The Seventh Avenger

Chapter 54: A Walk Down Memory Lane

The day quickly turned into night, long after I had left Dr Barkley in his office. Once he had told me as much as he could, the two of us had parted ways as there was nothing more that we could provide one another. Or, more accurately, there wasn't much more that he could provide me, and I didn't want to keep him from doing his job and attending to his many patients. The two of us had simply wished one another well, with him hoping that Steve would make a proper and quick recovery while I had voiced my hope that whoever it was that was looking for Anthony Masters, would find him soon.

After much thought, I couldn't help but conclude that the person who was tracking the killer down was someone very close to him-especially after the way that he had reacted when I had tried to pry details from him. It also didn't take me long to narrow the possibilities of who this person could be. With his sister having died around twelve years ago, I knew that it couldn't be her. It also couldn't be his wife, seeing that she had died as well. And with his daughter being far too young, I didn't know who else it could be. A friend perhaps? Maybe even a girlfriend? In the end, though it didn't matter: he had made it abundantly clear that he wouldn't be sharing the identity of whoever this person was with me. For whatever reason, me knowing who this person-or woman, I should say was, it placed them in danger.

Thankfully I hadn't passed Dr Stephen Strange as I left the hospital, crossing paths with him being the last thing that I wanted. Our confrontation earlier in the hospital hallway had only resulted in me developing bitter feelings for the Doctor who had pushed my buttons so easily. I didn't think that I could endure a second encounter with him and not retaliate in a more aggressive way.

But despite the fact that the two of us hadn't gotten along, I couldn't help but feel as if some of the stuff that he had said was true. To some extent anyway.

Especially the parts about how my involvement had lead to the suffering of many innocent civilians.

It was because of this that I didn't find myself making my way back towards my apartment once I had left the hospital. Instead, I had used my mobile to call my home phone to leave James a message informing him that I was going to be home late. I knew that he wouldn't answer it but he would at least be able to listen to the message. I didn't want him to think that my extended absence had something to do with him, or that there was a possibility that I was turning him into the authorities. Instead, I told him the truth.

I had business to take care of in Harlem.

The subway ride was uneventful, with no one paying attention to me in the slightest. I kept my head down with my cap covering the top half of my face while I blasted music from my headphones, earning a reproachful look from the elderly woman sitting beside me for doing so. I choose to ignore her, pretending that I didn't notice her dirty looks.

The walk to my destination was also uneventful, though I decided to pull the headphones from my ears to allow the sounds of the city to fill my head. Traffic horns blared and the conversations and laughter between people filled the air, with jazz music also faintly streaming out from open shops. The cool, crisp breeze had me pulling my jacket tighter around my body in an attempt to keep warm, shoving my hands into my pockets as well.

It didn't take me too much longer to find the familiar street, though unlike the last time that I had been standing in it, the sun was out and shining, illuminating everything in front of me.

The street was nowhere near in a state of rubble that it had been in when the Abomination had torn through it. Most of the debris had been cleared, but there was still a few bits here and there. A new layer of road had to be placed down from where I had upheaval it in an attempt to control the roots beneath the road's surface so that I could trap the orange beast. Most of the shop's windows had no glass in them, and in their place were wooden boards even though some of them were still open and in business. Others had newspapers and boards covering the windows, obscuring the inside of the shops from those passing in the street with many having signs such as 'Closed Indefinitely' or 'For Sale' hanging on the doors or the boards.