men keep an eye out for you sweetheart.”

I didn’t know how to respond as I stepped out of the car and hurried across the road, before heading through the wooden doors that led to the hallway towards the safehouse that I claimed was my apartment. I glanced back over my shoulder as the door shut behind me and saw Dream’s car was still there.

Quickly I ran up the staircase to the floor we had taken an apartment for and felt grateful that the set of keys I had taken as I left this morning included the key to this apartment. When I unlocked it I immediately headed to the windows that faced that street and saw Dream’s car was still sitting there.

Although Techno and Phil had gotten this apartment several years ago, I hadn’t been here once, and scrambled around for a few minutes to see if there was a phone anywhere to call someone from the team or the police. When I couldn’t find one I let out a sigh and looked around the small apartment for anything else that might be useful.

It was quite a small apartment, the main room was used as a dining room, kitchen, and living room, with no room for me to move between a lot of the furniture. There were two doors connected to the room which were a bedroom and bathroom.

This entire place smelt of an old library and I opened a couple of drawers and cupboards around the three rooms. The clothes were too big for me, the food all expired over three or four months ago, and the toothbrush and toothpaste had been used a couple of times.

I let out a huff at the situation and glanced out the window again to see Dream still standing there, but now he was standing beside a pair of his masked henchmen and telling them something. My eyes narrowed as I tried to make out what they were saying, but obviously, that was impossible.

Part of me wanted to go back down to the street and try and fight the trio, but the injury in my shoulder that had been perfectly fine for a month now decided to act up. So with a huff of defeat I decided I’d stay here for the night and head back to the team in the morning.

Techno POV.

“Why would Dream be interested in going after a mall?” Bad questioned thoughtfully as we weaved through the groups of police officers, witnesses, and paramedics.
“I’m not sure.” I responded, since I had been wondering the same thing.

Dream had too much ego and ambition to go after a mall, plus as far as we could tell he had stolen less than $1000 dollars worth of items. The only thing that made it obvious it was him was the dead body near the East exit of the mall, with a bullet wound in her head.

The brunette girl also had a smiley face scar on her cheek, and no criminal was brave enough to steal Dream’s work, since he would always find copycats and make an example of them. One of the first ones was particularly gruesome, he was a pickpocket who was suspended from the roof of the police department with a meathook through his stomach.

Before Bad and I could walk any further to keep examining the crime scene in front of us, a figure materialised in front of us. “Techno, Sam wants you,” Karl began as I took a step away from him. “He says that witnesses told him there was a hostage, and there’s a sketch of what the hostage looks like that you should really take a look at.”

“Dream took a hostage?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow at the brunette. “But he never takes people alive. Are you sure that this was his doing?”
“Just come and look.” Karl practically pleaded. I noted his serious expression since he didn’t wear a mask, so I nodded.

He grabbed my arm, and he grabbed Bad’s before teleporting, taking us with him. The world twisted and contorted around me, and my body felt like the bones had disappeared and the rest of me was melting into goo.

As soon as the strange sensation started it stopped, and I felt all my bones and organs snap themselves back into place. I managed to keep composed enough to stop the police and other civilians from realising that the sensation made me feel like throwing up.

Bad was not as good at hiding how nauseous he was, and had to lean on Karl as the part of his face that was exposed turned green. I watched him stumble for a moment before looking over at Sam who was standing next to a forensic artist, they were both standing beside a blonde girl with short hair and the artist was nodding at what she said and making adjustments to the photo.

“Sam?” I questioned as I reached the three of them.
“Techno,” he responded, standing up straight and walking over to me. “Dream has taken a hostage,” he stated, and I nodded, since I already knew that.
“Do you have the sketch done?” I questioned, looking past Sam at the forensic artist.

The artist nodded and grabbed the paper he had drawn the sketch on and passed it to me. I looked at it for a moment before my face dropped in surprise. “Get a group of police to start searching for Dream and the hostage.” I stated, and Sam nodded at my request before beginning to give orders.

“What’s wrong Techno?” Bad asked, trying to hide how nauseous he was still feeling.
“I found out where George ran off to after leaving this morning,” I said to him, before showing him the sketch of the hostage.
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1348 words.